The first part of the training camp has come to a close Monday afternoon and had surpassed expectations, the guys will be back on the ice Tuesday afternoon.
Training camp opened on Friday April 3rd, the squad has been through two full days of practice and separate half days of practice as well. This entails six on ice practices sessions, four off ice sessions and two goalie sessions for the team and the coaching staff.
“Both on Saturday and Sunday we had split on ice practices, which means we only had 14-15 skaters on the ice at once, which can be very helpful in getting the guys to understand the system faster, said assistant coach Gergely Majoross, besides working on the 1-3-1 we were also working on our play in the defensive zone, faceoffs and break out situations as well. After this it was nice to see some free flowing game situations on Monday. There are some aspects that are harder for the guys to pick up compared to what they are playing with their clubs during the season. The guys did take some big strides forward in the past couple of days, we also had the cameras going so we can go back and analyze some videos and pick up on some smaller things.”
On Monday the lines were being rotated on shuffled often, one of the reasons was because of Gergő Nagy, Balázs Sebők and János Vas missing from the forwards and Márton Vas being absent from the blueliners. What is interesting to note is that Tyler Metcalfe and Ákos Berta were getting ice time with the defencemen. If Rich Chernomaz follows through with this, it will not the first time he has moved a center to defense.
“We are looking those players that can adequately play the role of a defenseman in the system that we will be using as well as also being able to breakout the puck under pressure, they can make the smart pass out of the zone with someone draped over them” said Majoross, "this is why we are trying anyone that we think have the skill level or the hockey smarts to be able to get the job done.”
After finishing up Monday, the team will reconvene Tuesday afternoon for the next portion of camp, which will consist of the preparation and the game in Vienna against Austria.
“We are back on the ice Tuesday afternoon and on Wednesday we will see what we have been practicing in Vienna, the coaching staff agrees that we have come along farther than we originally expected” said Majoross
The Hungarian Squad
Goalies (3): BÁLIZS Bence (Miskolci Jegesmedvék) HETÉNYI Zoltán RAJNA Miklós (Fehérvár AV19)
Defensmen (11): KISS Dániel (Újpest) ORBÁN Attila, REITER Attila, SZIRÁNYI Bence, TOKAJI Viktor, VARGA Arnold (Fehérvár AV19), GRÖSCHL Tamás, POZSGAI Tamás, MESTYÁN Tamás (Dab.Docler), GŐZ Balázs (Miskolci Jegesmedvék), VAS Márton (Löwen Frankfurt, DEL2)
Forwards (22): AZARI Zsolt (Dab.Docler), BANHAM Frank, BARTALIS István, BENK András, EREDÉLY Csanád, KOVÁCS Csaba, KÓGER Dániel, MAGOSI Bálint, SÁRPÁTKI Tamás, SARAUER Andrew, SIKORCIN Ladislav, VINCZE Péter, (Fehérvár AV19), HAJÓS Roland, METCALFE Tyler, NAGY Krisztián, TÓTH Adrián (Miskolci Jegesmedvék), BERTA Ákos (Debreceni HK), SEBŐK Balázs (Hokki, FIN2), SOFRON István (Krefeld Pinguine, GER), VAS János (Slavia Praha, CZE) NAGY Gergő (Kalamazoo Wings, ECHL) HÁRI János (MODO, SWE)
Coaching Staff
Head Coach: Rich Chernomaz
Assistant Coaches: Gergely Majoross, Tamás Sille, Diego Scandella
Goalie Coach: Gary Clark
Exhibition game scheduale
Wednesday April 8
18:00 Austria-Hungary (in Vienna)
Friday April 10
19:00 Hungary-Austria (at the Tüskecsarnok)
Sunday April 12
17:00 Hungary Slovenia (at the Tüskecsarnok)
World Championships Schedule
Sunday April 19
13:00 Hungary-Japan
16:30 Ukraine-Kazakhstan
20:00 Poland-Italy
Monday April 20
13:00 Kazakhstan-Hungary
16:30 Italy-Ukraine
20:00 Poland-Italy
Tuesday April 21-Off day
Wednesday April 22
13:00 Kazakhstan-Japan
16:30 Italy-Hungary
20:00 Poland-Ukraine
Thursday April 23
13:00 Japan-Italy
16:30 Ukraine-Hungary
20:00 Kazakhstan-Poland
Friday April 24-Off day
Saturday April 25
13:00 Japan-Ukraine
16:30 Italy-Kazakhstan
20:00 Hungary-Poland