Outside the Big 7

[Riddarn]

I gave it the soccer name as I can't think of what the hockey one is called...but it is a competition, i'll keep you posted when the name comes to me (perhaps its structured a bit differently even, I haven't seen it going off what my home stay parent tells me)

I've never heard of such a tournament. But there was an article in one of the tabloids a few weeks ago that said that such a tournament could be in the works, but only between the Danes and Norwegians. I doubt that the SEL and FHL teams would be interested.. They have their own preseason tournaments.

 

[calgarylen13]

If you mean the tournament which sweden and finland both have 4 teams next preseason then its not top Finnish teams... For example TPS is going and they are 11th atm

Perhaps thats the one! I'm starting to doubt myself too but i'll ask Christian when he gets home, but he was explaining it to me the other day as the top teams, but it could be wrong somehow , mixed up in the translation possibly

 

[calgarylen13]

I've never heard of such a tournament. But there was an article in one of the tabloids a few weeks ago that said that such a tournament could be in the works, but only between the Danes and Norwegians. I doubt that the SEL and FHL teams would be interested.. They have their own preseason tournaments.

Could even perhaps be the speculation of one, i'm really unsure now, so I won't try and say that i'm right coz I may not be (but I too thought it were unusual the top Swedish and Finnish teams would want to play the Danes and Norwegians as there are two different levels of hockey)

 

[hifk88]

Denmark has a three potential NHL'ers on the future:

Morten Madsen RW 87 (Minnesota)

Peter Regin C 86 (Ottawa)

Jannik Hansen FW 86 (Vancouver)

 

[calgarylen13]

Denmark has a three potential NHL'ers on the future:

Morten Madsen RW 87 (Minnesota)

Peter Regin C 86 (Ottawa)

Jannik Hensen FW 86 (Vancouver)

I always had hoped Kim Staal would make the jump! I doubt he will now, but thats too bad.

Slava Trukhno also has to be a chance, a solid change, though i'm not sure on his citizenship status

 

[jekoh]

Why Slovakia? Well...they have great players right now, but no stars in the making.

Many of those great players were never stars in the making either.

 

[psycho_dad*]

Many of those great players were never stars in the making either.

Yeah could be. Gaborik and Hossa were at least.

I dont predict Slovakia to drop in the rankings, just saying their junior production has been close to the swiss for a while now.

 

[YungGunner94]

what about iceland, belgium, what happend to belarus, lithuania, croatia, yugoslavia?...netherlands?...romania, bulgaria, ukraine, estonia..

whats up with these countries programs???


and is kazakhstan the only asian nation in the hockey world these days...besides ofcourse japan

 

[Ola]

I know but historically why did hockey spread to Sweden and Finland but not Norway??? Look, there are 4 northern countries in Europe : Finland, Russia, Sweden and Norway. So why didn't the Norwegians build any rinks and start playing?

To be honest its almost a miracle that Sweden and Finland are so good. Sweden and Finland are getting allot of crap thrown our way on these boards.

But the facts are that we are really small countrys, 5 and 8m citizens. Swedish hockey is always competeing with other sports for talents. When the soccer team plays well international hockey looses allot of young talents. Sweden are good in allot of sports, Track and Field, Soccer, Hockey, Handball, Bandy, Skiing & dowhillskiing just to name a few. In the end all sports only have a population of 8m to find talents from. A compaision is that there are almost more female hockeyplayers in Canada then there are male in Sweden. There are 5x more soccer players in Sweden then Hockeyplayers.

My guess why hockey became a top 4 sports in Sweden and not in Norway is that Sweden had a very strong hockey team in the 50's and 60's. We had our own Gordie Howe in Sven Tumba who won a few World Championships for us and became huge stars. With out him and a few others we might suck even more in hockey.

 

[GKJ]

Keep an eye on Slovenia too. I sense that Anze Kopitar will not be the only player to come out of Slovenia...he's not even the first one (i think he's 2nd)


Norway and Denmark recently have produced solid draft picks

 

[Ola]

Sports is always allot of tradition. Slovakia have that from the old Czech-Slo days. But I wouldn't count out a country like Belarus nor Germany. Slovakia for example don't have much better conditions then some old Soviet states.

Hockey is actually quit strong in Germany and they have a strong history in hockey with allot of really classic players. They also have more money in the game then any other country in Europe. But thats also a big problem for them. During he 90's their own talents never got a chance to play in their top league and teams weren't forced to develop them since they could buy better Finns, Canadians and Swedes. Though they have new regulations now with a max on forign players and could become quit strong. The thing is that as long as they don't have a big success hockey won't get the attention it needs, and without attention they won't get much success. But if you look at them right now they are becomming better and better. This team they have right now would be good with Sturm and Hect. If they could improve to having 4 guys like that on the team at the same time they could suddenly maybe win a medal in a WCH or something.

 

[komisakick ass]

There is Ice Hockey in India!!!

Don't believe me, click here.

I could probably crack their Olympic lineup
I am so good

 

[Belizarius]

I have some hopes for France if the medias can put Cristobal Huet more often in the show here.

In april, France will finally have an ice hockey federation (it's an ice sports federation at this point). So hockey will start to develop on his own instead of paying for figure skating...

France national team is always in the 14th-18th rank, and juniors have so good results in the Division 1 with a cup of coffee a few years ago in the elite groupe.

 

[miss hockey]

In april, France will finally have an ice hockey federation (it's an ice sports federation at this point). So hockey will start to develop on his own instead of paying for figure skating...

That could be huge. Maybe it is just what you need!

For many years, Finnish hockey is under skiiing union, once in the 50's they don't send our national team to world championships because it would push them overbudget!
Own union = first step to making it big one day.

Maybe soon our ski-jumpers and nordic combined guys form their own union and break off from ski-union, that way they don't have to put up with ski unions garbage (this olympics skiiers get best housing, even though they have no chance of medal and nordic combined got worst housing, even though they had very real chance of 2-3 golds and 4-5 medals..)

 

[CCCP]

No, no, they are all about hockey....but basketball is played there as well.

I would imagine they would be all about soccer, especially after Euro 2004.

 

[Phil Parent]

I long wondered about Norway and Denmark's lack of results in hockey and I was given an interesting answer, don't know if it's an actual fact but...

I was told that most Nords and Danes are less bellicose by nature than Swedes and Fins and thus less combative in contact sports.

I call Bull, because the Swiss ain't exactly mean either, and they're doing pretty good.

 

[Jazz]

Keep an eye on Slovenia too. I sense that Anze Kopitar will not be the only player to come out of Slovenia...he's not even the first one (i think he's 2nd)


Norway and Denmark recently have produced solid draft picks

Marcel Rodman, from Slovenia, was drafted by Boston in 2002. He attended camp and they wanted to assign him to the AHL, but then he bolted to Europe as they could not come to contract terms...

 

[Jazz]

I always had hoped Kim Staal would make the jump! I doubt he will now, but thats too bad.

Slava Trukhno also has to be a chance, a solid change, though i'm not sure on his citizenship status

Slava is lost to Denmark. He played for Russia during the 2005 U18 WCs...

Which is too bad, since it was the Danish program that developed him (his family moved to Denmark when we was 5 years old). Having him play for Denmark, and make the NHL would have been a huge boost for hockey in Denmark...

 

[JoeLH]

Germany has alot of nhlers. I think they are pretty close. In 10 years Germany should be in the big 8

Schubert, Sturm, Goc, Erhoff, Hecht, Kolzig im sure im leaving a few guys out but thats a pretty good start. Alot more nhl talent then any other nation.

and Seidenberg ... Lewandowski wants to go to North America in the season 06/07. Greiss could play in the NHL one day i think, he did well yesterday against Team Canada after a slow start.
Gogulla (Buffalo 2nd rounder 05) could also be ready for 07/08. Marcel and Moritz Mueller and towering Elia Ostwald (6'05'') could follow ...

 

[JVR]

Sports is always allot of tradition. Slovakia have that from the old Czech-Slo days. But I wouldn't count out a country like Belarus nor Germany. Slovakia for example don't have much better conditions then some old Soviet states.

Hockey is actually quit strong in Germany and they have a strong history in hockey with allot of really classic players. They also have more money in the game then any other country in Europe. But thats also a big problem for them. During he 90's their own talents never got a chance to play in their top league and teams weren't forced to develop them since they could buy better Finns, Canadians and Swedes. Though they have new regulations now with a max on forign players and could become quit strong. The thing is that as long as they don't have a big success hockey won't get the attention it needs, and without attention they won't get much success. But if you look at them right now they are becomming better and better. This team they have right now would be good with Sturm and Hect. If they could improve to having 4 guys like that on the team at the same time they could suddenly maybe win a medal in a WCH or something.

That's true but there are still lots of problems for young hockey players in Germany. The most important one is the lack of rinks.
My hometown has two popular hockeyteams that average about 10.000 fans together per game. The game is pretty popular here but in the whole town of more than half a million people there are only two ice-rinks. Players of the age of 7 or 8 have to practise at 10 in the evening.
Except for Bavaria that's pretty much the case everywhere.

 

[Jazz]

That's true but there are still lots of problems for young hockey players in Germany. The most important one is the lack of rinks.
My hometown has two popular hockeyteams that average about 10.000 fans together per game. The game is pretty popular here but in the whole town of more than half a million people there are only two ice-rinks. Players of the age of 7 or 8 have to practise at 10 in the evening.
Except for Bavaria that's pretty much the case everywhere.

I don't know where you are, but I was told that they have made a bunch of new rinks in the West, ie, along the Rhine area in the past few years....

 

[Sakaarnis]

No, no, they are all about hockey....but basketball is played there as well.

Well, you would think so. But infact Hockey if we look on general popularity is sport nr.3 here. Most popular is basketball wich i dont like and next is football, wich i hate. But hockey is gettin popular, with the new ice rinks beeing built, hockey schools opening and more kids playing. Football was and will be very popular here, same picture is in rest of Europe, but if we compare the developent of basketball and hockey, i predict the later will overcome the basketball in near future. Atleast i truly hope so.

 

[Hasbro]

and Seidenberg ... Lewandowski wants to go to North America in the season 06/07. Greiss could play in the NHL one day i think, he did well yesterday against Team Canada after a slow start.
Gogulla (Buffalo 2nd rounder 05) could also be ready for 07/08. Marcel and Moritz Mueller and towering Elia Ostwald (6'05'') could follow ...

Helps that teams other than San Jose are looking at German players.

As for Norway their high medal count points to their winter emphasis on skiing.

In the cases of France and Italy they have such large populations hockey even becoming a regional sport (much like it is in the US) would be a boon.

 

[sehnsucht]

Germany is my favorite to finish out the top 8. They remind me a lot of Finland years ago, an increasing amount of NHL players, a tight, disciplined system, and built around the goal with several real good youngsters coming in to replace Kolzig.

 

[Hasbro]

what about iceland, belgium, what happend to belarus, lithuania, croatia, yugoslavia?...netherlands?...romania, bulgaria, ukraine, estonia..

whats up with these countries programs???

In the case of Iceland the population is so small, 297k, that there really isn't the talent pool to be developed. I know we have some Belgian posters, it would be nice to hear from our outsiders about the sport in their country.

and is kazakhstan the only asian nation in the hockey world these days...besides ofcourse japan

China, the Koreas (with the exception of Chick) Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau all are members of the IIHF.

There used to be a link on IIHF for stats on registeered players and rinks by countryu, but damned if I can find it.