Poland men's national ice hockey team

Poland

Nickname(s)	Orły (The Eagles)
Association	Polish Ice Hockey Federation
General manager	Leszek Laszkiewicz
Head coach	Róbert Kaláber
Assistants	Grzegorz Klich
Captain	Krystian Dziubiński
Most games	Henryk Gruth (248)
Top scorer	Wiesław Jobczyk (88)
Most points	Marcin Kolusz (151)
Team colors
IIHF code	POL
Ranking
Current IIHF	22 (28 May 2023)[1]
Highest IIHF	19 (2003)
Lowest IIHF	25 (2014)
First international
Austria  13–1  Poland (Davos, Switzerland; 10 January 1926)
Biggest win
Poland  21–1  China (Eindhoven, Netherlands; 26 March 1993)
Biggest defeat
Soviet Union  20–0  Poland (Moscow, Soviet Union; 11 April 1973)
IIHF World Championships
Appearances	59 (first in 1930)
Best result	4th (1931, 1932)
IIHF European Championships
Appearances	3 (first in 1926)
Best result	(1929)
Olympics
Appearances	13 (first in 1928)
International record (W–L–T)
513–549–91

The Poland national men's ice hockey team is the national ice hockey team of Poland, and a member of the International Ice Hockey Federation. They are ranked 21st in the world in the IIHF World Rankings, but prior to the 1980s they were ranked as high as 6th internationally. They are one of eight countries never to have played below the Division I (former B Pool) level. As of 2024 the Polish national team plays at the top level of the World Championship.

Poland has competed in the Olympics thirteen times, most recently in 1992, with their best result being fourth place in 1932. They have been a regular participant of the World Championship, first appearing in 1930 and having appeared in all but one tournament since 1955. They frequently played in the top division, though were in Division I after being relegated in 2002. Poland made a return to the top division of the World Championship for 2024.

History

Poland was a regular participant of the early Winter Olympics, first competing at the 1928 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz, Switzerland, where they finished ninth out of eleven teams. They would appear at ever Winter Olympics until 1956, with their best finish being fourth in 1932.

Financed by state coal money from the 1950s to the 1970s the Polish hockey team was a regular at the top level upsetting the Swedes, Finns, and Czechoslovaks from time to time. They hosted the World Championship for the only time in 1976, with the matches taking place in Katowice. At this tournament Poland defeated the Soviet Union 6–4 in their opening match, the first time Poland ever won against the Soviets and what is regarded as one of the greatest upsets in international hockey history. While Poland finished seventh and was relegated for the following year, their victory against the USSR helped prevent them from winning gold for only the second time in 13 years.^[2]

In the Olympics earlier that year, Poland played 5 matches in the top division, but lost all of them. In the first game, the team managed four goals on the West Germany but it was not enough as they lost 7–4. Four days later, after being destroyed by the Soviet Union, the Poles took on Czechoslovakia who dominated the whole game throughout and won 7–1, but after the drug testing, the officials found that one of the Czech players tested positive for doping and they awarded Poland with a 1–0 victory, although they didn't receive any points in the standings. With only two games left and no points in the standings, Poland had no shot at a medal, but still played the last two games against the United States and Finland, and lost 7–2 and 7–1 respectively.

Poland managed to clean up a bit over four years and played well during the 1980 Olympics and finished seventh out of twelve teams. They managed to pull off a huge upset in their first game by beating Finland 5–4, who would eventually advance to the medal round. In their next game, they played Canada and hoped to complete an even bigger upset. The Canadians didn't let this happen and beat the Poles 5–1. In the third game, Poland took on the five time gold medalists, the Soviet Union. The players knew that this would be a challenge because they had played the Soviets many times before and had lost by usually very lopsided scores, such as 8–3, 9–3, 16–1, and 20–0. The Polish team, however, had also beaten the Soviets once in the 1976 World Championship and some of the players from that game were still on the team. The team tried to keep the Soviets down, but it was too much and the USSR stormed to an 8–1 win.

With their toughest games out of the way, Poland would have one more chance to try to get to the Medal Round. They took on the Netherlands and went down early in the first period but managed to tie it about four minutes later. The Dutch team scored twice more in the period to lead 3–1. Polish hero Wieslaw Jobczyk (who scored a hat trick in the 1976 upset against USSR) scored to put Poland within one goal but the Netherlands stormed back to get two more goals before the third period to make it 5–2. The Poles ended up losing 5–3 and saw their hopes for the medal round come to an end. They had one more game against Japan, who had not won any games in the tournament and only tied once. Poland burst out in the first period and scored 3 goals before twenty minutes had ended. They scored two more goals and Japan seemed out of it. The final score was 5–1 for Poland. The team's final record was 2–3–0 and it received 4 points in the standings.

When Communist rule ended in 1989, the Polish national team began a slow decline in international play. They reached the Olympics in 1992, the most recent time they have played there, and finished eleventh out of twelve teams. During the 1990s the first two Polish-born and trained players were selected in the NHL Entry Draft: Mariusz Czerkawski was selected in the 1991 by the Boston Bruins, and Krzysztof Oliwa in 1993 by the New Jersey Devils; Oliwa won the Stanley Cup with the Devils in 2000, the first and only Pole to do so.

Poland last competed at the Elite level in 2002 World Championship, where they finished fourteenth and were relegated. They then remained in Division I until they were relegated to Division IB in 2018, the lowest they had ever played at. The White Eagles finally returned to the elite level after finishing runner-up in group A in 2023. They will play in the 2024 IIHF World Championship in Group B.

Tournament record

Olympic Games

Games	GP	W	OW	T	OL	L	GF	GA	Coach	Captain	Finish	Rank
1928 St. Moritz	2	0	0	1	0	1	4	5	?	Tadeusz Adamowski	First round	9th
1932 Lake Placid	6	0	0	0	0	6	3	34	Tadeusz Sachs	?	First round	4th
1936 Garmisch-Partenkirchen	3	1	0	0	0	2	11	12	Aleksander Tupalski, Lucjan Kulej	?	First round	9th
1948 St. Moritz	8	2	0	0	0	6	29	97	Zbigniew Kasprzak	?	Round-robin	6th (7th)
1952 Oslo	8	2	0	1	0	5	21	56	Mieczysław Kasprzycki	?	Round-robin	6th
1956 Cortina d'Ampezzo	5	2	0	0	0	3	15	22	Mieczysław Palus, Wladyslaw Wiro-Kiro	Józef Kurek	Consolation round	8th
1960 Squaw Valley	did not participate
1964 Innsbruck	8	6	0	0	0	2	41	15	Gary Hughes	Józef Kurek	Consolation round	9th
1968 Grenoble	did not participate
1972 Sapporo	6	1	0	0	0	5	13	39	Anatoli Yegorov, Mieczysław Chmura	Ludwik Czachowski	Final Round	6th
1976 Innsbruck	6	2	0	0	0	4	16	41	Józef Kurek	Robert Góralczyk	Final Round	6th
1980 Lake Placid	5	2	0	0	0	3	15	23	Czeslaw Borowicz	Stefan Chowaniec	First round	7th
1984 Sarajevo	6	1	0	0	0	5	20	44	Emil Nikodemowicz	Henryk Gruth	7th place game	8th
1988 Calgary	6	1	0	1	0	4	12	15	Leszek Lejczyk, Jerzy Mruk	Henryk Gruth	9th place game	10th
1992 Albertville	9	2	0	0	0	5	25	47	Leszek Lejczyk, Jerzy Mruk	Henryk Gruth	11th place match	11th
1994 Lillehammer	did not qualify
1998 Nagano
2002 Salt Lake City
2006 Turin
2010 Vancouver
2014 Sochi
2018 Pyeongchang
2022 Beijing
2026 Milan–Cortina	Future event

World Championship

European Championships

Games	GP	W	T	L	GF	GA	Coach	Captain	Finish	Rank
1910–1925	did not participate.
1926 Davos	5	3	0	2	12	7	?	?	Consolation round 6–7 place game	6th
1927 Wien	5	1	2	2	11	9	?	?	Round-robin	4th
1929 Budapest	3	2	0	1	6	3	?	?	Final
1932 Berlin	did not participate.

Former Players In NHL

Players who have played in the NHL and the Polish national team

NHL Entry Draft

Polish born players selected in the NHL Entry Draft

Notable National team players

• Henryk Gruth – Most games played for national team (292)
• Andrzej Zabawa – Most goals scored (99)
• Leszek Laszkiewicz – 216 games played, 150 total points

Other Polish-born NHL players

• Nick Harbaruk – Pittsburgh Penguins, St. Louis Blues
• Frank Jerwa – Boston Bruins, St. Louis Eagles
• Joe Jerwa – New York Rangers, Boston Bruins, New York Americans
• Edward Leier – Chicago Blackhawks
• John Miszuk – Detroit Red Wings, Chicago Blackhawks, Philadelphia Flyers, Minnesota North Stars

Head-to-head records

Updated as of 11 February 2024.^[5] Defunct national teams are listed in italics.

Opponent	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	GF	GA	GD
Australia	1	1	0	0	5	3	+2
Austria	60	26	3	31	183	181	+2
Belarus	17	4	0	13	38	77	+39
Belgium	5	4	1	0	29	6	+23
Bulgaria	2	2	0	0	27	2	+25
Canada	25	0	1	24	22	175	-153
China	6	6	0	0	79	11	+68
Croatia	5	5	0	0	33	4	+29
Czech Republic	1	0	1	0	2	2	0
Czechoslovakia	44	2	2	40	58	336	-278
Denmark	31	18	3	10	133	99	+34
East Germany	71	35	13	23	302	234	+68
Estonia	20	18	1	1	99	36	+63
Finland	52	5	8	39	107	264	−157
France	53	21	6	26	144	150	-6
Germany	53	16	7	30	159	188	-29
Great Britain	36	10	2	24	111	128	-17
Hungary	65	34	6	25	199	142	+57
Italy	57	32	4	21	187	140	+47
Japan	42	34	2	6	214	98	+116
Kazakhstan	21	2	1	18	42	81	+39
Latvia	20	5	0	15	46	67	-21
Lithuania	22	18	0	4	126	47	+79
Netherlands	40	35	2	3	209	85	+124
Norway	77	39	7	31	316	243	+73
Romania	62	50	5	7	390	106	+284
Serbia	1	1	0	0	10	2	+8
Serbia and Montenegro	1	1	0	0	13	2	+11
Slovakia	7	0	1	6	11	41	−30
Slovenia	25	8	0	17	56	72	-16
South Korea	15	10	0	5	59	32	+27
Soviet Union	33	1	0	32	43	321	-278
Spain	2	2	0	0	9	1	+8
Sweden	36	5	4	27	61	227	−166
Switzerland	46	20	6	20	159	165	-6
Ukraine	43	18	2	23	115	132	-17
United States	35	6	2	27	42	187	−145
Yugoslavia	21	19	1	1	139	53	+86
Total	1 153	513	91	549	3 977	4 140	-163

References

External links

• Official website
• IIHF profile
• National Teams of Ice Hockey