WJC: Who will be relegated this year?

[smitty10]

IMO this is one of the strongest WJC's in recent years and I was wondering who you think will be relegated. Each team has at least one player drafted to an NHL team. A few of the smaller nations have some very good drafted players, but also some good ones who are either undrafted or going to go in 2011.

Norway:
Sondre Olden
Andreas Stene

Germany:
Tom Kuehnhackl
Tobias Rieder
Philipp Grubauer
Mirko Hofflin
Konrad Abeltshauser
Marcel Noebels
David Elsner
Bernard Keil
Nick Latta

Slovakia:
Richard Panik
Martin Marincin
Tomas Jurco
Adam Janosik
Marek Tvrdon
Peter Ceresnak
Marek Hrivik

Czech Republic:
Andrej Nestrasil
Roman Horak
Jakub Culek
Petr Straka
Adam Polasek
Petr Mrazek
David Musil
Martin Frk
Tomas Filippi
Ondrej Palat
Marek Hrbas
Dimitri Jaskin
Petr Placek

Switzerland:
Nino Niederreiter
Sven Bartschi
Dominik Schlumpf
Dennis Saikkonen
Dave Sutter
Dario Trutmann
Benjamin Conz

So who will be relegated?

I think it will be Norway and Switzerland.

Click to read more...

 

[zorz]

I think it will be Norway + one of Germany/Slovakia/Switzerland Btw. Mrazek and Polasek can´t play there, it´s almost 100%, due tue some legal issues with their czech youth club.

 

[smitty10]

I think it will be Norway + one of Germany/Slovakia/Switzerland Btw. Mrazek and Polasek can´t play there, it´s almost 100%, due tue some legal issues with their czech youth club.

Really? That's too bad. Mrazek probably would have been back-up anyways, but Polasek would have been one of the top defensemen on the team.

 

[zorz]

Really? That's too bad. Mrazek probably would have been back-up anyways, but Polasek would have been one of the top defensemen on the team.

I don´t like it as well, but that´s all I can do about it

 

[slovakiasnextone]

Norway and the Czech republic will most probably play in the relegation round. With all respect to these two teams, it is not about how strong or weak they are, rather than about the strength of their three opponents. Of course games are played on ice and not on paper and anything can happen.

In the other group at least one of Germany, Slovakia and Switzerland won´t be playing in the relegation round. I personally think that it is impossible to determine which by just looking at the possible rosters, the level of the teams is just to even and who wins and looses depends more on things like actual form or team chemistry etc.

Out of all the teams only Norway seems like a strong relegation candidate right now, but I´m sure even they will fight hard.

All in all we have half the teams of the tourney in at least a slight danger of relegation. I have absolutely no idea which teams will be relegated, but to me this seems to call for bringing more teams into the elite division. Especially when you consider that you have a team like Denmark in Division I.

Back to determining who stays and who goes- It is impossible to tell right now even based on the possible rosters, because players who might seem like locks to fans will not be chosen by the coaches for the one or the other reason like Polasek or Mrazek for the Czechs. Plus, there also are the possible injuries- while it might not mean as much for Canada or the US, for the teams discussed here- it would be a different Switzerland if Niederreiter is injured and misses the tourney, a different Slovakia if Pánik is injured, a different Germany if Rieder is not there etc.

 

[ktf]

All in all we have half the teams of the tourney in at least a slight danger of relegation. I have absolutely no idea which teams will be relegated, but to me this seems to call for bringing more teams into the elite division. Especially when you consider that you have a team like Denmark in Division I.

I completely agree. A team like Germany is a great example of why there should be more teams. The last 5 years or so they have bounced up and down, but every second year they offer tough competition in the A pool, but for a variety of reasons (including just plain choking) they never stick and in the off years we have Latvia and co. it can be argued that by adding more teams the same problem will exist. However, at least with more teams, teams like Germany, Belarus, Denmark, and Norway could perhaps gain firm footing and begin consistent development at the top level. My other approach and this one I really like would be to have the relegated and promoted teams from the year before play each other for the final two spots. That way of the 4 teams the strongest two will likely fill out the bottom.
On the topic of relegation this year. I think Norway will fight, but will not stick around. After that I think Germany, Slovakia, and Switzerland will be in a tight fight. However, I also think that the Czechs or even the Finns could come under the axe under a worst case scenario.

 

[obsenssive*]

Latvia won't be coming back for quite some time, whereas I believe austria will be back in 2012. but aside from that in 2011 it will be norway and either germany or slovakia relegated.

Im in favor of cutting it down to an 8 team tournament because of the brutal landslides latvia faced last year.

 

[Purple hippo]

Latvia won't be coming back for quite some time, whereas I believe austria will be back in 2012. but aside from that in 2011 it will be norway and either germany or slovakia relegated.

Im in favor of cutting it down to an 8 team tournament because of the brutal landslides latvia faced last year.

What makes you think Latvia wont be back for some time, we play in a Group with our only competition coming from Belarus who we have already beat this year and have a stronger roster than. Then again, its their home and its a rivalry so can go either way but its expected Latvia will return in 2012.

Norway and Germany go back down.

 

[slovakiasnextone]

Latvia won't be coming back for quite some time, whereas I believe austria will be back in 2012. but aside from that in 2011 it will be norway and either germany or slovakia relegated.

Im in favor of cutting it down to an 8 team tournament because of the brutal landslides latvia faced last year.

Yeah, and I remember the Czechs were run over by Swedes last year with 10 goals in their first game......I suppose we should make it a 4 team tournament, so you won´t have to see any brutal scores..l...should be fun to watch....oh and hockey development in other countries can be damned.....

 

[obsenssive*]

Yeah, and I remember the Czechs were run over by Swedes last year with 10 goals in their first game......I suppose we should make it a 4 team tournament, so you won´t have to see any brutal scores..l...should be fun to watch....oh and hockey development in other countries can be damned.....

latvia has ~500 registered junior hockey players for 92'-97'. Slovakia and czech are declining in numbers all the time.

if countries don't want to support hockey growth, they shouldn't get to play at the highest level.

it is bad for teams such as canada to play such weak as latvia because it makes them play sloppy and not on the margin of their potential best performance. so yes, it should be cut down until it is competitive.

 

[Sanderson]

latvia has ~500 registered junior hockey players for 92'-97'. Slovakia and czech are declining in numbers all the time.

if countries don't want to support hockey growth, they shouldn't get to play at the highest level.

it is bad for teams such as canada to play such weak as latvia because it makes them play sloppy and not on the margin of their potential best performance. so yes, it should be cut down until it is competitive.

Only that all those teams are competitive...

You have 3-4 teams that seem to have an advantage, followed by lots of teams that are almost on one level, where current form, injuries and lucky bounces decide over who wins and who loses.

Who deserves what is not on you to decide. If someone works hard enough, qualifies for such a tournament and is competitive enough against most teams, they deserve to be there.


Not to mention that if a team gets sloppy by playing one weak opponent, they can't be as strong as they think they are, or maybe they should work on their focus, as everyone who has reached that level should be able to cope with different opponents playing differently.

 

[zorz]

Teams like Latvia or Belarus could hardly get more competitive, if they couldnt face stronger opponents, so I think 10 teams are ok. 8 are too few and 12 are too many imo.

 

[Bjorn Le]

Norway will for sure go down, but the next one is a toss up, they're all pretty good, Germany probably will go down but they have some good top talent at the moment so its not like they're bad at all.

 

[v-man]

Latvia won't be coming back for quite some time, whereas I believe austria will be back in 2012. but aside from that in 2011 it will be norway and either germany or slovakia relegated.

Im in favor of cutting it down to an 8 team tournament because of the brutal landslides latvia faced last year.

Latvia will be back up next year. Their junior team in the MHL (The top Russian Junior League) is in second place over-all (the first place team has two more points, having played three more games). They just beat the nucleus of their only competition in this years A pool (Belarus) 8-1 and 2-0 this past week. Their goalie has a 1.68 GAA after 21 games. It will come down to the one game between them and Belarus, but all indications are they'll make it back to the Elite pool rather easily. Remember, that same Latvian team that lost 16-0 to Canada beat the Russians a few days before. It all came down to crappy goal tending. A year before they blew out two teams 7-1 as well. They have plenty of fire power coming up (Zemgus Girgensons for instance, a 16 y.o, is the second leading scorer in the USHL at the moment, one point out of the lead), so it's a mistake to use that one blowout game as an indicator of where they're at. The "landslides" will always happen, because very few countries have the resources and depth Canada does. In a tournament made up mostly of players from two birth years, there are always going to be off years for teams from countries with populations as small as Latvia's.

As for relegation, I'll have to go with Norway and Germany, although Switzerland is right there as well. Slovakia will probably join them in the relegation round.

 

[Indian]

As for relegation, I'll have to go with Norway and Germany, although Switzerland is right there as well. Slovakia will probably join them in the relegation round.

well that just can't happen beacause of the structure of the turney. two last teams in each group go to the relegation round, so you can't have switzerland, slovakia and germany in relegation group.
my guess is there will be switzerland and germany joined by norway and czech republic while germany and norway will be relegated. but it can pan out differently.

 

[v-man]

well that just can't happen beacause of the structure of the turney. two last teams in each group go to the relegation round, so you can't have switzerland, slovakia and germany in relegation group.
my guess is there will be switzerland and germany joined by norway and czech republic while germany and norway will be relegated. but it can pan out differently.

Oops. Yeah, I didn't even look into that. I was just basing it on the performance of the teams I've seen the last few years and the general direction of the hockey programs in the countries in recent years.

 

[pouskin74*]

Latvia will be back up next year. Their junior team in the MHL (The top Russian Junior League) is in second place over-all (the first place team has two more points, having played three more games).They just beat the nucleus of their only competition in this years A pool (Belarus) 8-1 and 2-0 this past week. Their goalie has a 1.68 GAA after 21 games. It will come down to the one game between them and Belarus, but all indications are they'll make it back to the Elite pool rather easily. Remember, that same Latvian team that lost 16-0 to Canada beat the Russians a few days before. It all came down to crappy goal tending. A year before they blew out two teams 7-1 as well. They have plenty of fire power coming up (Zemgus Girgensons for instance, a 16 y.o, is the second leading scorer in the USHL at the moment, one point out of the lead), so it's a mistake to use that one blowout game as an indicator of where they're at. The "landslides" will always happen, because very few countries have the resources and depth Canada does. In a tournament made up mostly of players from two birth years, there are always going to be off years for teams from countries with populations as small as Latvia's.

As for relegation, I'll have to go with Norway and Germany, although Switzerland is right there as well. Slovakia will probably join them in the relegation round.

exibition games cant be taken too seriously. however i think Latvia will be back in next year.