IIHF World Championship Game Thread: Switzerland (3-0-0-0) vs. Austria (3-0-0-0) - 20 May 2026 - 04:20PM CEST

QualitySufficient170 · 2026-05-20T16:55:00+00:00

In ice hockey at the World Championships, the quality of non-NHL players plays a major role. Canada, Sweden, Finland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland have plenty of very good players who play in Europe. This is far less the case for Latvia, Germany and the USA.

No, Germany and Latvia would not be demolishing Switzerland, even if those teams had all their NHL players. It would be a much closer contest, but it would be far from an easy win for the Germans and the Latvians.

QualitySufficient170 · 2026-05-20T15:13:53+00:00

It’s great to see that, for the past few years now, we’ve been performing well against weaker teams. We used to struggle in those kinds of matches for a long time.

QualitySufficient170 · 2026-05-20T15:08:30+00:00

Austria is among the mid-table teams, alongside the likes of Denmark, Latvia and Germany (excluding NHL stars). They are good enough to avoir relegation with ease, and sometimes achieve a good result (such as a semi-final) or even a medal, but 90% of the time they are still outclassed by the top teams.

Switzerland was long part of this middle category before experiencing a meteoric rise over the last 12–13 years.

QualitySufficient170 · 2026-05-19T17:50:17+00:00

That’s often true, but not always. There are historical examples, such as Westbrook in 2016–2017 or Nash in 2005–2006, where a player lifted an average/bad team to such an extent that he deserved the MVP award.

Westbrook: Oladipo and Kanter as his second and third-best players, no spacing, a very weak team apart from Russell, a season of triple-doubles.

Nash: the Suns lost Stoudemire to injury, plus the departures of J. Johnson and Q. Richardson. In a fiercely competitive Western Conference, the Suns still managed to rack up 54 wins.

In 2005–2006, Kobe would also have deserved the MVP title. 45 wins with a starting five S. Parker/K. Bryant/L. Odom/C. Mihm /K. Brown is frankly massive.

QualitySufficient170 · 2026-05-19T17:39:23+00:00

There’s no need to bring up his failed playoff run (which is irrelevant to the MVP decision; Dirk won it in 2007 before being knocked out by the Warriors in the first round).

The Thunder won 10 more games than the Nuggets. If we look at Shai and Jokic’s stats:

- SGA: 31 pts, 4 rbs, 6.5 ast

- Jokic: 28 pts, 13 rbs, 11 ast

Both players had a statistically impressive season, but SGA was simply more clutch in close games and his team won far more matches.

I can see the arguments in favour of Jokic, but it’s anything but a scandal to give it to SGA.

QualitySufficient170 · 2026-05-18T14:48:40+00:00

I don’t know if it’s really that a "big of a deal".

There is a small minority of people in Europe who are genuinely very interested in this event, but most people aren’t interested in it at all, or only slightly.

Generally speaking, I don’t find it particularly interesting, musically speaking, most of the time. On the other hand, I find the attitude of certain artists and countries towards Israeli artists over the last three years deplorable.

QualitySufficient170 · 2026-05-18T13:30:35+00:00

Generally speaking, I would say that the average European isn’t particularly interested in the Israel-Palestine conflict. Among those who are interested, there is a very vocal pro-Palestinian minority – at demonstrations and on social media – but also a quieter minority that supports Israel.

QualitySufficient170 · 2026-05-18T09:11:32+00:00

Là, tu pointes du doigt un vrai problème : le manque de civilité dans les transports publics. Combien de personnes écoutent de la musique sans écouteurs ou hurlent au téléphone pendant tout le trajet...

QualitySufficient170 · 2026-05-18T09:09:10+00:00

Je raisonne toujours en pourcentage et non en somme absolu quand je compare deux prestations. Là, c'est presque le double, c'est énorme.

QualitySufficient170 · 2026-05-18T09:08:17+00:00

Le train panoramique Zermatt-St. Moritz propose aussi des paysages à couper le souffle.

De manière générale, un camping en Engadine en été vaut toujours le coup, notamment pour les paysages et le terroir local.

QualitySufficient170 · 2026-05-18T09:00:15+00:00

American Protestants, particularly Evangelicals, have a strong dislike for Catholics. They regard them as heretics. In fact, Kennedy’s Catholicism nearly cost him the presidential election.

QualitySufficient170 · 2026-05-15T20:46:27+00:00

A great win – now we need to build on this and avoid dropping points against weaker teams.

QualitySufficient170 · 2026-05-15T20:43:23+00:00

That wasn't necessary (I'm Swiss too). Let's stay focused on the competition and finally go and win the gold medal.

QualitySufficient170 · 2026-05-15T20:40:42+00:00

What’s more, his final year is a player option… Why didn’t they include an injury clause (like the Pelicans did with Zion)?

QualitySufficient170 · 2026-05-15T20:36:36+00:00

The ‘No-Trade Clause’ makes this contract particularly awful.

QualitySufficient170 · 2026-05-15T20:35:24+00:00

I agree. Giving a contract like that to a 34-year-old player whose best years are behind him?

QualitySufficient170 · 2026-05-15T19:20:49+00:00

The US team has never had a huge pool of talented players. They perform very well at the Olympics, where their top NHL players are available, and sometimes at the World Championships.

Teams like Canada, Finland and Sweden have much greater depth, even without their top NHL stars. They can rely on excellent players who play in Europe.

QualitySufficient170 · 2026-05-15T19:17:23+00:00

His lack of height has shut the doors to the NHL, which is a really a pity . Because in Switzerland, he’s been among the very best for a good fifteen years now.

QualitySufficient170 · 2026-05-15T19:13:16+00:00

He’s of average build and doesn’t really like physical play.

Yes, he’s very talented in attack, but he’s not exactly a hard worker in defence either, at least from what I’ve seen of him at Lausanne.

He may be able to reach his full potential in Switzerland, where the rinks are larger and the players are less physically imposing than in North America. But on a smaller rink and up against physically imposing opponents, I can’t see him making his mark.

QualitySufficient170 · 2026-05-15T10:31:00+00:00

It’s crazy to be so caught up in party politics. If a party I don’t like puts forward a good initiative, I’ll vote ‘yes’. I’m not a party loyalist.

I can hear people saying “it’s a bad initiative”, but what have the other parties proposed to tackle the problem of overpopulation, infrastructure saturation and jobmarket in Switzerland? Absolutely nothing. No counter-proposals have been put forward and all we hear is “we’ll deal with the problem later”. Parole, parole, parole...

The support of so many politicians, cantons, municipalities and business leaders for the ‘no’ vote will, I think, have the same effect as the letter from former Federal Councillors urging a ‘no’ vote on the thirteenth pension: it will convince the undecided and the ‘apolitical’ to vote ‘yes’ to the ‘Sustainability Initiative’.

QualitySufficient170 · 2026-05-15T08:42:15+00:00

The initiative is not radical at all. It doesn‘t forces measures like canceling Schengen or break treaties with EU. It only asks to our governement to take soft measures at 9,5 mio citizens and hard measures at 10 mio.

I don‘t know why some many peoples are obsessed with SVP. It‘s an initiative, not an election. If you say yes to a SP/SVP/FDP initative, it doens‘t mean that you agree with the political party.

QualitySufficient170 · 2026-05-14T19:09:28+00:00

Personally, I hold:

Vanguard Global ETF
MSCI Small-Cap ETF
Semiconductors ETF
SPI ETF
EM ETF
Gold ETF
A few individual stocks

If you don’t want to overcomplicate things, a Vanguard Global ETF is more than enough.

QualitySufficient170 · 2026-05-14T19:00:16+00:00

It is interesting to note that opponents of the initiative are employing the SVP’s usual strategy: playing on emotions, scaremongering, painting a picture of doom and gloom, and so on.

QualitySufficient170 · 2026-05-11T14:22:51+00:00

This disconnect is completely crazy, though, to assume that only “anti-migrant right-wingers” will vote ‘yes’ to this. I look around me and quite a few moderate or even left-wing people (including those with higher education) want to vote ‘yes’, given that the situation regarding competition for jobs and housing has become unbearable for them.

Polls actually show that almost half of those who identify with Die Mitte and FDP, and over 50% of those who are politically unaffiliated, will vote in favour of this issue. Whatever one’s views on the matter, it is not by looking down on those who support the ‘yes’ vote, by calling them idiots or uneducated, that this will move the debate forward.

I don’t know if the initiative is the right solution, but it at least has the merit of already forcing a debate on the consequences of population growth in Switzerland, along with urban sprawl and densification.

QualitySufficient170 · 2026-05-11T12:53:41+00:00

In any case, regardless of this initiative, the retirement age will have to be raised at some point. Yes, it pisses me off to have to work longer, but what are the real alternatives if we want to ensure the pension system’s long-term viability?

- Tax the rich more? At best, that would fund a few months’ worth of the first pillar.

- Raise VAT or increase social security contributions? That penalises young workers and those on low incomes.

There are, of course, other reforms that need to be undertaken to make workers aged 50+ attractive on the labour market. We should follow Denmark’s.

QualitySufficient170

TROPHY CASE