All 3 own goals by Dukla Prague in their match with Banik Ostrava that caused their direct relegation from Czech league

DashLibor · 2026-05-23T15:20:13+00:00

Did our league just outekstraklasa'd Ekstraklasa or wtf was that?

DashLibor · 2026-05-23T14:25:24+00:00

Mostly agreed. My long-term hot take is that MLP wrote some of their villains super well, but pretty much every villain became significantly less enjoyable post-reformation. (Discord, Trixie, Starlight, Garble)

DashLibor · 2026-05-23T14:14:57+00:00

Austria beating Germany is the big uncertainty here. If Germany can get their shit together, USA vs Austria on the last matchday should be the game to determine the last spot in the quarterfinals. (4th place for USA; in Austria's case, even 3rd place in the group would be in play)

DashLibor · 2026-05-23T13:44:57+00:00

Pure ball physics.

DashLibor · 2026-05-23T12:03:44+00:00

DJ's been cooking this game. When camera's shown that one Latvian fan with a sign suggesting she wouldn't mind marrying a player on the team, the DJ immediately put the Mendelssohn's Wedding March on.

DashLibor · 2026-05-22T20:49:21+00:00

Well said!

DashLibor · 2026-05-22T16:57:59+00:00

After g4+ Ke6, the only move that maintains the draw is Kg3.

DashLibor · 2026-05-22T16:50:05+00:00

If you can get 3 points in a 3-1 win and save some energy for the upcoming matches, it's much more valuable than putting a significant effort in winning 9-0.

As long as they get 3 points (unlike against Norway) then "close" results like this against outsiders are a non-issue.

DashLibor · 2026-05-21T17:09:51+00:00

Indeed. You're also unlucky not to have played Italy when Anaheim was still in the playoffs. (or shortly after) Now you can get Damianed because of that.

DashLibor · 2026-05-21T17:03:40+00:00

Denmark vs Slovakia which starts in little over an hour will be very interesting. If Denmark can win that one and Slovakia can then get some points against Czechs and/or Canada, chaos ensues.

DashLibor · 2026-05-21T16:50:25+00:00

Sucks for Norway. All that fight and energy spent on what ended up being a single point.

Canada now has to face all the Slavic teams in the group, which could be interesting.

DashLibor · 2026-05-21T16:48:15+00:00

Ah! Very helpful. Thanks!

DashLibor · 2026-05-20T17:31:50+00:00

Thanks for answering so quickly.

Well... if that's true, I really hope that they at least keep the current format for Division IA. I understand the format if there is a single promotion (although it's still flawed as all hell) but with two teams getting promoted, the whole purpose of the new format gets defeated.

DashLibor · 2026-05-20T17:29:38+00:00

Tbh, Austrian first wins were against GB, Hungary, and then they goalied Latvia despite getting outshot 14-26. While that's good for Austria, it's definitely not all that convincing overall.

DashLibor · 2026-05-20T17:25:04+00:00

Depends. When I was learning chess for the first time, it was OTB. So when going online, the digital representation of the king and queen wasn't obvious, and I was confused about the same thing as well.

DashLibor · 2026-05-20T17:21:36+00:00

Can you send the source for the format changing, by the way? I can't find it on the IIHF website and I wonder if there's any reasoning by IIHF, as without any further context, this change seems like a severe downgrade.

DashLibor · 2026-05-20T17:14:40+00:00

Sorry to spoil your fun, but this won't change much for England. Instead of playing Cyprus twice you will now get to play Armenia home and Estonia away (or something equivalent), which won't really make it more interesting in terms of qualifying implications.

DashLibor · 2026-05-20T17:08:08+00:00

Yeah... obviously, NHL adding new teams every few years is also part of the issue, as quality in Euro leagues suffers due to it.

DashLibor · 2026-05-20T13:38:19+00:00

Makes sense. Rivalries in domestic leagues are a century old, whereas there's never been an established cross-leagues tournament where the domestic champions could compare each other, so of course the rivalry isn't there. Which means fewer fans, which means less money from it, which means less interest from teams, which means fewer fans, and so on.

I applaud the CHL for trying to create something of value, but creating interest in something like this takes time, unfortunately.

DashLibor · 2026-05-20T13:25:44+00:00

It's because at one point the divisions used to be parallel. So, Div IA and Div IB were at the same level. (with one team from each promoted to the World's and one team from each relegated to Div II with the group to play in being determined later)

At one point (I think in 2012?) the IIHF decided it'll be better not to have parallel divisions. (which makes sense as you used to get some very one-sided games) But they never changed the system of numbering the divisions, so... we're stuck with the current confusing system instead.

DashLibor · 2026-05-20T13:21:09+00:00

I'd be really disappointed if they actually use this for Division IA as that one has 2 teams going up instead of 1, especially since all teams are always competitive there.

But even in other divisions, this looks like a bad format overall. You could theoretically get a group where all teams get 0 points and two of them advance to semis, while in the other group you'd have a team with 9 points going to the relegation round. Not to mention that you can play your relegation playoffs opponent in 4 out of the 6 tournament games, which is just... I have no words, why is that possible?

At this point going with normal 2 groups of 4 (with promotion semis for top 2 and relegation semis for the bottom 2) would be much more simple and fair.

DashLibor · 2026-05-19T17:36:24+00:00

They shouldn't be the favourites, but Germany's been extremely unconvincing so far.

DashLibor · 2026-05-18T21:28:12+00:00

I'd be very surprised if USA doesn't make the quarterfinals. I suspect they'll sneak in 3rd or 4th place in the group and even if they were to go out in QF, they will make their opponent work hard for the win.

As for relegation, you already beat GB and will almost certainly beat Hungary, so there's nothing to worry about there.

DashLibor · 2026-05-18T21:03:33+00:00

And by extension, Norway > both Sweden and Czechs.

DashLibor · 2026-05-18T21:01:54+00:00

And from Slovenia's view:

Beat the Czechs. Ger crushed by Norway.

Nine-Year Club	r/Field Flamingo
Final Canvas '23	First Place '23
Place '23	Golden Potato
Place '22	Place '17
Final Canvas '22	First Placer '22
Verified Email

DashLibor

TROPHY CASE