Ice Hockey 2017 - 2018 Discussion Thread

[Agger 1,658]

On 8/8/2017 at 20:50, intoronto said:

Why did they schedule Denmark in the smaller venue?

 

First of all, Jyske Bank Boxen has become a bit of a home field for indoor sports.

Second, Herning is the city with the most national championships (16) and Jutland is generally dominant (the Champions haven't been from outside Jutland since 2002 and usually the losing finalist is from Jutland as well)
Third, it's easier to pick another "home" team for Copenhagen than Herning, since Sweden is very close, which is a bit of help when it comes to selling tickets

[hckošice 14,790]

15 hours ago, hckosice said:

And it´s official the 66 years old Canadian Craig Ramsey is the new National Coach of Slovakia ! He signed a deal for 2 years until 2019 and the World Championships in Slovakia.

 

He is the second Canadian coaching Slovakia in history after Glen Hanlon (2010-2011)

 

 

Craig Ramsay to coach Slovakia

Former NHL coach signs two-year deal

The Slovak Ice Hockey Federation has hired Candian Craig Ramsay as new head coach of the Slovak men’s national team. New General Manager Miroslav Satan announced at a ceremony on Wednesday that the two parties agreed on a two-year deal.

 

The contract will include the 2018 Olympic Winter Games as the next big event for the team as well as the 2018 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in Copenhagen and Herning, Denmark, and the 2019 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship on home ice in Bratislava and Kosice.

 

“I’m glad that such an expert who has worked in the NHL as a player and for many years as a coach in various roles will join us and help us lead our hockey into a new epoch with new methods,” Satan said according to the TASR news agency.

Ramsay will be the head coach of the men’s national team but is also expected to mentor younger coaches to create a unified game system within the program.

 

Ramsay will be the third foreign coach in history of the Slovak men’s national team after fellow countryman Glen Hanlon (2010-2011) and Czech veteran coach Vladimir Vujtek (2011-2015). He replaces Zdeno Ciger, who was coaching the team during the last two seasons.

But Slovak fans shouldn’t expect a typical Canadian coach as former national team player Boris Valabik, who had one common season with Ramsay at the Atlanta Thrashers in 2010/2011 but was sent to the farm team, told Dennik N.

 

“He preferred more skilled players, which was not ideal for me. He’s an expert. He didn’t like the defensive game. Shooting the puck along the boards is not his style. His favourite expression was ‘safe is dead’,” Valabik said and thinks Ramsay will be a good match for European hockey despite having neither played nor coached on the continent. “He’s not a typical Canadian coach. He will match to the skilled Slovak style. He will be able to excel with skilled Slovak forwards.”

 

As a player Ramsay spent his whole NHL career with the Buffalo Sabres, who named him a Hall of Fame member of the club in 1986, one year after retiring as a player. He played 1070 regular-season games (252 goals, 420 assists) and 89 playoff games (17 goals, 31 assists) for the Sabres and once appeared in 776 consecutive games without missing one, making his ironman streak the fifth-longest in NHL history. He’s also in the record book as last NHL player to play a full season without penalty minutes, during his 78 games in 1973/1974. In 1985 he won the Frank J. Selke Trophy for the best defensive forward of the league.

 

Ramsay turned into coaching immediately after his retirement as a player and continued with the Sabres for eight years as an assistant coach, as an interim head coach replacing Scotty Bowman, as director of player personnel and assistant GM.

 

He later had stints as a head coach with the Philadelphia Flyers and the Atlanta Thrashers and has a 66-71-19 all-time coaching record in the NHL but spent most years as an assistant coach with stints at the Florida Panthers, Ottawa Senators, Philadelphia Flyers, Tampa Bay Lightning, Boston Bruins and most recently in 2014/2015 with the Edmonton Oilers. Last season he served as a consultant for the Montreal Canadiens.

 

His biggest success as an assistant coach in the NHL was winning the Stanley Cup with John Tortorella and the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2004.

 

The 66-year-old is expected to arrive in Slovakia next week. On 23 & 24 August Slovakia will play back-to-back cross-border exhibition games against neighbour Czech Republic in Trinec and Zilina. During the November international break Slovakia will play at the Deutschland Cup in Augsburg, Germany.

 

At the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in Korea, Slovakia will play in Group B with Russia, Team USA and Slovenia.

 

At the 2018 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in Denmark the Slovaks are seeded in Group A in Copenhagen where they will have Russia, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Belarus, France and Austria as opponents.

 

[hckošice 14,790]

Lauri Marjamaki has decided not to extend his contract as head coach of the Finnish national team after the 2017/2018.

 

The 40-year-old has been with the men’s national team since 2013 – since 2015 as head coach – and earlier also coached the U20 national team. During his first two years of the current three-year contract he led Finland to a silver medal at the 2016 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in Russia and to a fourth-place at the last Worlds earlier this year in Germany and France.

 

Marjamaki will stay behind the bench for the upcoming season that includes the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in Korea and the 2018 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in Denmark before taking a new challenge.

 

“The ice hockey association was ready to continue the agreement but we respect Marjamaki’s decision,” FIHA President Harri Nummela said in a statement. “The search of the new head coach has started.”

 

[hckošice 14,790]

Also the Women´s U18 Top Division World Championships venue and date are officially known.

 

The 2018 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 Women’s World Championship will take place in Dmitrov in the Moscow Region.

The 2018 IIHF Annual Congress in May assigned the event to Russia and now the venue and dates have become known. The eight-team event will take place 6-13 January 2018 in Dmitrov pending formal approval by the 2018 IIHF Semi-Annual Congress in late September.

The city of 67,000 inhabitants in the Moscow Region is about 80 kilometres north from downtown Moscow and 54 kilometres away from Moscow’s busiest airport Sheremetyevo.

Dmitrov is one of the centres of women’s hockey in the country. The local club Tornado Moscow Region won four European Women’s Champions Cups and nine national championships. Earlier this year it won its third consecutive title.

The Sport Complex Dmitrov opened in 2003 and includes a 2,500-seat ice rink, a second ice rink, a complex for figure skating and curling, an Olympic swimming pool and other sporting facilities.

The arena hosted European Women’s Champions Cup events and Four Nations tournaments before as well as the 2011 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 Women’s World Championship Division I where Russia earned promotion back to the top division. The U18 women’s national team has stayed there ever since and won bronze medals in 2015 and 2017.

Like recently the event will be played with two tiered groups. Team USA, Canada, Russia and Sweden will play in the “upper” Group A where the top-two teams will earn a bye to the semi-finals while the other two teams will play a quarter-final game against the best two teams from Group B (A3-B2, A4-B1), which includes Finland, the Czech Republic, Switzerland and Germany.

[hckošice 14,790]

New coach also for Hungary. The Finn Jarmo Tolvanen will coach "A" and U20 National teams

 

 

Finnish coach Jarmo Tolvanen will be behind the bench of the Hungarian men’s national team and also lead the U20 national team.

The Hungarian Ice Hockey Federation decided not to use the option to prolong the contract with Rich Chernomaz after the 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division I Group A that ended with a fifth-place finish – tied for the worst placing in ten years with 2014 when the Hungarians also finished the group in fifth place and 21st overall in the program.

Chernomaz was in charge of the Hungarian national team for five senior World Championship tournaments and led the team to promotion in 2015 and a participation in the 2016 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship top division in Russia. Chernomaz also served as the head coach of the junior national team at four U20 World Championship events. Last winter on home ice in Budapest the team took first place and was promoted to the Division IA level.

Chernomaz will be succeeded by Finnish coach Jarmo Tolvanen at both the senior and U20 national teams. Tolvanen spent the past two seasons with Stjernen in the top Norwegian league. After retiring from playing hockey in his early twenties with several seasons in the second Finnish league for HPK Hameenlinna and one in the top Swedish league for Timra he started coaching in the lower levels of Finland. His first breakthrough was in the early 1990s with the Finnish Ice Hockey Association. He was an assistant coach with the U17 national team which was followed up with being named the head coach of the U18 and the U20 teams. This was with the classes of 1972-73-74 that were made up of players such as Jere Lehtinen, Sami Kapanen and Janne Niinimaa. He was leading the U20 team at the 1992 and 1993 World Juniors and again in 2007.

He would end up coaching in top leagues in Europe such as the Finnish Liiga, the Swedish Hockey League, the Swiss National League, the German DEL, in Denmark, France, Norway, Poland and… Hungary. He returns to the country where he was the head coach for Fehervar AV19 during the 2009/10 season and he lead them to their first-ever playoff appearance in team history in the Austrian-based cross-border league EBEL and also won the Hungarian title.

Gabor Ocskay, former Fehervar club president, believes this was an excellent choice by the federation. “I had a great experience with Jarmo when he was in Fehervar. In the 10 years that Fehervar has playing in the EBEL, that season was one of the best ones we had in 2009/10. We just missed out on making the semi-finals as we lost to a very strong Vienna Capitals team 4-2. Jarmo is an excellent coach both on and off the ice, with excellent credentials. The head coaching position is in great hands. The Fehervar hockey community is very happy that he will be the head coach of the Hungarian national team,” Ocskay told the Hungarian Ice Hockey Federation’s website.

Jarmo Tolvanen will be making his debut with the senior national team on 30th September when Hungary will host the Polish national team in Budapest during its 90th-anniversary gala.

Next spring Hungary will host the 2018 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division I Group A in Budapest from 22nd to 28th April 2018. Beside Hungary also Slovenia, Italy, Kazakhstan, Poland and Great Britain will battle for promotion to the top division.

[hckošice 14,790]

MENS UNDER 18

IVAN HLINKA MEMORIAL CUP

 

 

 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Canada reclaims Hlinka title

Dethrones defending champ Czechs 4-1 in final

 

One year after seeing its eight-year reign as champion come to an end, Canada reclaimed the title by defeating the defending champion, the host Czech Republic, 4-1 in the final game of the traditional U18 summer showcase.

“It feels awesome,” Canadian head coach Brent Kisio said in the aftermath of the win, “but give the Czechs a lot of credit. I thought they played a great game and this place was rocking.”

Over 3,000 fans came out to the Ice Bors Arena in Breclav and made a lot of noise, hoping to see the Czechs defend their title. Instead, they saw a Canadian team firing on all cylinders. The Canadians outshot the Czechs 19-4 in the first period, but didn’t manage to beat goaltender Lukas Dostal until Jared McIsaac fired a blast from the high slot under the crossbar with 3:34 to go in the opening frame.

Early in the second period, captain Joe Veleno banged in a loose puck to make it 2-0, and it looked like the Canadians might be away to the races. However, Dominik Arnost gave the Czechs a brief ray of hope a few minutes later when he put in a rebound to cut the deficit in half.

The back-breaker for the Czechs was Kevin Bahl’s 3-1 goal with just 31 seconds left in the second period – a slapper from the point that went untouched through a crowd in front.

“Our team was playing well, and when the coach has a plan and we all execute, we have success,” the Ottawa 67’s rearguard explained. “It was me that got the goal, but it was a great team effort out there.”

McIsaac and Bahl were part of a crew of Canadian defencemen that are projected to be possible first-round picks in the 2018 NHL Entry Draft, including Ty Smith, Jett Woo and Ryan Merkley, drawing comparisons to the class of Canadian defenceman from the 2012 Draft. Calen Addison of the Lethbridge Hurricanes probably also brought himself into that list with a stellar tournament, recording six points in five games.

“We’ve got so many great defencemen here, all stars in their leagues, they’re all going to grow up to be stars, so it was just a pleasure,” said Bahl. “It’s gonna be a journey with all those guys growing up – we’re probably going to play together again in the future.”

Jack McBain rounded out the scoring in the third period, after which the outcome was no longer in doubt. The Canadians still had a couple of penalties to kill in the last half of the third period, but stellar penalty-killing and steady netminding from Olivier Rodrigue.

“He was outstanding,” Kisio said of Rodrigue after the game. “We were lucky that we had two great goalies here and they both did a great job. Rodrigue, the last few games he stood on his head a couple times when we needed him to, and other times he didn’t see a lot of work but he did his job when he had to.”

After Alexis Gravel of the Halifax Mooseheads played Canada’s first game, a 4-3 shootout loss to Russia, Rodrigue played the last four games in five days. The Drummondville Voltigeurs netminder allowed one goal in all four wins.

Solid from top to bottom, it was not a Canadian team that had any offensive stars that stood out, but the leader was Veleno, the only returnee from last year’s squad, who was eager for redemption and determined to use last year’s disappointment as a positive for this year.

“You build and learn from previous experiences, so this year I mentioned to most of the guys that the margin for error is so small. You can’t dwell on a bad moment or bad game, you have to turn the page and move onto the next one because they come so fast,” the Saint John Sea Dogs centre said of the compact tournament. As for the experience of captaining Team Canada, he said when it was over: “Obviously I picked up a bit of a leadership role here, and hopefully I get that chance in Saint John to be part of the leadership group there. That’s one thing for sure I’ll be bringing back.”

As for the Czechs, they now have four medals in the last five Hlinka Memorial Cups, with one gold, two silvers and a bronze. Although they lost their title this year, Czech coach David Bruk was nonetheless proud of his troops. They were dealing with injuries, most notably to team captain Libor Zabransky, who was forced to miss the final.

“Of course we’re happy that we were able to make the final and compete well in it,” Czech coach David Bruk said in the aftermath. “We’re happy that we were able to beat strong teams like the USA and Russia, and we were able to play Canada in the final. Canada was clearly the better team in the game, they were simply the best team we played in the tournament. They were better in all facets. It is true that we played without three defencemen and four players could barely hold a stick, but we still got to the final. I am truly proud of what my players accomplished.”

The Czechs were led offensively in the by Jan Jenik of Bili Tygri Liberec, who started the tournament on the fourth line but ended up with a tournament-leading six goals. As well, Jakub Lauko of Pirati Chomutov scored four goals and wore the captain’s C in the final game with Zabransky out.

The Czechs made it to the final after beating Russia 2-1 in the semi-finals on Friday in Breclav. At the same time, Canada beat previously unbeaten Sweden in Bratislava by a 4-1 score. The two semi-final losers met for the bronze medal in Bratislava, and in a wild game the Swedes came from two goals down to take the lead, lost it in the final minute of regulation time, but then won in overtime on a goal by Jacob Olofsson.

Despite the absence of top 2018 NHL Draft prospect Rasmus Dahlin, the Swedes were loaded with talent, particularly defenceman Adam Boqvist, who led the tournament with seven assists and his eight points ranked him second.

“We had a pretty good tournament, but we didn’t come up to the level we wanted to play in the semi-final against Canada,” said the Brynas Gavle defenceman. “Personally, I think I played well, but I could have come up a little better against Canada.”

Russia was also without its top Draft prospect, Andrei Svechnikov, but they were led offensively by Dmitri Zavgorodny of Avangard Omsk, who had five goals and five assists to lead the tournament with 10 points. Like Boqvist, however, Zavgorodny was held off the scoresheet in the semi-final against the Czechs.

In the game to decide fifth and sixth places, the USA defeated Finland 4-3 on an overtime goal by Ryder Donovan of Duluth East High in Minnesota. Both of these teams had their medal hope doused on the final day of the group stage, when the Americans lost to the Czechs and the Finns lost to Russia. Finland’s Rasmus Kupari opened the tournament with a five-point game against Slovakia and finished with seven.

For the third year in a row, Switzerland and Slovakia met in the game for seventh place. For the second time in that span, the Swiss came out winners, this time by a 2-1 score.

The Slovaks, like the Czechs, were able to count on good home crowd support for most of their games, but that won’t be the case next year. The Ivan Hlinka Memorial Cup is scheduled to be played in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada in the years 2018, 2020 and 2022. The Czechs and Slovaks will again co-host in 2019 and 2021.

“I think it’s a bit unfortunate because this has become like a tradition, going to the Ivan Hlinka Memorial in Slovakia and the Czech Republic,” lamented Swedish coach Torgny Bendelin. “I understand the business side of it, and I’m sure they’ll get lots of fans in Edmonton. It will be back here again, I know, but I just feel this event belongs here every year.”

“I think it’ll be really exciting,” said Kisio, a Calgary native, about next year’s tournament. “We don’t mind travelling, but Canadian teams always love playing at home and being there in front of our fans will be fun.”

[phelps 7,664]

Last week I saw a few games of the Ivan Hlinka memorial...

quite an entertaining event for the period, even if Canada were clearly better than any other team and Slovakia were quite awful, to be honest...

 

p.s. @hckosice

I don't see any KHL game scheduled in the next weeks on Sport 1 & 2 (I noticed only CHL matches)...have someone else bought the tv rights for the new season in CZE and SVK or what? I'm a bit worried...

it wouldn't be nice to lose tv games of the second best hockey championship in the world...

as you know, for IIHF Hockey I rely basically on the Czech and Slovak tv channels (I've seen that next week's games between CZE and SVK will be broadcasted on both Czech and Slovak public Tv...I love that), sice satellite feeds are inconsistent and sometimes unreachable with my not so big dish...I desperately need some good news...

Edited August 14, 2017 by phelps

[hckošice 14,790]

19 hours ago, phelps said:

Last week I saw a few games of the Ivan Hlinka memorial...

quite an entertaining event for the period, even if Canada were clearly better than any other team and Slovakia were quite awful, to be honest...

 

p.s. @hckosice

I don't see any KHL game scheduled in the next weeks on Sport 1 & 2 (I noticed only CHL matches)...have someone else bought the tv rights for the new season in CZE and SVK or what? I'm a bit worried...

it wouldn't be nice to lose tv games of the second best hockey championship in the world...

as you know, for IIHF Hockey I rely basically on the Czech and Slovak tv channels (I've seen that next week's games between CZE and SVK will be broadcasted on both Czech and Slovak public Tv...I love that), sice satellite feeds are inconsistent and sometimes unreachable with my not so big dish...I desperately need some good news...

 

 

1-)Yeah, well it´s not like we were not awful in the past years too, but I agree this year it was very bad. But you know this U18 category is always hard to predict, it´s only August, the national championships did not started and it was the first games for them and we played against the Best U18 players of the planet actually, so personally I don´t take our results or play of this tournament too seriously, for example also last years team was very very bad but we all saw how they improved their play later and how amazing they were at the U18 Worlds in April. So let see what this years U18 guys will show later in the season and especially at the worlds, where it counts the most.

 

But yes the Hlinka Memorial is one very great tournament and real first best of best youth players meet. and the thing I can not understand is why the tournament will be moved to Canada !!! I agree, sure, Canada is just the heaven of the hockey, no doubts about, I understand the business thing that can the Canadians present to this tournament, the attendance, the coverage and the complete stuff will be certainly huge in Canada, and I love hockey tourneys played in Canada, but come on not this one, This is a MEMORIAL CUP of Ivan Hlinka. Czech and Czechoslovak Hockey legend, how can a memorial tournament be played in another country... a memorial

 

2-) Sorry buddy, but I have a bad news for you, so far Sport TV (which is owned by AMC Central Europe Company) just announced after tons of requests from tv viewers about the KHL, that they have not the rights for this season so far, and (apparently) they are still under negotiations. So maybe they will somehow find a solution and start to broadcast KHL later during the season, It happened once, I think 3-4 years ago, they did not had the rights but later they bought them and started to broadcast it in the later September (So there still a chance for this season too) but I am afraid that under AMC pression they will just cut KHL to replace it by some football...

 

3-) Yes as usual, all SVK national team matches will be live in our public TV this season too.

[phelps 7,664]

3 hours ago, hckosice said:

 

 

1-)Yeah, well it´s not like we were not awful in the past years too, but I agree this year it was very bad. But you know this U18 category is always hard to predict, it´s only August, the national championships did not started and it was the first games for them and we played against the Best U18 players of the planet actually, so personally I don´t take our results or play of this tournament too seriously, for example also last years team was very very bad but we all saw how they improved their play later and how amazing they were at the U18 Worlds in April. So let see what this years U18 guys will show later in the season and especially at the worlds, where it counts the most.

 

But yes the Hlinka Memorial is one very great tournament and real first best of best youth players meet. and the thing I can not understand is why the tournament will be moved to Canada !!! I agree, sure, Canada is just the heaven of the hockey, no doubts about, I understand the business thing that can the Canadians present to this tournament, the attendance, the coverage and the complete stuff will be certainly huge in Canada, and I love hockey tourneys played in Canada, but come on not this one, This is a MEMORIAL CUP of Ivan Hlinka. Czech and Czechoslovak Hockey legend, how can a memorial tournament be played in another country... a memorial

 

2-) Sorry buddy, but I have a bad news for you, so far Sport TV (which is owned by AMC Central Europe Company) just announced after tons of requests from tv viewers about the KHL, that they have not the rights for this season so far, and (apparently) they are still under negotiations. So maybe they will somehow find a solution and start to broadcast KHL later during the season, It happened once, I think 3-4 years ago, they did not had the rights but later they bought them and started to broadcast it in the later September (So there still a chance for this season too) but I am afraid that under AMC pression they will just cut KHL to replace it by some football...

 

3-) Yes as usual, all SVK national team matches will be live in our public TV this season too.

 

1-I agree...playing a Memorial Tournament far away from the home of the people you're supposed to commemorate is just senseless...

but you know...nowadays is everything all only about money...and when we talk of hockey and money, North America is the place to be...

 

2-aaagh!!!!

that's very bad news for me (and not only for me, I guess)...

I hope they just make up their minds and take some money off for the KHL, too...

however, I haven't seen any more football on their schedule...it's still the same French and Itallian leagues and the German Cup + the European qualifiers to Russia 2018...so, the money should still be there...I keep my fingers crossed (and in the meantime I just set up my dish to perfection...just in case)...

 

3-at least that...

[hckošice 14,790]

6 minutes ago, phelps said:

 

1-I agree...playing a Memorial Tournament far away from the home of the people you're supposed to commemorate is just senseless...

but you know...nowadays is everything all only about money...and when we talk of hockey and money, North America is the place to be...

 

2-aaagh!!!!

that's very bad news for me (and not only for me, I guess)...

I hope they just make up their minds and take some money off for the KHL, too...

however, I haven't seen any more football on their schedule...it's still the same French and Itallian leagues and the German Cup + the European qualifiers to Russia 2018...so, the money should still be there...I keep my fingers crossed (and in the meantime I just set up my dish to perfection...just in case)...

 

3-at least that...

 

At least they made a deal that they will rotate the hosting, 1 year in Canada, the next one co-hosted by CZE/SVK, next year again in Canada and then again back to ex-TCH.

 

Yes, that would be definitely stupid, considering the KHL matches of Slovan are the phare lead of the success of this TV. The amount of viewers is incomparably higher in SVK than for any other event broadcasted by them...so to cut KHL would be really illogical and unfortunate move...seriously, in this country the French or Italian football league will never has comparable viewing rate than Hockey from for example KHL (well, maybe ITA Serie A is actually quite decently followed because of Napoli, but still...)

 

well, if they did not, peoples will probably start to riot you know, If you have to pay the concessionary fees for the public TV, the least thing which they have to do is to broadcast the national Hockey team.