The IIHF World Championships can be full of blowouts at times. That is only natural, given the level of talent disparity between the top of the hockey world and the middle tier. They can also happen to any team at any time. Germany beat Latvia 8-1 in this tournament, while Sweden and the USA beat Germany 6-1. The place where you will see the most blowouts is with the teams promoted up from Division 1. Finland beat Great Britain 8-0 this year, Hungary suffered 7-1 losses to Sweden and the USA last year. It is easy to let a game get out of hand and slip away when facing a significant talent disparity. If it happened to Poland, most people would not have batted an eye. Instead, Poland didn’t get blown out, which caught people’s attention. 

Poland is winless at the start of the World Championship, and Polish hockey fans are more excited than ever. I was right in predicting four losses right off the bat. I scored the games 4-1 to Latvia, 11-0 to Sweden, 5-3 to France, and 5-1 to Slovakia. That would have given Poland a goal differential of -20. At the time, I was trying to be optimistic about Poland’s chances. When I talked to fans or the media of Poland’s opponents, they sometimes considered my predictions an insult and too close. This tournament was just a one-game event vs Kazakhstan for Poland to outsiders. The red and white have a lot of good talent; they just don’t leave their home country often. That makes it so easy for everyone to underrate the national team. Even I was still not prepared for what Poland was able to accomplish.  

In the tournament’s first match, Poland opened with last year’s bronze medalist Latvia. It’s a country with some of the most passionate fans who might care about this tournament more than anyone else. The Polish crowd rivaled them in noise and would erupt when the Poles scored first. The red and white would lead three times in this back-and-forth content. They eventually even had to score a late goal just to tie it. There was no giving up in Poland that day. Eventually, it all ended in a 5-4 overtime loss. Grabbing a point from Latvia was an unheard of idea pre-tournament—Poland’s first point in the group stage since 1989, when they defeated West Germany. The sting of losing in overtime could not bring down Polish fans at all. 

This set up a day three matchup with Sweden. They are an NHL roster with 18 NHL skaters including stars of the top hockey league in the world like Erik Karlsson and Victor Hedman. It looked like it would be a blowout early, but Poland held the wall, and it was a 3-1 game late into the third. Sweden would cash in two more goals on a late double minor call. This result was comparable to what team USA finished with on the opening day, and the next day, Germany would perform much worse against the Swedes. 

The hype from these two matches and France’s loss to Kazakhstan created a massive hype train that felt unstoppable. On May 14th, an estimated 7,000 Polish fans packed the rink in Ostrava to see Poland versus France. It was a sea of red and white, with Polska chants echoing throughout the rink. With a hot crowd behind them, Poland somehow came out lifeless. By the halfway mark of the second period, they were down 4-0. They did battle back and control the second half of the game, but it was too late. Poland could only net two goals to make it a respectable 4-2 final. Many new or casual Polish fans who packed the rink just experienced their first hockey heartbreak. It’s a bitter disappointment that is hard for any hockey fan to digest, no matter how long they have watched.

While it was raining on the parade now, not all was lost. Polish fans still came in strong for a match against Slovakia. The Slovakia crowd got the best of the noise battle early and fast. The Slovak players came out fast as well, adding two first-period goals. They would be held off the scoresheet until the final three minutes when they scored twice in 12 seconds. These two goals also came after an injury to Poland’s original starter, Tomas Fucik. 

Poland currently sits last in Group B with a single point and a negative -11 goal differential. I don’t think many other countries would take pride in that. For Poland, it is progress—more progress than most people ever expected out of this squad. Every result Poland has achieved so far is better than what people projected them to earn. Polish hockey showed that it can compete at this level, and no one should sleep on them, even if they don’t stay in the top division. The players have done the country proud regardless of what comes next in the tournament. It can be hard to accept it all as progress, given the losses and hype let down after the game versus France. People only feel disappointed with that result because of the progress the national team had made. 

While they have achieved their competitive score goal, so much progress is still needed. This tournament was about something other than the scores coming in. It was a learning experience for players to play against such top opponents. It was a chance to showcase Polish talent and show that some players belong in stronger leagues outside their home country.

I think Poland has certainly done the second part. Krzysztof Macias has put on a show, with Maciasmania running wild after Poland’s game versus Latvia. Dominik Pas has earned a lot of praise for his two-way game, attracting plenty of attention. Zygmunt has played well, keeping the energy up physically, while Walega has generated quite a few scoring chances. Kacper Macias was also called up as an injury replacement and had some good moments in his IIHF debut at 21. Only positive things will come for several Polish players after this tournament. 

We need to discuss the learning experience part more. Poland is going to be outplayed and overmatched the rest of the way. As Poland continues to play against top talent, you want to see them improve each time, but progress is not always linear. Look at Poland’s Division 1 Group A promotion counterpart, Great Britain. The British achieved a landmark result in a close game with Canada that ended 4-2 for the Canadians. A couple of days later was their 8-0 loss to Finland. 

For Poland, you see the trends and bad habits that need to be broken. 

• The team starts slow in most games, giving them too big of a hole to climb out of.
• The offense is getting driven to the outside too quickly, not generating many high-danger chances 
• When Poland gets an odd-man rush, they slow down when closing in, allowing back checkers to get back and disrupt the opportunity. 
• Poland is doing too much waiting around and being reactive on defense. With the speed of the top division, teams will have created the chance before you react. 
• The powerplay is dreadful. There is no creativity, and Polish players can’t find ways to get shots off, get set up, break-in, or even have penalty killers respect them and be less aggressive. 

These were all highly evident in the Slovakia game. While the score was 2-0 for 57 minutes of the match, it felt like it should have been a much larger lead for the Slovaks. That had me feeling disappointed with the game. But as I re-watch and look over the box score, it is hard not to feel happy with the team’s progress. A few weeks ago, Poland lost to Slovakia 6-1 after a much worse start. A lot of the needed progress won’t happen in Thursday’s practice and then be on display versus Team USA on Friday. It will take years and decades of work to grow the sport. You hope to see little things keep building in the tournament and hopefully accumulate for that final matchup versus Kazakhstan on May 20th.

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