Beiträge von kabidjan14

  • U20 WM Division IA in Bled

    Watching this game, and this tournament in general, I do think Austrian hockey is improving. Austria has always been the faster team against Denmark, Norway, etc. But speed itself isn't good enough, you need speed with purpose. Players going somewhere with the puck. Year over year, players are getting better at system knowledge, knowing where to expect your teammates to be, what set pieces you're trying to work to, etc. In the past there were always a few players who seemed like dead weight, and a few other players who could do nothing but play hero ball, I felt like everyone on this team carried their weight for the most part, when you adjusted for expectations by line. Especially on defense it's virtually incomparable.

    This year there was no game-breaking talent, especially at forward, which is what matters most in these junior tournaments. Biber and Oschgan are really good players who change the nature of the game, but they don't necessarily break the game open even in the way a Benjamin Baumgartner did, though they could end up having more impactful senior careers that he has had. For example, the top scorers had 4 points, Baumgartner had 11 in 2019, and 3 players had above 4. And honestly, it is a concern that I don't think anyone will be drafted this year, it seems unlikely anyone will be drafted next year either. But they compensated for individual excellence with skill across the board.

    In some places there's progress and in others regression, but Austrian hockey is in a better place than it was 10 years ago today. The quality of professionals is consistently better, and as it continues to improve so too will the depth of the league. I know there's a lot of frustration right now with Fehervar and Bozen being top of the table, no one likes their team being an experiment for nationalteam development. But the game today between Graz and KAC I thought was really exciting. Graz invested a lot in bringing in domestic talent this past year and some of it is paying off. Unfortunately Haudum left the ice, but Paul Huber scored, Kilian Zundel had a fantastic assist on a breakout pass, both senior men's team players. Max Preiml got 2 assists, former U20 NT player. I know they were both simple passes in his own zone so I'm not reading too much into it, but on the whole Maier, Nickl, all have gotten good playing time this season. The atmosphere looked great, I was thrilled that it went to OT, fans seemed happy and both teams walked away with points. Max Rebernig, Lukas Thaler have had good seasons, Niklas Wurschl had a pair of assists in the Linz game.

    As mentioned, there's not a whole lot of high end talent on this year's team, maybe a few who will play abroad, but mostly I think they'll work their way into the domestic league, and fans will get to see a lot of them in the coming years.

  • Olympia-Qualifikationsturnier 29.8. - 1.9.2024 in Bratislava

    This tournament has been an unmitigated disaster, and reflects the misunderstanding of the sport of hockey that has consistently permeated the Austrian hockey sphere.

    Hockey is not a skating or stickhandling competition. It is a game with intricate roles. After all these years it is lost on Austrian hockey that weak shots from the perimeter do nothing when there isn't traffic in front of the net, that cleaning up rebounds and garbage goals are as or more important than any other skill in the sport. Watching Austria play is like watching a basketball team with only shooting guards. It is possible they could get hot and hit 20 3s but more likely they will miss a lot and lose the game.

    This was the best Austrian team to take the ice since the 2014 Olympic Team. I firmly believe that. Marco Rossi would have made it better, but the issues are deeper than that. Slovakia was missing Slafkovsky, Fehervary, and Cehlarik, Austria cannot complain.

    Watching David Reinbacher and Marco Kasper play has been an inexpressible joy. Kasper is the best Austrian forward to don the red-white-red since Prime Michael Raffl. And David Reinbacher is the best Austrian defenseman that I've seen in all my time watching the team.

    The future is bright. As I said before, the cupboard was truly bare in 2015. That was when they had no choice but to build the future NT around players like Dominique Heinrich, Thomas Raffl, Manuel Ganahl, and others. To their credit, 10 years later, they still say yes every time the country calls. They are not without their shortcomings as players, or they would have made it in foreign leagues. But it's never been for lack of patriotism, for lack of heart, or for lack of effort.

    I'm excited to see Vasili Zelenov, and Gregor Biber, or Ian Scherzer, Luca Erne. I'm even excited to see Atte Tolvanen. At first I was not particularly supportive of the move, but I noticed the reaction from Austrians wasn't "oh no we broke the principle" but "finally...should have happened long ago." :D

    Right now sucks, but the future is bright.

  • Einzelbewertung der Spieler

    Zitat von Haxo

    Hättens draus vier Tore gemacht, hätt er eine 2 bekommen. :P

    Nein im Ernst, vielleicht hab ich die "Huaba Buam" das ein oder andere Mal verwechselt, ein Salzburger hat die sicher genauer beobachtet und kann das besser beurteilen. Ich fand ihn halt meist relativ eindimensional mit wenig Output, und ich finde er konnte, gemessen an seiner Rolle, auch nicht für allzu viele Impulse sorgen. Das mit den Strafen ist natürlich ein Argument, das hab ich so genau nicht auf dem Schirm gehabt, erhebe aber auch nicht den Anspruch auf absolute Richtigkeit. Immerhin wollen wir ja darüber diskutieren.

    I'm curious to see how he does in Graz, with hopefully an increased role. He had one very good skill which can also be a crutch. Very good at playing the front of the net, tips, rebounds, screens, etc.

    For team Austria this is a useless skill because Austria almost never maintains consistent possession. Most of team Austria's offense is on the counter-attack. So it's understandable to be underwhelmed by his WM performance. Most possessions everyone on Team Austria is chasing the puck, but he does that slower than his teammates (Austria is a very fast team as a whole) and also more conservatively because they can use their speed to recover from chasing out of position and he cannot.

    But he also has a lot of tools, that hopefully he will be able to develop in Graz. When he gets possession of the puck, he has good hands, hard to knock off the puck, and can be surprisingly elusive for such a big guy. When he gets past a defenseman he often draws fouls because opponents panic. If he could get more reps playing within the flow of the offense, rather than just chase the puck, feed it back and go to the front of the net, he could become a really good player.

  • Einzelbewertung der Spieler

    1

    Rossi - leader by example. 110% effort. Great two-way game, good at attacking with the puck and also getting it back on defense. A colleague of mine who only watches the NHL compared him to Zach Parise...I think that is the type of player to expect. His powerplay unit was 1-18, but he cannot be blamed for that because he had no one to play with.

    Nickl - the team's performance did a 360 with his appearance. Every 5 seconds he could be seen fighting another huge forward for position or disrupting some opposing attack.

    Unterweger - great puckhandler, skater, best defenseman offensively and also did extremely well defensive. The powerplay unit that he ran scored 4 goals, 3 as the "2nd unit."

    Wolf - he had the tremendous ability to consistently walk the puck out of dangerous situations, which can't be understated on a team that is constantly giving up dangerous situations.

    Zwerger - cannot just pretend he did not score 8 points in 7 games. There will always be limitations to his game but he brings a level of creativity that others on the team simply don't have.

    2

    Schneider - he was truly on fire in the middle few games. He has great speed, some good playmaking creativity, and a great shot. He lost a step on the last day.

    Haudum - he was really good on the powerplay but also skates like the wind. The third line was much more effective throughout the tournament than the first.

    M. Huber - tough line assignment but I thought he was the most noticeable guy on his line. He showed a lot of quality out there, and used his size better than normal.

    Baumgartner - his elusiveness is slowly catching up to the difficulty of being this small at this level of hockey. He has a move, but it works pretty well.

    Kickert - his technique can be criticized but his positioning usually cannot be.

    3

    Maier, Strong, Ganahl, Rohrer, P Huber, Nissner, Zundel, Brunner, Stapelfeldt, Madlener

    4

    Heinrich, Thaler, Wukovits, Raffl

  • Team Österreich - Eishockey-WM 2024 Prag

    Time will tell…

    If the 2024 WC is a stepping stone to Olympic-Qualification triumph or future WC success then it will be a happy memorable stepping stone. If the team returns to elevator ways, it will be a missed opportunity.

    I think both things are true for all fans. All fans are happy about the positives of this tournament, but also believe there is meat left on the bone.

  • IHWC 2024 AUT-GBR 21.05. 12:20

    Best 4 Dmen, unquestionably, Reinbacher, Nickl, Unterweger, Wolf. Nickl in particular, the tournament basically did a 360 once he arrived.

    For your bottom 4 defensemen, you want less offensively-minded guys, you want guys who have good defensive responsibility, good physical compete. I think Maier, Strong, Stapelfeldt, all good options. Someone I would also be interested in seeing is Tobias Sablattnig.

  • Nationalmannschaft der Zukunft

    Aside from the stipend, something players have mentioned is the presence of NHL scouts at the tournament. Obviously the chances aren't great. But players do get signed off the tournament, probably at a rate of one per year.

    I think one reason older players in their 30s start attending less an less is because they've started to settle down in life. They're making at least consistent salary in the ICE league, they might have bought a house, and the dream of playing abroad is starting to fade.

    Hand in hand with that, I think there's a novelty about playing against the best of the best that over time becomes less of a draw. But players, particularly ambitious ones, always want to challenge themselves against the best of the best.

  • Nationalmannschaft der Zukunft

    I was satisfied with how Maier ran the PP. If, alternatively, Nickl or Lindner had to run it, I think that would be fine. The forward group looks solid as well.

    The big concern is replacing Starkbaum in net. Kickert is serviceable, he did help get a point vs. the US. But there is a significant gap there both in peak and average performance.

  • Österreich vs Großbritannien 23.05.2022 19:20

    Zitat von Spezz93

    Das glaub ich allerdings auch und macht mir wenig Hoffnung, dass wir uns längerfristig oben halten können. Raffl und Starki werden nach dieser erfolgreichen WM ihre Teamkarriere beenden. Auch bei Heinrich kann ich mir das vorstellen. Dann hast den besten (wenn auch mit ein paar Fehlern, aber bei der Eiszeit kein wunder) Antreiber in der D und den einzigen Goalie der längerfristig in der Lage war gute Leistungen abzurufen verloren. Sehe weit und breit keine Spieler die das kompensieren können. Wenn dann Kaspar auch noch wegfällt (NHL) und Rossi, Komarek und Nickl, die Schweizer keinen Bock haben/noch im Bewerb stehen/ Verletzt sind, hast definitiv Probleme...

    I think the future is quite bright. We will see about future participation, as it can be fickle. Have to hope Starkbaum will stick around and stay in form. I think everyone else, even in the event of surprise retirement, can be comfortably replaced!

  • KAC Transfergeflüster 2022/23

    Zitat von Haxo

    Partially, yes.

    KAC let go of vet defenseman Schumnig as well as Würschl, i expect Maier to be given a prominent role next year, will be interesting to see if he might get a hand on pp2 job...

    Good. My personal opinion judging from the WC. With Zundel leaving, I think he is the best Austrian defenseman in the ICE league.

  • Österreich vs Finnland 21.05.2021 15:20

    All things considered not a bad game. This is the best team in the tournament, and by now all the rosters are complete, unlike the start of the tournament when rosters still had open slots in them to accommodate incoming NHL players.

    Some good chances and exciting moments. A couple sloppy mistakes as well, especially the third goal had a lot of blame to go around, but those can be fixed. Kasper looked great, I also thought David Maier was really good defensively. And that chance at the end of the second for Wukovits from Huber was golden, so close to cashing in. Can't complain about the effort today.

  • Österreich vs Lettland 20.05.2022 19:20

    Zitat von weile19

    auf kurz oder lang werden wir uns oben nicht halten, so ehrlich muss man sein. Und es scheitert nicht wie seit Jahren immer gejammert wird, dass wir keine Verteidigung haben, sondern an den goalies. Starkbaum ist maximal noch ein Jahr dabei, dann hast Kickert und Schmidt. Das geht sich nie aus leider.

    Mit Nickl, Lindner, Payr kommen ja 3 nach, dazu hast Viveiros (der dürft ja auch noch bei weitem keine 30 sein, was ich im Kopf hab?).

    This is, for me, the hope on the horizon.

    Even now, I think...see how the Blues play Perunovich only on the PP or 6v5...some players you can put out there for every offensive situation but are best left off the ice at ES. But in the future there will be players, I would include Maier in this category, Nickl and Lindner (Payr I'm also very excited about but is probably more defensive in nature), who have every bit the offensive quality but you also wouldn't be afraid to ice at ES. And further down the line maybe David Reinbacher. Wolf and Zundel have shown incredible defensive skills this WC, and I'm excited also about Sablattnig, Horl... I'm looking forward to a general overhaul of the blue line, and I think we have the "prospects in the system."

    And on offense, Haudum, Nissner, Kasper, Schneider, Wukovits, have shown a lot this WC to be happy about. Still to come, there is Michael Raffl, Marco Rossi, Konstantin Komarek. Some other prospects will get older and continue to develop, placing Nico Feldner and Paul Huber in this category. And some youngsters are not here but will value the extra year before next WC like Peeters, Wallner, Thaler, Auer, Rohrer. Even a veteran presence like Manuel Ganahl would be nice. At this point, he is more of a bottom 6 guy at this level, but I'm always impressed by his work ethic and commitment to defensive play, works hard in all 3 zones, he's the type of veteran I would like to have on a team to guide the youngsters.

  • Österreich vs Tschechien 17.05.2022 15:20

    Wonderful game!

    The standouts for me. Bernd Wolf, you can understand what Lugano likes in him, because what he lacks in offense he provides in being rock solid on defense. Always positionally sound, always playing the puck safely out of the zone. Doesn't get caught overcommitting. Kilian Zundel is also promising in that area. Also, spectacular play from Lukas Haudum and Benjamin Nissner, they were the main two players to be able to get separation offensively and drive the puck deep in the opposing zone, even if it was just for the purposes of getting a change in the second period, period of the long change. Finally, the couple veterans like Heinrich, Lebler, and Starkbaum also put in reliable performances. Great game overall, one of the few days as a Team Austria fan that ends with unmitigated success.

  • Österreich vs USA 15.05.2022 15:20

    It's still early in the tournament and there's plenty of time to mess it up.

    I think when the NTs do well the OEHV is all over it to claim the credit, and when the NTs do poorly they are eerily silent. But I tend to think Bader and his staff, anyone in that role, has a hard time being impactful in the short term. They inherit the player pool from previous administrations, they can do better or worse with it but not much better or much worse. In the long term, encouraging local governments to build rinks, educating coaches and developing clubs in various regions, there's a large impact. But in the short term, I think the differences from one coach to another are small.

    But for me so far, the main difference is the defensemen. The fact that guys like Kilian Zundel, David Maier, Bernd Wolf, Philipp Wimmer, even Dominic Hackl to some extent, have drawn into these games and have actually been able to keep the puck out of the net. If you told me that Austria would score 3 goals in 2 games against the US and Sweden...that's not unbelievable. But if you asked me how many goals we should expect to concede I'd normally say maybe 10, maybe 15, the only limitation is really how many goals the Swedes feel like scoring that day. The fact that they've given up only 5 regulation goals is what has helped them be competitive so far, and even steal a point.

    What made Austrian hockey good back in the days when I first became a fan (almost 10 years ago, wow) were the defensemen. Andre Lakos, Matthias Trattnig, Gerhard Unterluggauer, Thomas Pock... But then they retired and then years of Martin Schumnig, Alexander Pallestrang, Dominique Heinrich (ok with Zundel this tournament, but -11 in 2019), Stefan Ulmer, Patrick Peter, etc. The quality of the forward group remained mostly the same I would say, but the lack of an elite defensive core really crippled the team.

    But this new group is exciting. It's a group we've been watching for many years now and seen develop in front of our own eyes. And there are even other guys not at the tournament waiting in the wings who might join, like Thimo Nickl, Julian Payr, Luis Lindner, Tobias Sablattnig, Lukas Horl, David Reinbacher. And I'm excited. Because I think our forwards can score on anyone, and that's really always been the case. But with a good defensive core, you can actually have a good team.

  • Österreich vs Schweden 14.05.2022 11:20

    Great game. It's fun to watch the youngsters because they're so refreshing. Not weighed down by years of underperforming. And the older ones there to guide them.

    Really liked what I saw from Marco Kasper, but also Lukas Haudum was fantastic. Really glad to see David Maier running the first powerplay, he looked very good out there. Kirchschlager, unfortunately, left a lot to be desired with his defensive play. And Starkbaum saw pucks all the way but did not stop them... Nevertheless a good game.

  • Nationalmannschaft der Zukunft

    I wouldn't know. I've heard some names in the 06' class but the youngest class I'd put time towards watching is the 05'. If the 06' has a Rossi, Kasper, Scherzer, it will soon be well known.

    You're right, and he's right. But I think, this is not news, and it has not really changed from before the 0-19 game. There was a significant period of time, I would say, where Austria did not have solid junior programs. Recently the Salzburg program went through some developments, though they seem to have regressed a bit as well. The KAC program is getting better, I would say the best program in Austria right now. But Austrian junior hockey is still mostly a 2 program system. They are trying to build programs and Linz and Vienna, they've brought in good coaches, their prospects are not quite up to speed at any level of hockey yet, but they are thinking in the right way. So absolutely, the rank and file lags behind in every program in every way, compared to multiple programs in Switzerland. I guess my perspective is just slightly different in that I'm thinking for the National team, each year needs but a few players. But if you're looking at the quality of each junior club then yes, Austrian development at younger ages has not quite caught up.

    But also, honestly, they went 2-5 against Belarus in the game before. So I almost think, let that be a sign of Switzerland's excellence more than Austria's demise. Switzerland has now clearly passed Slovakia in the sport of hockey. Because it's another unspoken truth that Austrian prospects tend to develop faster at later ages, Bernd Freimuller himself talked about it before that Austrian juniors perform better the older the age group gets. A group that loses 2-5 to Belarus, I would expect to be able to be competitive with Belarus by age 19. So we will see, it's hard to read too much into it, will depend on how the season goes.

    Zitat von RTT15

    Ich bring jetzt einmal Peter Kasper ins Spiel. Der bringt so ziemlich alles mit, was ein Sportdirektor und Teamchef braucht.

    Vor allem wäre dann Schluss mit der Baderschen "Selektion" in den Nachwuchsauswahlen, nach dem Motto aus jedem Standort ein Talent und aus Salzburg zwei :thumbdown:

    You should get a media member to ask him haha I'd be interested in and entertained by the response.

  • Olympia Quali

    Zitat von Lambeau Leap

    Aber genau eben das ist es was seit Jahren von Bader kommt, möglich, dass dies wie Du sagst vom Verband ausgeht, aber seit der Bader Ära sticht mir diese Ansage besonders ins Auge und gerade deshalb würde ich (auch) auf der Trainerposition eine Veränderung begrüßen.

    (I’ll just assume you understand what I am trying to say, if not I can of course repeat it in english for you)

    Yeah, that's certainly valid. I think what the parameters are can be discussed, different people will see differently, I think just it's important that they are there.

  • Nationalmannschaft der Zukunft

    https://www.laola1.at/de/red/winters…-qualifikation/

    "Wenn man aber wirklich in Vier-Jahres-Abständen denkt, warne ich schon vor dem übernächsten Zyklus: Da sind unter anderem die Jahrgänge 06 und 07 dran, das derzeitige U16-Nationalteam. Das schaffte es nämlich vor zwei Wochen, mit dem 0:19 (!) gegen die Schweiz ein historisches Debakel hinzulegen, das sonst den untersten Klassen des internationalen Eishockeys vorbehalten ist. Ein solches Ergebnis liefert eigentlich mehr Erkenntnisse über das österreichische Eishockey als das Wochenende in Bratislava…"

    I disagree with this premise actually. Youth level tournaments must be taken with a grain of salt, the younger they are the more so. I think less than 50% of players who represent a national team at the U18 level tournament go on to represent them at the U20 tournament. This is all the more true for the U16 tournament. The U16 tournament can still be interesting sometimes for identifying special talents, like I remember Marco Rossi and Marco Kasper's first U16 tournament, and in fact Benjamin Baumgartner was present in the former as well. But, without naming names, many players who were in that first tournament aren't in the game anymore. And it's a team sport, so if you have a couple weak lines or pairs, then they can give up a lot of goals and it looks bad.

    The vast majority of the Swiss U16 team members, statistically, will never play on the Swiss national team at a sanctioned tournament. So one team beating another team, when most of the team members on either team will never factor into the international hockey picture, is not a meaningful indicator I think. And often times the best players in a class aren't identified by the U16 level, or they haven't developed their games yet, or their parents don't want to pay for the travel, etc.

    The important thing out of a class is to get a few solid players. That is all. If the 06' and 07' classes each just produce one solid forward and one solid defenseman who can play high level professional hockey, these will be successful classes, regardless of if those two players plus 21 others lose to 23 players who won't represent Switzerland by 1-0 or 20-0.