Quote:
Originally Posted by powderjunkie
Slovakia is an interesting case...in the old days Czechoslovakia was probably right up there with Sweden/Russia/Finland, but now both teams are of course watered down a bit.
Their 2010 Oly team was probably their high watermark:
Beat Russia (SO) and Latvia 6-0; lost to CZE 3-1 in round robin.
Beat Norway and then Sweden to face Canada in semis, where they lost 3-2 (though their two goals came later in the 3rd).
Blew a 3-1 lead to FIN in bronze game.
Top half of the roster was pretty good:
Gaborik-Demitra-Hossa
Zednik-Kopecky-Satan
Stumpel-Palffy-Zednik (all later 30s)
Chara-Mezsaros
Sekera-Visnovsky
Halak
Their now down to only a few regular NHLers who aren't nearing retirement.
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Czech won gold in Nagano, the first time NHL players went. Slovakia has had some very good teams capable of doing damage as well.
There are opportunities to have lower level teams surprise and get better with glimpses of success. Instead of constantly playing for Team Europe, maybe Draisitl and Grubauer drag the German team to a bronze or silver, and so more German kids get better at hockey and maybe in 15 years Germany is challenging. Same for Switzerland or Latvia etc..
Personally I'm much more interested in that then silly gimmick teams.