GDT: Czechia vs Latvia - 3pm PT/ 6pm ET/ Midnight CEST

[kudla]

Did Slovakia get relegated or what are the rules this year? I'm wondering because the removal of Russia might have changed the rules in some way.

No

 

[Summer Rose]

Did Slovakia get relegated or what are the rules this year? I'm wondering because the removal of Russia might have changed the rules in some way.

There's no relegation from this tournament. Slovakia is simply eliminated.

 

[Czechboy]

 

[Mestaruus]

edit: got my answer already.

 

[Ginger Papa]

Oh my god, what a game and result for us.

It did feel like we made Canadians and Finns at least a bit nervous and we shit our own bed vs Slovaks, but still... this was surprising, but wjat a team effort. Lot of great guys on it with loads of passion

Congratulations my Latvian friend.

Always a great day when something happens to grow the Game around the world.

Cheers

 

[goonybird]

It's hard to be upset... I was happy for Latvia.. they gutted that third out beautifully. Nice work. I felt terrible for the Slovaks in the stands (the only people in the stands.lol).

Bednar has been weak... He almost set up the fifth goal.

Didn't notice jiricek much at all.

I think we are averaging 4 or 5 goals against this tourney... Canada got 5... Slovaks got 4... Latvia got 5... Can't remember what Finn's got but this is our best d in a decade and we are getting shelled. Bednar might be like skarek... Great goalie but leaky on national team. I was hoping for cajan but he's in stands. Curious who starts Wednesday?

No complaints... We had us or Sweden no matter what. I thought we looked good in third.

Congrats on breaking the 27 game losing streak Latvia and I hope you put up a good game against US or Sweden on Wednesday.

Sorry to Slovakia.. you deserved a better fate. 2 days rest will be nice.

Like the team in general, Jiricek started getting going in the third but Latvia defended superbly. As a Devils fan i wanted to nitpick Jiricek but liked what i caught of him late. Didn't watch much of the first two periods though

 

[GermanSpitfire]

Did Slovakia get relegated or what are the rules this tournament? I'm wondering because the removal of Russia might have changed the rules in some way.

No relegation this year.

 

[Kalv]

Congratulations! I'm happy for you.

Congrats.

Thank you! Really big deal for us.

I wonder if Niks Fenenko gets another look from scouts this year. As a late-04, he was just a few weeks away from being FY 2023-eligible.

I was surprised we had three other ayers picked and not him. He is arguably the best one. Late burthday, solid size, solid defensively and untapped offense. I hope he gets picked next draft

Congratulations my Latvian friend.

Always a great day when something happens to grow the Game around the world.

View attachment 576990
Cheers

Thank you!!!

 

[Elvs]

I thought I saw some great hockey expert here claiming many times that Latvia doesn’t belong in this tournament. Would he be willing to still explain his very creative explanation why so?

Congratz Latvia! You have had a very impressive team in this tournament. I’m very happy to see more of it!

I know right.

In the last best-on-best tournament (2014 Olympics) Latvia only made the quarterfinals, where Canada annihilated them with a 2-1 win.

Then, in the 2021 world championship, they only beat Canada and forced Finland to OT. And their last two meetings with Sweden they were dominated with 4-5 and 0-1 losses.

This summer they had one of their best NHL drafts ever, and now they beat Czechia at the world juniors and also pushed Slovakia to a shootout.

Latvia with their population of 1.9 million people should do a lot better. Playing close games against Canada, and even beating them, is not enough. Let's make international tournaments only consist of four teams. When Russia comes back they can have Canada's spot, seeing how Canada is roughly at Latvia's level

 

[ORRFForever]

It's hard to be upset... I was happy for Latvia.. they gutted that third out beautifully. Nice work. I felt terrible for the Slovaks in the stands (the only people in the stands.lol).

Bednar has been weak... He almost set up the fifth goal.

Didn't notice jiricek much at all.

I think we are averaging 4 or 5 goals against this tourney... Canada got 5... Slovaks got 4... Latvia got 5... Can't remember what Finn's got but this is our best d in a decade and we are getting shelled. Bednar might be like skarek... Great goalie but leaky on national team. I was hoping for cajan but he's in stands. Curious who starts Wednesday?

No complaints... We had us or Sweden no matter what. I thought we looked good in third.

Congrats on breaking the 27 game losing streak Latvia and I hope you put up a good game against US or Sweden on Wednesday.

Sorry to Slovakia.. you deserved a better fate. 2 days rest will be nice.

You ALWAYS take the high road. Well done.

 

[GermanSpitfire]

Don‘t bash the ignorant.

They live in their bubble and can’t appreciate things that they’re not familiar with.

Latvia is a very passionate sports country - all you have to do is look back to when the country banded together to get Zemgus Girgensons voted into the all star game.

Let’s hope they learn from their ignorance.

 

[kudla]

Congratulations to Latvia!! Excellent performance

 

[Eye of Ra]

Nice work, Latvia!

But....Czechs where probaly tired. Czechs still good team, they where great against Finland.

Canada, USA, Finland and Czechs are the 4 best teams in the tournaments.

 

[Kalv]

Noticed throughout the tournament that this team has a lot of passion.
They might had not be the most skilled but they really really wanted this.

 

[Antiillafire]

No relegation this year.

It’s a shame, we deserve to be relegated.

 

[Canada4Gold]

Wasn’t that relegation? This was supposedly their first preliminary round win.

The commentators didn't make that distinction did they? Just said first win. I was multi-tasking so I may have screwed it up

 

[Summer Rose]

The commentators didn't make that distinction did they? Just said first win. I was multi-tasking so I may have screwed it up

No, you heard it right. They didn't specify preliminary round win when they said it. Not on NHL Network anyway, though NHL Network just steals the TSN feed.

 

[Canada4Gold]

No, you heard it right. They didn't specify preliminary round win when they said it. Not on NHL Network anyway, though NHL Network just steals the TSN feed.

Was it Button? I was going to rip on Button, he's made a ton of mistakes this tourney but I wasn't sure if it was him.

His "I don't even know why they're reviewing this, it clearly went in" 3 seconds before the replay where it clearly hit the crossbar the other day was hilarious. Especially because he was on the fence initially and then for no reason with no evidence incorrectly ripped on the review.

 

[Summer Rose]

Was it Button? I was going to rip on Button, he's made a ton of mistakes this tourney but I wasn't sure if it was him.

His "I don't even know why they're reviewing this, it clearly went in" 3 seconds before the replay where it clearly hit the crossbar the other day was hilarious. Especially because he was on the fence initially and then for no reason with no evidence incorrectly ripped on the review.

I missed the first half of the first period, so I don't know who the announcers were. Sorry.

 

[Antiillafire]

Really shame no relegation, this Slovak team and coaching staff deserves to go down

 

[Statsy]

The commentators didn't make that distinction did they? Just said first win. I was multi-tasking so I may have screwed it up

They did, in fact, make that distinction.

 

[Boonk]

This was a unique scenario - usually when a team gets promoted from Division 1A, the next year their team is gutted and a lot of the players that caused the team to get promoted to the top division have aged out. This was an extremely unique situation that caused Latvia to get up to the top division - most of this team had already played together, so they were much more prepared for this tournament than any other teams.
Latvia beating Germany in the way that they did in the pre tournament caused me to believe.

The IIHF really needs to change this for the U20 level. It would give more incentive for the lower tier smaller nation teams fighting for promotion with their best age group for that year, instead of simply winning the promotion to the elite level for the team next year with none of the players from the currenr team to get annihilated.

 

[SoundAndFury]

You love to see it. Especially after @LEAFANFORLIFE23 gave the lecture about belonging and whatnot.

 

[SoundAndFury]

This was a unique scenario - usually when a team gets promoted from Division 1A, the next year their team is gutted and a lot of the players that caused the team to get promoted to the top division have aged out.

Even though that's usually the case it has to be noted that the core of this team is eligible for next year as well. It's only losing ~5 important players.

 

[Eye of Ra]

You love to see it. Especially after @LEAFANFORLIFE23 gave the lecture about belonging and whatnot.

amen