Rich Chernomaz and the Hungarian national team are preparing for the up coming Division 1 A world championships and it is needless to say that there will be some excitement and drama in trying to guess who will make the final squad. From the 30 players that were called into the camp Cherno has already sent home five players, with one of them being a slight surprise for Hungarian fans.
Any time a coach is trying to put a team together for a major competition they will have positions that are strong and have depth and others not so much. Here is a break down position by position of what Cherno has brought camping with him.
Goalies- Normally on paper with the four keepers in camp this would prove to be a position with depth and experience at the international level. Bence Bálizs (Fehérvár) last year was the number one keeper between the pipes and Miklós Rajna (Fehérvár) has also has world championship experience as well. The other two keepers not only have been the number one choice in the past but have experience playing in North America as well. Zoltán Hetényi (Peoria Rivermen) and Levente Szuper (Vasas) have not had as much ice time as they would have liked this season. What we do know is that Rajna was the number three choice for his team and mostly playing on the youth team. Bálizs was the backup choice but he still played a significant amount of matches. Hetényi’s situation is probably the stickiest, he played in North America but with the lockout everything was shuffled around and was not the number one choice at his team. He ended up being loaned out but then had some personal issues that forced his season to end prematurely. Szuper is the most experience in the bunch and also has the pedigree, he was drafted by the Flames, has played in the AHL and the ECHL but he sat out the past season. Chernomaz has a lot of combinations that would not surprise anyone and the position will have experience.
Defensemen- The blue line has been a weak point for the national team with the older experienced players retiring and not having adequate players coming up. This problem looks to be solved with a nice mix of veteran and young up and comers. The usual faces are there such as András Horváth, Tamás Sille, Viktor Tokaji (all from Fehérvár) and Dr. Viktor Szélig (Brioncon) will be joined by young players, Dániel Kiss (DAB-Docler), Tamás Pozsgai (Fehérvár), Bence Szirányi (Miskolc) and new players Balázs Gőz (Miskolc), and Richard Nagy (DAB-Docler). One interesting twist that Coach Chernomaz has put into the mix is having Márton Vas on the blue line instead of up front where we have seen him play for years. The reason maybe because Cherno will be playing with a 1-3-1 with a more of a North American style then the 2-3 that we are used to. Since the start the young DAB-Docler player Richard Nagy has since been cut, it will be interesting to see if the other young player will make the and if Vas will stay on the blue line.
Forwards- The forwards have always been the strong point of the national team with having skill experience and depth across the lines. Just like on the blue line the forwards are made up of experienced veterans, young players who have been around and a couple of new guys. András Benk (Fehérvár) Csaba Kovács (Fehérvár), Balázs Ladányi (Bolzano), Árpád Mihály (Fehérvár), Gergő Nagy (Miskolc), Ladiszlav Sikorcin (Fehérvár), and János Vas (Dijon) will be joined by a group of younger players who have a number of world championships under the belt as well as ones that are playing in strong leagues throughout Europe such as István Bartalis (Troja-Ljunby), János Hári (Modo) Bálint Magosi (Fehérvár) and István Sofron (Fehérvár). Krisztián Nagy (DAB-Docler) is one of the new guys that made it past the first cut; it will be interesting to see if he will make it onto the final squad, Balázs Sebők (Karpat Oulu) and the two young DAB-Docler players Balázs Somogyi and Dávid Szappanos did not make the team as well as fan favorite and arguably the best player in the MOL League Nikandrosz Galanisz (DAB-Docler). One player that will be missed by the national team will be Dániel Koger who will be in the ECHL playoffs with the Florida Everblades.
Either way it will be interesting to see what line combinations that Rich Chernomaz will come up with to have a strong showing next week. This up coming week the Hungarian national team will play Poland on Sunday and the Japanese on Tuesday in two warm up matches.
Check back in the next two weeks for all of your national team news.
Szabolcs Závodszky
Twitter: @Zavodszky