Four nation tournament in Budapest at the Ice Palace in Budapest (November 8-10)

For the first time since the World Championships this past April the national team will be back on the ice. Team Hungary will be playing the national teams of Poland on Friday, Romania on Saturday, and Ukraine on Sunday on the weekend of November 8-10 at the Ice Palace in Budapest.

At first glance at the preliminary roster one can see a number of changes from the last time the team was together. First off head coach Rich Chernomaz will most likely be going with a larger roster to give more players an opportunity to prove themselves. There has been some turnover on the roster with time. Defencemen Tamás Sille has retired from hockey altogether with András Horváth and team captain Viktor Szélig, the team captain both hanging up the national team sweaters. Goalie Levente Szuper has not played all season and Chernomaz has decided to not call in Márton Vas since he sees him day in and day out in Germany. Missing up front will be the three players playing in North America, Dániel Kóger is in the ECHL, Gergő Nagy in the CHL and Krisztián Nagy in the NAHL, the latter joining the U20 national team instead, preparing for it’s own World Championships which will be held in december in Miskolc.

With these players missing it will give an opportunity to bring back former players into the fold as well as give some young players their first shot wearing the national team sweater. Making their national team debuts will be Richard Nagy and Arnold Varga on the blue line with Tyler Metclafe, Benjámin Nemes and Márk Miskolczi playing up top, and in the cage Peter Sevela will try to get some playing time.

The situation with Metcalfe is that he was born in Canada but has received his Hungarian citizenship, but according to the IIHF rules to play for a national team a player not only has to have citizenship of his chosen country but also play two years in that country before gaining eligibility for the World Champs, therefore Metcalfe would be able to play for Hungary in the 2015 World Championships. Sevela’s situation is a bit different, he has spent enough time in the country but he does not have his citizenship. Because of the ice relationship between Hungary and his home country of Slovakia he would have to give up his Slovak papers in exchange for his Hungarian ones.

Coming back into the fold is goalkeeper Zoltán Hetényi, defensemen Ádám Hegyi, Péter Hetényi, Adrián Hüffner, Dániel Kiss, Attila Orbán, among the forwards Nikandrosz Galanisz is the only returning face. It will be interesting how the defensemen play as the national team is in the middle of a change in generations.

The coaching staff looks to be very similar to what Chernomaz had helping him during the world championships. Joining him is Gary Clark, Tamás Sille, Gergely Majorros and Balázs Kangyal as the GM.

Schedule
2013. November 8th
15.00: Romania-Ukraine
18.30: Hungary-Poland

2013. November 9th
14.30: Ukraine-Poland
18.00: Hungary-Romania

2013. November 10th
14.00: Poland-Romania
17.30: Hungary-Ukraine

Read more HERE.

Photo: sport365.hu

Source: http://en.icehockey.hu/