Ovechkin, Josi & Co.: These world stars are waiting for the “Azzurri”

Countless top teams in the NHL missed the quarterfinals, which means that many players from the world's best league are available to their national teams and the superstars will be on display at the major tournament in Slovakia. Italy's 25 World Championship rider - among them many semi-professionals - have the opportunity to compete with the crème de la crème of ice hockey. At the same time, it does not make the task of ensuring that we remain in the world group any easier.

Nashville star Roman Josi is supposed to lead the Swiss team. © APA/getty / Frederick Breedon

The start on Saturday against Switzerland will be tough. In addition to Nashville captain Roman Josi, there are three other NHL cracks in the Swiss squad: Kevin Fiala (Minnesota), Yannick Weber (Nashville) and Nico Hischier (New Jersey). “Sbornaya” with Ovechkin and Kucherov The second opponent, defending champion Sweden, is traveling with 14 players from the best league in the world, including goalkeeper Henrik Lundqvist from the New York Rangers. After that, Latvia and the absolute top favorite Russia await, whose squad includes Stanley Cup winner Alex Ovechkin (Washington), NHL top scorer Nikita Kucherov (Tampa), captain Ilya Kovalchuk (Los Angeles) and Yevgeni Malkin (Pittsburgh). . Two days after the Russia game, the Italians will duel with Jakub Voracek (Philadelphia), Ondrej Palat (Tampa) and seven other NHL players from the Czech Republic. Only Italy without NHL power The Blue Team can only hope for a respectable success or an absolute sensational coup against these star ensembles. The decisive points for staying in the league have to be scored in the games against Latvia, Norway and Austria, but even these teams have a lot of NHL experience in their ranks. Teodors Blugers (Pittsburgh) will play for Latvia, Andreas Martinsen (Chicago) will probably play for Norway and Michael Raffl (Philadelphia) will play for Austria.

Whatever the outcome of the tournament, it will probably remain a memorable one - and not just for the blatant outsiders from Italy. The groups of the 2019 World Cup: Group A (in Kosice): Canada (world ranking number 1), USA (4), Finland (5), Germany (8), host Slovakia (10), Denmark (12), France (13) and Great Britain (22) Group B (in Bratislava): Sweden (defending champions; 2), Russia (3), Czech Republic (6), Switzerland (7), Norway (9), Latvia (11), Austria (17) and Italy (19) The “Azzurri” game plan Saturday, May 11 12.15 clock: Switzerland - Italy

Sunday May 12th 16.15 clock: Italy - Sweden

Tuesday May 14th 16.15 clock: Italy - Latvia

Wednesday May 15th 20.15 clock: Russia - Italy

Friday May 17th 20.15 clock: Czech Republic - Italy

Saturday, May 18 16.15 clock: Italy - Norway

Monday, May 20th 20.15 clock: Austria - Italy

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Ovechkin, Josi & Co.: These world stars are waiting for the “Azzurri”

The huge loss of favorites in the NHL makes the upcoming World Championship in Slovakia one of the best in recent ice hockey history. That means joy and sorrow at the same time for Italy's national team.

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