ÖEHV team’s expectations for Bratislava

Five circles or dark circles under the eyes in front of the TV: The (long) weekend will decide whether Austria Aishaukee– Men’s Olympic Games in February 2026 Italy Track in the field or at home.

LAOLA1– Expert Bernd Freimüller provides a preview of the match Bratislava:

Game Mode

Hosts Slovakia, Austria, Kazakhstan and Hungary From Thursday to Sunday, everyone will play against everyone in the fight for a spot for Milan.

Austria’s final qualifying match

It happened three years ago (delayed a year due to the coronavirus pandemic) in the same place: Slovakia Slovakia arrived in Beijing after a narrow 2-1 win over Austria in the opening match, a 5-1 win over Poland and a 2-1 win over Belarus.

The Red, White and Red team eventually lost to Belarus 2:5 and defeated Poland 4:1 in the final to take third place.

Preliminary situation

Thursday’s 6 p.m. opener could be a tiebreaker between Hungary and Kazakhstan As the weakest team in the IIHF world rankings, they are outsiders. Team owner Roger Bader knows this: “It is difficult to imagine a situation where several teams have the same points at the end of the competition.”

But Slovakia and Austria have done things very differently: the ÖEHV players completed a week-long training camp in Graz and played two test matches against their opponents slovenia (Both sides won 2:1). Slovakia On the other hand, they only met last Sunday and have forgone testing altogether, relying instead on their own individual lessons and some training from 73-year-old Craig Ramsay.

Bader was also satisfied with the performance in the test, but was less satisfied with his assessment of the chances: “Both matches could have ended higher.” His coaching staff could only study the Slovaks through footage from the last World Cup.

Kazakhstan will once again play in the KHL with 38-year-old captain Roman Starchenko. Hungary We are already familiar with them after many tests, especially their players from Fehervar, so they won’t have any big surprises. Both teams are good enough to be stumbling blocks, but not good enough to be tournament winners.

Slovakia

Following a vote by Slovak clubs, the ban on KHL players has been lifted, meaning defencemen Martin Gernaut and Mario German and forward Martin Liska can play again.

The rest of the team includes nine overseas legionnaires and players from the Czech Republic. Extra League and Sweden Together – only goalkeeper Denis Godla made it to the team from our own league and he certainly wasn’t going to be a starter!

Stars on the team: Defensemen Simon Nemec (New Jersey Devils), Martin Fehervari (Washington Capitals, still with a minor injury) and captain Tomas Tatar (New Jersey). Not there: Sniper Juraj Slavkovsky (Montreal) and defenseman Eric Cernak (Tampa Bay).

The Red, White and Red team must watch out for the two Pospisil brothers, Christian (Kometta Brno) and Martin (Calgary Flames) – two very rough bullies!

ÖEHV team compared to the previous World Cup

Excludes:

Marco Rossi (said due to National Hockey League-Ready to go), Captain Thomas Laffer There was also goalie David Madlener, who withdrew due to injury but was in the Blazers’ box. Steven Strong and Nico Brenner They prefer to prepare for the season at their own clubs rather than playing seventh and eighth for their national team.

New:

David Reinbacher and Marco Kasper were of course the key players in the test against Slovenia. Florian Vorauer replaced Madlener as the third goalkeeper, while David Kickert certainly went into the tournament as the first choice.

As always, the Olympic opportunity also attracted some people to the national team who we had not heard from for a while. In this case: Raphael Herburger (35), whose last competition took place in Bratislava three years ago. get up-teammate Johannes Bischofberg is celebrating his 30th year old senior championship debut.

Opportunities for Austrians

Longer preparation times should be a factor, as have personnel uniforms become wider in recent years (except for the goalie position).

So Bader can work with Leinbach (in a single-defender overall combination), Dominic Heinrich and Clemens Unterweger rely on three PP defenders, Bernd Wolf and Thionicolide Solid defensive work should be done.

The offense also has some depth, and considering the formation of Garner-Heberg-Rohrer, Bader’s statement that “we don’t have a fourth line of defense, we have four lines of defense” turned out to be not an empty talk.

It’s much easier for teams to score goals in a World Cup than in preparation, and it’s clear that guys like Kasper, Lukas Houdum, Peter Schneider and maybe Benjamin Baumgartner, Mario Huber or… Benjamin Knisner Must be the main offensive force against the Slovaks.

Of course, the Slovaks have more quality than the Austrians, but they should not be invincible. Still open: Will the ÖEHV team participate in the World Cup coup? Finland or You have Or the tepid final game against England?

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