WJC: What ate up Slovakia in this tournament?

[Aaron Vickers]

Does this quote say it all?

From Tomas Tatar:

"Even though we won this game, we were mad. Maybe we've got a problem in our locker room. We always stop playing, and the other team starts to play better and catch up to us."

Click to read more...

 

[R S]

Exactly what I saw in the one game i saw them live. They played great the first half of the game and clearly had more chances than the Swiss. The Swiss then got a goal to take the lead and it really deflated the Slovaks.

Richard Panik flat out dominated the first half of that game and Tatar didnt really do anything too impressive.

 

[RangerRed]

From the two games I saw, it's just a lack of reliable goaltending. Jaroslav Janus was huge for his team last year and they didn't get near the performance out of Ciliak that they were going to need in order to medal. They had a solid forward line; Hrasko and Marincin were strong on the back end; they just didn't have the goaltending.

 

[RoyIsALegend]

I'm pretty pissed that I didn't get to see Hrasko for at least one more game. Boo Slovakia. Do not deprive us of Hrasko head-crashing goodness.

 

[slovakiasnextone]

Does this quote say it all?

From Tomas Tatar:

"Even though we won this game, we were mad. Maybe we've got a problem in our locker room. We always stop playing, and the other team starts to play better and catch up to us."

Not really. Seems like just looking for excuses......especially comming from him.....regarding his plans to turn us to a medal contender he told you about, he forgot the most important part, that he meant for Division I next year as everything he´s been doing so far seemed to bring us closer to that........... it does not excuse him being invisible for most of the tourney or doing mistakes like a 5 year old, come on seriously taking a penalty in the offensive zone like less than 5 minutes before the end of the deciding game when you´re down by one or a throwing the puck out of play penalty that leads to AUT making the game even in the RR...he and all the other players are just learning stuff from our men´s team players, full of **** in all interviews off-ice and doing absolutely nothing on the ice...

 

[God Bless Canada]

Tatar wasn't much of a factor in the tournament. Had a great game against a Junior B-level opponent (Latvia). He was a non-factor against Canada. He didn't do much against the Swiss. He's on the team to produce. He didn't do that.

I watched the Slovakia game against Latvia, and I was surprised at the skill level, or lack there of, from the players who weren't on the top line. At first I thought it was reflective of effort - Slovakia led 5-0 after the first period. So maybe I shouldn't be alarmed that Latvia could keep up with Slovakia's second, third and fourth lines.

But when I watched them play Canada and Switzerland, it was clear to me that Slovakia didn't have any offensive depth. And when Tatar's scoring dried up, the lack of depth was exposed.

When his team really needed him to step up, he took a bad, offensive zone penalty late in the third that led to Switzerland's third goal, and effectively ended Slovakia's chances of advancing to the quarter-final.

Slovakia had some good players, but nobody who could really make a difference offensively if the first line wasn't clicking. Panik had a very good tournament. Not just with his offensive contributions; he was working hard out there. Tatar was a non-factor.

 

[Czechexpert]

Tatar wasn't much of a factor in the tournament. Had a great game against a Junior B-level opponent (Latvia). He was a non-factor against Canada. He didn't do much against the Swiss. He's on the team to produce. He didn't do that.

I watched the Slovakia game against Latvia, and I was surprised at the skill level, or lack there of, from the players who weren't on the top line. At first I thought it was reflective of effort - Slovakia led 5-0 after the first period. So maybe I shouldn't be alarmed that Latvia could keep up with Slovakia's second, third and fourth lines.

But when I watched them play Canada and Switzerland, it was clear to me that Slovakia didn't have any offensive depth. And when Tatar's scoring dried up, the lack of depth was exposed.

When his team really needed him to step up, he took a bad, offensive zone penalty late in the third that led to Switzerland's third goal, and effectively ended Slovakia's chances of advancing to the quarter-final.

Slovakia had some good players, but nobody who could really make a difference offensively if the first line wasn't clicking. Panik had a very good tournament. Not just with his offensive contributions; he was working hard out there. Tatar was a non-factor.

This team was built on purpose this way. They left out more skilled forwards like Kudrna, Tomas Sykora, Hrivik or even Preisinger(I´m not a big fan though) off the team to have hardworking forwards with little skills outside the first line playing mostly on defensive side of the game. They also fondly thought that guys like Gasparovic or Hudacek will bring some offence which basically never happened.

 

[sleeper cab]

I thought that the Slovaks would have done better on the PP if they had not put Tatar is the high slot. From what i remember from last year Tatar scored a lot of his points from coming off the half way and making plays from there. I could be wrong about this though. But I think that if Tatar got some points and confidence on the PP the Slovaks could have done a lot better this tournament.

 

[GKJ]

The decline of their program for one.

Interesting how bad some other programs are, while Sweden, once in their position, has resurfaced.

 

[Canucks LB]

tatar sauce =(