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**Muukalainen** · 05-05-2019, 08:55

The Czech leg of the EHT (Euro Hockey Tour) is being used as a warm up tournament by the Czechs, Finns, Swedes and Russians. We're going quite well at the moment (good results anyway, albeit apparently, with one or two slices of luck) having defeated both the hosts and the Russians. The Russians, on the other hand, are not, despite the presence of some big names.

Good luck to the Brits. It's going to be tough for them as they've already found out, hopefully though there will be better opportunities against the Danes, Germans and French.

**BallochSonsFan** · 05-05-2019, 18:28

Looking forward to this. I've taken the week off work for GB's group games. Frustratingly I'm back at work for the France game on the monday - probably the best chance of a GB win.

Looking at the GB squad, it's probably as strong as we could have selected, with the odd exception. Injuries have kept Long and Peacock out and that's frustrating as both have had really good seasons. Peacock has some good game intelligence that could have helped in tough situations and Long was the highest scoring Brit in the EIHL this past season.Big difference between now and 25 years ago is the number of dual national players. In the 90s we were basically playing dual national Canadians and a couple of British born players. This year we've got a majority British born squad with a few dual nationals.

In goals we've got Ben Bowns, Jackson Whistle and Tom Murdy.

Ben Bowns is a game winner at EIHL level for Cardiff Devils. He's a decent size and has good reactions. He's going to be the busiest goaltender in the tournament as we'll be heavily outshot in most games. He has the mentality to stick in there. He'll need to as neither Whistle nor Murdy are good enough to take any of the pressure off him. Whistle had promise when he first signed for Belfast as back-up to Stephen Murphy. He moved to Sheffield as a potential starter but it didnt really work out for him. Sheffield have been a bit of a basket case all season but successive Steelers coaches lost confidence in Whistle as a starter. Murdy is an EIHL back-up. Like Whistle he probably could move and look for more games somewhere but he doesnt look like he's going to. I'd actually have been tempted to take Murphy as back up in place of either Murdy or Whistle. Stephen Murphy is no longer a starter in Belfast and doesnt have many more games in him. What he has is experience of GB squads over the past decade and for that reason alone he'd have been a good guy to have in the side going into our biggest tournament in 25 years.

Defence: Dallas Erhardt, Tim Billingsley, Evan Mosey, Stevie Lee, Ben O'Connor, Davie Phillips, Mark Richardson and Paul Swindlehurst.

We've got 3 dual nationals amongst the 8 players on our roster who play D. Erhardt is a big, physical presence at the back who has played well for a Manchester side that has disappointed last season. Billingsley is a smart blueliner who played for Nottingham last season but who may be on the move this summer. Mosey is the smallest of the 3 dual nationals but can play forward or defence and would be expected to be the defenceman who is most capable of breaking out on the counter attack.

Of the British-born players, O'Connor and Richardson are the pick, Mark Richardson is a smart defensive D man. O'Connor can be lethal from the blue line with a really great long shot. Swindlehurst was good enough to be invited to a north american training camp run by the Black Hawks a couple of years ago and whilst he didnt make the cut for an AHL or ECHL roster spot, he's a decent player. I like Stevie Lee too. Big, honest grafter. Davie Phillips was a really talented player back in the day but a poor season at Sheffield hasn't done him any favours. Of the 8 players he's the one I'd maybe have replaced but we don't have a lot of options at the back . Josh Batch is the obvious option but I'm not sure if he's injured or if he just missed the cut? Josh Tetlow is a player for the future but we're a tournament or two early for the young Panthers player.

Forwards: Brett Perlini, Ben Lake, Mike Hammond,Ollie Betteridge, Ben Davies, Robert Dowd, Robert Farmer, Luke Ferrara , Liam Kirk, Robert Lachowicz, Joey Lewis, Matthew Myers, Jonathan Phillips, Colin Shields.

We've got 3 dual national forwards. Mike Hammond was actually born in the UK but left at such a young age that he didnt play any junior hockey here so wasn't developed in the UK hockey system. He's done well recovering from a bad injury a couple of seasons ago and carries a genuine goal threat in the EIHL. Remains to be seen if he can even lay a glove on the opponents we'll be facing this year but he deserve his roster slot. As does Ben Lake. Lake is a big body who has nice hands and positions himself well. He isnt really a power forward in that he won't be going into the dirty areas of the ice or winning battles in the corners but he has had a good season for Coventry and is another who carries a scoring threat. Brett Perlini was a massive part of our success at the previous IIHF tournament and was named that year's MVP. He hasnt had such a good season for Nottingham but will be relied on as a top player for GB this summer.

Britain has some decent grafters but the biggest home grown goal threats are Rob Dowd and Rob Farmer. Dowd is another who has had injury troubles in a poor season for Sheffield but his pedigree is there. He was good enough to play a season in the Swedish 2nd division - the Allsvenskan - and is a smart player. Farmer is an out and out agitator. He'll annoy opponents, try to draw penalties and generally make an absolute pest of himself. Early in his career EIHL fans were fond of the odd game of "Farmer Bingo" to see which opposition players Farmer would end up scrapping with on any given game night. He's grown up a lot since then and generally picks his moments well to try to be a pest.

We're getting to the end of the line for Myers, Phillips and Shields. Colin Shields is retiring after this tournament. The 2nd British trained player to be drafted by an NHL side when Philly took him in the 2000 draft, he's still a highly intelligent option on the power play. At 39 he'll be a wee bit exposed by the pace of the games and the speed of the opponents he's going to come up against. He'll still carry a threat on special teams - if we get any opportunities on the man advantage - and he deserves to be there for his swansong. Myers is a gritty forward who makes it tough for opponents. Phillips is similar. We'll be relying on both of them to try to help protect their D and to transition to a quick counter attack with more offensively focused line mates. Sadly we aren't blessed with many. Joey Lewis has spent much of his career overseas and currently plays in DEL 2. Ferrara and Betteridge are decent 2-way forwards who will contribute at either end of the ice but who don't carry a significant goal threat. I wouldn't have Ben Davies in the squad and if it hadn't been for injuries to Long and Peacock then he'd probably have missed out. I'd have been tempted by Jordan Cownie instead after a solid season for Dundee.

The x-factor for GB comes in the form of Liam Kirk. Kirk was the 3rd British (and first English) trained player to be drafted by an NHL side when the Coyotes took him in last summer's draft. He's spent the season in Peterboro with the Petes and OHL hockey has certainly agreed with him. 47 points in 63 regular season games isnt a bad contribution at all for his first season outside of the UK. He'll be on the 2nd or 3rd line and gives us a player who should be more accustomed to the pace of games at this level. The OHL is the best of the 3 Canadian major junior leagues and Kirk has spent the season playing against guys who are on their way to the show. It's too early to put the weight of GB's survival at this level on his shoulders but he's going to be a major factor in GB hockey going forward and he has to be seen as a guy who can help grow the sport in the UK, particularly if he makes it to the NHL in a couple of years time.

Overall: Lets be honest here, GB will be lucky to keep the score to single figures against Canada and USA. Finland, Germany and Slovakia too. Our best chances of the tournament will be against Denmark and France. If we can get a result against the French then we might just stay up for another year.

Of our opponents I really like the look of the Germans, although I've got to declare an interest in that I regularly watch Adler Mannheim online and try to get to a couple of DEL games every year. Their Olympic silver medal was no fluke and they have some really good players on their roster, including Leon Draisaitl who had an absolutely outstanding season with the Oilers and Dominik Kahun from Chicago. There's scope for them to change their goaltenders with Thomas Greiss of the Islanders the obvious option. I'd be surprised if Moritz Seider makes the final cut but he's a star D man in the making and I wouldn't be surprised to see him drafted at some point in this year's draft. I'm disappointed that David Wolf didnt make the squad after a very good year for my title-winning Mannheim side, but we're represented by Mattias Plachta and Markus Eisenschmidt. Eisenschmidt has had a really great first season at the SAP for Die Adler and will cement his status as one of the best Germans playing in the DEL with a good showing at this year's finals.

Canada and USA will be fighting it out for top of our group. It'll be between Finland and Germany for 3rd and 4th in a very interesting battle. Slovakia will finish 5th. It's then between us, Denmark and France for the final 3 spots.

Don't be surprised if we get a rematch of the Russia v Germany gold medal game from the most recent winter Olympics in the quarter finals.

**ursus arctos** · 05-05-2019, 18:54

When are the squads announced?

And are they fixed? I seem to recall past cases of NHL stars joining the fray mid-tournament.

This is always a hard tournament to predict, and impossible without squad lists. That said, if Washington's Russians (plus Kucherov) decide to seek revenge for their early elimination from the NHL playoffs, they will be extremely hard to beat.

**BallochSonsFan** · 05-05-2019, 18:58

Some of the squads are already announced. Some countries have their long list announced and are making their final cuts now.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_I...onship_rosters

Countries can keep a roster space or two open if they want to on the off chance that they can pick up players knocked out of the Stanley Cup. A few players have made themselves unavailable for this tournament - Matthews, Crosby and McDavid are missing.

**ursus arctos** · 05-05-2019, 19:02

Ta.

I was looking at the official site, which has all of the rosters blank.

Russia are seriously stacked. I wonder if Bobrovsky will join if Boston win another game.

**jameswba** · 06-05-2019, 16:29

Balloch Sons Fan, are you coming to Kosice then? Enjoyed that write-up on the Britain team, especially after seeing them in action the day before. Nothing insightful to add other than that Bowns was excellent in goal. GB often seemed to station three defending players in front of him - it looked like very narrow defending to me - and he was unsighted on one or two occasions, notably with the fifth goal. Farmer took his goal neatly, though perhaps ought not to have bothered, as it seemed to wake Slovakia up from what had been a pretty poor spell. The hatchet-man role on the day was filled by Myers, who committed a couple of nasty fouls, one of which left a Slovak player prone and motionless for a worrying few seconds.

I'm interested in whether Slovakia will benefit from playing in Kosice. Last time the tournament was here, in 2011, a lot of the stars of the famous 2002 win were in the squad, but nearly all were way past their best and the whole thing was a let-down. They were based in Bratislava that time. There are fewer big names in this side, but expectations are lower too.

I have a suspicion, based on absolutely no knowledge or evidence, that the A group might be just a bit stronger than the B, at least below the top 3 or 4 sides.

**ursus arctos** · 06-05-2019, 16:45

The middle of Group A should stronger than that of Group B, but there isn't much to separate the bottom four sides in the tournament.

**BallochSonsFan** · 06-05-2019, 17:25

Originally posted by jameswba View Post

Balloch Sons Fan, are you coming to Kosice then? Enjoyed that write-up on the Britain team, especially after seeing them in action the day before. Nothing insightful to add other than that Bowns was excellent in goal. GB often seemed to station three defending players in front of him - it looked like very narrow defending to me - and he was unsighted on one or two occasions, notably with the fifth goal. Farmer took his goal neatly, though perhaps ought not to have bothered, as it seemed to wake Slovakia up from what had been a pretty poor spell. The hatchet-man role on the day was filled by Myers, who committed a couple of nasty fouls, one of which left a Slovak player prone and motionless for a worrying few seconds.

I'm interested in whether Slovakia will benefit from playing in Kosice. Last time the tournament was here, in 2011, a lot of the stars of the famous 2002 win were in the squad, but nearly all were way past their best and the whole thing was a let-down. They were based in Bratislava that time. There are fewer big names in this side, but expectations are lower too.

I have a suspicion, based on absolutely no knowledge or evidence, that the A group might be just a bit stronger than the B, at least below the top 3 or 4 sides.

Sadly not.

I'll be watching on TV though.

**ursus arctos** · 07-05-2019, 01:52

And now Russia may get Bobrovsky and Panarin . . .

**Ray de Galles** · 07-05-2019, 09:16

Great round up of the squad BSF, is the issue with Ben Davies lack of quality or something else? Speaking out of relative ignorance I've got a soft spot for him as a Welsh player and Guildford's only representative on the roster but he does always seem particularly disliked by fans of opposition clubs - despite having played for half of them.

**BallochSonsFan** · 07-05-2019, 17:44

Im just not a big fan of Davies.

If we want a hard worker then we could have taken Hook or Duggan. Both are going to be important players in the future. Duggan spent time in the Swedish junior development leagues at U18 and U20 level and for me he just brings a bit more physically than Davies does. If we wanted to bring some depth offence then Cownie has had a great season in Dundee.

**jameswba** · 07-05-2019, 18:42

Slovakia have just beaten Norway 3-2 on the golden goal in the final warm-up game. It was played at the impressive-looking stadium of Michalovce, newly-promoted to the top tier of Slovakia's domestic league. The teams are now practising penalties, but goalminders are well on top!* Would we expect these two sides to be battling for final QF places from their respective groups? It was an enjoyable game, whatever.

I was going to make a witless reference to Ben Davies not being popular in Slovakia either after clearing Hamsik's effort off the line in Euro 2016, but thought better of it.

*Slovakia won this as well, after a succession of foiled attempts.

**jameswba** · 10-05-2019, 16:26

Great start in Group A, where Finland have beaten Canada 3-1. I watched much of the first-period in a fanzone on the way home from work, and the final period at home. From what I saw, Finland outplayed them.

I'm going to Kosice tomorrow for the 1215 game between Denmark and France. Looking forward to it.

**ad hoc** · 10-05-2019, 20:31

GB already ahead of Canada and the USA in their group.

(albeit because they haven't played a match yet and the North American powerhouses have and have both lost)

**BallochSonsFan** · 11-05-2019, 16:37

So many positives for GB.

Bowns was great. He did really well all game and couldn't have done any more. We were also really disciplined for the most part, although Swindlehurst's penalty hurt us. If I had to point to a negative then it would be the missed chances earlier in the game. Great set up and just a final pass/finish away from really scaring the Germans. I'd also want to see a bit more from Farmer as I think he's going to have to be big for us against Denmark and France. Shields really is past it and had little impact on the game.

Germany turned things up when we scared them by tying the game at 1-1. Deserved winners in the end, and Seider's opener was a fantastic shot, but for about 40 minutes in that game they showed us little respect and weren't out of first gear. We nearly punished them for that. Their attitude in the first 2 periods was poor and our equaliser came from a garbage clearance attempt that no professional would even think about trying in a game they were fully focused and determined in.

We've shown what we can do when teams don't take us seriously. That's probably a wake up call for Slovakia, Denmark and France.

**jameswba** · 12-05-2019, 06:35

Group A looks like the place to be after the opening two days of the championship. That's partly because Kosice itself knocks seven bells of shite out of Bratislava as a place to spend time. It's relatively under-visited, it feels eastern European (rather than central), it's got the world's easternmost gothic cathedral and it's got my favourite restaurant in Slovakia. This is a place called Med a Malina (Honey and Raspberry). It sounds twee, but it's like your grandma's dining-room inside, the waitresses make it feel like a visit to your favourite relatives, and the food is a perfect combination of Slovak, Polish and Ukrainian, with borscht, wild boar dishes, filled homemade pancakes etc. Good vegetarian options too. In contrast, Bratislava just seems to think that, if it charges people enough, they'll think it's in Austria.

Kosice is also a better place for ice-hockey in that the rink is just a 15-minute walk from the cathedral and central square. The walk from Bratislava's main square to the arena would be around an hour and mostly along the main road to the airport.

So far, it seems like Bratislava has had the one-sided games, like Switzerland beating Italy 9-0 and the Czechs hammering Norway 7-2. In Kosice, the hosts are causing excitement by beating the US 4-1 on opening night, then running Finland close in a high-quality game yesterday evening. GB, as BSF details above, exceeded expectations by holding Germany till 10 minutes from the end.

I went to Kosice's first game of yesterday, Denmark vs France, and it might just have been the most exciting of the lot. The Danes were 0-1 down early on, scored twice in the final minute of the first period to go 2-1 up, went 2-4 down about halfway through the second, then pulled it back to 4-4 before finally edging it on the penalty shots. The Danes did have the edge on the stats (35 shots on goal to 25), but France had possibly the most eye-catching individual player, a 19 year-old called Alexander Texier. Apparently, he recently became the first player ever to move directly from a club in the French league to one in the NHL (Colombus Blue Jackets). He was excellent in the game itself but sadly missed with his side's first penalty shot. There was a good atmosphere at this game, with the Danes, Finns and locals especially contributing, but it seemed to be bettered by the racket at the GB and Slovakia games later on.

The North Americans will feel it's time to make their presence felt today.

**ursus arctos** · 12-05-2019, 10:05

Italy conclusively demonstrated that they have no business being there.

Kaapo Kakko of Finland is cementing his case to be the number 2 pick in the NHL draft (5 goals in 2 games).

**Muukalainen** · 12-05-2019, 10:44

I managed to see the see the final half hour or so of yesterday's game between Finland and Slovakia, having been unable to see anything of our game against Canada. As James noted above, it was a good quality game, and one that I thought we had slightly the better of. Another good finish from Kakko, destroying the defender in scoring the winning goal.

For much of the second period the game was pretty even, not too many good chances, and those that were falling to the Finns, until the final 90 seconds or so of the period when the Slovaks really opened us up. This resulted in a well taken goal for the Slovaks, equalising at 2-2. What I didn't like about the goal was Jalonen's persistence in objecting to the goal on the grounds of goalkeeper interference, even after the first, extensive video review. What interference there was, was marginal at best, possibly even initiated by Lankinen, and definitely exacerbated by one of our defenders repeatedly shoving the Slovak forward towards the goalie. A pretty good measure is that all the players continued playing normally until the goal was scored, at which point I didn't see a single Finn approach the referee. The objection was an afterthought, and not something that followed directly from play on the ice. I'm a huge fan of Jukka Jalonen, who is an excellent coach at any level, but on this occasion the referee should have told him to piss off.

We had the better of the final period, though without particularly dominating. The Slovaks were shooting on sight. too much so in my opinion, there being times when developing a situation would have served them better rather than trying to beat Lankinen from distance.

A good start for Finland, with two of the better teams defeated.

**jameswba** · 12-05-2019, 12:46

Yes, Finland look very good. Agree with nearly all you say there, Muukalainen. I didn't remotely get what the coach's problem was with the 2nd Slovak goal, especially since the refs had already had a prolonged look at the replay. I watched this game in my local after getting back from Kosice, and my neighbour and I agreed that Finland were looking menacing till that equaliser. Slovakia played well, but Finland were still just that bit better.

One-sided wins for the US and Russia this lunchtime. I fear for GB against Canada later.

**Muukalainen** · 12-05-2019, 16:06

Just thinking back to the previous time that the Brits were in the championship finals. I had to check to make sure, but my memory was correct that in 1994 the finals were contested between 12 teams. I do not remember, however, when the format was changed to 16 teams, though my gut feeling is fairly soon afterwards, and done mostly to accommodate the countries created following the break up of the Soviet Union. Where are they all now? Only Latvia remains.

**Snake Plissken** · 13-05-2019, 05:54

One of my favourite bits of hockey trivia is in that 1984 GB vs Canada game.

GB�s MOTM was Rick Fera, born in Keswick, Ontario.
Canada�s MOTM was Steve Thomas, born in Stockport, Cheshire.

**jameswba** · 13-05-2019, 20:59

Another remarkable game in Kosice finishes Slovakia 5 Canada 6. Slovakia were twice two goals clear, at 2-0 and 4-2. Twice Canada retrieved the deficit, then went ahead 5-4. Slovakia equalised and were on top in the third period till conceding a power-play with 70 seconds left. They looked to have survived it, only for Canada to get the winner with 3 seconds to go. Slovakia vs Germany on Wednesday looks an important game in the battle for the last QF place from this group, Germany having gained their expected two wins (if only narrowly) vs GB and Denmark.

**Hot Pepsi** · 14-05-2019, 01:20

Originally posted by Muukalainen View Post

Just thinking back to the previous time that the Brits were in the championship finals. I had to check to make sure, but my memory was correct that in 1994 the finals were contested between 12 teams. I do not remember, however, when the format was changed to 16 teams, though my gut feeling is fairly soon afterwards, and done mostly to accommodate the countries created following the break up of the Soviet Union. Where are they all now? Only Latvia remains.

Belarus has been in the top tier a few times, I think, haven�t they?

**Hot Pepsi** · 14-05-2019, 01:25

Glad to see some people are enjoying this tournament. I never really understood the point of having an annual world championship when so many of the best players couldn�t play, but that also makes for more interesting games, perhaps.

Announcement

Ice-hockey World Championship 2019

Ice-hockey World Championship 2019

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