WC: 2020 Zürich and Lausanne groups

[BalticWarrior]

It is. If GB would beat Belarus and place 7th there is a comparison between GB and the other 7th placed team. And the team with less points/worse goal relation gets relegation. Could be two teams out of group B.

As much as i dont like Belarus- thats not gonna happen.

 

[Gold Standard]

Gold.....................can I trade my life for yours?

I hope to see a team as equally committed next year as this year + a little more star power. as much as I liked this years team, I'm not paying all that freaking cash to go see the likes of Jared McCann and Dylan Strome play.

 

[Lambo]

In group B Finland, Russia and USA are normally given for the quarterfinal. We will see if Switzerland can may be beat USA but it depends on of course who will come for the USA. We had this year practically the best possible team at the whc but in case next year some of the Swiss top NHL players can't come the quarterfinal isn't granted for Switzerland. Latvia could become the hardest opponent for Switzerland for quarterfinal.

In the other group should be a hard battle between Germany, Slovakia and may be Denmark and Belarus possibly they have a little chance.
I don't know if in Slovakia are coming good talents for next year may be from their U20 national team. I wish them good luck for the quarterfinal next year.

I don t think so! My prediction is the Swiss are with home crowd playing with much energy and insane hockey even with lack of NHLers.

 

[Jumptheshark]

This is unprecedented in that Switzerland basically were allowed to change their group and they obviously chose the weaker one.

According to IIHF seeding rules, Germany were supposed to play in Group B.

Am I missing something here?

you are missing the host always has that right

 

[Jumptheshark]

Team GB is screwed

 

[Jumptheshark]

You guys realize that the divisions are not random and are based upon the standings

 

[BalticWarrior]

Team GB is screwed

They should be happy they even got this far. They likely wont see Elite for a looooong time, if ever.

 

[Namejs]

you are missing the host always has that right

They are allowed to switch one team for commercial purposes. What they did makes no sense other than to grant the Swiss a better chance of making the play-offs. Which is the bureaucratic equivalent of diving after a no-contact play.5

 

[Pardus]

It is. If GB would beat Belarus and place 7th there is a comparison between GB and the other 7th placed team. And the team with less points/worse goal relation gets relegation. Could be two teams out of group B.

Is this a fact or just speculation?

 

[filip85]

They are allowed to switch one team for commercial purposes. What they did makes no sense other than to grant the Swiss a better chance of making the play-offs. Which is the bureaucratic equivalent of diving after a no-contact play.5

That is why there were announced months ago that Swiss team will play in Zurich, city of almost 500.000 people compared to Laussane's 200k and where german is the "official" language.

 

[Namejs]

That is why there were announced months ago that Swiss team will play in Zurich, city of almost 500.000 people compared to Laussane's 200k and where german is the "official" language.

I have been to Switzerland like 5 or 6 times, I am perfectly aware of that.

Are you aware of the fact that Group A can be based in any city? There's no need to change the IIHF seeding to achieve the goal of Switzerland playing wherever it wants to play.

 

[Jumptheshark]

Is this a fact or just speculation?

I ask the IIHF and they told me the lowest pts in each division will get relegated unless it is the host team for the next games. So unless it changes Team GB is screwed next year.

 

[jj cale]

I hope to see a team as equally committed next year as this year + a little more star power. as much as I liked this years team, I'm not paying all that freaking cash to go see the likes of Jared McCann and Dylan Strome play.

I'd go if I could just for the experience.

 

[jonas2244]

I ask the IIHF and they told me the lowest pts in each division will get relegated unless it is the host team for the next games. So unless it changes Team GB is screwed next year.

@Pardus

Format for this year was as I said. If Switzerland would have been 15th or 16th, the overall 14th team would have been relegated.

"The 2020 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship will consist of 16 teams including the team of the organizing member national association, thus Switzerland cannot be among the two relegated teams. If Switzerland were last in its group and thus among the overall bottom ranked two teams, the overall ranked 14th-placed team would be relegated instead."

IIHF - Tournament Info 2019 IIHF ICE HOCKEY WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

I don't think this will change for next year.

 

[jonas2244]

I have been to Switzerland like 5 or 6 times, I am perfectly aware of that.

Are you aware of the fact that Group A can be based in any city? There's no need to change the IIHF seeding to achieve the goal of Switzerland playing wherever it wants to play.

Are you aware that it has been done multiple times? They probably set the groups/venues much earlier. So it's easier to change seedings. And as I said, it's been done before, so the host can play at "their" venue or a neighbor country can play in the venue close to the border, if the orginazers want to have that like this. It's not just a big thing.

 

[member 305909]

I thought the USA and Canada are always in the same group regardless of rankings. Well, obviously I thought wrong.

 

[BOS358]

Just curious...did you all forget that Latvia is also safe from relegation? If GB were placed in their group, they could still finish ahead of one of the 2021 hosts. It's not like 2016 with France and Germany in the same group.

GB hardly got screwed, or at least, no more than Slovakia, Denmark, and Belarus. The only swapping of teams happened between Germany and Switzerland.

Also, if Belarus and Latvia both finished 8th in their respective groups, only the 14th place team would be relegated. Don't believe me? Check the tournament website.

 

[Eye of Ra]

i think kazak can suprise. if they get all their players they could reach qf.

Mikahilis - Bochenski - Dawes
Boyd - Starchenko - St.Pierre
Zhailaouv - Shevchenko - Akolzin
Petukhov - Akmaldinov - Sagadeyev

Dietz - Dallman
Maklyukov - Semyonov
Orekhov - Sergiyenko

Karlsson

 

[BalticWarrior]

i think kazak can suprise. if they get all their players they could reach qf.

Mikahilis - Bochenski - Dawes
Boyd - Starchenko - St.Pierre
Zhailaouv - Shevchenko - Akolzin
Petukhov - Akmaldinov - Sagadeyev

Dietz - Dallman
Maklyukov - Semyonov
Orekhov - Sergiyenko

Karlsson

That roster makes me wanna puke. Kazakhstan - how about start producing your own talent for once?

 

[salamandra]

I started my post by stating that I was looking at it from Switzerland's point of view, so I'm not sure why you would compare teams in absolute terms. Switzerland has beaten Finland exactly once in the last 30 years, I'm not sure why they would be such a desirable opponents. They've had similar success rates against Czech Republic and USA, and for some reason you overlooked Russia (not a single point since a tie in 2005) and Canada (4 wins over the last decade).

Slovakia>Latvia is questionable at best given that Slovakia just had their best tournament in ages but still missed the quarterfinals, and comparing Belarus to Italy rather than Kazakhstan seems pretty dishonest. I'll give you Denmark vs Norway (I actually already did in my original post).

Obviously it's easier to sneak into the top 4 in the Germany group, but it was a given Germany and Switzerland would be in different groups.

Regarding René Fasel, I'm pretty sure that the president of the IIHF publicly commenting on the relative strength of teams would be frowned upon, so the fact that I did comment should be a solid clue that I am, in fact, not René Fasel.

In slovak rooster were not Chara, Jurco, Halak, Hrivik, Viedensky, Cehlarik, Gaborik, Zaborsky, Ceresnak very noticeable losses. Especially Chara is very important player, personality and leader.

 

[Urbanskog]

That roster makes me wanna puke. Kazakhstan - how about start producing your own talent for once?

And a number of the rest are players who were born and raised in Russia and were only later naturalized by Kazakhstan. With that said, the Kazakhstani national team is nearly the same as Barys. It should be interesting to see how do they perform as almost all of the players play the entire season together — the chemistry should certainly be there.

 

[slovakiasnextone]

I find it funny how people are outraged about the Swiss changing the groups when Slovakia did the same this year.

 

[Pandaman11]

Well, as a Czech living in Zurich who'd like to see Canadian NHL stars, I have to say... fml. Let's start searching for Airbnbs in Lausanne.

 

[kalle wirsch]

It is only about 200 km .It's probably cheaper to take the train

 

[Lepardi]

Mad about placing Latvia in 5 contenders group again, on the other hand, USA will probably way weaker next year and who knows how Finland looks like.

The Finnish roster certainly can't look any worse than it did this year. I'm confident Finland will have plenty of quality NHLers.

I'm not paying all that freaking cash to go see the likes of Jared McCann and Dylan Strome play.

When we traveled to Bratislava for the playoffs, I thought it sucked Finland only had guys like Marko Anttila playing. I don't feel that way anymore.