Ice Hockey 2015 - 2016 Discussion Thread

[hckošice 14,829]

Oleg Znaroks not looks happy at all. probably no soup at hotel tonight for the russians

 

but what a match from the czechs. My apologize. I understimates this team too much, they played very very well and what a win for CZE against Russia and in Russia. hardly you will find something sweetest

[hckošice 14,829]

Czech Republic - Russia  3-0

 

 

 

[hckošice 14,829]

Hosts stunned in opener

Steely Czech defence propels 3-0 win

The Czech Republic players celebrate after a third period goal by Michal Birner #16 while Russia's Vadim Shipachyov #87 looks on during preliminary round action at the 2016 IIHF Ice Hockey Championship.

 

 

The sold-out crowd was fully behind the Russians. The players were nervous but came to life. The stage was set, but the Czechs persevered would not break.

 

Everything was there for a victory to kick off the 80^th World Championship, but the timely scoring of the Czechs, and their impenetrable play inside their own blue line carried them to a wild and impressive 3-0 win in opening-night action in Moscow.

 

Tomas Kundratek and Roman Cervenka provided the goals to build a 2-0 lead, and Michal Birner added an empty-netter. Dominik Furch was sensational when he had to be in goal for the Czechs to record the shutout, making 25 saves in his debut with the senior team.

 

"I don't want to give away any secrets about our strengths," Kundratek said, "but you saw tonight that we're a fast team, and we play physcially. Our goalie stopped a lot of pucks and made some big saves."

 

"Bobrovski played really well," said Russian coach Oleg Znarok. "The goals were a deflection and a rebound, and the third was into an empty net, so there are no complaints about his game."

 

Kundratek’s goal came just as a power play expired. He fired a shot between the pads of Sergei Bobrovski at 14:48 of the opening period.

 

The Russians took three of the four penalties in the first, which didn’t help the team’s efforts to gain some traction in the offensive end.

 

"The first goal we really important for us," Cervenka acknowledged. "We knew that Russia has a strong team, it's a big favourite in this group, but we've already played a lot of good games against them and we won several times so we were confident that we could do it again."

 

Cervenka connected on a power play 48 seconds into the second. A quick Jakub Jerabek point shot was stopped weakly by Bobrovski and Cervenka was at the top of the crease to poke the puck in.

 

The Russians dominated the second half of the period. Sergei Mozyakin was alone in front with time to spare, but his wicked wrist shot snapped off the crossbar and out of play.

 

Later in the period the Russians controlled the puck in the opposition end for nearly three minutes as the crowd worked itself into a frenzy, but the Czechs played incredible defence despite the fatigue. The best chance on this sequence went to Artemi Panarin, but his quick shot was kicked out by an even quicker right pad of Furch.

 

The Russians went 0-for-5 with the man advantage, no more importantly than in the final period when they had a 5-on-3 for 18 seconds. The Czechs blocked many more shots than Furch such was their expertise at geting a body part or stick in the lane from the Russians to the goal. They were full measure for the victory, but Russia also must take some of the blame in defeat.

 

"We might have won," Cervenka concluded, "but that doesn't make us the favourites. Russia is still the favourite. We've got a good start to the tournament and that's really important for us."

 

The Czechs are back at it tomorrow night, playing Latvia in the late game. The Russians have a day off before playing recently-promoted Kazakhstan on Sunday.

 

"Our play in the first period wasn't too bad," offered Znarok, "but the penalties were something we didn't expect. It's clear our power play was not a big success for us today."

 

[hckošice 14,829]

Finland - Belarus  6-2

 

 

 

[hckošice 14,829]

Laying it all on the Laine

Finnish teen erupts in opening win over Belarus

Finland's Juuso Hietanen #38 celebrates with Patrik Laine #29 and Aleksander Barkov #61 after Team Finland scores their fourth goal of the game during preliminary round action at the 2016 IIHF Ice Hockey Championship.

 

 

Patrik Laine made a statement with two goals and an assist in Finland’s opening 6-2 win over Belarus in their Friday night opener in St. Petersburg.

 

The 18-year-old Laine, this year's Finnish playoff MVP with champion Tappara Tampere, is being touted as a potential rival to the U.S.'s Auston Matthews as the number one overall pick in the 2016 NHL Draft. Named Finland's Player of the Game, the imposing winger got the Day One edge, as Matthews was held pointless in a 5-1 loss to Canada.

"Laine is a different guy," said Finland's Leo Komarov. "He’s a little bit shy and doesn’t know us yet, but when you come up to the (senior) team in Finland, you can be yourself. We know who he is, he’s got a good shot, and he’s going to be a good player."

Mikael Granlund was likewise impressive with two goals and an assist, and Mikko Koivu and Antti Pihlstrom added singles for Finland. Aleksander Barkov picked up a pair of assists. Despite a slow start, it was a strong debut for coach Kari Jalonen's team.

"It was a great win by us," said Barkov. "We struggled for the first ten minutes but we started to believe in each other. We played a great game and scored a lot of goals."

Andrei Stas and Alexei Kalyuzhny replied for Belarus.

Finnish goalie Mikko Koskinen, the starter for the KHL's SKA St. Petersbug, looked quite at home, getting the win versus Belarus veteran Vitali Koval. Finland outshot Belarus 30-16.

It was a lively atmosphere at the packed Yubileiny Arena, with competing chants of “Belarus!” and “Suomi!” raining down.

Finland finished sixth at last year’s Worlds, while Belarus came seventh. The Finns medaled twice at the last five tournaments (gold in 2011, silver in 2014), while Belarus is still looking for its first medal of all time.

In the first period, Belarus had the better of the play, outshooting Finland 8-4. They gave no quarter, with pressure all over the ice, although they failed to cash in on two power play chances. Koskinen had to be sharp, foiling Geoff Platt’s in-tight backhand attempt, and blocking Sergei Kostitsyn’s quick release from the left faceoff circle.

Laine drew first blood on his first World Championship goal at 1:45 of the second period. He busted through the neutral zone, cut to the middle, slipped a tricky backhand pass to Barkov, and converted the return feed into a gaping net.

The Finns kept coming, as Belarus failed to maintain its high tempo of the first stanza. Koivu made it 2-0 at 12:28. The Finnish captain outmuscled defenceman Ilya Shinkevich as he bulled his way to the net along the goal line and shoved the puck in.

"The key to the match was the second period when we started to play as a team," said Jalonen.

At 17:55, Stas cut the deficit to 2-1 with a great shorthanded rush against the flow. Finnish defenceman Juuso Hietanen turned over the puck at the Belarus blue line, and Stas eluded the backchecking of Laine to tuck a backhander past Koskinen while falling.

But that incident just seemed to get the big blonde Finnish kid going.

Forty-one seconds later, Laine made amends on a 5-on-3 power play. Koivu set him up to hammer home a one-timer from the top of the left faceoff circle. And then, Laine got it across to Granlund for another man advantage marker, ending Belarus's hopes with a 4-1 lead with four seconds left in the middle frame.

"In the second period we came out flat and started taking penalties and that hurt us," said Belarus forward Charles Linglet. "They’ve got some pretty good players on the power play and our pk had a hard time keeping up."

In the third period, Pihlstrom put Finland up 5-1 at 2:01 with a high glove-side goal on the rush.

Koval had some rough luck on the 6-1 goal, as Anssi Salmela's center point drive rattled his mask and Granlund tucked in the rebound at 7:51.

Kalyuzhny, the Belarus captain, gave his fans something to cheer about when he rounded out the scoring at 6-2 at 11:01.

Belarus has only beaten Finland once in nine tries at the IIHF World Championship. It was a 2-1 shootout win on May 2, 2009. Oleg Antonenko scored the decisive goal.

Finnish goalie Niklas Backstrom did not dress for this game. The two-time Olympian has been designated as the third-stringer in St. Petersburg. Backstrom, 38, was Finland’s starter at the 2008 Worlds in Canada en route to bronze.

Next up, Belarus faces the Americans on Saturday. Finland will battle Germany on Sunday.

"We know the U.S. is going to be tough but maybe even tougher because it is back-to-back games," said Linglet. "But it will be a good one."

 

[Finnator123 292]

Like always, the 1st game and the 1st period was rather difficult for us

[NikolaB 432]

1 hour ago, bestmen said:

i told you on the last  page : i always lose much points in the  predictions because of Sweden & Czech R , .... the proof  

 

i can't belive that russia loses at home , they are silver medalist of  2015

For a long time Russians don't take a title at home ground

[hckošice 14,829]

TEAM PRESENTATIONS

  Russia

 

 

     Home

 

    Away

Little margin for error

Russia must meet expectations

 

No country demands World Championship glory like this year’s host. Playing before a Moscow public, the pressure on Oleg Znarok’s team is greater than ever.

 

For an undisputed hockey powerhouse, Russia has endured a long wait to see its team lift a trophy on home ice. You have to go back to the 1986 Soviets and that victory in Moscow. Russia missed out on a medal in St. Petersburg in 2000, took bronze in Moscow in 2007 after losing a semi-final to Finland and famously faltered against the Finns once again in Sochi to miss out on an Olympic medal. This time, home fans hope, the script is about to change and a new golden generation can emerge to join Tikhonov’s team on the list of home-town heroes.

 

There are grounds for optimism – Oleg Znarok took Russia to the last two World Championship finals and, as usual, he’s able to name a roster with plenty of big-game experience as well as some exciting emerging talent. But there are question marks as well, from the uncertainty about the final choice of forwards to the disappointing return of one win in five this season at Moscow’s new World Championship venue.

 

Goal

 

Sergei Bobrovski is the clear pick for the #1 role this time. The Columbus netminder is back in World Championship action for the 3rd time after linking up with the national team last month. Despite some criticism of his performance in a 2-3 home defeat against Finland as Russia concluded a disappointing Euro Hockey Tour season, his vast international experience makes him the clear leader. Rounding off the roster, Znarok has chosen two young KHL goalies, SKA’s Igor Shestyorkin and CSKA’s Ilya Sorokin. The latter, a Metallurg Novokuznetsk graduate like Bobrovski, had a hugely impressive season as he helped his team to the Gagarin Cup final. Aged just 20, he kept Sweden’s Viktor Fasth on the bench for long periods and performed superbly to deal with some high pressure situations. Shestyorkin had less game time in Petersburg, where Finland’s Mikko Koskinen was the key man, but after helping Spartak to MHL success in 2014 he earned a good reputation as a goalie who could be going places. He gets the nod here ahead of Semyon Varlamov.

 

Defence

 

Russia’s traditional weakness might be stronger than usual this time around. The return of Slava Voynov to Europe after lifting two Stanley Cups in LA is a real boost for Znarok’s team, even if few would have chosen the uncomfortable path that led the SKA blue liner back across the Atlantic. Voynov took time to rediscover his game in Russia but finished the season strongly and was impressive in the KHL play-offs despite SKA’s loss in the Conference final. SKA team-mate Anton Belov had another solid season and should help form a more reliable defence than Russia has mustered in the past. Another KHL star, Nikita Zaitsev, cemented his position as Russia’s brightest young defensive prospect with an impressive season and post-season at CSKA. His undoubted talents are starting to show in the big games – witness his three goals in the opening three games of the Gagarin Cup final for evidence of greater composure on the big stage. Toronto fans can look forward to a preview of what their new man can do.

 

There’s further NHL experience in the form of Alexei Yemelin, a reliable blue-liner from Montreal, and Alexei Marchenko of Detroit, an emerging talent who has yet to make an impact on the international stage. And, after naming 28 players on Wednesday, Russia’s management also suggested that four places will be held for possible Trans-Atlantic reinforcements, which could open up a slot for Washington’s Dmitri Orlov depending on the Caps’ Stanley Cup campaign.

 

Forwards

 

Russia loves a stellar offence, but this year’s edition has as many questions as answers. Will scratching Ilya Kovalchuk prove to be an error, despite his almost total absence from SKA’s play-off campaign? Will Alexander Radulov’s groin allow him to feature? Who, if any, of Alexander Ovechkin, Yevgeni Kuznetsov, Yevgeni Malkin or Nikolai Kulyomin might feature following the latest round of NHL play-offs? When the puck drops against the Czechs, Russia is expected to have nominated just 11 forwards from a long list of 16, offering some room for manoeuvre on these issues.

 

Despite the uncertainty, there are positives. Pavel Datsyuk is available from the start to weave his magic. At the age of 35 he’s adamant that this tournament won’t be his swansong, but it will be his last chance to win an international tournament in his native country. His projected partnership with Russia’s second-highest all-time point scorer Sergei Mozyakin has the potential to give defences headaches and finally cement the Metallurg Magnitogorsk captain’s reputation on the international stage. Then there’s the return of the former SKA line of Artemy Panarin, Yevgeni Dadonov and Vadim Shipachyov, so deadly for club and country last season. Whatever the final roster looks like, Russia surely won’t lack for firepower.

 

Coaching

 

Everyone knows what to expect from an Oleg Znarok team: work rate, teamwork, commitment and a spiky, combative attitude on and off the ice. While some might question the absence, or likely absence, of big name stars like Kovalchuk, Varlamov, Malkin or Radulov, Znarok’s career shows that he’s not a man to select on reputation. His KHL success came with un-starry rosters; the triumphant sweep to World Championship gold in Minsk, powered by Ovechkin and Malkin, was a rare stellar exception. But with two World Championship campaigns and two World Championship finals as Russia’s head coach, there’s every reason to expect another strong showing from Znarok in Moscow.

 

Projected results

 

More than one pundit has suggested that Russia is effectively preparing a team for the three knock-out games and it would be a huge shock if the Red Machine failed to motor through the group stage in serene style. True, the Euro Tour results against the Czechs and the Swedes were unimpressive this season, but with so much expectation around the team it’s clear that Russia is ready to raise its game. The greatest potential obstacle could lie in the decision to leave much of the roster open for the opening game against the Czechs – if Vladimir Vuitek’s men can capitalise on a short bench, the whole tournament could feel very different by Saturday morning. Overall, though, a victory on home ice – so long awaited after the slip-ups in Sochi and at the Worlds in 2007 and 2000 – has to be the target; anything less than a medal is unthinkable.

 

[hckošice 14,829]

First Power Ranking released and I can´t stop laughing

 

I love the guys who made it. just great.

 

so here it is.

the 1st edition of Power Ranking 2016

 

1.		Canada:	Look! It’s a Canadian team playing in May!
2.		Finland:	Give blonde kid puck. Watch him shoot. Repeat.
3.		Czech Republic:	Celebrating Jagr's new contract!
4.		Sweden:	Nyquist is a horse
5.		United States:	We’re going to win bigly
6.		Russia:	Can’t wait to hear our anthem
7.		Slovakia:	As a kid, you dream of playing for Team Europe
8.		Switzerland:	No, really, you do dream of playing for Team Europe
9.		Denmark:	OMG, guys! Team Europe is controlled by Satan!
10.		Latvia:	Two words: “Leicester City”
11.		Belarus:	When in doubt, use more Canadians
12.		France:	Asterix takes the shot, Obelix provides the screen
13.		Germany:	This round, Ehrhoff will play more than Keith
14.		Norway:	Good seats still available for Roy Johansen’s farewell tour
15.		Kazakhstan:	Triple G, yes – Triple Gold Club, no
16.		Hungary:	A seven-year wait is better than a 70-year wait

 
The Power Rankings are for the enjoyment of IIHF.com readers, and reflect the progress of teams during the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship. They are distinct from the official standings and IIHF World Ranking.

[ahjfcshfghb 287]

There is no sweeter victory than against Russia on their home ice.