GDT: Slovakia - USA

[vlady]

Historically we played our best hockey in the 90s when we were not part of the EU. Again, it has nothing to do with it. If anything, hockey is heavily underfunded in relative terms now than it was back then.

we played our best hockey in the 2000s

Doesn't really matter though. I said the effect was indirect. If the standard of living is higher, people can spend more money on their kids and their potential sporting careers.

 

[Takurcitee]

I think it has more to do with the fact that we won WC in 2002 so every father wanted his kid to be a hockey player

 

[tobu]

It's really more to do with the changes in the coaching system across all levels years back. Coaches taking courses across the board, getting some experts from abroad to help with those changes (Fin, Can...) etc... these things helped with the early development. Obviously there is an economic factor and randomness talent factor too, but in terms of kids playing hockey, subjectively speaking there aren't huge differences in terms of numbers.