WC: IIHF World Championships - Division IIIA

[Ein Gnot in Not]

Tournament starts on weekend. They will play in Luxembourg.
Who´s your Favorit? Relegated Team from Mexico or newcomer Kyrgistan?
Hopefully we will find a stream on IIHF page.

Click to read more...

 

[weklof]

Tournament starts on weekend. They will play in Luxembourg.
Who´s your Favorit? Relegated Team from Mexico or newcomer Kyrgistan?
Hopefully we will find a stream on IIHF page.

I think the tournament will be played in Kyrgyzstan

 

[weklof]

That being said, I don't follow hockey at this level, I just think it is fun to see which nations are moving up and down between the division. Thus I have know idea who will win. I note the Kyrgystan have been promoted two years in a row. Fueled by Russians with dual passports? Can they be considered one of the favorites even though they are promoted? Mexico was relegated from the division above, so should be strong favorites to bounce back?

 

[Albatros]

Kyrgyzstan has invested more in the development than many other countries at this level. Despite their lowly background they can very well win this.

 

[FrHockeyFan]

I would say Luxembourg will go down. They got lucky for the past two years, thanks to Russia and Belarus' suspension and then North Korea's forfeit. They are bringing a weaker team than last year with the bare minimum number of players plus one. Tornado Luxembourg relying more and more on the local expat community is costing them dearly.

 

[PanniniClaus]

I would say Luxembourg will go down. They got lucky for the past two years, thanks to Russia and Belarus' suspension and then North Korea's forfeit. They are bringing a weaker team than last year with the bare minimum number of players plus one. Tornado Luxembourg relying more and more on the local expat community is costing them dearly.

I'm not sure how you can single anyone out, given such weak rosters.. Mexico would seemingly be in good shape as well as Kyrgyzstan. After that..not pretty.

 

[kaiser matias]

That being said, I don't follow hockey at this level, I just think it is fun to see which nations are moving up and down between the division. Thus I have know idea who will win. I note the Kyrgystan have been promoted two years in a row. Fueled by Russians with dual passports? Can they be considered one of the favorites even though they are promoted? Mexico was relegated from the division above, so should be strong favorites to bounce back?

Kyrgyzstan has invested more in the development than many other countries at this level. Despite their lowly background they can very well win this.

A look at the Kyrgyzstan roster shows a good mix of ethnic Russian and Kyrgyz names (for reference the country is 77% ethnic Kyrgyz and 4% ethnic Russian). I haven't looked in depth at the background of the players, but it does look like they have at least some local development and aren't just naturalizing players. In comparison the teams from places like Turkmenistan, Georgia, and until recently Kazakhstan were largely comprised of ethnic Russians and few from the titular ethnic group.

 

[Albatros]

Mexico unsurprisingly seem to be missing a few key names like their last year's captain Hector Majul who plays professionally in Italy for Varese, on the other hand they have young players ready to take off at this level.

 

[FrHockeyFan]

So Luxembourg working on proving me wrong with a strong result over Turkmenistan, English-born Colm Cannon scoring the GWG with less than a minute of regulation time left.

South Africa taking a 6-3 win over Mexico.

Live stream on YouTube

https://youtube.com/@utrksport

 

[Albatros]

Kyrgyzstan lacking bite today, near-total puck possession but unable to get anything dangerous through the compact Thai defense. After two periods of hockey shots on goal 42:9 for Kyrgyzstan, goals 4:3 for Thailand.

 

[FrHockeyFan]

Ouch! One of the Thai players carried out after a collision.

 

[FrHockeyFan]

Thailand scores 2 quick ones and now leads 8-4 with just over 5 minutes to go

 

[FrHockeyFan]

Kyrgystan totally collapsing. 9-4

 

[Albatros]

I'm not sure why they're still using their best players, they're a very top-heavy team and have five games within a week.

 

[PanniniClaus]

This group looks wild.

 

[tiburon12]

I'm not sure why they're still using their best players, they're a very top-heavy team and have five games within a week.

Because a few of their depth guys can't handle the angry physicality that Kyrgyzstan was bringing since they're small and young. They'll either get hurt or turn it over or both.

Luckily so much of the end of as special teams and not so taxing

 

[Albatros]

Well, Limpinphet kindly agitated a roughing penalty for their smallest guy to safely finish his game in the box with.

 

[tiburon12]

Well, Limpinphet kindly agitated a roughing penalty for their smallest guy to safely finish his game in the box with.

I'm not sure which play you are referring to but "agitate" is not a verb that has ever been attributed to Tan (Limpinphet) lol. Win, the guy who got the penalty, is a little pest though.

But what i meant is that they have 2 guys who are U20 and have probably played a handful of games in their lives that have checking lol

 

[Garl]

A look at the Kyrgyzstan roster shows a good mix of ethnic Russian and Kyrgyz names (for reference the country is 77% ethnic Kyrgyz and 4% ethnic Russian). I haven't looked in depth at the background of the players, but it does look like they have at least some local development and aren't just naturalizing players. In comparison the teams from places like Turkmenistan, Georgia, and until recently Kazakhstan were largely comprised of ethnic Russians and few from the titular ethnic group.

Can you distinguish between a Kyrgyz and Uzbek name?

Kazakhstan has like 15-20% russian minority who mostly live either in Almaty or in the northern part of Kazakhstan, and hockey historically is developed in the north

 

[Albatros]

It's more or less like Danish and Norwegian - if they both had mostly Russified surnames. For an outsider it's typically very difficult to tell them apart. But because of the large Russian population in northern parts of Kazakhstan you see more guys with mixed names coming from there (e.g. Maxim Mukhametov), whereas in Kyrgyzstan that's rare.

 

[SoundAndFury]

In general, in most former Soviet countries hockey is most popular amongst the Russian minority. So that it's unproportionately well-represented is completely natural. Taking my own Lithuania as an example, our U20 team this year. 12 out of 22 players had Slavic surnames despite the country demographically being 85% Lithuanian.

So in countries where hockey is even less widespread, it's natural it will mostly be played by Russian kids, even to this day.

 

[Albatros]

Though Lithuania also has a desirable passport, whereas especially Turkmenistan really doesn't.

Speaking of which, Turkmenistan with their opening win against South Africa. Maybe we'll have all teams at 3 points today.

The game had strong beer league vibes with neither team skating particularly well. South Africa with some big boys reminiscent of Nintendo Ice Hockey.

 

[Rpenny]

Thailand scores 2 quick ones and now leads 8-4 with just over 5 minutes to go

I love that Thailand has only 2 arenas actually designed for Hockey. The rest were designed for multi use

 

[SoundAndFury]

Though Lithuania also has a desirable passport, whereas especially Turkmenistan really doesn't.

Not exactly sure where you are going with this point as the only way how this would be relevant is if Turkmenistan had players who were good enough to represent Russia.

Lithuania doesn't do absolutely anything to incentivize non-local players to play for us and all the players I talked about are Lithuanian-born so a passport is irrelevant, simply both Polish and Russian minorities are very well represented in our hockey community, as it is in Estonia, Kazakhstan, etc. Which is what the original conversation was about.

The only [marginal] advantage a "desirable passport" gives us is those players are less likely to leave if another country offered them theirs. Maybe it would have stopped Pedan brothers, for example, from representing Russia had they been born 10 years later. But I'm fairly certain Turkmenistan doesn't have the quality of players/prospects to worry about that.

 

[tiburon12]

Thailand with another big win. South Africa always gives them trouble since they are so physical (always looks like rugby out there lol), but I can see Thailand overcoming that this year.

I love that Thailand has only 2 arenas actually designed for Hockey. The rest were designed for multi use

We have 3 rinks that are designed for hockey specifically, with a 4th as multi-use with speed skating and figure skating.