Showing Some International Love: Olympic Preliminary Qualification Preview

While a lockout for the NHL is pretty much a guarantee now, there is still hockey to be played. The AHL is still going ahead, the CHL starts at the end of the month, and European leagues such as the KHL, SEL, and SM-liiga are already a couple games into their respective seasons. While that covers league play, what about international? Qualification for Sochi 2014 are on the way as the first round starts in Croatia (an sadly, none of them will be played in the Pula's Roman Amphitheater)

Note: all data from the IIHF website

World Ranking

30. Croatia
31. Serbia
34. Mexico
40. Israel

Rosters

Rosters as of September 14

Croatia

Goalies: Tihomir Filipec (KHL Medvescak Zagreb), Ivan Krpes (Mladost Zagreb), Mate Tomljenovic (HKm Zloven)
Defense: Marko Ljubic (Mladost Zagreb), Kenneth MacAulay (KHL Medvescak Zagreb), Nikola Senzel (KHL Medvescak Zagreb), Andrew Sertich (KHL Medvescak Zagreb), Ivan Sijan (KHL Medvescak Zagreb), Fran Srketic (Mladost Zagreb), Marko Tadic (Mladost Zagreb), Niksa Trstenjak (Mladost Zagreb)
Forwards: Mislav Blagus (KHL Medvescak Zagreb), Ivan Brencun (KHL Medvescak Zagreb), Mario Cunko (Mladost Zagreb), Tomislav Cunko (Mladost Zagreb), Nikola Grahovar (Mladost Zagreb), John Hecimovic (EC Dornbirn), Dominik Kanaet (MHC Martin), Janko Kucera (Mladost Zagreb), Igor Lazic (KHL Medvescak Zagreb), Marko Lovrencic (Croatia), Zvonimir Lovrencic (Mladost), Tadija Miric (Mladost Zagreb), Mario Novak (Mladost Zagreb), Filip Orescanin (KHL Medvescak Zagreb), Miro Smerdelj (Mladost Zagreb), Petar Trstenjak (KHL Medvescak Zagreb)

Serbia

Goalies: Jovan Feher (MAC Nepstadion Budapest), Milan Lukovic (Partizan Belgrade), Petar Stepanovic (Beostar Belgrade)
Defense: Nikola Dunda (Vitez Belgrade), Aleska Lukovic (Partizan Belgrade), Robert Sabados (DAB Dunaujvaros), Vuk Trajkovic (Beostar Belgrade), Ivan Tumbas (Partizan Belgrade)
Forward: Marko Brkusanin (Crvena Zvezda Belgrade), Viktor Cengeri (Partizan Belgrade), Aleksa Despotovic (Vitez Belgrade), Dimitrije Filipovic (Partizan Belgrade), Nemanja Jankovic (Finlandia University), Nikola Kerezovic (Beostar Belgrade), Dragan Komazec (Partizan Belgrade), Petar Ogrizovic (Beostar Belgrade), Marko Prokic (Vitez Belgrade), Filip Rakovic (Vitez Belgrade), Nenad Rakovic (Partizan Belgrade), Srdjan Ristic (Partizan Belgrade), Marko Sretovic (Partizan Belgrade), Filip Trimcevic (Partizan Belgrade), Nemanja Vucurevic (Partizan Belgrade)

Mexico

Goalies: Alfonso de Alba (Aztec Eagle Warriors), Andres de la Garma (Zapotec Totems)
Defense: Miguel Colas (Aztec Eagle Warriors), Luis David Gonzales (Teotihuacan Priests), Franciso Padilla (Zapotec Totems), Alejandro Rosette (Aztec Eagle Warriors), Enrique Arturo Samperio (Zaoptec Totems), Fernando Ugarte (Teotihuacan Preists)
Forward: Brian Arroyo (Puebla Talaveros), Ander Barberena (Zapotec Totems), Hector Carrero (Teotihuacan Preists), Adrian Cervantes (Mayan Astronomers), Roberto Chabat (Aztec Eagle Warriors), Guillermo Diaz (Mayan Astronomers), Carlos Gomez (Aztec Eagle Warriors), Alexander Gutierrez (Mayan Astronomers), Cristofer Kelo (Mayan Astronomers), Diego Linares (Aztec Eagle Warriors), Sebastian Ortega (Zapotec Totems), Julian Ramirez (Zapotec Totems), Diego Romero (Guadalajara Jalisco)

Israel

Goalies: Alex Aharonov (MAC Metulla), Raanan Moscovich (HC Metulla), Avihu Sorotzki (HC Metulla)
Defense: Sagi Baffet (MAC Metulla), Nissim Botbol (Bat Yam Icebergs), Daniel Spivak (Reading Royals), Ariel Tal (MAC Metulla)
Forward: Maxim Buz (MAC Metulla), Ben Chernie (MAC Metulla), Avishai Gellar (Bat Yam Icebergs), Daniel Golodnizky (Maalot), Joshua Greenberg (Bat Yam Icebergs), Evgeni Kniter (MAC Metulla), Artem Korotin (Rishon), Marek Lebedev (Hertzeliya Ice Time), Daniel Mazour (Maalot), Vlad Nosankov (MAC Metulla), Idan Tribochan (Bat Yam Iceberg), Yan Youmashev (Bat Yam Iceberg)

Schedule

September 17
Serbia - Israel
Mexico - Croatia

September 18
Serbia - Mexico
Croatia - Israel

September 19
Israel - Mexico
Serbia - Croatia

Last Five International Matches

Croatia: Won (Iceland) - Won (Serbia) - Won (New Zealand) - Loss (Estonia) - Loss (Spain
Serbia: Won (New Zealand) - Loss (Croatia) - Loss (Spain) - Loss (Iceland) - Loss (Estonia)
Mexico: Won (South Africa) - OT Loss (Israel) - Won (Bulgaria) - Loss (China) - Loss (Belgium)
Israel: OT Loss (Bulgaria) - OT Won (Mexico) - Loss (Belgium) - Won (South Africa) - Loss (China)

Notables

• It's never a good idea having a Croatia/Serbia match up. In the Division II Group A tournament they were in Iceland, which may have taken some of the heat off fan animosity. Now that Croatia is hosting...well...pay attention Canuck and Hab fans, you might learn a thing or two about rioting.
• Pretty much all of Serbia's losses mentioned above went the same way: play tough in the first period, then get dominated afterwards.
• Mexico is the only North/South American team going through qualifying for the Olympics (Canada and US are in automatically)
• I honestly don't know if this is 100% true, but anyone of Hebrew faith automatically qualifies for Israeli citizenship. So if there is any Jewish NHLers WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? GET ON A PLANE NOW!
• Croatia has three players who have professional North American experience (MacAulay and Sertich played in the AHL and Hecimovic played in the ECHL)
• Israel's Spivak is the only other player with professional experience in North America, playing 4 games with the Reading Royals of the ECHL this season.
• Rounding off the North American experience (this time non-pro), Serbia's Jankovic just finished off his college career with Finlandia University.
• Mexico has the only staff with one foreign member. George Kingston (San Jose's first head coach) is listed as an assistant coach.
• Oldest Player: Israeli forward Marek Lebedev (1977)
• Youngest player: Serbian goaltender Petar Stepanovic (1996)

Prediction

1 (Qualify) - Croatia
2 - Serbia
3 - Israel
4 - Mexico

Croatia seems like the hands-down winner of the group. They have a stronger roster, the home advantage, and have historically dominated Serbia and Israel (they have yet to face Mexico internationally). What puts Croatia up against the other teams is the experience on the roster, were the other three teams rely more heavily on domestic players with no experience outside their home league. Serbia will put up a fight, but may end up playing second-fiddle and not qualifying for the next round. Israel (currently) has a weaker roster than when they last faced Mexico, but during the Division II Group B competition, they held their own better than Mexico did and ended up with a lower goal differential despite being lower in the standings. I know two players don't make too much of a distance in hockey (Wild fans just grabbed their pitchforks after reading that) but if Israel do get Oren Eizenman and Eliezer Sherbatov to play for them, then they could make some noise against the two former Yugoslavian members. Mexico ends up being the odd team out, but it will be interesting to see how Kingston's role as coach (even if it is as an assistant) does for Mexico.