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Favorite of the World Hockey Championship? Surprisingly, several experts this year did not point to one of the traditional hockey powers, but to Switzerland. A country that was always characterized by a defensive style of hockey and only looked up to Slovakia. In recent years, however, it has been the opposite.
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The Slovaks took care of the surprise at the World Cup in 2012, the Swiss a year later, both national teams won silver. While this was the last great success of our hockey players for a long time, the Swiss just started with it.
At the next six championships, they did not advance to the quarterfinals only twice and once again repeated their silver success. Slovakia has advanced to the top eight only once during this period.
It was in 2013, when the successes of the Helvetians began to be born, that the Slovak hockey player Stanislav Horanský came to Switzerland. He still works there today, the recently ended season was his ninth.
To what do the Swiss owe their current successes? “Long-term work. They have a quality league, no matter what team they make up, they can bother everyone. It started much earlier than in 2012 and now it is bearing fruit, ” said the 27-year-old native of Žilina.
One of the things he sees in the difference is the mentality of the hockey players. „It is set a little differently. As far as I can compare from the youth categories, the guys in Switzerland want to work one hundred percent. Although some do not have perspective, they go full throttle. In this way, they create competition with each other and some of them then move on. ”
Photo gallery
In 2017, Stanislav Horanský played in preparation for the Slovak national team.
Source: TASR
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LIMIT FOR FOREIGNERS
Switzerland’s highest hockey (NLA) competition is among the best in Europe. It has a strong economic background and home players mostly leave for the NHL. The quota for foreigners is also to blame.
“There can be only four in the highest competition. There is also a lot of space for young people. When someone talented comes, they give him a lot of space, he also plays power play … Then they usually take him to the championships. At a young age, they know how to move players forward. ”
A look at the draft also speaks volumes about the quality of the league. In 2016, the unit was American Austhon Matthews, who played for the ZSC Lions. A year later, the Swiss Nico Hischier also left the first place, but he left for the QMJHL in his draft season.
Since only four foreigners can play for the team in the match, most of the really top players who are team leaders come.
This is evidenced by the number of players from their highest league at the World Cup. Switzerland alone has only five players in the tournament outside of the top domestic competition, four from the NHL and one from Sweden.
NLA Players at the World Cup (outside Switzerland)
Denmark – Mikkel Bødker
Sweden – Carl Klingberg, Henrik Tömmernes, Magnus Nygren
Czechia – Jan Kovář
Latvia – Ronalds Kenins, Ivars Punnenovs
Finland – Teemu Turunen, Petteri Lindbohm, Tony Sund
USA – Justin Abdelkader
Norway – Mathias Trettenes
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VERIA SI
Their national team was aware of their strength, and since the championships are marked by a pandemic and not me in such a quality participation as in previous years, they rightly believed in a medal before the tournament.
“They put together a good team with NHL players. In my opinion, they believed and it is evident on the ice that they have quality. But hockey is unpredictable, “ says Horanský.
Photo gallery
In 2016, Stanislav Horanský won the second highest Swiss competition.
Source: instagram.com/stanohoransky/
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They started the championship very well, they clearly defeated the Czech Republic. Then they struggled with Denmark and won 1: 0, but allowed the opponent to send only four shots on goal. If they happened to fly too high after these matches, they were quickly knocked to the ground by losing 0: 7 to Sweden.
“They played super hockey against the Czech Republic, they fought against Denmark and then a beating came from Sweden, they probably even relaxed a bit. They will be motivated on us. It will be an important match in the fight for progress. But it’s hard to say who will win.
There are surprises in the tournament. In my opinion, it will be a balanced match. We played skating well in the first three matches and Swiss hockey is all about skating. If we deal with them, it’s 50 to 50, “ predicts Stanislav Horanský.
Slovakia has the full number of nine points on its account after three matches, if Switzerland can beat it today, it will most likely secure a participation in the quarterfinals. The Swiss have six points on their account and the victory would get them to the level of Slovakia.
THE RETURN WAS NOT INTENDED
Stanislav Horanský has had a season in which he again managed to play in the highest Swiss league. He last played in it in the 2016/17 season in the EHC Biel jersey. This time he wore the HC Ambri-Piotta jersey.
“I went to Ambri, back to the top competition. I hoped it would work out there and it would turn out better than it finally turned out. But I didn’t like the way the team played at all. Finally, in February, I went back to the second highest competition in Olten to finish the season.
I evaluate it positively and negatively. I was hoping it would work out in Ambri, but that’s hockey. There were things I couldn’t do anything about. The club’s mentality did not fit me.
We played quite aggressive defensive hockey, a little with a puck, we were actually just supposed to attack, throw pucks, go to fights … It wasn’t combination hockey at all. It didn’t suit me at all, even though I tried to do what the coach wanted.
But they had players there who already had it in common. I came as new, I wasn’t even the youngest anymore, so we agreed that it would have no perspective and I left at the end of the season, ” described his season Horanský, who worked in the country at a young age and thus obtained a license as a Swiss hockey player, so they do not count him as a foreign player. The season did not go well for the whole Ambri-Piotta club, he took the penultimate place in the league.
Next season, he will once again play for EHC Olten in the second highest competition, where he has been working since 2017. How would he compare its quality with the Slovak extra league?
“It is definitely not like the highest Swiss competition. Many foreign players also go there from Slovakia. It has quality, but it’s hard to compare. But if I have to compare it with the Slovak league, the matches of the best teams are probably on the same level. “
The most famous names who left Slovakia for the second Swiss league are Éric Faille and Guillaume Asselin. Players who shone in points in Banská Bystrica continue on the same wave in their new locations. In his best season in Bystrica, Faille had 72 points in 52 matches, in Switzerland he had 69 points in 41 duels. Asselin scored 55 points in the same number of matches in the Tipos extralige and had 66 points in 43 matches under the Alps.
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