WC: General Talk '14 — Latvia

[Namejs]

Unfortunately, it seems like it is becoming the norm for Team Latvia to send their B team to IHWC.

Only 2 players from the Sochi line-up will go to Finland for the first 2 exhibition games @ 10/04 and 11/04. And one of them is the 3rd goalie.

List of players who will not attend IHWC:
G:
Gudļevskis (?)
Merzļikins
D:
OzoliņÅ¡
Reķis
Kr. Rēdlihs
Pujacs
Freibergs
F:
Vasiļjevs
Pavlovs
+ a bunch of other players haven't announced anything yet (Kulda/Bārtulis/DārziņÅ¡/Sprukts/M. Rēdlihs/ĶēniņÅ¡/etc.)

I genuinely have no clue why they're sending our C team to Finland.

I'm pretty pissed off. This could've been a great tournament. Now we'll have to fight to stay up in the Elite division most likely.

Click to read more...

 

[RobertR]

Yeah, I guess we joined that elite club, that we don't need those "not best of the best tournaments".

I'am still not worried about elimination or something, we will still have a decent team. I imagine Zemgus will still go, Daugavins said that he will play, if the gets invited. Kenins is still a young guy, so if he will be healthy, he will play.

We will have a lot of young guys, and who knows, maybe someone will open up like Gudlevskis or Indrasis.

But yeah, or team to that Euro cup, where we play Finland, is brutal.

 

[Namejs]

Yeah, I guess we joined that elite club, that we don't need those "not best of the best tournaments".

Yeah, except we have no depth and we risk losing against teams like Kazakhstan or Belarus who will send all of their best available players.

I'am still not worried about elimination or something, we will still have a decent team.

A decent team relative to what? Slovenia? Italy?

Our entire D corps is butchered.

 

[Namejs]

No Bārtulis, no Sprukts as well. So at least 6 of our Olympic Ds won't be there, as well as 3 of our top4 Centers and 2 of our top3 goalies.

And a bunch of players still haven't confirmed whether they will join the team (Kulda/Karsums/IndraÅ¡is/ĶēniņÅ¡/M. Rēdlihs/DaugaviņÅ¡). Great stuff.

Calling it the B team wouldn't even be exaggerating at this point.

I genuinely don't think our roster is going to be better than the rosters of Team Belarus or Kazakhstan. It would be a shame if this is how our 18-year-in-a-row streak of staying up in the Elite division ends.

 

[SoundAndFury]

I, for one, would really like to see how these Latvian depth players look. Not to mention that some Latvian expert here said that Latvian B team is still as good as Slovenia. If he wasn't that far off Latvians will have no trouble staying up. Problem is, he was. But it just adds intrigue to the tournament.

 

[Namejs]

I, for one, would really like to see how these Latvian depth players look. Not to mention that some Latvian expert here said that Latvian B team is still as good as Slovenia. If he wasn't that far off Latvians will have no trouble staying up. Problem is, he was. But it just adds intrigue to the tournament.

The Latvian B team is definitely just as good or better than the Slovenian A team.

The only problem with that is that Slovenia is not an Elite-tier team. Whenever they do make the Elite division, they demote to the 2nd tier.

UPD: Also, Kazakhstan and Belarus are both better than Slovenia.

 

[How Ya Drouin]

Is Kenins going to play? Would be a good experience for him, and will give us Canucks fans another option to see him play

 

[Namejs]

Is Kenins going to play? Would be a good experience for him, and will give us Canucks fans another option to see him play

No info on him so far. He's still playing in the NLA play-offs as of now. We'll know for sure when the NLA finals end.

 

[airbus1094]

How are the WC perceived in Latvia? I seemed to think that it was important to the Latvian fans.

 

[Namejs]

How are the WC perceived in Latvia? I seemed to think that it was important to the Latvian fans.

It is important, but not as important as 10 or 15 years ago when we didn't have a major pro hockey club in the country and the fans couldn't watch major pro hockey on a regular basis.

The fact that there's a Latvian-based club in the KHL in on itself is an important factor why a lot of the players aren't very eager to play when they have some minor injuries and why their motivation isn't as strong as it was a decade ago. They have a guaranteed contract in the KHL and they don't have to 'market' themselves in international games.

Another factor is that this is our 18th straight year in the Elite division. It's not something special anymore. Having played in 4 Olympic Games in a row, there's also a growing understanding that the World Champs are essentially a 2nd tier tournament.

Don't get me wrong though, the World Champs are still HIGHLY popular in Latvia.

 

[Rihis]

Punnenovs with a shootout in his debut game vs Russia.

We might see last years Gudlevskis scenario this year maybe? If he plays good in WC, we might have another goalie drafted.

 

[RobertR]

Yeah, I really hope both Merzly and Punnenovs get drafted.

Really liked Jekimovs today.

 

[Namejs]

Punnenovs with a shootout in his debut game vs Russia.

We might see last years Gudlevskis scenario this year maybe? If he plays good in WC, we might have another goalie drafted.

Elvis Merzlikins is most likely going to get drafted anyway.

Punnenovs played great on a terrible NLA team (they conceded 200 goals in 50 games), so his stats aren't as pretty, but he has showed both in U-20 games and now that he's just as talented if not more talented than Merzlikins.

So I'm hoping the both of them get drafted.

 

[ozo]

Not relevant to the topic really, but I love that Ozolins and the Doc gets the Order of the Three Stars. So weird that this makes me feel so good, but I ****ing love them both!

 

[RobertR]

Yeah, that`s great news.

Btw, I was thinking about our goalie situation at WC. Its sucks that one of the four (Masala, Gudlevskis, Punnenovs, Merzlikins) will be left out from the team. :/ Moooost likely one of the two youngsters. :/

 

[Namejs]

Yeah, that`s great news.

Btw, I was thinking about our goalie situation at WC. Its sucks that one of the four (Masala, Gudlevskis, Punnenovs, Merzlikins) will be left out from the team. :/ Moooost likely one of the two youngsters. :/

I don't think Merzlikins is with the team right now.

Someone from the federation said that he's coming a few of days ago, but I don't think he's in Latvia atm. Take a look at his twitter account. I actually thought he's injured, so the news about him joining our training camp was a bit of a surprise to me. Maybe he is injured? No clue.

Not to mention that Gudļevskis and Masaļskis would probably be the main goalies anyway, so it's not like Merzļikins/Punnenovs are going to get any playing time.

 

[v-man]

Yeah, I remember reading that Merzy is injured and most likely won't be available in time, so Punnenovs has the #3 spot pretty much wrapped up, for what it's worth. Should be a good experience for him, even if he most likely won't see any playing time. I can see them dressing him as the back-up for one of the round robin games though, much like they did with Mustukovs during the Olympics. On the bright side, after such a long time with a goalie drought, this is not a bad problem for LV to have, especially with the influx of injured top d-men.

 

[RobertR]

https://twitter.com/LETAsportsEXTRA/status/459336284822310914/photo/1

 

[Namejs]

https://twitter.com/LETAsportsEXTRA/status/459336284822310914/photo/1

Yup, mystery solved - Merzlikins joined the national team earlier today.

Also, as far as I understand, ĶēniņÅ¡ has gone to Vancouver after winning the Swiss championship. Might be some issues with the contract or something?

 

[RobertR]

Yeah, I also heard somewhere in the news, that he has some business in Canada, then he will join the team.

Still, about goalie situation, maybe Kristers decides to not go to WC, he had a really busy season, maybe he needs some more rest, he will have a really deciding/tough next season, if Vasilevsky arrives in Tamp. And that will allow us to test both our youngesters.

 

[Namejs]

Yeah, I also heard somewhere in the news, that he has some business in Canada, then he will join the team.

Still, about goalie situation, maybe Kristers decides to not go to WC, he had a really busy season, maybe he needs some more rest, he will have a really deciding/tough next season, if Vasilevsky arrives in Tamp. And that will allow us to test both our youngesters.

Gudlevskis is still a youngster with very limited pro experience as well. I definitely don't feel that he's earned the 1st goalie spot just because of a couple of great games.

 

[Rihis]

Well, we're starting to look better.
Good to see that we were able to score some goals.

So Girg, ĶēniņÅ¡ will play next week, as I understand DārziņÅ¡ won't be able to help, and what about Karsums?

 

[Namejs]

Yup, we are starting to look better, although our D is still butchered right now. The bottom pairing Ds (Gipters, Jaks, Saviels, Porejs) are clearly not very good. I could tolerate Jass/Å irokovs being the 7th/8th Ds with little to hopefully no actual playing time in the World Champs, but those 4 guys are just not good enough for IHWC at this point and time.

I mean, whenever they were on the ice in exhibition games, it felt like we're going to concede a goal.

It's crucial that J. Rēdlihs/Pujacs/Kr. Rēdlihs join the team, if we want to be competitive.

Even though we're missing some leading forwards, there are no major problems offensively, as we have enough depth there.

As for DārziņÅ¡ and Karsums, I don't have a clue. Karsums was watching the game vs. France in person, while DārziņÅ¡ has allegedly said that 'he's feeling better' after a severe case of tonsillitis. I guess that means that there's still a chance they might join the team.

 

[Namejs]

Just for the fun of it:

G
Masaļskis
Gudļevskis
Merzļikins/Punnenovs

D
Kulda - Kr. Rēdlihs(?)
Pujacs(?) - Sotnieks
GalviņÅ¡ - J. Rēdlihs
LaviņÅ¡, M. Jass

F
DārziņÅ¡(?) - DaugaviņÅ¡ - M. Rēdlihs
Indrašis - Girgensons - Karsums(?)
Cipulis - Vasiļjevs - Ņiživijs
ĶēniņÅ¡ - BērziņÅ¡ - Å tāls
DžeriņÅ¡, R. Lipsbergs

Not too shabby if they all can make it.

 

[Rihis]

Just for the fun of it:

G
Masaļskis
Gudļevskis
Merzļikins/Punnenovs

D
Kulda - Kr. Rēdlihs(?)
Pujacs(?) - Sotnieks
GalviņÅ¡ - J. Rēdlihs
LaviņÅ¡, M. Jass

F
DārziņÅ¡(?) - DaugaviņÅ¡ - M. Rēdlihs
Indrašis - Girgensons - Karsums(?)
Cipulis - Vasiļjevs - Ņiživijs
ĶēniņÅ¡ - BērziņÅ¡ - Å tāls
DžeriņÅ¡, R. Lipsbergs

Not too shabby if they all can make it.

That forward group looks nice.
It would be nice to see that defensive core too, because it's pretty weak as it is now.

Really looking forward to the tournament.