Three years of competing in Pool A of the IIHF World Championships ended in 2022.

A final game defeat to Austria resulted in relegation for GB.
It has been quite the journey for the players, staff and fans of Great Britain’s Senior Men’s team.

The reaction to the defeat and relegation was mixed online, from those proud of the team to others labelling them ‘bottle jobs’ for throwing away leads in the final two games.

It’s a measure of the success of the Great Britain program that relegation at this stage is considered a considerable disappointment in some quarters.

The journey to the top flight of world hockey was meteoric. It would be remiss not to touch upon that before moving on.

Great Britain was a third-tier hockey nation for four straight years after being relegated in 2013.

Head Coach Pete Russell masterminded promotion in 2017 as Great Britain smashed all the opposition on home ice in Belfast.

That was followed by the 2018 success in Budapest, Hungary. Great Britain scored a late, late goal against the hosts to gain promotion into the world’s top flight.

From fishing second in Croatia at the third tier, Great Britain found itself playing against the world’s best hockey nations just three years later in 2019.

As the lowest seeds in the tournament (22), GB was thumped by Denmark, Canada, Finland and Slovakia.
Close games against Germany and the USA gave hope for the final encounter against France.
As we all know by now, GB fought back from down 0-3 to prevail 4-3 in overtime against all the odds to stave off relegation.

After surviving by the skin of their teeth in 2019, Great Britain showed growth and improvement in the 2021 campaign.

A narrow 2-1 loss to Slovakia was followed by a point earned against Denmark.
GB then stunned many pundits by defeating Belarus 4-1, a result which meant they would avoid relegation had it been in play for the tournament.

Despite running out of steam at the backend of the championships, there were further performances against Sweden and Switzerland which showed how players were adapting to the level and speed of play.

Great Britain had to contend with a changed roster for 2022.

The offence was severely hampered by the loss of Mike Hammond, Ollie Betteridge and Liam Kirk. The loss of the latter cannot be underestimated.

Kirk dominated in 2021 (joint-leading goal scorer) and would have been coming off his first full season in North America.

Despite new additions in the shape of Sam Jones, Scott Conway, Josh Waller and Cade Neilson, GB proved itself a competitive nation at the top level. Certainly not a team that any opponent could take for granted.

It was a tournament in which Great Britain could take a positive aspect from almost every game.

A 5-1 loss to Czechia belayed the fact that GB was the better team in the opening frame and could have held a 2-0 lead.

The point earned in an overtime loss against Norway not only showed the team’s fighting spirit but that they could score without Kirk and Hammond.

A 6-0 loss to Sweden was perhaps the worst performance overall, but GB hung tough. It wasn’t a rout in the way the scoreline suggests.

The hard-fought 3-0 reverse against the USA was a case of missed opportunities. Great Britain was by far the better team in the first period but missed chances proved costly.

Losing 6-0 to Finland the day after was no disgrace, as the eventual World Champions showed their class and quality in front of goal.

The point earned against Norway meant that a regulation win against Latvia would put them within touching distance of safety.

Having led 2-0 and 3-1, GB fell to a 4-3 loss after some egregious officiating led to a procession to the box. Latvia took advantage, scoring three consecutive power-play goals to earn the victory.

A regulation victory against Austria would condemn their opponents to relegation and ensure Great Britain remained in Pool A.
Great Britain was firmly on top for forty minutes and led 3-1 with a little over thirteen minutes remaining in regulation.

Whether they ran out of gas is up for conjecture but Great Britain imploded as Austria roared back to claim a 5-3 win.

Aaron Murphy’s closing call on FreeSports included the line “Don’t be upset it’s over. Be glad it happened.”

That irked quite a few people claiming that was the sentiments of the weak-minded and that we should expect more of Great Britain.

I take heart from the response even though I don’t necessarily agree with the view.

That people expect more from Great Britain, shows just how far the program has come.

Narrow defeats to Latvia (tenth seed) and Austria (18th seed) would have been expected results in years gone by.

A point earned against the eleventh seeds Norway and performances against USA (4) and Czechia (6) brought comments that Great Britain should have done better. Expectations raised?

Putting aside the relegation factor, Great Britain took another step forward in 2022 and has grown again.

There weren’t many who believed Great Britain could ever attain Pool A status, let alone play in three tournaments.

No longer are Great Britain the whipping boys in world hockey. Every nation expects a hard-fought encounter.

There is emerging young talent in Cade Neilson, Josh Waller and Sam Jones.

Unavailable players could return for 2023 and there is potential for other young players to take a step up.

Great Britain will host the 2023 Divison 1, Group A tournament in Nottingham.
There is nothing to prevent them from earning a promotion back to the top flight.

Great Britain is capable of dominating a group including Italy, Lithuania, South Korea, Poland and Romania. With two nations promoted to Pool A, there will be high expectations placed on the hosts.

That in itself is a marker for how far the program has progressed.

“Don’t be upset it’s over. Be glad it happened.”

There is much more to come.

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