Slovakia: Slovak National Team- The start over again edition

slovakiasnextone

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Jul 7, 2008
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So which players do you never want to see again on Team Slovakia after this years' Olympics?

Which players do you think should play at the IHWC in Belarus?
 

zorz

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Mar 8, 2010
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So which players do you never want to see again on Team Slovakia after this years' Olympics?

Which players do you think should play at the IHWC in Belarus?

I think Satan is pretty much retired. Thats the only thing that seems to be sure.
 

alko

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Oct 20, 2004
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So which players do you never want to see again on Team Slovakia after this years' Olympics?

Which players do you think should play at the IHWC in Belarus?

Never? there isnt any player i will never see again. If he plays good, he should be in National Team.
And yes , it counts also for Marcel Hossa. Because on WCH he can play more and be more productive.
 

begbeee

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Oct 16, 2009
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Slovakia
I am over with Visnovsky. Maybe Handzus should not got given such role again, I'm okey with him like 3rd or 4th liner. Pretty much everyone after 32 should get nod only after huge consideration. Modern hockey is more physical than technical, even on bigger rinks as we have seen lately. So we need pumped up young guns, able to skate whole game going to tough areas in front of goal...

For me it's more about players who should get chance. I see Tatar and Zaborsky as perennial 1st liners along with Gaborik and Hossa for very near future.

Players like Viedensky should get fair chance on lesser tournaments and slightly on WC to become core in few seasons.
 

sutt

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Feb 14, 2014
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Which players do you think should play at the IHWC in Belarus?[/QUOTE]



Well, I wanna this offensive set:

first, Ruzicka - Stastny - Reway
second, Hascak - Kopecky - Illo (or Lapsansky)
of course third, Zuzin - Viedensky - Zaborsky
4. Tybor - Bliznak - Dano (or Cehlarik, Lunter, Griger - his little plus right side)

I think the generation around Radivojevic, Bartovic, Marcel Hossa, Miklik should be sent "home" and be definitely replaced. They just don´t have any perspective for the future. But that´s impossible with Vujtek.
 

alko

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Which players do you think should play at the IHWC in Belarus?



Well, I wanna this offensive set:

first, Ruzicka - Stastny - Reway
second, Hascak - Kopecky - Illo (or Lapsansky)
of course third, Zuzin - Viedensky - Zaborsky
4. Tybor - Bliznak - Dano (or Cehlarik, Lunter, Griger - his little plus right side)

I think the generation around Radivojevic, Bartovic, Marcel Hossa, Miklik should be sent "home" and be definitely replaced. They just don´t have any perspective for the future. But that´s impossible with Vujtek.[/QUOTE]

Ruzicka will never play under Vujtek. And you have there a lot of young guns. Illo? common.
 

sutt

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Feb 14, 2014
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Well, I wanna this offensive set:

first, Ruzicka - Stastny - Reway
second, Hascak - Kopecky - Illo (or Lapsansky)
of course third, Zuzin - Viedensky - Zaborsky
4. Tybor - Bliznak - Dano (or Cehlarik, Lunter, Griger - his little plus right side)


Ruzicka will never play under Vujtek. And you have there a lot of young guns. Illo? common.

Ruzicka is a right-hander scorer and we need everyone who can scores. He is not old and not so tried. And he was in 55 membered nomination for Sochi, so I think that Vujtek doesn ´t ignore him at all.

Illo
Well, I know he is a risk, but why not try? He used to be a great scorer and in this time, he isn´t doing bad (9 goals + 5a in 25 NCAA games, which is interesting league).
Again, we need to try many possibly scorers and Illo can be one of them. (Or Lapsansky for example).

And Illo, Lapsansky, Tybor, Zuzin, Stastny, Viedensky are not so young. They should be tried.
 

slovakiasnextone

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Jul 7, 2008
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Slovakia
Which players do you think should play at the IHWC in Belarus?



Well, I wanna this offensive set:

first, Ruzicka - Stastny - Reway
second, Hascak - Kopecky - Illo (or Lapsansky)
of course third, Zuzin - Viedensky - Zaborsky
4. Tybor - Bliznak - Dano (or Cehlarik, Lunter, Griger - his little plus right side)

I think the generation around Radivojevic, Bartovic, Marcel Hossa, Miklik should be sent "home" and be definitely replaced. They just don´t have any perspective for the future. But that´s impossible with Vujtek.

I'm all for building a core from young/middle-aged players, but you have to have at least some veteran presence on a IHWC team. Most of the players here are either young or have little experience with international hockey or both. This is the kind of team that we should be sending to the Deutschland Cup and similar tournaments.

alko, well for Hossa, you say he could play better with a bigger role at the WC, but then what was the point of taking him to a tournament where everyone knew he wouldn't get a bigger role? Also, the last time he somewhat proved it was at the 2009 IHWC, which was almos 5 years ago.

Yes, we should take any player if he plays well enough, however it should be when he plays well for Slovakia internationally, just playing good for their team. Also, I'd expect that they would take players of Hossa's age only if they can be relied on as leaders of the team.
 

slovakiasnextone

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Jul 7, 2008
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In 2014 I think the Slovak team will be:

Gaborik-Mikus-Hossa
Kopecky-Bliznak-Hossa (81)
Tatar-Handzus-Radivojevic
Panik-Marcinko-Bartovic
Ruzicka

Meszaros-Chara
Sekera-Baranka
Granak-Jurcina
Marincin

Halak
Janus
Laco/Budaj

Can you write your prediction for Slovakia's 2018 team? Cause you were really close with this one. :naughty:
 

slovakiasnextone

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Jul 7, 2008
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Not very diplomatic answers but my impression was more that he doesn't care too much about nationality of the players on his team. Just because he doesn't repeat the "Oh, I'm so glad to have another Slovak player on the team" mantra, doesn't mean that he hates Meszaros or something.

Also considering what went on in Slovak media in the past few months, Chara might just not be too fond of talking with the press right now and even more so when it comes to discusing other Sovak players.
 

slovakiasnextone

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Jul 7, 2008
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Already asked this on the WC boards, but I might as well ask here as well, what's your speculation for the next Team Slovakia coach?

EDIT: So it seems that Vujtek might actually have some interest in staying?
 
Last edited:

alko

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Oct 20, 2004
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Already asked this on the WC boards, but I might as well ask here as well, what's your speculation for the next Team Slovakia coach?

EDIT: So it seems that Vujtek might actually have some interest in staying?

maybe Peter Oremus. He is with national team some years, he knows the players well and he is the prototype of new fresh ideas. He is relative young, 42 years old. But thats should be no problem. He is in now Vitkovice, but imo he can split his duties also for national team.
 

saskriders

Can't Hold Leads
Sep 11, 2010
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I noticed that Slovakia has by far the lowest number of registered players among the big 7 nations. Even when comparing to countries with similar populations.

What can be done to increase interest and participation in hockey? It would be nice to see a country that has produced many great hockey players have more athletes choose hockey
 

DrPabloRamirez

Registered User
Nov 23, 2010
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I noticed that Slovakia has by far the lowest number of registered players among the big 7 nations. Even when comparing to countries with similar populations.

What can be done to increase interest and participation in hockey? It would be nice to see a country that has produced many great hockey players have more athletes choose hockey
It´s simple. A lot of slovak families can´t afford to buy ice hockey equipment for kids, too expensive for them. Then lack of ice hockey rinks in the country and bad natural conditions during winter - no frozen lakes.
Hockey had huge financial support in the past by "communists". Centers of talented players, famous army teams called "Dukla" (best one were Jihlava in Czech rep. and Trencin in Slovakia), free or cheap equipment for players supported by clubs, school tournamenst for not registrated players, where new players were discovered and so...
To solve this problem, Slovakia as a country need to improve economic situation, build new rinks and Slovak ice hockey association must develop league competition and training programs for young players.
 

slovakiasnextone

Registered User
Jul 7, 2008
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254
Slovakia
It´s simple. A lot of slovak families can´t afford to buy ice hockey equipment for kids, too expensive for them. Then lack of ice hockey rinks in the country and bad natural conditions during winter - no frozen lakes.
Hockey had huge financial support in the past by "communists". Centers of talented players, famous army teams called "Dukla" (best one were Jihlava in Czech rep. and Trencin in Slovakia), free or cheap equipment for players supported by clubs, school tournamenst for not registrated players, where new players were discovered and so...
To solve this problem, Slovakia as a country need to improve economic situation, build new rinks and Slovak ice hockey association must develop league competition and training programs for young players.

I've been reading the book 80 years of Slovak hockey recently and it doesn't seem like Slovakia ever had more players or rinks than today.

We definitely have more indoor rinks than we ever had. Even back at the turn of the century we only had about 40 rinks, we are at 64 currently according to IIHF.

Also it seems that there was at least some increase in the numbers of players recently. Though it's hard to now whether the numbers can be trusted as the rules for the players who are registered vary across countries and times:

2014:

Total players 11, 308
Senior 2,122
Junior 8,675
2013:

9 230 Total Players
6 754 Junior Players

Total players
May 2008- 10,167
June 2009- 9,870
March 2010- 8,671
Nov 2011- 8,280
July 2012- latest date in archive, same as 2011, data not updated
July 2013 9,034

Junior Players
May 2008 - 8,062
June 2009 - 7,657
March 2010 - 6,497
Nov 2011 - 5,896
July 2013 - 6,576

Also, while the number of rinks and players is undoubtedly important, we used to be capable of achieving a lot despite small numbers of players. We seem to have lost this ability in recent years.

Though it is probably cause due to the lack of concurrence starting early on, under communists there was both the advantage of competition with the Czechs and the fact that the players weren't able to leave. Nowadays with so many players abroad in CZE already at U16 or earlier and with the number of players leaving for Sweden concurrence is hard to achieve. And then it's easy for the better players to stop trying to improve when they are always best even though they don't work hard.
 

saskriders

Can't Hold Leads
Sep 11, 2010
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Calgary
Somewhat OT question

Is the proper pronunciation Slovakia with the "vak" syllable rhyming with walk or rack? I always hear people say it like rack but I would have thought like walk would have been correct.
 

begbeee

Registered User
Oct 16, 2009
4,158
30
Slovakia
Slovakia had 30 players in NHL for like on or two seasons. If we would have 30 NHLers we would be perennial medailist on WCH.
 

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