Eurolanche

WC Preview: Avs point of view

The 16 best national teams will be present on the 77th IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship held in Helsinki and Stockholm (3.-19.5.). Teams are split into two groups as per 8 teams and they will play with each within the group. Best 4 teams from each group will qualify for Quarterfinals. Teams finishing on last two spots overall (8th place in each group) will be relegated to Division I Group A. 

As per agreement, the hosting country is considered to be Sweden, even though one of the groups will be played in Finland. The same scenario occurred last year, when the final stage was hosted in Finland. This year it is the other way around. This is mentioned also due to the fact that the last team that won the World Championship in their homeland was Soviet Union in 1986. Last year´s medalists will of course also play this year and Russia is defending gold, Slovakia silver and Czech Republic bronze medal.

Now let us take a look on this year´s World Championship from Avalanche point of view. There will be 9 players from Denver present in Stockholm/Helsinki. In addition also 2 players from AHL and two coaches from Avalanche affiliates were nominated.

Jan Hejda will play for the Czech national team, which is already his 6th appearance on a World Championship (2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2008). Hejda was also nominated for the Winter Olympic Games in 2010. He played in overall 41 matches on World Championships scoring 2 goals and 2 assists. In Winter Olympics he added another 5 starts. We can find one gold and one silver in his medal collection with Czech national team.

For Team USA will play Paul Stastny, Aaron Palushaj, Matt Hunwick and Erik Johnson. Also USA coaches are from Avs, even though Joe Sacco has been fired a couple of days ago. It will be third WC for Paul Stastny already, as he participated in years 2007 and 2012 too. He scored 17 points (7+10) so far and also added another 3 points in the Winter Olympics 2010 in 6 games played, where team USA won silver medals.

It will be a premiere for Aaron Palushaj on a World Championship, as he represented his country only on youth championships before. The same can be said about Matt Hunwick. For Erik Johnson it will be his second World Championship (first in 2007) with score sheet 0+2 in 7 games played. He was also nominated for the Winter Olympics 2010, where he played in 6 matches and also helped USA team to win the silver medal. It will also be a premiere for Coach Sacco as a head coach on the World Championship  Three years ago, he was also with the national team, but only as an assistant of a head coach. Tim Army is a different story and it will be already his 3rd time in role of an assistant of head coach (1994 and 1996 before).

Matt Duchene and Ryan O´Reilly will play for team Canada. For Duchene it will be already 3rd World Championship (2010 and 2011). His score sheet shows 7 points (4+3) in 14 matches. Ryan O´Reilly had his debut last year and added 4 points (2+2) in 7 games played. For home team will play Avs captain Gabriel Landeskog and for him it will be second World Championship in a row. Last year he gathered 5 points (1+4) in 8 matches.

Semyon Varlamov will be goaltending for team Russia. He is also experienced in national team as this will be already his 3rd World Championship. He led last year’s Russia team to gold medal and had some fantastic saves during the tournament. He played in 13 matches and was voted as the best goalie of the tournament. He also has a silver medal from 2010 WC.

Also members from Avs farm teams will be present on this year´s World Championship. To Sweden and Finland travel Markus Lauridsen (representing Denmark) and Thomas Pöck (representing Austria). Lauridsen will have his premiere on senior WC, whereas Pöck is a very experienced national player and it will be his 5th time on WC already. Till this year, he played in 22 matches and scored 4 points (2+2).

That is all for now, but we will keep you posted on Avs organization player appearances on the 77th World Championship.

Slovak origin author: Rudolf Šerý