Olympics: Korea hockey teams granted place in OG2018

[Uncle Rotter]

The final round of the qualifiers will be played in late August. Hypothetically this means that all the NHL Danes could help their country, or Kopitar could play for Slovenia..

Link?

 

[Uncle Rotter]

Here are the rankings for the Top 8 automatic spots, half way through the qualifying period:

1.Swe 1440
2.Fin 1415
3.Can 1395
4.Rus 1390
5.USA 1350
6.Cze 1325
7.SUI 1240
8.SVK 1190

9.Lat 1190
10.BLR 1155
11.Nor 1135
12.Fra 1120
13.Slo 1115
14.Ger 1090
15.Aut 1070
16.Den 1055
17.Kzk 1050
18.Ita 1025

 

[Xokkeu]

It will for the women's team.

At least that is no check

 

[Mr Kanadensisk]

This is akin to inviting a midget to compete in a sumo wrestling match. What many people forget is that every faux hockey nation that they let in means that many less games between the countries that actually have real hockey programs. These decisions hurt the growth of hockey, not help.

 

[Confucius]

They're likely to lose all their games handily, but I think it's a good decision by the IIHF to reward the Koreans for all the effort they've put into improving their national team. Would be a shame if all that was for nothing and maybe it'll stimulate some continued interest in the sport beyond 2018. Anyway I don't think they're much further behind the top nations than Japan was in 1998.

This!
just growing the game.... Ask Gary

 

[Hubie]

Naturalising a bunch of Canadians who have played in the Asia League for 5 seasons isn't really putting in "effort"

Well they've also made some deals with teams here in Finland to have some Koreans play here to develop their game. Anyway, you can't dispute that their national team has improved even though they didn't do so great last season.

 

[Arrhizal]

What many people forget is that every faux hockey nation that they let in means that many less games between the countries that actually have real hockey programs. These decisions hurt the growth of hockey, not help.

This. They should qualify like everyone else. The gap is just too big.

 

[Tyler Biggs*]

Always good to expose to new fans. Real hockey fans would agree.

 

[Tyler Biggs*]

Hockey is a great game. I for one am glad to see new people and countries take interest. I say welcome to the family new Korean hockey fans.

 

[garbageteam]

I doubt the Olympics are going to lead to any kind of real Korean program. If it didn't work in japan why would it work in Korea.

That would be 20 years ago when 2018 rolls around; just might stick in Korea. Too soon to say.

I always thought they were going to get it just by virtue of being hosts. Korea's bad, but it's not like they're Mongolia or Mexico. Now with the official guarantee they might invest a little more into the program. I think if they can stay in Div 1A and actually play competitive games against the yearly relegation candidates (Slovenia, Austria, Kazakhstan, Italy) it won't be an outright embarrassment. Not outside the realm of possibility in four years - they've almost jumped 10 spots in the IIHF rankings in the last five years.

 

[smitty10]

I know Korea is hosting, but the IIHF or Olympics should have just created an opening for an Asian team and let Kazakhstan in. At least they could ice a decent team of KHLers and former NHLers. IIRC, Korea got stomped by Ukraine who isn't even in the same league as teams like Kazakhstan and Austria and Slovenia.

My god, Korea is going to get killed!

 

[smitty10]

Hockey is a great game. I for one am glad to see new people and countries take interest. I say welcome to the family new Korean hockey fans.

Why would any Korean want to pick up a stick and puck after watching their nation get obliterated by Canada or Russia 20-0?

These teams routinely wallop countries like Austria (Thomas Vanek, Michael Grabner, Andreas Nodl, Thomas Pock, Michael Raffl) and Slovenia (Anze Kopitar, Jan Mursak) who have relatively strong leagues and have produced multiple NHLers. Korea has none of this. Heck, they don't even have anyone playing in any top league in Europe. It will be embarrassing..

 

[Urbanskog]

Why would any Korean want to pick up a stick and puck after watching their nation get obliterated by Canada or Russia 20-0?

These teams routinely wallop countries like Austria (Thomas Vanek, Michael Grabner, Andreas Nodl, Thomas Pock, Michael Raffl) and Slovenia (Anze Kopitar, Jan Mursak) who have relatively strong leagues and have produced multiple NHLers. Korea has none of this. Heck, they don't even have anyone playing in any top league in Europe. It will be embarrassing..

Excuse me? Slovenia and Austria don't face Canada too often but the last time Slovenia did, Canada "walloped" them 4:3 on OT.

 

[BayStreetBully]

Well they've also made some deals with teams here in Finland to have some Koreans play here to develop their game. Anyway, you can't dispute that their national team has improved even though they didn't do so great last season.

In addition to trying to develop Koreans in the Finnish Mestis league, they also hosted the Div IA Championships last year to raise interest in the country. Naturalizing the 3 Canadians is more of a complement in addition to the rest of the moves they've been making to raise their game. Naturalizing Canadians is not the only thing they've done (in fact, I'd even argue that the 3 Canadians playing for Korea made that team even worse overall).

Korea has no doubt improved in the last few years. They've recently beaten teams like Hungary, Britain and Poland, and have kept close games with Japan and Kazakhstan. That's pretty good for a country that was completely off the radar 5 years ago. They should've had a better tournament in Div 1A last April, but there are no bad teams in that Div to begin with.

 

[BayStreetBully]

I know Korea is hosting, but the IIHF or Olympics should have just created an opening for an Asian team and let Kazakhstan in. At least they could ice a decent team of KHLers and former NHLers. IIRC, Korea got stomped by Ukraine who isn't even in the same league as teams like Kazakhstan and Austria and Slovenia.

My god, Korea is going to get killed!

Ukraine isn't much worse than Austria/Kazakhstan/Slovenia. Any team can beat the other on a good day. Korea has beaten Hungary before, who in turn beat Kazakhstan. That doesn't make Korea better than Kazakhstan. Nor does Korea's loss to Ukraine mean much either.

 

[Ub the Bub]

Why would any Korean want to pick up a stick and puck after watching their nation get obliterated by Canada or Russia 20-0?

These teams routinely wallop countries like Austria (Thomas Vanek, Michael Grabner, Andreas Nodl, Thomas Pock, Michael Raffl) and Slovenia (Anze Kopitar, Jan Mursak) who have relatively strong leagues and have produced multiple NHLers. Korea has none of this. Heck, they don't even have anyone playing in any top league in Europe. It will be embarrassing..

Simple, hockey is a sport where Korea has a chance to consistently beat Japan, and they have already done so. There's very little little that Korea love more than beating Japan at sports...

Also, Korea will not lose any games 20-0. As a rule, the compete level of Korean teams is very high, so even if they go down a few goals, they'll generally keep fighting. And any team facing Korea will have to keep playing in the tournament and will not waste energy trying to tally up the score when they're facing a team that's really fast and constantly hounds them.

Also, I'd say the Asia League is on par with the Slovenian League as far as quality of play goes... Which isn't saying much I guess but since you brought it up...

 

[Urbanskog]

Also, I'd say the Asia League is on par with the Slovenian League as far as quality of play goes... Which isn't saying much I guess but since you brought it up...

The best Slovenian team plays in the EBEL though... of which two players made it to the Olympic roster.

 

[Arrhizal]

Let's not even use the "slovenian league" as some sort of a reference since it's an embarrassment to hockey. Our HZS has decided to focus on international collaboration so that's what we have in place of a decent home league. Sad really but that's the way it is.

Anyway, I'm sticking with my opinion. SK does not belong on the big stage. I think they're going to struggle even with teams in DIV I B.

 

[varsaku]

I don't know why everyone is hating on this move by IIHF. The Korean Hockey Federation is at least making the moves needed to help the sport grow. With sending players to other countries to learn and spending more on development they may see improvement in the future. If they are willing to help the sport grow let them have their chance. You can’t get a better chance to showcase hockey talent (doesn't have to be Korean talent) to a non-traditional market. This may convince more kids to at least try hockey to see if it is the sport for them.

 

[Tomas W]

OK....kinda fun I guess. They wont have much too lose I guess, nobody will expect them to win anything.

 

[Mr Kanadensisk]

Always good to expose to new fans. Real hockey fans would agree.

Unfortunately effective marketing is a little more complicated than that.

 

[garbageteam]

When was the last time an Olympic hosting country wasn't granted an automatic spot to a major team sport? Would people complain if the likes of Ukraine or Italy were granted automatic spots? How about Great Britain or Poland?

I wonder if China hosts a winter Olympics in 2022 would they be granted an automatic spot - I think today, SK's (ranked 23) team would easily crush the Chinese team (ranked 38) by double digits.

 

[FiLe]

I wonder if China hosts a winter Olympics in 2022 would they be granted an automatic spot - I think today, SK's (ranked 23) team would easily crush the Chinese team (ranked 38) by double digits.

If there's one country on this Earth that could whip its hockey team from the cellar to at least Div IA level given proper interest, that's China.

With olympic-level motivation, they certainly could find enough guys with decent enough affinity for hockey out of that massive population of theirs. Also, due to their system, they can apply that old Soviet method where they practically locked a squad into the rink for a year and only let them out when they started looking like a winning team. Heh, could be that some people there might even consider that an improvement in the quality of life. (And with this, I'm not implying that China is a complete pisshole as a country, but there is a sizable amount of people in the rural areas that do still have it pretty rough.)

 

[Tomas W]

Neither South Korea nor China will win an olympic game for a forseeable future.

 

[Hubie]

When was the last time an Olympic hosting country wasn't granted an automatic spot to a major team sport? Would people complain if the likes of Ukraine or Italy were granted automatic spots? How about Great Britain or Poland?

I'm not sure how the spots were determined each time, but looks like the host has had a team participating in every single olympic hockey tournament with the exception of France in 1968. They did hold a B pool tournament in the olympics that year though, in which France did play.