U20: 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey U20 World Championship Div. I Group A

[WhiteWings*]

That's a sad situation. I wish we would get as many strong hockey nations as possible. Russia should be ashamed to poach players from a small country like Belarus. That's like Brazil would be stealing soccer players from Guatemala.

 

[kulenova seka]

It actually boils down to the simple fact that Belarus and Russia are politically, culturally and linguistically nearly identical. They have a shared identity. If you're Belarusian, there aren't a lot of reasons to refuse playing for Team Russia, if you're given the chance.

Same we can say, from hockey point of view, for Kazahstan and Russia...

 

[Namejs]

Same we can say, from hockey point of view, for Kazahstan and Russia...

Kazakhstan is a bi-ethnic state. That would only apply to the Northern parts of the country inhabited by Russians (and Almaty). Kazakhs are no Russians alright, and there's a growing de-russification trend there. There used to be almost no ethnic Kazakh hockey players at all. Now if you look at the list of names of their U18 junior national team, you get kids like Sayan Daniyar, Daniyar Gabdullin, Bari Saburov, Adilbek Dzhangazinov, etc. Hockey is growing in Kazakhstan and their programme is improving. Kazakhs have never been so prosperous as they are now and they've never had a state of their own before. They're investing major resources into the sport, too. So the comparison is not valid.

Belarus, on the other hand, is going extinct as a cultural entity with most young people not being able to speak Belarusian at all.

 

[kulenova seka]

Kazakhstan is a bi-ethnic state. That would only apply to the Northern parts of the country inhabited by Russians (and Almaty). Kazakhs are no Russians alright, and there's a growing de-russification trend there. There used to be almost no ethnic Kazakh hockey players at all. Now if you look at the list of names of their U18 junior national team, you get kids like Sayan Daniyar, Daniyar Gabdullin, Bari Saburov, Adilbek Dzhangazinov, etc. Hockey is growing in Kazakhstan and their programme is improving. Kazakhs have never been so prosperous as they are now and they've never had a state of their own before. They're investing major resources into the sport, too. So the comparison is not valid.

Belarus, on the other hand, is going extinct as a cultural entity with most young people not being able to speak Belarusian at all.

Thanks for insightful answer !

But one thing regarding Belarus and their identity bugs me. Several years ago Croatian soccer team played against Blr in Minsk and in our biggest sports daily papers had big article about Minsk and Belarus in general and our journalist wrote (he was there for the game and for the article) that belarussians don't like to be called russians and that they are very proud as nation.

 

[kabidjan18]

The biggest difference is the way the MHL differs from say the Jr.A SM-Liiga or the SuperElit in that the MHL is a level of a youth development system and the SuperElit is a youth level league entity. The difference leads to differences in age of transfer or foreign participation. Other countries also impress players, but at a much lower rate because of different structural and geographical circumstances.

Latvians for their part show their de-russification though adding an "S" to everything.

 

[Dima_BLR]

Thanks for insightful answer !

But one thing regarding Belarus and their identity bugs me. Several years ago Croatian soccer team played against Blr in Minsk and in our biggest sports daily papers had big article about Minsk and Belarus in general and our journalist wrote (he was there for the game and for the article) that belarussians don't like to be called russians and that they are very proud as nation.

on behalf of all belarusians, i confirm that it is true. i personally speak both russian and belarusian fluently. when abroad, say, in poland, ukraine or the czech republic, i switch to belarusian as it is phonetically and lexically closer to the languages of the said countries. i also consider belarus and russia as two independent states which should stay as such in the future

 

[WhiteWings*]

Thanks for insightful answer !

But one thing regarding Belarus and their identity bugs me. Several years ago Croatian soccer team played against Blr in Minsk and in our biggest sports daily papers had big article about Minsk and Belarus in general and our journalist wrote (he was there for the game and for the article) that belarussians don't like to be called russians and that they are very proud as nation.

I live in Denver, Colorado now and my neighbor's son is playing hockey. He told me that the best player on his team and probably in the state is from Belarus and that guy really dislikes when someone calls him a Russian. He's around 15 years old and I don't know his name, but is not going to play for Russia for sure from what I've heard of him.

 

[ozo]

That's a sad situation. I wish we would get as many strong hockey nations as possible. Russia should be ashamed to poach players from a small country like Belarus. That's like Brazil would be stealing soccer players from Guatemala.

Or Canada taking David Levin or Daniel Strong in hockey.

Latvians for their part show their de-russification though adding an "S" to everything.

That of course is an absolute non-sense statement.

 

[WhiteWings*]

Or Canada taking David Levin or Daniel Strong in hockey.

That's of course a absolute non-sense comparison.
1. Russia has created a system of poaching players from Belarus, but you bring in a couple of individual cases.
2. Belarus is a top-12 hickey country in the world at any level, while Israel and NetNetherlands don't even have a team in any foreseeable for me international level.

That's also funny when some Latvian tells to Belarussians who they are and what they want. According to any poll and my personal observations most Belarussians are pro-European. We have a few business owners from Belarus here. They told no one in their country wants to be a part of Russia. You have to be completely ignorant to pretend that you know more about a country than people who live there.