This September will be filled with a lot of meaningful hockey outside of the NHL for more than a handful of players on the Philadelphia Flyers‘ roster.
Eight players- Claude Giroux, Shayne Gostisbehere, Sean Couturier, Jake Voracek, Radko Gudas, Michal Neuvirth, Mark Streit and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare– will be participating in the World Cup of Hockey this fall in what is sure to be a cool event for hockey fans everywhere. Their comrade Michael Raffl will be battling for his country in a different way.
Raffl has been named as one of the 29 players who will battle for roster spots on the Austrian National Team as they prepare for the Final Olympic Qualifier in the first week of September. Raffl is pretty much a lock to make the squad, as he’s been a producer for Austria over their last two international tournaments.
He had two goals and an assist in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi and a goal and two assists in seven games at the 2015 IIHF World Championship in Prague.
“It is important that players like (Rangers forward Michael) Grabner and Raffl will be back again. In the last tournaments, we had issues in front of the net and scored too few goals. In Grabner and Raffl we have two players who have proven their scoring abilities in the NHL. That will also take pressure away from other players who can better unfold their game,” Austrian Head Coach Alpo Suhonen said via the IIHF.
The top eight teams in the IIHF World Ranking after the 2015 World Championship automatically qualified for the Olympics, while other teams had to be ranked high enough or fight through pre-qualifications for their final chance at the Olympics via the Final Qualifications in September.
If you thought a 2015 ranking seemed a bit dated when it comes to determining the 2018 automatic bids, you’re not wrong; it’s the first time in history that rankings three years prior to the Olympic Games were used.
Austria will hold camp in Vienna starting on August 21st. They play exhibition games against Slovakia (Aug. 24th) and Norway (Aug. 27th, 28th). Then they’ll battle in Group E along with host Latvia, Germany and Japan, with the winner of the group getting a bid to the 2018 games.
Sept. 1- Austria vs. Latvia
Sept. 2- Germany vs. Austria
Sept. 4- Japan vs. Austria
The other groups for the Final Qualifications are as follows:
Group D:
Belarus (Host)
Slovenia
Denmark
Poland
Group F:
Norway (Host)
France
Kazakhstan
Italy
Sons of Penn Radio (July 7th)
We discuss this year’s draft selections, Brayden Schenn’s contract situation, the Radko Gudas contract, Ivan Provorov and Travis Konecny’s chances of sticking with the NHL squad this season and much more.
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