"Big highs and lows, often even within a single game," said head coach Philipp Pinter about his team's three performances.
As always in such warm-up games, the coach was primarily looking to cast players for specific roles. Although unlike in recent years (Gregor Biber, Paul Sintschnig) he didn't have to release anyone to the senior team for the Deutschland Cup this year, the overseas players were naturally missing—and they make up nearly a third of the team: Sintschnig, Paul Schuster, Nico Uschan, Jonathan Oschgan, Johannes Dobrovolny, Konstantin Hutzinger, and Leon Kolarik.
So six forwards and one defenseman; logically, more attackers had to fight for their roster spot. As always, the question: Who will accept roles in the bottom lines without powerplay time, which will mostly be reserved for the overseas players?
There are also questions Pinter still needs to answer for himself over the coming weeks: Is a World Championship featuring primarily the 2007 birth year coming too soon for a skilled but physically lighter player like Luca Fischer (Salzburg, formerly VSV), or can he already make an impact? He might have to go head-to-head with a player two years older like Lukas Zach-Kiesling, who has already played several ICE games for the Vienna Capitals this season.
Defense virtually set
While—provided all overseas players remain healthy and available—there are likely no more than two or three roster spots up for grabs in attack (Pinter is planning with 13 forwards), the blue line seems much more settled.
Jakub Schnabl (Salzburg) should be set on the PP, while Uschan or Filip Simovic (KAC, eligible for Austria for the first time) could be used on the second unit. On top of that, there is Gerrit Böhs (KAC), behind whom the options are either physically strong stay-at-home defensemen like Lennart Braun (Kitzbühel) and Maximilian Petritsch (KAC) or puck-moving types like Lennart Leitner (KAC). However, compared to recent age groups featuring top talents like Biber, Maxi Kirchebner, Thomas Klassek, or Paul Reiner, this year's blue line crew probably can't quite match them in depth or elite top-end talent.
In net, a mix of three age groups is taking shape, though the hierarchy remains open: Luca Haitzmann ('07, Salzburg) was already part of the team last year, while his club teammate Gabriel Lemberger ('09) helped last year's U18 team to a group win. Luca Fritz, playing in Rauma, is the youngest of the bunch (born in 2010) and left a very strong impression, and not just because of his shutout against Ukraine.
After a camp in Ferlach, one final exhibition game against Denmark in Budapest is on the schedule, with the tournament set to begin on December 6. Emphasis on "set to", because much remains up in the air right now.
Pinter: "We get new reports every day." The latest status was that Norway would be moved to Division 1A at short notice to replace Russia, which would mean seven teams competing there. However, there is no final confirmation or schedule for this yet, nor is it clear whether that would mean two relegated teams. The original timeframe of December 6 to 12 would also not hold with six games per team.
U18 (Tournament in Budapest – 4-1 vs. Slovenia, 4-1 vs. Hungary, 1-3 vs. Italy)
Two wins first, then losing the final game—a scenario that isn't unusual for Austria's youth teams.
Head coach Peter Schweda notes, however: "We trained hard, going full throttle during the pre-game skates as well. In the final game, we just ran out of gas."
With the U20 World Championship right around the corner, Schweda had to do without not only the overseas players (Sintschnig, Schuster, and 2011-born Timo Uschan, Nico's younger brother), but naturally also the players needed one level up (Lemberger, Fritz, Fischer, Emil Wagner and Niclas Micelli/both KAC, Vitus Plank/Rögle). In addition, two injured defensemen in Dominik Ferner and Felix Baumann (both Salzburg) meant Schweda was missing eleven potential World Championship starters.
However, the penultimate tournament before the World Championship (a trip to Denmark is still scheduled for February) is meant for evaluation anyway; especially in attack, November's top lines will slide further down the lineup at the World Championship.
Encouraging for Schweda: younger players like Salzburg forward duo Maximilian Spielmann and Lucas Gritznig (both born 2010) impressed with speed and, this time, solid defensive work. Schweda also tested two U16 team players in defenseman Lorenz Manzenreiter (Linz) and Gregor Obrist (Salzburg).
Abundance of promising goalies
As with the U20s, the forward group at the World Championship should have good depth across three, if not four lines. On defense, the hierarchy still needs to take shape.
What has been emerging for some time and was confirmed once again in Aalborg and Budapest: almost sensationally for Austria, there is a bumper crop of good-sized goalie prospects in the 2009 and 2010 birth years.
Alongside Lemberger and Fritz, Jonas Haberl (KAC) and Philip Hudritsch (Salzburg, both born 2010) turned in strong performances in Budapest, while David Rödig (Innsbruck) was blameless in the loss to Italy.
Schweda, whose team was robbed of the rewards of winning last year's Division 1B World Championship (the reinstated Belarus team bumped several teams down), gets first-hand daily updates through his day-to-day work at the federation.
There are still months to go before the World Championship at the end of April in Kaunas, but he too must hope that another potential tournament victory doesn't turn out to be another exercise in futility...
