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WC: General Talk '14 — Latvia

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Hopefully Jaks sees as much ice time as Freibergs did in Sochi.
 
Defense is something we must be worried in the long-term. For years now our junior teams have lacked good defensemen. Still, it is good that both Jaks and Siksna get a chance, and get an experience of playing at the top level, despite the fact that odds are that those are most likely empty bullets that will never be anything bigger than let's say Māris Jass. (And I would rate both Porejs and Salija in the same category)

I sort of liked what I saw in both Toms Bernhards and Roberts Vīksna (1995 both of them) in the Latvian league, but it's the Latvian league.. If they can't crack the HK Riga roster while they are 18, it is quite unrealistic of them becoming anything significant. I mean, HK Riga doesn't have any solid D prospects either.
 
GX said:
Defense is something we must be worried in the long-term. For years now our junior teams have lacked good defensemen. Still, it is good that both Jaks and Siksna get a chance, and get an experience of playing at the top level, despite the fact that odds are that those are most likely empty bullets that will never be anything bigger than let's say Māris Jass. (And I would rate both Porejs and Salija in the same category)

I sort of liked what I saw in both Toms Bernhards and Roberts Vīksna (1995 both of them) in the Latvian league, but it's the Latvian league.. If they can't crack the HK Riga roster while they are 18, it is quite unrealistic of them becoming anything significant. I mean, HK Riga doesn't have any solid D prospects either.
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Jaks, Salija and Porejs are all the same size and talent as far as i am concerned. I can't see Porejs making anything else beside the usual Eastern Europe leagues. Why isn't he making a break out of Dinamo system is not something i can really grasp. He won't be a regular player in the main team for the next two seasons atleast, if ever. It is just a major waste of time even being in there. Atleast Salija is making a run for it..

What about Jaks? Well, this is his big chance. He has to show himself as good as possible, then try to flee to NA, the same as Gudlevskis did. Not that i really believe that will happen given their different situations.
 
Arthur said:
What about Jaks? Well, this is his big chance. He has to show himself as good as possible, then try to flee to NA, the same as Gudlevskis did. Not that i really believe that will happen given their different situations.
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Our defensemen have been doing quite miserably in the CHL in the past few years, though. :D The future does't seem bright with regards to D men.
 
I just hope we will resist the urge to naturalize a couple of defenders and that we won't turn into another Belarus (12 naturalized players) or Kazakhstan (7 naturalized players) anytime soon.
 
Namejs said:
I just hope we will resist the urge to naturalize a couple of defenders and that we won't turn into another Belarus (12 naturalized players) or Kazakhstan (7 naturalized players) anytime soon.
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Luckily, all our foreigners tend to stick around only for a year or have played already for junior teams of their birth countries. Still, remember the Holt rumors?
 
GX said:
Our defensemen have been doing quite miserably in the CHL in the past few years, though. :D The future does't seem bright with regards to D men.
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Defenseman just have to get their ***** out of Latvia/KHL/MHL/Belarus and they have a chance to improve their play and stature :)
 
Arthur said:
What about Jaks? Well, this is his big chance. He has to show himself as good as possible, then try to flee to NA, the same as Gudlevskis did. Not that i really believe that will happen given their different situations.
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I've never understood that ''flee to NA'' thing. Also, about Gudļevskis. If he stayed here, he'd have plenty of chances in KHL. He went to NA, his decision and it obviously paid off to him, but what if he was stuck in ECHL?? I mean, this season for him was a pretty MAJOR exception of how things go in NA. You don't usually get drafted in late rounds as an overager, then come to ECHL and during the (FIRST!!!) season in North America claw out your place to start a game in NHL play-offs. His career so far has been a big exception from the norm and the fact that he achieved this all in not only his first year in North America but also in his first year in adult professional hockey is nothing short of amazing and more than anything else stresses the fact that he was already SKILLS wise and MENTALLY prepared to play and work this way in Latvia.

If we look at Sotnieks, here's a defensemen raised entirely in Latvia and has played his whole career in Latvia and he's good enough for top 6 role or even to be the best d-man at least in WC for us. Or Indrašis, the same thing.
If they have work ethic and skills, they will succeed, regardless if it's North America, Latvia, Switzerland or wherever.
 
Great win for us,but please,if we want to win against the Krauts tomorrow Nolan has to bench Laviņš he cost us a goal today and almost cost a few more,he needs to retire ASAP.
 
Latgale_fan said:
If we look at Sotnieks, here's a defensemen raised entirely in Latvia and has played his whole career in Latvia and he's good enough for top 6 role or even to be the best d-man at least in WC for us. Or Indrašis, the same thing.
If they have work ethic and skills, they will succeed, regardless if it's North America, Latvia, Switzerland or wherever.
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Latgale_fan said:
If we look at Sotnieks, here's a defensemen raised entirely in Latvia and has played his whole career in Latvia and he's good enough for top 6 role or even to be the best d-man at least in WC for us. Or Indrašis, the same thing.
If they have work ethic and skills, they will succeed, regardless if it's North America, Latvia, Switzerland or wherever.
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So the 20 000+ Japanese hockey players have no work ethic?

If you're playing in a mediocre kids/junior league, it puts a ceiling on your growth.

You have to play against good players to become better. The same applies to coaching.

If you have to single out Sotnieks to prove your point, that's not good news for your theory. And I'm not saying you can't grow a decent pro player domestically, playing abroad just offers a lot more opportunities for growth.
 
Namejs said:
So the 20 000+ Japanese hockey players have no work ethic?
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They all started late and hockey was never a priority for them, see: "How can Hockey grow in Asia" thread. It's not that they have no work ethic it's just that their work ethic is never focused on hockey until they become pros. Sure, there are exceptions and the number of players who choose to play in foreign junior leagues rather than study in universities is increasing but still very low.

At the end of the day, Japanese is not a good argument at all even though generally I agree with what you are saying.
 
"LAT izlases vārtus mačā ar ASV sargās Gudļevskis, Daugaviņš spēlēs par spīti savainojumam. Sīkas traumas ir arī citiem, ieskaitot Girgensonu."

"LAT random match with a goal in the U.S. will protect Gudlevskis, Daugaviņš play despite the injury. Minor injuries are others, including Girgenson."

Ok, Gudy. Don't screw up this time, please. :)
 
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RobertR said:
"LAT izlases vārtus mačā ar ASV sargās Gudļevskis, DaugaviņÅ¡ spēlēs par spīti savainojumam. Sīkas traumas ir arī citiem, ieskaitot Girgensonu."

"LAT random match with a goal in the U.S. will protect Gudlevskis, DaugaviņÅ¡ play despite the injury. Minor injuries are others, including Girgenson."

Ok, Gudy. Don't screw up this time, please. :)
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Actually, if we're talking about goalies, everyone expected miracles, but so far both Masaļskis and Gudļevskis have been average. Not bad, but not really saving the day for us either.

If Gudļevskis has one of his good days, we could get some very important points there vs. the US. If we win, we just need to defeat Belarus and we're in the play-offs pretty much.

So I don't agree with people saying that we should 'rest' some of our key players. USA is most certainly beatable.
 
Yeah, everyone is beatable, pretty much. Even Russians with their injury problems.

Only game I'am worried about is the last game against Swiss. That game can be deciding for us, and that will be a back-to-back game.
 
Main Doctor of the team told that those minor injuries are nothing and everybody will be ready to go.
At this time of the year everybody is banged up, its not like we are the only team so suck it up and play great game against the States.
Hoping the referees will not blow this one too.
 
Am I the only one who's amazed that we can score goals during this WC? When was the last time our NT has averaged this many goals per game? It's hard to believe that we can actually score goals instead of getting 1 lucky goal and then just locking ourselves in our D zone and hoping for our goalkeeper to save us. I'm quite impressed. :handclap:
 
DrStrangelife said:
Am I the only one who's amazed that we can score goals during this WC? When was the last time our NT has averaged this many goals per game? It's hard to believe that we can actually score goals instead of getting 1 lucky goal and then just locking ourselves in our D zone and hoping for our goalkeeper to save us. I'm quite impressed. :handclap:
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I'm surprised how well our top lines have clicked together.

Our PP has been very solid as well. A combination of gritty forwards who can control the puck along the boards and win 1-on-1 battles + technical forwards seems to be working very well for us.

It's easy to see that we're much more confident when controlling the puck. Not too many erratic throw-ins or rushed passes, etc.

Of course, the quality of the Finnish and the American sides have been lower than usual, so that helped us a lot too. :)

Next in line: Russia. Who else will neutralize Znaroks and VītoliņÅ¡ if not us? :nod:
 
Yeah, but also our goalies looked pretty shaky.

I agree with idea to give Punnenovs a chance vs Russia.
 
I'm kind of sad that Kulda didn't get too much exposure this game points wise, had a +3 this game and has been the best defensive player for our team by far.
He is a NHL caliber 2nd line defenseman, prove me wrong. I can't believe scouts don't see him that way.
 
CrookedCrook said:
He is a NHL caliber 2nd line defenseman, prove me wrong. I can't believe scouts don't see him that way.
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No need to prove you wrong anymore since his time in NA has already proven you wrong. You could try to make a case why he iswhat you say he is, just for funnsies. Because his skating is below average, size ok but not exceptional, offense almost nonexistent on NHL level.. Players like that really have to catch a good break to get into the NHL, sadly it didn't happen to Kulda.
 
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