WC: 2016 Team Latvia

[Namejs]

Seems like the combination of Lipmans and Beresnevs is turning a lot of players off.

No, not really.

Sprukts seems to have lost his passion for the game. He couldn't find a team in the off-season (or at least a good enough team for his liking), and decided not to take part in any on-ice practices whatsoever during that stretch. He's unmotivated, and not in a great shape physically either.

Sprukts was atrocious last season in the World Champs. He's always been slow, now he's nearly useless at this level of competition. Apart from face-offs, maybe. Seriously, Beresnevs made the right choice there, and I don't think it's got anything to do with him having a bad rep among the players.

Berzins is also useless offensively. Assuming someone like Abols (WHL) can make the training camp in time, he's easily replaceable. Cipulis is 35 years old, and he's recorded something like 0 goals, 2 assists in his last ~20 games with the national team.

Jekimovs is an undersized spark plug, he can skate and score some goals, but he's not very good defensively, which means he's probably not a very good fit for a bottom six role.

Overall, nothing of great value was lost there.

 

[kabidjan18]

No, not really.

Sprukts seems to have lost his passion for the game. He couldn't find a team in the off-season (or at least a good enough team for his liking), and decided not to take part in any on-ice practices whatsoever during that stretch. He's unmotivated, and not in a great shape physically either.

Sprukts was atrocious last season in the World Champs. He's always been slow, now he's nearly useless at this level of competition. Apart from face-offs, maybe. Seriously, Beresnevs made the right choice there, and I don't think it's got anything to do with him having a bad rep among the players.

Berzins is also useless offensively. Assuming someone like Abols (WHL) can make the training camp in time, he's easily replaceable. Cipulis is 35 years old, and he's recorded something like 0 goals, 2 assists in his last ~20 games with the national team.

Jekimovs is an undersized spark plug, he can skate and score some goals, but he's not very good defensively, which means he's probably not a very good fit for a bottom six role.

Overall, nothing of great value was lost there.

I more of meant all the guys claiming injury or family leave. I'm not very familiar with the situation, however, a lot of the comments on the Latvian news articles are saying that Lipmans is a turnoff. Cipulis, Sprukts and Berzins themselves aren't losses of any magnitude.

 

[Namejs]

Our depth offensively has increased over the last couple of years. There's a lot of young talent honing their skills in North America as well as Europe, and it's really not that problematic to fill any spots left open by the injured players. It's not going to leave a gaping hole in our roster.

We've lost Darzins, but Bukarts has had a breakout season in Czech Republic, and I'm sure he's going to be eager to show he's always been worthy of top-line duty.

Yeah, it would be nice to have either Vasiljevs or Blueger to beef up our offense down the middle, but the only thing that genuinely worries me is our D corps. We're missing nearly every defenceman that can bring the puck up the ice and most of them don't even have a decent shot either.

We're going to have to heavily rely on Galvins and, yes, even Freibergs could be a worthy addition, especially on the powerplay. And when an ECHL/AHL guy is an improvement over anything on your team, it's not good news.

 

[kabidjan18]

Our depth offensively has increased over the last couple of years. There's a lot of young talent honing their skills in North America as well as Europe, and it's really not that problematic to fill any spots left open by the injured players. It's not going to leave a gaping hole in our roster.

We've lost Darzins, but Bukarts has had a breakout season in Czech Republic, and I'm sure he's going to be eager to show he's always been worthy of top-line duty.

Yeah, it would be nice to have either Vasiljevs or Blueger to beef up our offense down the middle, but the only thing that genuinely worries me is our D corps. We're missing nearly every defenceman that can bring the puck up the ice and most of them don't even have a decent shot either.

We're going to have to heavily rely on Galvins and, yes, even Freibergs could be a worthy addition, especially on the powerplay. And when an ECHL/AHL guy is an improvement over anything on your team, it's not good news.

Kazakhs add Bochenski, Dawes, Boyd, Latvia is obviously missing quite a few players, who wins, who drops? Your opinion.

 

[Namejs]

Oh, and both Kulda and Bartulis actually have injury issues. I don't think Beresnevs or Lipmans caused them. Same with K. Redlihs, obviously.

 

[Namejs]

Kazakhs add Bochenski, Dawes, Boyd, Latvia is obviously missing quite a few players, who wins, who drops? Your opinion.

Latvia still has a lot more depth even with all the Kazakh North American imports. Their top line is going to do a lot of damage, and not just against Latvia, but we're still going to be the favorites going into that game, barring a series of injuries to other key players.

Also, they've added Bochenski and others, but they've also lost a couple of players. Their core is aging and they don't have that many young domestic players climbing up the ranks.

UPD: I think our line-up last year was worse. Especially if we're going to be able to add Girgensons, Kenins, Jevpalovs and a couple of young, talented prospects that actually want to play.

 

[v-man]

We've lost Darzins, but Bukarts has had a breakout season in Czech Republic, and I'm sure he's going to be eager to show he's always been worthy of top-line duty.

You can't be serious, can you? The guy had a breakout season on a C league team after he couldn't make a decent go of it in the KHL. It's like saying a guy excelled in the ECHL after getting cut from the NHL. I certainly hope it's been good for his confidence after he came a miraculous Masalskis save away having LV demoted to the B pool for the first time in nearly 20 years last year, but lets not start pretending he's anywhere near top line worthy, even on a greatly diminished Latvian squad.

 

[kabidjan18]

You can't be serious, can you? The guy had a breakout season on a C league team after he couldn't make a decent go of it in the KHL. It's like saying a guy excelled in the ECHL after getting cut from the NHL. I certainly hope it's been good for his confidence after he came a miraculous Masalskis save away having LV demoted to the B pool for the first time in nearly 20 years last year, but lets not start pretending he's anywhere near top line worthy, even on a greatly diminished Latvian squad.

He's not better than Indrasis. For some reason no one (except a guy I'm not sure follows Riga) has Indrasis on their first line and I don't understand why. In my opinion he was the best forward for Riga other than Sestito, and he outscored Sestito by a lot, he led team scoring in fact. He hasn't been great for the national team, however, Bukarts has also been horrible for the NT and Kenins didn't exactly light it up when he was there either.

 

[Namejs]

You can't be serious, can you? The guy had a breakout season on a C league team after he couldn't make a decent go of it in the KHL. It's like saying a guy excelled in the ECHL after getting cut from the NHL. I certainly hope it's been good for his confidence after he came a miraculous Masalskis save away having LV demoted to the B pool for the first time in nearly 20 years last year, but lets not start pretending he's anywhere near top line worthy, even on a greatly diminished Latvian squad.

A 'C' league team? You're not an expert on European hockey, are you? For example, Tomas Rolinek, Martin Zatovic, Dominik Simon made the Czech national team with similar or lower numbers than Bukarts last year and the year before that.

Czech Extraliga has a higher NHLe and a similar KHLe (0.58) to NLA (0.60) or Liiga (0.64). What that means is that if Bukarts was capable of scoring 38 points in 46 games in Extraliga, he could become a 0.50 PPG player in the KHL, if given top line minutes and a place on a powerplay unit.

In comparison, Darzins is a 0.53 PPG career player in the KHL, Redlihs: 0.50 PPG.

You also seem to have missed the fact that he was misused in the KHL and placed on the 3rd/4th line, as well as sent to the Latvian league a couple of times. I'm not even a fan of his, but to say that he doesn't have the tools to be an efficient top 6 player, especially against 2nd tier opposition (Kazakhstan, Norway, Denmark) is, quite frankly, absurd.

And, once again, I don't even like him as a player. He's soft and doesn't work hard, he can be lazy defensively. Just like Darzins.

 

[Namejs]

He's not better than Indrasis. For some reason no one (except a guy I'm not sure follows Riga) has Indrasis on their first line and I don't understand why. In my opinion he was the best forward for Riga other than Sestito, and he outscored Sestito by a lot, he led team scoring in fact. He hasn't been great for the national team, however, Bukarts has also been horrible for the NT and Kenins didn't exactly light it up when he was there either.

No, he's not better than Indrasis. And, just to be clear, I wasn't trying to make the point that he's our leading winger. It was more of a reference to his own arrogance. Bukarts was sent to the Latvian league, called the opposing team 'a bunch of bums' and generally felt like his world class talent was being wasted in Riga.

So what I mean is, Bukarts is going to be highly motivated and very confident after the season he had in Czech Republic. Which is a) a good thing if you're a forward, b) it's the exact opposite of the trainwreck called Sprukts/Redlihs/etc. we had last year, who had nothing to prove and seemed to be more concerned about sightseeing and spending their time with families than hockey.

 

[GX]

Koba Jass also won't be invited to the camp.

Meanwhile, Daugavins, M.Sirokovs, R.Freibergs joined the camp today.

 

[ergi24]

Koba Jass is a wooden. Good decision Beresnevs. Also with Sprukts and Cipulis, Brahmanis, Jekimovs. I expect the arrival Rodrigo Abols, Roberts Bukars, Rihards Bukarts, Rudolf Balcers, Georgijs Pujacs, Janis Andersons, Renars Demiters, Maksims Ponomarenko, Edgars Siksna, Elvis Merzlikins, Ivars Punnenovs. They should be given space in preparation before the World Championships. Later Girgensons, maybe Ronalds Kenins, Nikita Jevpalovs, Kristers Gudlevskis...Of course Jēkabs Rēdlihs, maybe Krisjanis Redlihs, Elvijs Biezais.

 

[Namejs]

Koba Jass is a wooden. Good decision Beresnevs. Also with Sprukts and Cipulis, Brahmanis, Jekimovs. I expect the arrival Rodrigo Abols, Roberts Bukars, Rihards Bukarts, Rudolf Balcers, Georgijs Pujacs, Janis Andersons, Renars Demiters, Maksims Ponomarenko, Edgars Siksna, Elvis Merzlikins, Ivars Punnenovs. They should be given space in preparation before the World Championships.

Yup, at this level K. Jass is only good as a 4th-line agitator.

Rihards Bukarts is probably going to sign a contract in North America after he's done in the WHL play-offs (trailing 0-3 in the series atm). I'm not sure we're going to see him in the training camp.

A half of those players you named are not going to be of much use for us. For instance, Demiters is way undersized and just not good enough to crack the national team. Ponomarenko is an 18 yo defenceman, who played on the 2nd/3rd unit in the U20 WJC. I'm not saying he doesn't have the potential, but it's too early for him to make his debut with the big boys, etc.

 

[ergi24]

Young blood. New motivation. Focus on the future. In attack are beautiful possibilities. The situation is worse in defense. I miss there super talent. Goalies will rank among the best in the World Championships. Masalskis and Merzlikins, maybe Gudlevskis. Latvia does not descend. I think Norway or Kazakhstan. Latvia is dear to my heart.

 

[Namejs]

Merzlikins

It's funny you brought Merzlikins up, because most Latvian fans for some reason consider him to be at the level of some of our European minor pro/semi-pro league goalies, because he's had a couple of mediocre showings in exhibition games with the national team, you see.

Merzlikins is easily the most talented goalie we've had since Irbe. He has great size, he's very athletic, and he can make the first pass better than some of our defencemen. Masalskis also had a great season in the KHL. So, yeah, we should be settled in the goalie department. As long as our coaching staff is more competent than our casual hockey fans.

 

[kabidjan18]

A 'C' league team? You're not an expert on European hockey, are you? For example, Tomas Rolinek, Martin Zatovic, Dominik Simon made the Czech national team with similar or lower numbers than Bukarts last year and the year before that.

Czech Extraliga has a higher NHLe and a similar KHLe (0.58) to NLA (0.60) or Liiga (0.64). What that means is that if Bukarts was capable of scoring 38 points in 46 games in Extraliga, he could become a 0.50 PPG player in the KHL, if given top line minutes and a place on a powerplay unit.

In comparison, Darzins is a 0.53 PPG career player in the KHL, Redlihs: 0.50 PPG.

You also seem to have missed the fact that he was misused in the KHL and placed on the 3rd/4th line, as well as sent to the Latvian league a couple of times. I'm not even a fan of his, but to say that he doesn't have the tools to be an efficient top 6 player, especially against 2nd tier opposition (Kazakhstan, Norway, Denmark) is, quite frankly, absurd.

And, once again, I don't even like him as a player. He's soft and doesn't work hard, he can be lazy defensively. Just like Darzins.

When an Extraliga player makes the Czech team it's due to filling a roster, in the case of Simon because he was a prospect. I'm not sure quite what you think happened with him. Did he improve massively or is he just being used better? The first seems unlikely, he represented Latvia in 3 friendlies post-move this season and never scored, and the second wouldn't help the NT for obvious reasons. Also these tier 2 teams are better than Extraliga teams. Darzins has been Latvia's best offensive forward in international play, and he will be replaced without significant drop-off by a player who has scoring problems on the international stage but is now getting first line minutes in another league. I don't buy it, there is no one who meant more offensively than Darzins, downplaying his effect in his absence doesn't mean he wasn't as good as what he was.

 

[kabidjan18]

Young blood. New motivation. Focus on the future. In attack are beautiful possibilities. The situation is worse in defense. I miss there super talent. Goalies will rank among the best in the World Championships. Masalskis and Merzlikins, maybe Gudlevskis. Latvia does not descend. I think Norway or Kazakhstan. Latvia is dear to my heart.

Norway will have Andreas Martinsen since Colorado is probably out, but he's terrible, at least in the NHL he has glaring offensive problems, and his defense is worse. Defense definitely is the weak point, I see Kazakhstan's 155 point line giving Latvia more problems than Norway. Rubins was invited to camp I think though, there are some good defensemen coming up.

 

[Namejs]

When an Extraliga player makes the Czech team it's due to filling a roster, in the case of Simon because he was a prospect. I'm not sure quite what you think happened with him. Did he improve massively or is he just being used better? The first seems unlikely, he represented Latvia in 3 friendlies post-move this season and never scored, and the second wouldn't help the NT for obvious reasons. Also these tier 2 teams are better than Extraliga teams. Darzins has been Latvia's best offensive forward in international play, and he will be replaced without significant drop-off by a player who has scoring problems on the international stage but is now getting first line minutes in another league. I don't buy it, there is no one who meant more offensively than Darzins, downplaying his effect in his absence doesn't mean he wasn't as good as what he was.

Filling a roster? 4 goals for Rolinek, 6 points for Simon in the World Champs. Quite the fillers. And Latvia obviously lies a tier below Czech Republic.

I don't think Bukarts improved massively, he's just being used better. He's a typical Euro top 6 forward. He needs to play in the top 6. If he's used correctly, he can produce.

And I'm not sure I can agree on tier 2 teams being better than Extraliga teams. About 40% of the Norwegian roster consists of domestic players. The two Norwegian CHL teams (with import players) played roughly on par with mediocre Extraliga teams, which also have some players with NHL experience and so on. I think the level is pretty similar to the top half of Extraliga.

And Bukarts did continue to produce in the play-offs as well, btw. As for his record so far with the national team, you're forgetting that he hasn't exactly enjoyed the same kind of use Darzins has. He didn't play on the top lines and on the PP the whole time, like Darzins did.

And I'm not downplaying anything, Darzins would have a more limited use in a bottom six role as well, as proved by his stint with AK Bars and Traktor. With him gone, Indrasis, Bukarts or maybe someone else will have the chance to step up and fill his shoes. Seriously, he's not irreplaceable.

 

[kabidjan18]

Filling a roster? 4 goals for Rolinek, 6 points for Simon in the World Champs. Quite the fillers. And Latvia obviously lies a tier below Czech Republic.

I don't think Bukarts improved massively, he's just being used better. He's a typical Euro top 6 forward. He needs to play in the top 6. If he's used correctly, he can produce.

And I'm not sure I can agree on tier 2 teams being better than Extraliga teams. About 40% of the Norwegian roster consists of domestic players. The two Norwegian CHL teams (with import players) played roughly on par with mediocre Extraliga teams, which also have some players with NHL experience and so on. I think the level is pretty similar to the top half of Extraliga.

And Bukarts did continue to produce in the play-offs as well, btw. As for his record so far with the national team, you're forgetting that he hasn't exactly enjoyed the same kind of use Darzins has. He didn't play on the top lines and on the PP the whole time, like Darzins did.

And I'm not downplaying anything, Darzins would have a more limited use in a bottom six role as well, as proved by his stint with AK Bars and Traktor. With him gone, Indrasis, Bukarts or maybe someone else will have the chance to step up and fill his shoes. Seriously, he's not irreplaceable.

Rolinek was in the KHL at the time, he was also not 35. Bukarts did produce in the playoffs yes, he was 39th in the league for playoff ppg, not bad, same amount of points as Brian Inahacak, the former Italy player. I'm sure he'd produce more with more ice time but Darzins has outscored even Daugavins at every recent event.

The national team takes the best Norwegians of these two CHL teams as well as some other Norwegian teams, and then adds 60% exports (Stavanger is 25% imports, Stormhamar is 28%), and these exports are much more skilled than the Norway league experts, neither are most Extraliga teams CHL teams.

My depth still goes:
Daugavins - Girgensons - Indrasis
Kenins - Dzerins - Redlihs
_____ - ______ - Bukarts

He played plenty of top 6 minutes just recently against Slovakia B, Austria local, and France and didn't find his way onto the box score. Playing with better players than the players Latvia featured in that tournament will help his production however so would Redlihs or Indrasis.

 

[kabidjan18]

I think some of us are still shocked that Namejs like Roberts bukarts now lol, I personally only came to dislike him because namejs did (back before I started following Riga)

 

[Namejs]

Rolinek was in the KHL at the time, he was also not 35. Bukarts did produce in the playoffs yes, he was 39th in the league for playoff ppg, not bad, same amount of points as Brian Inahacak, the former Italy player. I'm sure he'd produce more with more ice time but Darzins has outscored even Daugavins at every recent event.

The national team takes the best Norwegians of these two CHL teams as well as some other Norwegian teams, and then adds 60% exports (Stavanger is 25% imports, Stormhamar is 28%), and these exports are much more skilled than the Norway league experts, neither are most Extraliga teams CHL teams.

My depth still goes:
Daugavins - Girgensons - Indrasis
Kenins - Dzerins - Redlihs
_____ - ______ - Bukarts

He played plenty of top 6 minutes just recently against Slovakia B, Austria local, and France and didn't find his way onto the box score. Playing with better players than the players Latvia featured in that tournament will help his production however so would Redlihs or Indrasis.

Rolinek wasn't in the KHL at the time. He was playing in Extraliga. Yes, he wasn't 35, he was 34.

Bukarts was one of the reasons why Zlin made the play-offs in the first place. His scoring run is what propelled them forwards. If you want to objectively compare his offensive production with other players in the league, you need to increase the sample size. It doesn't make sense to look at just 6 games. That's not how it works. Especially not if you're going to look at a below average team's stats in a series, in which they got thumped.

Out of all the players with 10+ games under their belt, Bukarts ranks 8th in PPG during the regular season. He's ranked between Vampola (a 2010 World champion with the Czech national team and a 2011 bronze medalist) and Olesz (7 OA NHL draft pick, 365 games in the NHL, Olympic bronze medalist).

I suggest you to take a look at the Norwegian roster. Most of the other additions besides the local players are from leagues like Allsvenskan, Austria, Liiga, DEL. In what way specifically are most of these players any better? The only marked improvements to their roster come from SHL, KHL and AHL/NHL, but the number of players with that kind of experience is not any bigger than the number of import players or domestic veteran players with NHL/KHL/SHL experience on the leading Extraliga teams.

 

[Namejs]

I think some of us are still shocked that Namejs like Roberts bukarts now lol, I personally only came to dislike him because namejs did (back before I started following Riga)

I still dislike him. Just because I dislike him doesn't mean that I'm going to call him a useless player. Honestly, before his scoring explosion in Extraliga, I didn't believe he would cut it at this level, but he proved me wrong. The numbers speak for themselves.

In any case, there will be plenty of exhibition games during the next 4-5 weeks, so we'll be able to tell if he's a better option than Redlihs or some other guy.

Oh, and Kenins is almost certainly going to make the Calder Cup play-offs. So he's going to be back in Europe only about a week before the start of the World Champs *the earliest* (assuming Utica Comets will lose the 1st round series). Who are you going to put in that LW slot, if Kenins is not available?

 

[Namejs]

Sorry, it seems I've confused Rolinek with Zatovic. I thought I was looking at Rolinek's tab, when I had Zatovic's tab open. They scored 2 goals each in the World Champs when they were playing in Extraliga, not 4.

 

[kabidjan18]

Sorry, it seems I've confused Rolinek with Zatovic. I thought I was looking at Rolinek's tab, when I had Zatovic's tab open. They scored 2 goals each in the World Champs when they were playing in Extraliga, not 4.

I count 2 points not 2 goals but the difference is trivial.

Many would argue that a few of the leagues you mentioned there are more competitive than Extraliga, not less. Liiga is easily better, but in the inaugural CHL season the EBEL teams also left a deeper impression. It's inaccurate to call the league the Austria league as half the teams aren't Austrian and more than half the Austrian teams are imports. The DEL is also very competitive and Allsvenskan is the top B league in europe. Also you can't really take a player like Josh Soares, 34, with his handful of AHL games and handful of SHL games from years ago and even compare him to current Norwegian stars like Thoresen or Olimb or even Martinsen. Yeah he played a little in the same leagues but he would've been the role of eating their dust. Jacob Berglund for Storhamar has never played in better than Allsvenskan before the Norwegian league, however, at least in his case he is not old and no longer playing at the level he was when he was in other leagues. Dan Kissel is the final star import for those teams, he had all of a two game AHL loan before Norway. The Norwegian league is heavy in local strength, partially due to finances, which is why the export factor is very small. The perception of Norway as a less potent team is fairly recent, I think people just assumed after they lost to Austria on the big stage that Austria=bad therefore Norway=now worse but people forget they auto-qualled into that Olympics based on previous success.

The problem with the people you mentioned who sandwich Bukarts is that what they did 5 years ago indicates who they were, but not what they've become. A lot of the European leagues, but especially surprisingly Liiga are retirement homes filled with old players. Even if Bukarts can get going I see him scoring maybe 4 or 5 points in this tournament, just under his Extraliga average, not 10 like Darzins or even PPG like Olympic Darzins. Bukarts isn't a 5th grader who can't skate but he won't singlehandedly replace Darzins, others will have to pick up the slack as well, Kenins as you mentioned and Girgensons.

Hmmm, can Bukarts do left wing? Skvorcovs is a right wing as well. If Skvorcovs was a natural left wing I might go with him over Bukarts but right now I'd just have to go with Bukarts.

 

[Namejs]

Many would argue that a few of the leagues you mentioned there are more competitive than Extraliga, not less. Liiga is easily better, but in the inaugural CHL season the EBEL teams also left a deeper impression. It's inaccurate to call the league the Austria league as half the teams aren't Austrian and more than half the Austrian teams are imports. The DEL is also very competitive and Allsvenskan is the top B league in europe. Also you can't really take a player like Josh Soares, 34, with his handful of AHL games and handful of SHL games from years ago and even compare him to current Norwegian stars like Thoresen or Olimb or even Martinsen. Yeah he played a little in the same leagues but he would've been the role of eating their dust. Jacob Berglund for Storhamar has never played in better than Allsvenskan before the Norwegian league, however, at least in his case he is not old and no longer playing at the level he was when he was in other leagues. Dan Kissel is the final star import for those teams, he had all of a two game AHL loan before Norway. The Norwegian league is heavy in local strength, partially due to finances, which is why the export factor is very small. The perception of Norway as a less potent team is fairly recent, I think people just assumed after they lost to Austria on the big stage that Austria=bad therefore Norway=now worse but people forget they auto-qualled into that Olympics based on previous success.

The problem with the people you mentioned who sandwich Bukarts is that what they did 5 years ago indicates who they were, but not what they've become. A lot of the European leagues, but especially surprisingly Liiga are retirement homes filled with old players. Even if Bukarts can get going I see him scoring maybe 4 or 5 points in this tournament, just under his Extraliga average, not 10 like Darzins or even PPG like Olympic Darzins. Bukarts isn't a 5th grader who can't skate but he won't singlehandedly replace Darzins, others will have to pick up the slack as well, Kenins as you mentioned and Girgensons.

Hmmm, can Bukarts do left wing? Skvorcovs is a right wing as well. If Skvorcovs was a natural left wing I might go with him over Bukarts but right now I'd just have to go with Bukarts.

It's not just about the league they play in, but what sort of players they are. Just because Liiga is slightly better, it doesn't mean that the guy playing there is an improvement over a Norwegian-based player. Jekimovs played in Liiga and was relatively succesful there, yet he didn't make our national team twice and he didn't even get invited to the training camp this year.

Look at Dahlstrom, Bastiansen or Lovlie. They moved from Austria and Allsvenskan respectively to Norway this season. What are you saying, the Norwegian team is going to be worse now because they switched leagues or something? Or what about someone like Bonsaksen? He played in the domestic league and moved to Liiga. Who cares if he's playing in Finland now? The bulk of the Norwegian national team is by no means better than the players on a good Extraliga side. Yes, there are players that are too good for Extraliga (Thoresen) or who would be some of the leading players in the league (Olimbs), but you also get some really quite mediocre ones that wouldn't make it in Extraliga.

In other words, there is a major overlap in terms of skill between a good Extraliga team and a team like Norway or Denmark or Latvia for that matter. An Extraliga scrub like J. Redlihs could easily crack our roster, for example. And we're talking about upper 2nd tier teams now. Austria, Slovenia, Kazakhstan are worse.

As for the point about 'retirement homes', national teams have 35+ year olds too. Olesz is actually 9 months younger than Darzins. He's not an invalid.

Also, last year was probably our worst year offensively in a very, very long time. Darzins-Daugavins was a dynamic duo that saved us from relegation, but it's not like Darzins has been scoring 10 points every time. Not to mention that he was very underwhelming in the KHL at the tail end of the season.