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GDT: Group B - May 16 - Czech Republic vs Latvia

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stv11

Registered User
Jul 29, 2004
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Switzerland
2019 IIHF World Championship
Group B

May 16
2:15 PM ET • 8:15 PM CET

full
Czech Republic vs Latvia
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Czech Republic
Confirmed lineup

Goaltenders:
32 Patrik Bartošák
33 Pavel Francouz

Defensemen:
6 David Musil - 17 Filip Hronek
11 Michal Moravčík - 44 Jan Rutta
29 Jan Kolář - 3 Radko Gudas
9 David Sklenička - 24 Petr Zámorský

Forwards:
67 Michael Frolík - 12 Dominik Simon - 93 Jakub Voráček
18 Ondřej Palát - 94 Radek Faksa - 13 Jakub Vrána
81 Dominik Kubalík - 43 Jan Kovář - 26 Michal Řepík
20 Hynek Zohorna - 79 Tomáš Zohorna - 23 Dmitrij Jaškin

Scratched:
G 30 Šimon Hrubec
F 72 Filip Chytil


Latvia
Confirmed lineup

Goaltenders:
30 Elvis Merzļikins
50 Kristers Gudļevskis

Defensemen:
29 Ralfs Freibergs - 11 Kristaps Sotnieks
32 Artūrs Kulda - 27 Oskar Cibuļskis
58 Guntis Galviņš - 26 Uvis Balinskis
77 Kristaps Zīle

Forwards:
10 Lauris Dārziņš - 70 Miks Indrašis - 14 Rihards Bukarts
21 Rūdolfs Balcers - 23 Theodor Blueger - 87 Gints Meija
71 Roberts Bukarts - 95 Oskars Batņa - 91 Ronalds Ķēniņš
49 Emīls Ģēģeris - 96 Māris Bičevskis - 12 Rihards Marenis
17 Mārtiņš Dzierkals

Scratched:
G 31 Gustavs Grigals
F 18 Rodrigo Ābols


​
Click to read more...
 
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Czech Rep. 3-2 Latvia

... however, I would like to see the Latvians winning this.
 
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I think we're ripe for an upset... Faksa's first game, moved Chytil to 13th forward. Latvia always plays us tough. I'm going Czechs 4-3 but a loss wouldn't surprise me in the slightest.
 
Latvia definitely hasn't played great and with Abols injured there is no chance Czechs don't win this. You aren't upsetting them with 1 decent center on the roster, that's just not going to happen.
 
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Avoiding injury is crucial, otherwise a must win. Expecting Faksa to win the pucks for Palát who shall serve to Vrána. Faksa also adds grit and size in front of the net, this line can be lethal actually, hope they deliver in this game, both Vrána and Palát with two points is my tip. Sad that Chytil is 13th forward, him being wing in the fourth line can be actually useful. If Gulaš is added, him or Řepík will be extra, H. Zohorna 14th forward. Would love to see Zámorský in action either.

My guess is 4:1, going into the third 1:1 though. Voráček with a goal.
 
SoundAndFury said:
Latvia definitely hasn't played great and with Abols injured there is no chance Czechs don't win this. You aren't upsetting them with 1 decent center on the roster, that's just not going to happen.
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As dedicated as I am, I have to admit you're right.

Without Abols our bottom 6 is too disjointed and looks the same as it always has. Not enough skill, not crisp enough passing, just all-around mediocre stuff. I sort of finally realized that when watching our 4th line play against Italy. Not enough meaningful actions in the offensive zone. Once they retrieved the puck, which they did quite well, they had no idea what to do with it.

The 3rd line with Bukarts brothers is painful to watch. I like Rihards. He's a spark plug. But Meija and Roberts are just annoying. They either shoot the puck from the perimeter randomly or turn it over by dribbling like 5 seconds too long when they actually have a clear shooting lane close to the damn net. That's Roberts standard operating procedure. It's as if he thinks he can deke the goalie and find someone in front of an empty net whenever he has the puck in a great shooting position. Shoot the damn puck! No, not with a wrister from the blue line. f***.

Barring some Elvis magic and some lucky goals, we can't defeat the Czechs with just 2 solid forward lines. Their goalie has to suck and all of these other things have to go our way.

This is an 80/20 game, unfortunately. We might keep it close for a couple of periods, but we'll probably lose by 2 or 3 in the end.

Hoping for a different scenario, obviously.
 
Namejs said:
As dedicated as I am, I have to admit you're right.

Without Abols our bottom 6 is too disjointed and looks the same as it always has. Not enough skill, not crisp enough passing, just all-around mediocre stuff. I sort of finally realized that when watching our 4th line play against Italy. Not enough meaningful actions in the offensive zone. Once they retrieved the puck, which they did quite well, they had no idea what to do with it.

The 3rd line with Bukarts brothers is painful to watch. I like Rihards. He's a spark plug. But Meija and Roberts are just annoying. They either shoot the puck from the perimeter randomly or turn it over by dribbling like 5 seconds too long when they actually have a clear shooting lane close to the damn net. That's Roberts standard operating procedure. It's as if he thinks he can deke the goalie and find someone in front of an empty net whenever he has the puck in a great shooting position. Shoot the damn puck! No, not with a wrister from the blue line. ****.

Barring some Elvis magic and some lucky goals, we can't defeat the Czechs with just 2 solid forward lines. Their goalie has to suck and all of these other things have to go our way.

This is an 80/20 game, unfortunately. We might keep it close for a couple of periods, but we'll probably lose by 2 or 3 in the end.

Hoping for a different scenario, obviously.
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Roberts is the kind of guy that needs a decent playmaker for him to be effective. He was great in 2017, but now he is just a liability most of the time

Meija always has been skilless energy guy, cant expect much else from him

Rihards hasnt shown anything other than the fact that he can skate, his shooting accuarcy is attrocious and now its obvious why he has struggled at the pro level
 
SoundAndFury said:
Latvia definitely hasn't played great and with Abols injured there is no chance Czechs don't win this. You aren't upsetting them with 1 decent center on the roster, that's just not going to happen.
Click to expand...
I wouldn't be too sure about this.We've kinda had history for nearly pulling upsets over Czechs when being 2:0 down. Latest one being 2016 WC,when Czechs were up 2:0,Latvia came back and even scored 3:2 go-ahead goal with like 2 and half minutes left in the game. And then Czechs scored with a high stick with 1:01 left and then beat Latvia in shootout.Latvia had not that good of a roster back then. I won't be surprised at all if there's an upset.
 
BalticWarrior said:
Roberts is the kind of guy that needs a decent playmaker for him to be effective. He was great in 2017, but now he is just a liability most of the time

Meija always has been skilless energy guy, cant expect much else from him

Rihards hasnt shown anything other than the fact that he can skate, his shooting accuarcy is attrocious and now its obvious why he has struggled at the pro level
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Roberts is trying to be way too fancy with the puck. Meija is a shutdown guy. He's OK. He's good at battling along the boards, at killing the puck. But he's a role player and we will most definitely need people like that against the top teams. That combo of Roberts and Meija just doesn't make any sense whatsoever. I'd even try out Bicevskis over Meija.

As for Rihards, he's been one of the best players for us. You're not making any sense. His shooting accuracy? Are you sure you're not confusing him with Roberts, who's missed on two empty nets by now?

Rihards is fast, relentless, he's delivered everything what was expected of him. He's earned a bunch of powerplays for us, made some sneaky passes to his brother resulting in a bunch of scoring chances. He's forechecking, hitting guys, retrieving pucks in the O zone. What do you want him to do?
 
czechmate said:
Where is Zemgus?
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He has a wedding coming up and he's without a contract.

We're missing 5 of our 6 leading centre forwards. Which is quite a big loss for a country with a small talent pool.

Just to give you some perspective, we just called up a guy from the Czech Extraliga, who recorded something like 10 or 11 points in 40 games.
 
Namejs said:
Roberts is trying to be way too fancy with the puck. Meija is a shutdown guy. He's OK. He's good at battling along the boards, at killing the puck. But he's a role player and we will most definitely need people like that against the top teams. That combo of Roberts and Meija just doesn't make any sense whatsoever. I'd even try out Bicevskis over Meija.

As for Rihards, he's been one of the best players for us. You're not making any sense. His shooting accuracy? Are you sure you're not confusing him with Roberts, who's missed on two empty nets by now?

Rihards is fast, relentless, he's delivered everything what was expected of him. He's earned a bunch of powerplays for us, made some sneaky passes to his brother resulting in a bunch of scoring chances. He's forechecking, hitting guys, retrieving pucks in the O zone. What do you want him to do?
Click to expand...

I dont know if you watched the game against Italy, but Rihards clearly whiffed on a couple of chances. Not mention his shot selection is abysmal, i have no idea why he loves to shoot from weird angles, its annoying.

I was expecting him to contribute SOMETHING to the offense and just being a spark plug aint good enough. Saying hes one of the players is kind of ridicilious when hasnt done anything other than be a pest. We need goal scorers, not energy guys.
 
Czechs lineup

Bartošák (Francouz)

Musil - Hronek, Moravčík - Rutta, Kolář - Gudas, Sklenička - Zámorský

Frolík - Simon - Voráček, Palát - Faksa - Vrána, Kubalík - Kovář - Řepík, Zohorna - Zohorna - Jaškin
 
Babula said:
there is a chance this match could be a close score one
Click to expand...
Latvia has never beaten us, with weakened roster I don’t see that coming this year, but it may be close, that’s true, Elvis is capable of stealing games.
 
Czech teams love to come up big in the first couple of games, perhaps win against a good team as well, only to eventually blow it against inferior opponents. This will be the case.
 
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