Leading up to the World Championships we will be doing a write-up on all of the teams that our ice warriors will be meeting up against in their fight to reach the elite level. The first team that we are covering is the island nation of Great Britain. The Brits actually have a long history of ice hockey; they won the first European championships in 1910 and the 1936 Olympics as well. Recently the national team has roughly been on the same level as the Hungarian team, there were a couple of changes for the Brits but overall they will be putting the same squad out there as last year.
Goalkeeper- GB is going with a combination of young and old behind the pipes with the 22 year old Ben Bowns and the 31 year old Stephen Murphy. Bowns has been coming up through the ranks of the junior system at steady pace; this will be his world championships with the adult team. Murphy on the other hand has been steady veteran for years. Not only does he have the experience playing in his home country but also experienced some of the juniors in the U.S. but also two seasons in the Swedish Allsevnskan.
Defensemen- The blue line for GB a nice balance of veterans and experienced players from the domestic league. Mark Richardson spent 13 games this season in Kazakhstan, and Jonathan Weaver spent a season split between the old IHL and the ECHL. The player with the most experience out side of his home country and at a relatively young age is David Phillips who has split two seasons between the AHL and the ECHL and spent some time in the top flight of Denmark before going home this past season.
Forwards- Like on the blue line, up front they have a nice combination of experience and youth. Among the experienced players is 31 year old Davide Clarke who has been a point a game player through out his career, anther one is Robert Dowd who this past season was teammates with István Bartalis in Sweden. Robert Farmer had played juniors in the OHL, Aaron Nell in the NAHL and Greg Owen playing in prep school with Matthew Myers spending a season ECHL. The player that has put down the most during their career has been the Scotsman Colin Shields who played in the NAHL, at the University of Maine, was drafted by the Philadelphia Flyers and played a couple of season in the ECHL.
Great Britain is not a guaranteed win for the Hungarians and should not take the team lightly. A win would be the first step on their way to winning the tournament.