Former Washington Capitals head coach Glen Hanlon is taking a talented Belarus team that is filled with KHL players to the EIHC tournament in Poland. Hungary will be taking on a Belarusian team at 16:30 this afternoon that will be made up of no less than 15 players from the KHL. Just like Hungary, Glen Hanlon’s squad will not be the strongest that could put out on the ice.

The two options that Belarus has in the cage are experienced netminders not only in the KHL but also at the national team level with both having A level world championships as well.

The group of defensemen that will be playing in front of the goal are solid but might not have played at the highest level. All of them have played in the KHL but have spent most of their careers in the Belarusian domestic league with Nikolai Stasenko being the most experienced at the international level, playing in just three world championships. This is a part of the ice where Hungary could capitalize with their experience up front.

The forward units are much like the rest of the squad in that they have KHL experience and have been stable skaters in Belarus, however they do not really have experience at the international level. This being said there are a number of player to keep an eye on, Artur Gavrus was a 6th round pick of the New Jersey Devils in 2012 and played two years of juniors in the OHL, however last year was the first time he played in the world championships. Sergei Drozd and Alexander Kitarov are the most experienced in this unit playing against different styles.

One of the players that will be missed the most is captain Konstantin Koltsov, former first round NHL draft pick of the Pittsburgh Penguins and his 144 NHL games. The closest to this will be Toronto-born Geoff Platt who played the parts of three season in the NHL who has recently received his citizenship and will be debuting for Belarus after spending the parts of the last six seasons with Dinamo Minsk.

It is clear that like Team Hungary’s head coach Rich Chernomaz his counterpart Glen Hanlon is also testing out new players, seeing what works in preparation for the 2014 world championships.

The host nation Poland will be taking on Italy at 20:00.

Words: Szabolcs Závodszky @Zavodszky