and we have the first official team roster !
28 days to go. already officialy revealed teir team for Riga 2021.
Team coached by Pete Russell shocked the whole hockey world by avoiding the relegation thanks to surprising overtime win over France in their last and decisive game at the 2019 World Championships in Slovakia.
Teams are allowed to select 28 players on their roster for this year Tournament. while the British have still left one place vacant for now, they already announced today the 27 players wo will fly to Latvia for the mondial. The core of the team has remained unchanged compared to their roster in Košice 2 years ago with a total of 17 returning players from the last world championships. Five hockey players will experience their debut at the World Championships of any category, one is a complete novice in National Team and the remaining four have already played for Great Britain in lower World Championship divisions before or in Olympic qualifiers.
Among notable players, Mike Hammond, who scored his team's only goal in 2019 in the 1-7 loss to host Slovakia, and the Mr hero scorer of that golden goal in overtime against the French who saved GB in the elite category, Ben Davies, are not missing.
All but one of the players compete in the local national EIHL competition. Only Evan Mosey plays the German 2nd league.
The 2020/21 EIHL season was not played, it was first interrupted due to coronavirus concerns, and later did not even restarted in full due to financial difficulties. But then the league announced that the season would take place in a shortened mode and with only four teams. Nottingham Panthers, Coventry Blaze, Manchester Storm and Sheffield Steelers. All 4 started playing each other in a special bubble in Nottingham only in early April. Each team play every opponent 4 times, so the teams will go to the playoffs after 12 duels. In it, they will play the semifinals in a changed format, the score will decide about the finalists, and the finals will be played as a best-of-3 series. The final should begins on May 1. In other words, Evan Mosey from the second German league will have the most matches played from this team.
Great Britain is in the preliminary A-group, where it will meet with Russian Ice Hockey Federation Team, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Slovakia, Denmark and Belarus. They will start the tournament against Russian Ice Hockey Federation Team, after which Slovakia is waiting them as next opponent.