Beiträge von kabidjan14

The work is not all done yet. There's still much ground to make, many improvements to be had, a single game doesn't change that.

However, this is a beautiful step in the right direction. The defense deserves a real shout out today, they really held it down. Unterweger, Ulmer and Viveiros were all absolutely fantastic. Michael Raffl has been the best player the entire time he's been here, today was no exception. You could make an argument that Dominic Zwerger has been the second best skater, he's been lights out. Komarek struggled at times but came up huge on the power-play today. Some huge and extremely important back-checks from Alexander Rauchenwald. Bernhard Starkbaum was incredible. Patrick Peter had some really bad icings, but when he needed to dispossess the opposing forwards he did just that.

Some athletes still didn't have great games, Fabio Hofer comes to mind immediately. However, great game, momentous occasion. Will be a great opportunity next year for Austrian fans to participate in the World Championship next year in Bratislava.

I told ya'll this kid should be on the Powerplay!

Great job by Zwerger to go 1v3 and draw the penalty. Then Komarek assists Raffl.

Struggling for the entire game we forgive you anyways Komarek.

L3 will be the line to watch all night. That's the one line I feel where Austria may have an advantage.

That is exactly what a Viveiros goal would look like

Zitat von listiger lurch

Die sportlich talentierten Buben unserer Volksschule (großes Wiener Schulzentrum) spielen alle im Fußballverein, ein paar Tennis, einer macht Judo. 0 dieser Bewegungstalente spielt Eishockey. 0!

I understand your frustration. I am frustrated too. However, this is extremely unfair. Neither do I think it is truth reflective.

Zwerger should play PP. That's where his strengths are, I don't know why he isn't. He scored most of his points at Ambri on the PP. Good passer, good shot. Plays the Wheeler role there. As poorly as the team has done, he's been a spark of hope with his daring rushes.

Feel like everyone else is seeing a different game than I am in regards to Viveiros. He's been fine to me, some predictable breakout passes and yeah probably the least lethal shot on the team, but he's not bad at creating opportunities and pretty solid on D, especially compared to some of the other guys.

Desperately want us to get at least a point, if only to avoid Bader's customary "Well France is just the better team. We got beat bad? Of course! You know nothing about Austrian hockey if you don't think we're not supposed to get beat bad. We're inferior. Yada yada yada" speech. Don't get me wrong. I don't dislike Bader, I generally support most of his decisions, but his press conferences are A. depressing and B. too low expectations.

That is the definition of embellishment, or "diving".

Martin Schumnig came to play. Keep it up man!

Good few shifts. Need to finish.

Lebler is an EBEL titan. Not as strong on the puck as Thomas Raffl but in the EBEL he doesn't have to be. Here, he does. If he can't maintain possession, what does he have? His shot. Well, he needs someone to get him the puck in a good spot then and that's not so easy.

Unterweger got absolutely walked around by Texier on the second goal. He's been too slow on multiple occasions this tournament.

Raffl has been noticeably the best player.

I wrongly accused Schlacher on the second goal, checked the box score and it was Spannring too slow in getting back. And then the turnover just now...

Schlacher doesn't get back on the second goal and just standing there watching on the third...

Schneider shows why he didn't make the A, blazing speed but hands like Grabner.

Come on Rauch, that was dumb.

Zitat von Tine

Das Problem in der Defensive ist seit Jahren aufrecht. Während man im Sturm angesichts der kommenden Jahrgänge und mit Komarek, Zwerger, Haudum, in weiterer Folge Rossi, zumindest im erweiterten Sinne A-tauglich aufgestellt ist, schaut es hinten ganz schlecht aus. Und wirklich viele zukünftige Hoffnungsträger scharren nicht in den Startlöchern. In der EBEL werden seit Jahren so gut wie keine Nationalteam-tauglichen Verteidiger "produziert". Die Top-4 sind in der Regel mit Legionären besetzt, die wenigen österr. Defender sind lediglich für die Tiefe da und um das Punkteproblem zu umgehen.

Wie würdest du dahingehend gezielte Einbürgerungen sehen? Es ist ja allerehrenwert, wenn man den Weg mit den Einheimischen gehen will, aber wenn man schaut, was sich z.B. bei Weißrussland an eingebürgerter Prominenz aus der KHL tummelt, wäre es lediglich ein Angleichen der Voraussetzungen.

Zwei, drei Spieler, die jahrelang in der Liga überzeugt haben, könnten über die fehlende Qualität - und was die Defensive anbelangt - auch Quantität hinweg helfen. Jamie Fraser, Marc-Andre Dorion (falls er in der Liga bleibt) wären sicher in allen Bereichen hilfreich.

I think Belarus has done itself more harm than good with its policies. But Austria is in a different situation, because Austria has its own legitimate league.

Typically I would say no, and in principle I still think no, but I'm becoming more open to the idea. Some countries do so very irresponsibly, they reap the benefits of their decisions for a short while, and then things begin to turn for the worst. However, some countries do it more responsibly, like Germany.

So could Austria also maybe naturalize one or two players? I think it depends on what Austrians want, which is why I think my opinion doesn't matter much. If it's a player like John Hughes who has lived in Austria for 7 years, learns the language and participates in the culture, maybe gets an Austrian boo, and the fans are ok with it, I see no reason not to. If the red-white-red faithful are for it, I don't have patriotic grounds on which to object.

Two things to consider. My knowledge of the EBEL points system, which may not be correct so correct me if I am wrong, is that there are zero points award for being a foreigner, but there are points awarded for a national team affiliation. If my understanding is true, that is motivation for both players and clubs not to want players to be naturalized. They would not reduce their point values by gaining citizenship, but they would gain points by playing for a national team. In light of that, I think many would be hesitant, and certainly their clubs would be resistant.

The second is that the vast majority of players that get naturalized are comparatively old, and not particularly elite. Would Jamie Fraser be a better first-pairing defenseman than Martin Schumnig? Yes, probably. But he's still not a Philip Larsen or a Korbinian Holzer. He's not Nick Bailen, or Oskars Bartulis or Auvitu, or Sekera, Jaros, or Roman Josi. Naturalizing players, especially from a league like the EBEL, not the KHL or the DEL, is at best alleviating the problem. It does not fix the problem. If 2022 is the goal, Fraser will be 35 and Dorion will be 36. They may still be functional EBEL players but scientifically we know they will be regressing physically. If by then Germany has Moritz Seider, Leon Gawanke, and Denmark Malte Setkov, Oliver Joakim Larsen, and France Enzo Guebey, and we have a few aging Canadians, the problem has arguably not improved at all. The only true way to fix a talent crisis is to produce more talent.

Zitat von USPaul

Ich darf dir auf deutsch antworten, darf ich doch? So verstehe ich wenigstens was ich sagen will. Die defense ist eine österreichische Baustelle, ist sie nicht?

Von allen D spielt derzeit nur Schlackse über den Erwartungen, ist so! Der Rest ist Hoffnung (aber nur weil ich sie nicht kritisieren möchte)!

Is an Austrian construction site a good thing or a bad thing?

Zitat von hockey

leichter gesagt wie getan. Dass die Belarussen ziemlich am Lempa sind hat ja schon Kabidjan erwähnt. Aber wir müssen gegen die schon so auftreten wie heute im 3.Drittel, sonst reicht es wie all die letzten 15 Jahre wieder nicht. Abwarten wie die Quoten sind, möchte fast wetten dass unsere Quoten immer noch schlechter als ihre sind.

Absolutely right, definitely can't underestimate Belarus. They still have a strong defensive core in Falkovsky, Lisovets, Vorobey, Korobov and to some extent Khenkel, though he never really developed. They also have a handful of good forwards, including the legios. Because of their situation, the potential is there to pass them in the near future, if a lot of the 96' and later guys reach their potential. However, right now it's a pretty even fight.

I thought Komarek was actually pretty good today. Haudum has been good in the tournament definitely against Switzerland but not today, most opportunities on his line ended when the puck got to him. Raffl was fine. He went 76 games, got on a plane and now he's having to carry a line. He was never Blake Wheeler to begin with.

Concerning Ulmer and Heinrich, I think it's pretty obvious what the team lacks the most is two first pairing defensemen. If Andrej Sekera had played for Austria instead of Slovakia, Austria wins handily, I firmly believe that. Unterweger turned out to be both slower and more frail than I expected. Schumnig has been unreliable at moving the puck. Heinrich and Ulmer are both "extra-attacker" style defensemen. Viveiros has been good, in my opinion, but not 1D good. He's a very solid 4th, 5th Dman, but I actually think he's been the best Dman so far. Schlacher, well, you all know that song and dance.

Where to find a 1D...I don't know. I was told best to stay away from Tyler Cuma, but I'm not sure he wouldn't be an upgrade right now. You could wait for Payr and Maier, but that will take a little while. I haven't seen 1D from Kele Steffler yet, but he's probably the closest within that batch of guys. Bernd Wolf is another "extra-attacker" style defenseman. We'll see, I hope a youngster steps up. Cross your fingers.

The main problem I noticed: passes well as imprecise as possible...

Nevertheless, one shouldn't come to drastic conclusions after this game. It was still, in the end, a reasonable performance.

4th line and 4th pairing have had the most ice time so far. Maybe a genius move from Bader to rest the stars for the second-half of the game. Or not.

Man, I like Haudum a lot both as a player and as a person, but some of these chances are on him.

Zitat von Puckele

Also spielt/spielte Weißrussland mit einer russischen B-Mannschaft - überspitzt gesagt? Irgendwie is Belarus das Nordkorea Europas, man weiß nicht wirklich was hinter deren Grenzen so passiert dementsprechend überraschend/unerklärlich deren sportlichen Erfolge!

Not quite sure what this means but I think I'll just give my opinions on the Belarus national program's recent history, as it relates to Dinamo Minsk.

In 2013-14 they were basically running on fumes. So 2014-15 they suddenly got a wave of legios. That was a good year, they made the playoffs. However, they made it with Linglet, Ellison, Cheechoo, Vesce, Szczechura, Bailen, Krajicek, they also welcome home the long lost Andrei Stepanov. happy happy of course, and as you can probably figure out that precluded any significant opportunities for their youth. Next year comes around, Stepanov leaves...and comes back. This is the year Linglet becomes National team eligible. They take advantage of that.

Next season, 2016-17, this is where the crisis hits. Up until now, the Federation has been using Dinamo Minsk as a bit of a parachute to save players falling out of the graces of other teams. Sergei Kostitsyn returns. Stepanov stays. Roman Graborenko returns. Bailen and Linglet are now Belarusian, they stay as well. Dmitri Korobov returns home from Moscow, Gotovets from America. Early in the season, our friend Andrei Stas also falls back to Minsk. This basically was the end of Dinamo Minsk hopes for Stanislav Lopachuk, Danila Karaban to some extent as well. Dmitri Ambrozheichik had some playing time in the middle of the season but not anything significant. Ambrozheichik was the hero of their U20 team's hailed ascent to the first division, and Karaban was the best scorer the following year. Nothing significant has become of either. Anyways, they see the writing on the wall and cut Bailen and Linglet.

Well, this year they brought back Linglet, Stepnaov, and Korobov. with an almost entirely new set of legios. Stepanov has his little drama with the National Team. Sharangovich has emerged, but no sign of Lopachuk, Karaban and Ambrozheichik are on the sideline permanently, Dmitri Buinitsky returned from the QMJHL to take a permanent seat on the bench. One of their most promising players, Artur Gavrus, relegated to the Belarusian league. Yevgeni Listovets has taken a step but the same can't be said of Kristian Khenkel. Kulakov, Kovyrshin, both Kostitsyns grow older. Nick Bailen didn't report this year, exactly why I am not sure. Linglet and Platt grow older as well. They've never really replaced Kalyuzhny.

Here's is the story of Dinamo Minsk. Imagine if Austria didn't have the EBEL, just one club team. Same legio rules as the EBEL. The vast majority of Austrian youth would never get a shot. If there are legios, then naturalized legios, then repatriated exports, then some system players, there is a severe overcrowding effect. How these countries usually circumvent that is by exporting their young talent to other leagues and countries. However, if you go to NA and don't make the NHL, you'll need a place to fall back eventually.

And then ironically they fire Lewis today. As if it was his fault.

I always divide the teams in tiers of 8

T1: Canada, US, Russia, Finland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland

T2: Denmark, Germany, Latvia, Austria, Belarus, France, Norway, Slovenia

T3: Kazakhstan, Hungary, Italy, Korea, Great Britain, Poland, Ukraine, Japan

That's why it never makes any sense to me when Bader talks about becoming an "A" nation. I think he means top 12. Top 8...that's a long way from feasibility. Top 16...that's far too broad a classification.

But the WC is good with 16 teams if for no other reason than for the ability to reach into a greater number of markets and bring exposure to more programs.