Let’s Meet Cherno, the New Coach

@Zavodszky

As I mentioned in my previous post I have been writing for the Hungarian Ice Hockey Federatio, this is the article I wrote about a week ago before Hungary played in a 4 team tournament in Poland. Just a review what has happened since November.

The National Team Prepares Under a New Coach.

After playing an Olympic qualifying tournament on home ice that ended in disappointment to say the least the ice warriors are back at it again. A lot has happened since that November 11th shootout loss to the Netherlands. Just to give a recap, after the qualifying tournament the Hungarian Ice hockey Federation set out to find a new head coach for the national team. The short list was made up of 5 gentlemen, Luciano Basile, Rich Chernomaz, Bob Leslie, Stephan Lundh, and Lance Nethery. All five of these men have qualities that put them on the short list for the post. Leslie, Nethery and Chernomaz at point or another during their coach career have been in charge of a team in the top German (DEL) flight while Basile was familiar with Hungarian hockey when he was with Briancon and coaching Balázs Ladányi, Dr. Viktor Szélig and Bence Szirányi. Basile also has gained international experience at the helm of the Spanish national team, with Lundh and Nethery being the skipper of the Swedish and Swiss teams respectively in the past. In the end the federation thought that Chernomaz was the best choice to take the Hunagrian team back to the elite level of international hockey.

Rich Chernomaz not only has coached at a high level but also played at a high level as an 80kg 180cm right winger. Cherno spent his junior years playing in the WHL and would be drafted by the Colorado Rockies (known today as the New Jersey Devils) in the 2nd round of the 1981 NHL draft. He played 51 games in the NHL, 360 in the AHL and 442 in the IHL before moving on to play in Germany. Taking a look at his coaching CV he has gained valuable experience in the DEL.
Mr. Chernomaz’s first challenge will be to find out what Hungarian players fit where into his system. After a short training camp he will be making his coaching debut on Thursday February 7th in Tychy Poland verses Romania. Rounding out this 4 team friendly tournament will be matches against South Korea on Friday and the host nation, Poland on Saturday. None of the three matches are guaranteed cake walks when you consider that he will be bringing in some new players to the squad, however there will be some familiar faces behind the bench in assistants Diego Scandella and Balázs Kangyal.

One of the most noticeable aspects of the training camp roster at first glance is how young the goalies are. Of the five net minders on the training camp roster no one is above the age of 22. On the blue line the roster is almost completely reversed with a couple of players in their early 20s you can also see the usual veterans as well as someone who is 40+. With regards to the forwards you have the usual mix of international experienced players from Fehérvár, with the youthful future sprinkled in as well.

We will have more in the coming days, weeks and months as the national team prepares not only for the upcoming tournament but for the world championships as well.

Szabolcs Závodszky
Twitter: @Zavodszky

The final roster for the Euro Ice Hockey Challenge:

G
Bence Bálizs (Fehérvár)
Dávid Gyenes (Miskolc)
Miklós Rajna (Fehérvár)
D
Balázs Gőz (Miskolc)
Ádám Hegyi (Miskolc)
Péter Hetényi (Fehérvár)
Dániel Kiss (Dunaújváros)
Balázs Láda (Miskolc)
Attila Orbán (Fehérvár)
Tamás Pozsgai (Fehérvár)
Viktor Szélig (Briancon)
Bence Szirányi (Miskolc)
Viktor Tokaji (Fehérvár)
FW
István Bartalis (Troja/Ljungby)
András Benk (Fehérvár)
Nikandrosz Galanisz (Dunaújváros)
Roland Hajós (Fehérvár)
János Hári (Modo)
Csaba Kovács (Fehérvár)
Balázs Ladányi (Bolzano)
Bálint Magosi (Fehérvár)
Attila Pavuk (Dunaújváros)
Ladislav Sikorcin (Fehérvár)
István Sofron (Fehérvár)
Balázs Somogyi (Dunaújváros)
Dávid Szappanos (Dunaújváros)
János Vas (Dijon)
Márton Vas (Fehérvár)