The IIHF Division I/A World Championships have come and gone this past week in Budapest Hungary.
Some teams, fans and members of the media have gone home happy other not so much. The Kazakhs, Italians and the Koreans are clearly satisfied with the Brits being disappointed on being relegated.
The ice hockey fans that came out to the arena all week had an opportunity to see young players represent their home country for the first time, and grizzled veterans pulling on the national team sweater for the last time. There was a fantastic mix of talent and levels of experience coming from all corners of the world, former NHL draft picks, players that made it to the show. The athletes in this tournament played in 20 different leagues during the 2012-13 season.
After this long week some players, coaches, fans, event organizers, and members of the media were asked to sum up their experience in a sentence.
For some it was easy to describe their frustration in a couple of words, others had a hard time keeping their enthusiasm of succeeding to just one sentence. Here is a sampling of the answers to the question.
In one sentence sum up what this past week has been like and what you experienced.
This past week has been…
It has been enjoyable to coach these players, great coaching staff, responsive players who have been eager to learn. - Gary Clark goalie coach, Hungary
We have been having a good time, great to root for a team. There has been heck of an atmosphere the Koreans and the Hungarian hosts have been very gracias. There has been an Olympic like feeling. -Chadwick Radunske fan, South Korea
Everyone has been friendly and gracias hosts in Budapest, we have felt a bit disappointed by the performance of Team GB. –Brent Pope color commentator, Great Britain
Great show of hockey skills from different countries, playing in front of 8,000 fans really pumps you up. Playing five games in seven days and the fans really makes it easy to play 100%. -Brock Radunske forward, South Korea
It has been a very interesting and fun week. It was important that we stay in the division this year; we will have to try to stay in next year as well. -Woosang Park forward, South Korea
It has been a tough week, we were not scoring. Our special teams were not working, the pucks were not falling our way. -Robert Dowd forward, Great Britain
It has been a sensational feeling and environment, seeing how this team has come together, seeing that hard work that has been put into this team. -Sándor Puskás strength and conditioning coach, Hungary
It has been a long and tiring week, the ice was not the best, we are usually used to a much cooler rink. After a long season it is nice to go back up. -Konstantin Pushkaryov forward, Kazakhstan
It has been a well run tournament we had a great time in Budapest. We came here with the goal to get back to the A level and we have achieved it. -David Borrelli forward, Italy
The Hungarian people have been fanatic hosts, it was a great run tournament that had the feeling like the A level championships. We came here to win and advance and that is what we ended up doing. -Trevor Johnson defenseman, Italy
It was a great experience to be apart of this, there was a great atmosphere all week. The team had great moral and the fans were excellent, could not have had a better time. -Gergely Majoross video coordinator, Hungary
Anytime you get to represent a country at an international tournament is great, I am excited to get back to the A level. -Patrick Iannone forward, Italy
It has been a very interesting experience with ups and downs, but more ups. The organization was impressive as were the Hungarian fans, we had hoped to give them something to cheer about in the last game. Overall it was a great experience that I will never forget. -Tom Pokel head coach, Italy
This past week was exciting; we were hoping that everything comes together both on and off the ice. –Zoltán Kovács general secretary of the Hungarian Ice Hockey Federation
It was a great week we competed hard in every game, we beat the gold medal winning team but unfortunately we also lost to a weaker team. -Balázs Gőz defenseman, Hungary
It was a tough week both mentally and physically, we played five games in seven days. We had some adversely to over come, mentally physically as well as some players picking up a virus midweek. -Árpád Mihály forward, Hungary
The past seven days were made up of peaks and valleys, we are a bit disappointed at the end result but over all it was a great experience. -István Sofron forward, Hungary
It has been a really great week with the highpoint being the win against Kazakhstan. After the match, when the players were walking in the whole mixed zone erupted in a round of applause, and then came GM Balázs Kangyal who turned towards the locker room with a wink which told the whole story... That moment will remain the cover picture of these Worlds [championships] for me –András Szűcs writer, Nemzeti Sport.
I will always remember this week since it my last world championships and the last time I will put on the Hungarian jersey. I would have to say this week is on the same level as my first world championships in 1993, and Sapporo in 2008. -Dr.Viktor Szélig defenseman, Hungary
Szabolcs Závodszky
Twitter: @Zavodszky