Hungary will be opening their 2016 A-Pool campaign against the same country that they had opened up against the last time they had played at this level. In 2009 Hungary lost 4-3 on a goal in the last minute of play.
Some experts say that the Slovak national team and program are not the same as it once was, but either way they will be strong team to take on.
At the last two world championships they finished in 9th place, Vladimir Vujtek has left to coach the Czech national and taking his place is former NHL player Zdeno Ciger.
The roster is sprinkled full of players from the top three leagues in the world, NHL, KHL and SHL, the opening game will not be an easy task for Hungary.
Icehockey.hu had a chance to catch up with Zdeno Ciger, hea coach of the Slovak national team and talk to him about what he expects from his team and how he chose his players.
How is your team looking and what expectations are you traveling to Russia with?
We don’t have a defined goal for the tournament, we would like play hard every game and to the best of our ability. We will be playing with a relatively young team, some of the experienced older players have turned down this year's world championships because of personal reasons and injuries.
Is it a positive or negative influence on putting a team together that the Slovak Extraliga playoffs have only come to an end recently?
It is great for those players that had been playing in the finals, they might be a bit tired however they are match fit. For other players the season ended a month and a half ago and they had to stay fit, this period of training can become very monotonous. We will not really be able to work with the players that are joining the team now, they need to concentrate on regenerating. We will have one exhibition game before the world championships.
How many players will you have from the top Slovak league, and how will the roster look in general?
There will be about four players coming from our domestic league, with the rest coming mostly from the Czech league and the North America, the NHL. We will have a nice mixed group of players.
How much will your NHL background help you with your current position at the helm of the Slovak national team?
It is too early to tell, I hope that I can pass on my knowledge and experience to the guys. It will be interesting to see how the younger guys can pick this up and use it to their advantage, either way it will be a hard tournament for us.
This is your first year coaching the Slovak national team, what do you have planned for the national team in the long run?
This means everything to me, this is a test and great motivation for me, we will see how everything goes. I haven’t really looked towards the future, only taking everything game by game. I do not have the strongest roster of players available with the players strike and everything but it will be an interesting tournament.
Goalies (3): Július Hudácek (Örebro, SHL), Branislav Konrád (Olomouc, CZE), Samuel Baros (Zvolen, SVK)
Defencmen (8): Dominik Granák (Rögle, SHL), Christián Jaros (Lulea, SHL), Andrej Meszáros (Sibir, KHL), Michal Sersen, Ivan Svarny (Slovan Bratislava, KHL), Andrej Sekera (Oilers, NHL), Martin Marincin (Maple Leafs, NHL) Juraj Mikus (Sparta Praha, CZE)
Forwards (14): Marek Bartánus, Tomás Hrnka (Kosice, SVK), Peter Cehlárik (Lulea, SHL), Marko Dano (Jets, NHL), Vladimír Dravecky (Trinec, CZE), Libor Hudácek (Örebro, SHL), Patrik Lusnák, Pavol Skalicky, Andrej Stastny, Marek Viedensky (Slovan Bratislava, KHL), Tomás Marcinko (Pardubice, CZE), Martin Réway (Fribourg-Gottéron, NLA), Martin Bakos (Liberec, CZE), Tomás Jurco (Red Wings, NHL)
Coaching staff
Head coach: Zdeno Ciger
General manager Robert Svehla
HUNGARIAN ROSTER
Goalies (3): HETÉNYI Zoltán, RAJNA Miklós (Fehérvár AV19), VAY Ádám (Debreceni HK)
Defencemen (8): SZIRÁNYI Bence, WEHRS Kevin (Fehérvár), GARÁT Zsombor, MESTYÁN István, STIPSICZ Bence (MAC), DUDÁS Jesse, SAGERT Kalvin, (DVTK), VAS Márton (Fassa)
Forwards (16): BANHAM Frank, BARTALIS István, BENK András, KOVÁCS Csaba, KÓGER Dániel, NAGY Gergő, SARAUER Andrew (Fehérvár) ERDÉLY Csanád (Sioux Falls), GALLÓ Vilmos (Linköping), MAGOSI Bálint (Briancon), NAGY Krisztián (MAC), SEBŐK Balázs (KalPa), SOFRON István (Klagenfurt), VAS János (Slavia Praha)
World Championships, Russia, Group B (St. Petersburg)
May 7th, 12.15 (11.15): Slovakia–HUNGARY
May 8th, 12.15 (11.15): HUNGARY–Canada
May 10th, 20.15 (19.15): HUNGARY–France
May 11th, 20.15 (19.15): Finland–HUNGARY
May 13th, 16.15 (15.15): USA–HUNGARY
May 14th, 16.15 (15.15): HUNGARY–Belarus
May 16th, 20.15 (19.15): Germany–HUNGARY