WC: Latvia Roster Talk 2023

[SoundAndFury]

Latvia - Ukraine friendly 1-10
1) What

"A" team (of sorts) losing to Poland was probably as surprising.

That's Latvian club national team. So, consisting of Latvian league semi-pros.

Still pretty bizarre considering the Ukrainian team is pretty much that as well, albeit only 3 of those play in the Latvian league.

 

[Chainshot]

Gus, to the surprise of no one, is not going. Again.

 

[jaro]

 

[Nikolajs Sillers]

Elvis, buddy .

Gus, to the surprise of no one, is not going. Again.

It is surprise as he said earlier that he will come. Go figure.

 

[Namejs]

Balinskis signed with the Panthers

And Blueger's Knights lost to Jets in the opening game. If they keep scratching him, I will actually root for the Jets so he can join our training camp.

A Blueger addition would seriously save our offense, by the way. Without Girgensons the list of Cs is looking paper thin.

At least with Abols and Blueger we can have 2 competent scoring lines against the leading teams. Otherwise I'm not being very optimistic of our play-off chances this time.

 

[Nikolajs Sillers]

 

[Eye of Ra]

Balinskis signed with the Panthers

And Blueger's Knights lost to Jets in the opening game. If they keep scratching him, I will actually root for the Jets so he can join our training camp.

A Blueger addition would seriously save our offense, by the way. Without Girgensons the list of Cs is looking paper thin.

At least with Abols and Blueger we can have 2 competent scoring lines against the leading teams. Otherwise I'm not being very optimistic of our play-off chances this time.

So what do you expect of Balinskis in NHL? Erik Karlsson numbers or more in the Hedman mold?

 

[Namejs]

So what do you expect of Balinskis in NHL? Erik Karlsson numbers or more in the Hedman mold?

Balinskis is very much like Hedman, except he's much shorter, has a much smaller wingspan and is lighter. So neither. But he could very well be a 2nd pairing PP2 guy on a weaker team.

 

[wmupreds]

I'm kind of shocked to see Balinskis sign at 26. But he's definitely the strongest Latvian defenseman and could probably carve out a few years as a 7th D/1st call-up if he stuck to it.

 

[Namejs]

I'm kind of shocked to see Balinskis sign at 26. But he's definitely the strongest Latvian defenseman and could probably carve out a few years as a 7th D/1st call-up if he stuck to it.

They actually tried to sign him out of the KHL when he was 21, so it's nothing that unusual.

And why would you say he's 'definitely' the strongest (?) defenseman in Latvia? What makes him better than Jaks?

 

[wmupreds]

They actually tried to sign him out of the KHL when he was 21, so it's nothing that unusual.

And why would you say he's 'definitely' the strongest (?) defenseman in Latvia? What makes him better than Jaks?

I don't think it's a huge gap between him and Jaks but having watched both I think Balinskis is a better skater and better suited for the 3rd pairing puck mover role that he'd be playing. I don't think he's a far better player but in terms of NHL readiness I would take Balinskis. I like his assertiveness on the puck better.

 

[SoundAndFury]

And why would you say he's 'definitely' the strongest (?) defenseman in Latvia? What makes him better than Jaks?

What does Jaks have over him, at this point? A bit better shot, at the cost of anything else? Jaks literally got fewer minutes than Zile at Litvinov, he wasn't even #1 Latvian D for his garbage Czech league team. I know it's sunk costs fallacy after you tried to prove how he is a KHL star and whatnot but come on.

 

[Namejs]

What does Jaks have over him, at this point? A bit better shot, at the cost of anything else? Jaks literally got fewer minutes than Zile at Litvinov, he wasn't even #1 Latvian D for his garbage Czech league team. I know it's sunk costs fallacy after you tried to prove how he is a KHL star and whatnot but come on.

Again you're trying to stir the pot for no reason.

I don't rate him higher, they're the same caliber defensemen, give or take.

In terms of their success, the only difference between them is that Jaks already had a shot at making it in North America, but blew his chance. In terms of their showing in Europe and Russia, Jaks is pretty much the only recent defenseman to actually be a difference maker in the KHL with Sochi.

They're both good.

And, please, stop with the ridiculous hot takes regarding Zile being better, I'm not even going to comment on that.

 

[SoundAndFury]

And, please, stop with the ridiculous hot takes regarding Zile being better, I'm not even going to comment on that.

How is that my "ridiculous hot take" when it's based directly on the evaluation of his coaches? Or do you not think TOI isn't an indication of the quality of play?

Jaks is an offensive D. That's why he had points in the KHL, that's why he has points in the Extraliga. He wasn't "a difference maker" you are trying to paint (Ivan Mischecko had identical stats in Sochi, for god's sake) in the KHL and his defensive play was found to be pretty unreliable even by the Czech league standards. But of course, all that matters to you is NHLe so yeah, the guy is great.

"I don't rate him higher, they're the same caliber defensemen, give or take." - is based on nothing but your opinion, at this point. While before this season I considered Balinskis to be half of a step ahead, this season has clearly shown it's much more than that. Jaks is an offensive defenseman for a bad-ish team playing less than 20 minutes per night. Balinskis was #1D used in all situations for a solid playoff team and even then outscored Jaks, who is supposed to be an offensive specialist, by quite a margin..

 

[Namejs]

It's very tiring talking numbers. Most people don't understand numbers, but barely anyone is willing to admit that.

If we go by numbers and look at offensive production, you cannot possibly compare two defensemen head-to-head without accounting for their ice time and PP time, which is even more important for Ds than forwards.

So you're basically doing the exact opposite. You're looking at their ice time and their point totals and instead of accounting for that and looking at their scoring rates per/60 5on5 and on PP, you're just jumping to exactly the wrong conclusions.

 

[Nikolajs Sillers]

Yes, yes .We seen your numbers.

 

[SoundAndFury]

If we go by numbers and look at offensive production, you cannot possibly compare two defensemen head-to-head without accounting for their ice time and PP time, which is even more important for Ds than forwards.

So you're basically doing the exact opposite. You're looking at their ice time and their point totals and instead of accounting for that and looking at their scoring rates per/60 5on5 and on PP, you're just jumping to exactly the wrong conclusions.

What are you even talking about? Balinskis played 3:36 on PP on average, Jaks 4:10 because Litvinov fed him all PP time they could (it was actually over 5 minutes per game in the PO). If anything, it once again shows Balinskis has an edge here as well. So I'm really at a loss what are you trying to tell here.

Baliskis scored more, at a better rate, for a better team. So what is this "opposite" that I'm doing? I simply took the role for the teams they played as the focal point of an argument and not the scoring rates, which you would have evidently preferred, for whatever reason. It still leads to the same conclusion, not the opposite one.

I would wager you only wrote this nonsensical stuff in hopes the actual data isn't available/hard to find.

I'm not even going to go into how ridiculous it is, that we are talking defensemen and just like last year, scoring is somehow the first thing you attempt to grab. At this point, totals don't play into your favor so you are trying this cheap "scoring rates" trick which is even more ridiculous even if it did work, which it doesn't.

What's next? Percentage share on the goals the team scored? You can try that. This one might even work.

 

[Eye of Ra]

you guys are so childish haha. same thing year after year. you 2 dont have to discuss in a cocky manner, just be calm, not everyone can agree with eachother. its okay to have different opinions.

 

[Namejs]

you guys are so childish haha. same thing year after year. you 2 dont have to discuss in a cocky manner, just be calm, not everyone can agree with eachother. its okay to have different opinions.

That's what I've been trying to say.

There's no need to be a contrarian 24/7 to whatever is being said here. It's pointless and healthy.

 

[Czechboy]

I admire Namejs for never hitting the 'report' button on some very obvious trolls in here.

 

[ozo]

When was the last time tournament host got relegated? Asking for a friend...

 

[Namejs]

When was the last time tournament host got relegated? Asking for a friend...

It's about as likely as making the semis, i.e., playing at least in the bronze medal game.

The amount of people on Latvian sports sites mentioning relegation as a possibility is a great example of bounded human rationality and obviously also a sign of a complete lack of perspective and a basic understanding of international hockey.

It is a bit of a surprise seeing someone say the same thing after having posted here for such a long time, though.

 

[ozo]

My comment was only a dumb joke. I thought it was obvious, because nobody sane is paying the 15 pounds to watch the game yesterday or simply because everyone knows the answer to the question I jokingly asked. Also I will ignore your dig at my understanding of international hockey.

Anyway, anyone willing to bet that we are on average scoring more that 2 goals per game in this WC? Our offense is so bad and I'm scared to even imagine what our results would be without Balcers reporting more often than not.

 

[SoundAndFury]

Has the forward selection ever been this bad? I'm too young to remember.

 

[Namejs]

I'm not sure on what kind of a group think pill you guys are on, but our forward corps is going to be almost exactly the same as last year.

The only major loss is Balcers, who might join at a later stage.

But we also have gained Daugavins and a couple of talented prospects.

Back when Vitolinsh was playing, he posted Amdersons numbers at his peak as a pro player. He was one of our leading forwards. And that was back when the Swiss league was worse.

Today, Andersons might not make the team.