Latvia, the next big country?

[ViD]

No more KHL for Latvia, they could have their flagship team play against top competition on weekly basis which definitely helps. They need to add Dynamo Riga to Finnish or Swedish leagues

 

[Hasa92]

Success like this can boost the mometum and the growth of the sport in the Latvian community, I wouldn’t be surprised if the future Latvian generations have more and more success.

But it takes time, like 5-10 years and If those players also get a medal here and there it will grow like a snowball, over time.

Latvia is good enough to medal every year already granted they have to fight for it like hell and maybe need a little bit of luck here and there.

Not enough to be one of the so called ”big countries” but who knows what the situation is 15 years from now.

 

[The don godfather]

Dans locamolis looks like a stud.

 

[ozo]

No more KHL for Latvia, they could have their flagship team play against top competition on weekly basis which definitely helps. They need to add Dynamo Riga to Finnish or Swedish leagues

Just imagine how good Kazakhstan would perform if they had a flagship team in a decent league, oh wait...

 

[Namejs]

No more KHL for Latvia, they could have their flagship team play against top competition on weekly basis which definitely helps. They need to add Dynamo Riga to Finnish or Swedish leagues

KHL was a cancerous growth and we are in complete relapse. Exhibit A: our showing at the World Champs.

KHL did not grow the game in Latvia in any shape or form, nor did it develop a single top tier player over the course of 12 years. Not a single one. So, no, it definitely did not help.

In fact, it did the exact opposite. Russian petrodollars made Latvian players unmotivated as they were not challenged for their sweet sweet roster spots/salary checks.

The entire league was as natural as the face of your average botoxed-up Russian lady. It crippled the market and was a pet project of Vladimir Putin.

Dinamo Riga does not exist anymore. The only reason it was able to function was due to massive financial injections of Russian state funds. Its actual income was about 25% of its expenses, so the Russian state actually spent over 100 million euros on propping up a Latvia-based team since 2008 purely due to political reasons.

There is literally no reason, no interest and no logic behind the idea of reviving that cancer of a team.

 

[Old Man Jags]

KHL was a cancerous growth and we are in complete relapse. Exhibit A: our showing at the World Champs.

KHL did not grow the game in Latvia in any shape or form, nor did it develop a single top tier player over the course of 12 years. Not a single one. So, no, it definitely did not help.

In fact, it did the exact opposite. Russian petrodollars made Latvian players unmotivated as they were not challenged for their sweet sweet roster spots/salary checks.

The entire league was as natural as the face of your average botoxed-up Russian lady. It crippled the market and was a pet project of Vladimir Putin.

Dinamo Riga does not exist anymore. The only reason it was able to function was due to massive financial injections of Russian state funds. Its actual income was about 25% of its expenses, so the Russian state actually spent over 100 million euros on propping up a Latvia-based team since 2008 purely due to political reasons.

There is literally no reason, no interest and no logic behind the idea of reviving that cancer of a team.

The very short lived Czech contribution was also farcical. They created a new team, “Lev Praha” (lev = lion), and even though a completely new team, they made it to the playoffs in their first year, in their second year they even made it to the Gagarin Cup final where they lost in game 7… Then, after two years, they were dissolved, ceased to exist as suddenly as they appeared. It was because two main sponsors suddenly disappeared, I don’t remember the details. It was a Czech team with mainly Czech players, but clearly a Russian operation of sorts (President and GM: Evgeni Myshkovskyi and Rashid Khabibulin..). Glad it’s gone.

 

[Namejs]

The very short lived Czech contribution was also farcical. They created a new team, “Lev Praha” (lev = lion), and even though a completely new team, they made it to the playoffs in their first year, in their second year they even made it to the Gagarin Cup final where they lost in game 7… Then, after two years, they were dissolved, ceased to exist as suddenly as they appeared. It was because two main sponsors suddenly disappeared, I don’t remember the details. It was a Czech team with mainly Czech players, but clearly a Russian operation of sorts (President and GM: Evgeni Myshkovskyi and Rashid Khabibulin..). Glad it’s gone.

Not a single KHL team has ever turned a profit.

The reason? Putin's Cold War mentality and his personal goal to """compete""" with the NHL.

His plan? Just throw truckloads of money at it until it works.

Obviously, it worked as well as any other of his grand plans.

 

[Old Man Jags]

Not a single KHL team has ever turned a profit.

The reason? Putin's Cold War mentality and his personal goal to """compete""" with the NHL.

His plan? Just throw truckloads of money at it until it works.

Obviously, it worked as well as any other of his grand plans.

Yes. This is btw the thing that really annoys me about Westerners crying “don’t bring politics into ice hockey” because the Russians are banned - even though it is the Russians that have massively politicized ice hockey more than anyone else. It’s been a massive propaganda tool for Putin for many years.

 

[Tuoppi]

yeah finland is good at basketball, iceland too. but sweden, denmark and norway sucks at basketball. on the other hand, finland sucks at handball while sweden, denmark and norway is good at it.


well the germans dont have Nowitzki anymore...

Finland, Estonia and Latvia have been pretty good in volleyball also. Other Nordic countries not so much.

Handball is played in Finland mainly by the Swedish speaking population. Some of our best teams are called Cocks and Dicken. Cocks used to play in the Baltic league against an Estonian team called Chocolate boys.

 

[Deen]

Maybe to get invaded, but no.

 

[CatOTails]

We lack human resources to be one. However, I read an article that ( possibly!!! ) Latvia is on the way to finally find its own unique style of hockey, that we can clearly see with Finland, Czech rep., Switzerland etc. After years of trying to copy other teams, that we not only cannot copy, but clearly lack human resources to clone, our only solution is to play our own game. Also, getting rid of Russian influence over our hockey (human wave hockey as I call it) has come as a blessing. Apparently 7 members of the current national team play in a Czech league, which clearly has given great results. Also a coach who understands our abilities and mentality! That's where the gold is!

Latvia is under way to nowhere and been there for a while. Latvia does not produce top level hockey players and hockey staff, poor demographic and economic situation will only make things worse.
Beg your pardon, but which unique hockey style we're talking about? The one that's where team gets outshot 15 to 35 praying on goalie to save the day? This might work on a short run against poorly motivated teams consisting out of AHLers or euroleague players what essentially IIHF World Championship is.
I see that plenty of people are happy about the "win". Sadly it will be used by officials and management to keep things as they are now. Changes aren't necessary after all, since team is "progressing".

 

[kp61c]

No more KHL for Latvia, they could have their flagship team play against top competition on weekly basis which definitely helps. They need to add Dynamo Riga to Finnish or Swedish leagues

they have champions league or something like that in europe. sure latvian teams play there.

 

[Kalv]

They just took the bronze. And this when best on best dont exists anymore, so WC is more important than ever.

Latvia beat Sweden in U18 WJC last year, everyone know that Sweden is a powerhouse in U18.

I see progress in Latvia.

Lots of good prospects.

Is Latvia becoming a permant top 8 nation?

We got into 1/4 for the first time ever in U20 last year as well. There are certainly multiple "first-ever'' events for us on all levels that indicate some great progress. But I think it's a bit premature to talk about the permanent top-8, especially when Germany and Switzerland, among other nations, are progressing so well too. I think this is great for the whole game of hockey and it's community to see it being more than just "top 7" (or 6 without Russia).

As a Latvian fan, I'm certainly excited, albeit see much more room for improvement, but I don't care that much about categories like top8, etc. I'd love our local championships to improve while also I hope HK Zemgale will keep playing in Finland (Mestis)

 

[karhukissa]

The very short lived Czech contribution was also farcical. They created a new team, “Lev Praha” (lev = lion), and even though a completely new team, they made it to the playoffs in their first year, in their second year they even made it to the Gagarin Cup final where they lost in game 7… Then, after two years, they were dissolved, ceased to exist as suddenly as they appeared. It was because two main sponsors suddenly disappeared, I don’t remember the details. It was a Czech team with mainly Czech players, but clearly a Russian operation of sorts (President and GM: Evgeni Myshkovskyi and Rashid Khabibulin..). Glad it’s gone.

I feel you. My dear childhood club Jokerit was transferred to KHL due to this same propaganda campaign. At first Russian oligarch and Putin's friend Gennadi Timtšenko & Russian-Finnish Rotenberg family pumped millions to Jokerit. And after the sanctions, one of the biggest companies in Russia called Norilsk Nickel started to fund Jokerit through their Finnish branch and paid salaries to players Swiss banks.

Jokerit made like 50-60 million losses during their time in KHL and now they are back in Finnish ownership and play in the Mestis (2nd tier) starting from next year. KHL is nothing but a Game of Thrones for Russian propaganda machine.

 

[kp61c]

I feel you. My dear childhood club Jokerit was transferred to KHL due to this same propaganda campaign. At first Russian oligarch and Putin's friend Gennadi Timtšenko & Russian-Finnish Rotenberg family pumped millions to Jokerit. And after the sanctions, one of the biggest companies in Russia called Norilsk Nickel started to fund Jokerit through their Finnish branch and paid salaries to players Swiss banks.

Jokerit made like 50-60 million losses during their time in KHL and now they are back in Finnish ownership and play in the Mestis (2nd tier) starting from next year. KHL is nothing but a Game of Thrones for Russian propaganda machine.

in the last 23 years putin flushed trillions of dollars down the toilet on countless absurd vanity projects. i think he's just crazy and hates russian population.

 

[Phil McKraken]

I'm happy for the medal and all, but I wouldn't take WHC as a quality gauge. For one, it's just a handful of games that many teams can win if they get into the right groove, and secondly, this was probably the worst WHC ever in terms of NHL players. If Latvia was ever going to medal, this was the perfect occation.

The real indicator is where you have players and how good they do in those leagues. I don't know how Latvia looks there compared to historically.

 

[Dofs]

KHL was a cancerous growth and we are in complete relapse. Exhibit A: our showing at the World Champs.

KHL did not grow the game in Latvia in any shape or form, nor did it develop a single top tier player over the course of 12 years. Not a single one. So, no, it definitely did not help.

In fact, it did the exact opposite. Russian petrodollars made Latvian players unmotivated as they were not challenged for their sweet sweet roster spots/salary checks.

The entire league was as natural as the face of your average botoxed-up Russian lady. It crippled the market and was a pet project of Vladimir Putin.

Dinamo Riga does not exist anymore. The only reason it was able to function was due to massive financial injections of Russian state funds. Its actual income was about 25% of its expenses, so the Russian state actually spent over 100 million euros on propping up a Latvia-based team since 2008 purely due to political reasons.

There is literally no reason, no interest and no logic behind the idea of reviving that cancer of a team.

I know it's an unpopular opinion now but I would say KHL helped in the first 5 years or so to stay in the elite as it gave a place in a top league to guys like Dārziņš, Rēdlihs, Ankipāns, etc who upped their level significantly. Before they were stuck in places like Belarus while being the core of national team at the same time.

After that though KHL became pretty useless and unnecessary overall.

 

[Namejs]

I know it's an unpopular opinion now but I would say KHL helped in the first 5 years or so to stay in the elite

Bullshit.

'Staying in the elite tier' has never been an issue.

 

[GermanSpitfire]

Latvia actually has some legit quality talent coming in the next few years, a golden age for hockey in Latvia is coming.

 

[Satan]

The golden age of Latvian hockej is over and happened when Zemgus Girgensons made it onto the 2015 All-Star team thanks to his loyal fans. He deserved a national holiday back then tbh

 

[ViD]

KHL was a cancerous growth and we are in complete relapse. Exhibit A: our showing at the World Champs.

KHL did not grow the game in Latvia in any shape or form, nor did it develop a single top tier player over the course of 12 years. Not a single one. So, no, it definitely did not help.

In fact, it did the exact opposite. Russian petrodollars made Latvian players unmotivated as they were not challenged for their sweet sweet roster spots/salary checks.

The entire league was as natural as the face of your average botoxed-up Russian lady. It crippled the market and was a pet project of Vladimir Putin.

Dinamo Riga does not exist anymore. The only reason it was able to function was due to massive financial injections of Russian state funds. Its actual income was about 25% of its expenses, so the Russian state actually spent over 100 million euros on propping up a Latvia-based team since 2008 purely due to political reasons.

There is literally no reason, no interest and no logic behind the idea of reviving that cancer of a team.

I’m not going to argue the player development aspect as you know more about Latvian players, but I’m not buying the notion that KHL did not help grow the sport in Latvia.

In 2019-2020 season, last year before COVID, average attendance for Dinamo Riga was 6000:

KHL 2019-20 team attendance at hockeydb.com

Attendance for the Kontinental Hockey League for the 2019-20 season

www.hockeydb.com

That seems to be higher than the average attendance in Riga for this year WHC, I get the price difference in all, but is there a team in Latvia that gets such attendance now? Do the Latvian fans get to watch best European players on a weekly basis ?

 

[BLNY]

Pump the brakes a bit.

They had a great tournament. A lot went right for them. Results of WC are often impacted by availability of top tier players. Denmark and Slovakia could easily replace them in a top 8 finish next year.

 

[Vikz]

KHL did not grow the game in Latvia in any shape or form, nor did it develop a single top tier player over the course of 12 years. Not a single one. So, no, it definitely did not help.

While I agree with almost everything you said about Dinamo Riga and KHL, there is one aspect of hockey development that is hard to express in numbers - indirect influence of the KHL team on the popularity of sport. During its life, Dinamo did attract significant attention. It was attended by 8000 fans each game during its successful years and 4000 - 5000 during its downfall. It is still far more interest than any other sports team has ever attracted over long period of time, and it will not change in the near future unless a miracle happens and we get a team in SHL.

Yeah, Dinamo management was brain dead - their academy was average at best and their misuse of local players and money resulted in 0 competition. But you never know, how much of the recent success of the U18 and U20 teams is the result of some parents watching high quality hockey twice a week with their kids and understanding that it is a valid future career or a good sport for everyone to enjoy. Or is it just a coincidence that players, who currently show previously unheard of results in the world juniors were 4-6 years old during the time when Dinamo Riga eliminated SKA and Dinamo Moscow from the playoffs?

Which is why I repeat what I previously stated - you cant build a top hockey culture if you country is only interested in hockey one month a year. Sure, if we win a medal every year, maybe. And this bronze medal will definitely give an impulse to hockey development. But that is not sustainable.

 

[Namejs]

I’m not going to argue the player development aspect as you know more about Latvian players, but I’m not buying the notion that KHL did not help grow the sport in Latvia.

In 2019-2020 season, last year before COVID, average attendance for Dinamo Riga was 6000:

KHL 2019-20 team attendance at hockeydb.com

Attendance for the Kontinental Hockey League for the 2019-20 season

www.hockeydb.com

That seems to be higher than the average attendance in Riga for this year WHC, I get the price difference in all, but is there a team in Latvia that gets such attendance now? Do the Latvian fans get to watch best European players on a weekly basis ?

Well, it definitely must have helped increase the hotdog and taco sales and was probably really good for the business of Arena Riga. Except that both the hockey rink and the catering business was also owned by the Russian state, so no one really gained from it locally.

Other than that, what gains were made by people attending the games? This is a point entirely unrelated to hockey or the development of the game.

France and the UK and plenty of other minor pro leagues in Europe actually have respectable rates of attendance. I would never switch places with these countries.

Having high attendance numbers in the KHL, half of whom were actually schoolchildren with free entry in Riga, is not the end goal. It serves no purpose.

We're discussing the prospects of the Latvian national team here, not some random Russian club team.

So if you'll excuse me, I would prefer moving back to the topic at hand.

 

[Namejs]

While I agree with almost everything you said about Dinamo Riga and KHL, there is one aspect of hockey development that is hard to express in numbers - indirect influence of the KHL team on the popularity of sport. During its life, Dinamo did attract significant attention. It was attended by 8000 fans each game during its successful years and 4000 - 5000 during its downfall. It is still far more interest than any other sports team has ever attracted over long period of time, and it will not change in the near future unless a miracle happens and we get a team in SHL.

Yeah, Dinamo management was brain dead - their academy was average at best and their misuse of local players and money resulted in 0 competition. But you never know, how much of the recent success of the U18 and U20 teams is the result of some parents watching high quality hockey twice a week with their kids and understanding that it is a valid future career or a good sport for everyone to enjoy. Or is it just a coincidence that players, who currently show previously unheard of results in the world juniors were 4-6 years old during the time when Dinamo Riga eliminated SKA and Dinamo Moscow from the playoffs?

Which is why I repeat what I previously stated - you cant build a top hockey culture if you country is only interested in hockey one month a year. Sure, if we win a medal every year, maybe. And this bronze medal will definitely give an impulse to hockey development. But that is not sustainable.

The popularity of ice hockey as a sport was in no way increased by the KHL. That's just complete conjecture mostly based on your own imagination, most likely due to yourself being a fan.