Olympics: Final qualification - 26 to 29 August 2021

[Eye of Ra]

Group d: Slovakia, Belarus, Austria, Poland

Group e: Latvia, Hungary, France, Italy

Group f: Denmark, Norway, Slovenia, South Korea



The winner in all groups goes to Olympics. Who do you guys think will take it? Im going for Slovakia, Latvia and Denmark.

NHLers in or not will change alot.

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[J bo Jeans]

Group D: Slovakia
Group E: Pretty hard tbh. France or Latvia
Group F: Denmark

 

[Eye of Ra]

Norway and Austria could suprise. not bad teams at all if everybody is there.

Thoresen - Petterssen - Zuccarello
Olimb - Olimb - Haga
Lindström - Trettenes - Rosseli Olsen
Valkvae Olsen - Borvik - Martinsen

Holös - Lesund
Lilleberg - Holm
Nörstebö - Bonsaksen

Haukkeland
Arntzen



Zwerger - Komarek - Hofer
M.Raffl - Rossi - Schneider
T.Raffl - Baumgartner - Lebler
Ganahl - Herburger - Rauchenwald


Ulmer - Payer
Wolf - Viverios
Heinrich - Unterweger

Starkbaum
Kickert

 

[JustaFinnishGuy]

I want South Korea to be in so there would be - hopefully a battle between China and SK.

 

[garbageteam]

Korea's only got the tiniest chance if no NHLers decide to go. Ehlers/Bjorkstrand, Zuccarello and Kopitar would feast on their defense. If they were all missing, I can see them eeking out a victory here and there and if the other results go their way...maybe. But every team in that group is very hungry for an OG appearance, especially Denmark who has never made it.

China would also not play SK as their group is set, they have the lovely proposition of facing against Canada, USA and Germany. If a miracle happens and Korea qualifies I think they'd be in Group 2 vs Russia, Czech and Switzerland. In any case if they did play, Korea would likely destroy China's team 5-0 or more, we're talking a borderline elevator team against a solidly Div II team.

I think Slovakia and Latvia are going to just walk through their groups, NHLers or not, but that's JMO.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

Latvia, Slovakia, and Denmark.

 

[Lartsaman]

Latvia, Slovakia, and Denmark.

That would be my guess and I hope thats it. Denmark especially finally deserves to be there.

 

[DieSendungmitderMaus]

Is there any indication NHLers wouldn't go? Last thing I've heard everyone kinda assumes NHL players will participate in 2022 so the incentive to help your team qualify should be there.

 

[Namejs]

Since the qualies start in just a couple of months and we have a few players who likely want to finish their careers after the 2022 Olympics, this is going to be a big deal for Team Latvia.

If NHL players are available, I don't really see us losing against 3 DivIA teams. Now that would probably be the most embarassing thing that has happened in Latvian hockey in this century so far.

 

[Eye of Ra]

Since the qualies start in just a couple of months and we have a few players who likely want to finish their careers after the 2022 Olympics, this is going to be a big deal for Team Latvia.

If NHL players are available, I don't really see us losing against 3 DivIA teams. Now that would probably be the most embarassing thing that has happened in Latvian hockey in this century so far.

latvia is good and should advance. but you are underating hungary, france and italy. with their best possible roster they could do some noise.

bernand
fazio

larkin - plastino
trivellato - glira
marchetti - hochkofler

Kostner - Morino - Ihnacak
Miceli - bardaro - petan
Gilliati - rosa - insam
Frigo - Goi - frank
Bernard, deluca

as you can see, the italian team is full of good ebel level players.

going on to hungary:

gallo - hari - sebök
erdely - sarauer - bartalis
galansiz - vas - magosi
koger - nagy - Sofron

wehrs - Szirányi
stipsicz - d.szabo
b.szabo - Macaulay

kornaaker

a team made of good slovakia league/ebel players and a first line of 3 good liiga level players.

 

[Czechboy]

Hope the Slovaks ice a full stacked roster and don't complicate things for themselves!

 

[Eye of Ra]

Hope the Slovaks ice a full stacked roster and don't complicate things for themselves!

even a non stacked slovakian team is still the favorites to advance in that group. no players from na will make it harder, but they still have quality enough in europe.

 

[Czechboy]

even a non stacked slovakian team is still the favorites to advance in that group. no players from na will make it harder, but they still have quality enough in europe.

I agree but Belarus is pretty good and I could see them causing trouble.

Oh yeah.. Latvia and Danes are my other 2. I actually think the Dane team is going to drive people crazy at the Olymipcs if they make it. Really solid on D and then they'll get some gamebreakers.

 

[Namejs]

latvia is good and should advance. but you are underating hungary, france and italy. with their best possible roster they could do some noise.

bernand
fazio

larkin - plastino
trivellato - glira
marchetti - hochkofler

Kostner - Morino - Petan
Miceli - bardaro - Insam
Gilliati - rosa - Frank
Frigo - Goi - deluca
Bernard

as you can see, the italian team is full of good ebel level players.

going on to hungary:

gallo - hari - sebök
erdely - sarauer - bartalis
galansiz - vas - magosi
koger - nagy - Sofron

wehrs - Szirányi
stipsicz - d.szabo
b.szabo - Macaulay

kornaaker

a team made of good slovakia league/ebel players and a first line of 3 good liiga level players.

I am not underrating anyone. France is the strongest team of the 3.

But neither of them is clearly superior to any other team, meaning it is quite likely they will lose points against each other.

Which means we can afford to lose points with an NHL goalie and our 3rd line C being an NHL guy.

Darzins - Blueger - Indrasis
Daugavins - Abols - Balcers
Kenins - Girgensons - Karsums
Tralmaks - Dzerins - Bukarts
Dzierkals

Our 13th forward would be someone who could play on the top line for Italy and Hungary. Nikita Jevpalovs scored at about the same rate as Istvan Bartalis in ICEHL and wasn't even invited to the Latvian training camp.

Bukarts who is nearly a PPG guy in Czech Extraliga, is barely making the team.

It would be embarrasing not to win that group, if NHL guys can participate.

 

[Eye of Ra]

Brian Ihnacak (italy). its a player slovaks could had use for.

 

[PanniniClaus]

The Hobbit has been cleared to play for Norway in the qualifiers.

 

[kabidjan18]

I don't think we will surprise anyone. I can write up more on this later but basically, we haven't been able to produce defensemen in like forever.

On a side note I think the chance that Rossi will be there is approaching 0. Even if he was healthy, which is no guarantee, he's not going to risk anything in Minnesota for the NT.

 

[Eye of Ra]

I don't think we will surprise anyone. I can write up more on this later but basically, we haven't been able to produce defensemen in like forever.

On a side note I think the chance that Rossi will be there is approaching 0. Even if he was healthy, which is no guarantee, he's not going to risk anything in Minnesota for the NT.

good forward group thought

 

[Eye of Ra]

The Hobbit has been cleared to play for Norway in the qualifiers.

i think i heard somewhere that thoresen will be there also

 

[kabidjan18]

good forward group thought

Defensemen matter way more imo. The defensive group will be good in a bit, if injury free, but right now it's very weak. We don't have anyone who can protect the net, and that was absolutely necessary when we made it in 2014.

Payr and Rossi are at about the same level in their injury recovery, they're skating and doing no-contact drills. I would be surprised if either was at the quali, though Payr is a bit more possible, Rossi is almost certainly a no. I'm not sure why Grabse wouldn't be on the team...it's not like we have better players.

Thimo, Maier, Senna, Kasper, Zundel, they'll all get shots in camp. I'd expect to see both Wolfs there.

 

[kabidjan18]

So clearly I've not been on top of things, but Austronet appears to believe that Lebler and Raffl will be absent as well. Fwiw. They said there's a chance Rossi will be there, which is more than I expected, "so you're saying there's a chance."

The qualifier became markedly less interesting for me when we drew the group of death, probably 4-5 of Slovakia's active defensemen, if they were Austrian, would be the best Austrian defenseman in history... Latvia has the easy group none of those teams are threats. Denmark probably in group C, I think both Norway and Slovenia are declining.

 

[WarriorofTime]

So Slovakia probably won’t even make the Olympics? Yikes

 

[kudla]

So Slovakia probably won’t even make the Olympics? Yikes

Yeah, we obviously stand no chance in that group

 

[Eye of Ra]

So Slovakia probably won’t even make the Olympics? Yikes

so you think poland, austria and belarus is stronger than slovakia?

 

[WarriorofTime]

so you think poland, austria and belarus is stronger than slovakia?

No but anything can happen. They may have a 45 % chance to advance but that is still less than half.