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Olympics: Team Latvia 2022

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Toms Andersons ahead of Marenis is a headscratcher.

Best PPG in Allsvenskan:

#PLAYERTEAMGPGATPPPGPIM+/-
1.
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Rihards Marenis (C/W)		HC Vita Hästen14108181.2984
2.
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Mikael Frycklund (C)		Västerås IK331226381.15572
3.
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Axel Ottosson (C/LW)		IF Björklöven271021311.152918
4.
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Fredrik Forsberg (RW/LW)		HV71281319321.1429
5.
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Johan Persson (RW)		Mora IK352116371.0628
6.
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Lukas Zetterberg (RW)		Västerås IK331717341.03126
7.
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Daniel Ljunggren (C)		Mora IK36432361.00128
8.
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Henrik Björklund (RW/LW)		BIK Karlskoga311516311.002410
9.
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Tyler Vesel (C)		HV71341518330.97013
10.
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Kristoff Kontos (C)		Kristianstads IK361024340.94612
[TBODY] [/TBODY]
[TBODY] [/TBODY]
 
Eye of Ra said:
Toms Andersons ahead of Marenis is a headscratcher.
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Probably some personal relationship issue? Weird that when Marenis had worse seasons, he still made the national team. If I recall correctly, people said that it was because he was friends with someone in the federation who lobbied him. Now, when he has a much better season, he is not even considered good enough for the taxi squad.
 
Vikz said:
Probably some personal relationship issue? Weird that when Marenis had worse seasons, he still made the national team. If I recall correctly, people said that it was because he was friends with someone in the federation who lobbied him. Now, when he has a much better season, he is not even considered good enough for the taxi squad.
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Latvia has a different head coach now from when Marenis was making the national team and this head coach clearly prefers players who play in better leagues and players who play in Switzerland since he lives there. Andersons played in NL just last year and is a PPG player in SL this year, which, while weaker than Allsvenskan, is still Switzerland. So there you go. It should be noted that Marenis started this year in the third Swedish league, he also played there last year too and wasn't exactly lighting it on fire. I think this also contributed to our head coach distrusting him for the Olympics. I doubt there are any personal issues in there.
 
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There are a bunch of head scratchers in the taxi squad, but I guess it relates more to better players not wanting to isolate themselves in a hotel room for weeks just in case someone gets infected or injured. And that's probably a part of the reason why it contains some C team players. Or at least that would make sense.

Overall, a couple of snubs, a couple of questionable choices, but it really is true that 90% of the players simply are the best ones available.

It's going to be interesting to see whether they use Indrasis or Daugavins as 2C, as we're clearly lacking C depth without Blueger and Girgensons. Wingers are very solid. D is mediocre, but at least we do have a couple of decent puck moving defencemen, so our PP should be pretty good. The goalies were supposed to be our strong suit, but with Kalnins having a very unlucky year with Vaxjo and Punnenovs getting a minor injury just the other night, it's a bit of a question mark, but we're still pretty solid there as well.

So overall a decent team, and if we can avoid any further injuries, I can easily see this team getting points off of Sweden and even Finland. And the game against Slovakia is pretty much a coin toss.

I'd say we can definitely make the quarters. And if we get someone like the US or Canada or some other middling team in the QFs, we can definitely make the semis as well.

I'm going to be humble and say that bronze would work for me.
 
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Roberts Bukarts got injured in his last club game just the other night and won't make the trip to China.

I am no fan of his, but at this sort of level with European-based players he likely would have made an impact, especially against Slovakia, and this is a bit of a loss. Also, obviously, considering our lack of forward depth and the questionable taxi squad choices made by our head coach.

The guy substituting him, whoever it's going to be, is a worse player. And that shouldn't have been the case.

But if we have to choose one replacement, I would go for a veteran shutdown presence in Meija. He won't do much offensively, but at least we can re-structure our roster a bit and have a more pronounced shutdown line with him on the team.

So we're likely going to score fewer goals and concede fewer as well. Considering how soft Bukarts is and how much he overuses the wannabe Ovi-slapshot, this might end up being a good thing after all.
 
Namejs said:
Roberts Bukarts got injured in his last club game just the other night and won't make the trip to China.

I am no fan of his, but at this sort of level with European-based players he likely would have made an impact, especially against Slovakia, and this is a bit of a loss. Also, obviously, considering our lack of forward depth and the questionable taxi squad choices made by our head coach.

The guy substituting him, whoever it's going to be, is a worse player. And that shouldn't have been the case.

But if we have to choose one replacement, I would go for a veteran shutdown presence in Meija. He won't do much offensively, but at least we can re-structure our roster a bit and have a more pronounced shutdown line with him on the team.

So we're likely going to score fewer goals and concede fewer as well. Considering how soft Bukarts is and how much he overuses the wannabe Ovi-slapshot, this might end up being a good thing after all.
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It must be Meija, he is in the taxi squad after all, the next in line. And I think this year he deserved to get into the main roster in the first place.

I am more wondering if they will call someone for the taxi squad now to replace Meija there, or if it's even possible at this point.
 
Latvian team is leaving for Beijing today. Last minute changes - Kulda and Cukste stay home because of Covid-19, Mamcics and Sejejs are heading to the OG.
 
We're spread thin now. 6 serviceable defencemen left.

I wonder if we get to fill up our taxi squad with some more players.
 
Covid update:
7 players had positive tests upon arrival in China. 5 are already out of self-isolation as they got a negative test, 2 are still isolating (no names given; Gudlevskis one of them).

Taxi squad going to China: Ernests Osenieks, Daniels Berzins, Toms Andersons
Arturs Kulda and Karlis Cukste may apparently/theoretically(?) join the team later, once they get their negative tests
 
Apparently the tests being used at the airport in Beijing are extremely sensitive and turn up positive even if you were infected weeks ago.

This is good news as most of the reported positive cases at the airport turn up negative during the follow-up routine testing in the Olympic venues/isolation spots.

So that explains the huge amount of "false" positives.
 
OK, so our 1C in Abols and 3C/4C in Dzerins both tested positive twice.

Without them, this team is going to struggle a lot, so fingers crossed.
 
These Olympics are a whole new level of scuffed. Abols and Krastenbergs were really the only guys I had an interest in watching on this team, now it's just same ol' Dinamo Riga crew.
 
SoundAndFury said:
These Olympics are a whole new level of scuffed. Abols and Krastenbergs were really the only guys I had an interest in watching on this team, now it's just same ol' Dinamo Riga crew.
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Yeah, this is taking away even more of that Olympic spirit than the whole NHL charade to be honest.

But I remain optimistic. Usually it takes around a week before you start testing negative after becoming sick. So even assuming they got infected only a couple of days ago, there's a chance they will make the opening game vs. Sweden. And since the game vs. Slovakia is over a week away, they should be fine by then.
 
Namejs said:
Yeah, this is taking away even more of that Olympic spirit than the whole NHL charade to be honest.

But I remain optimistic. Usually it takes around a week before you start testing negative after becoming sick. So even assuming they got infected only a couple of days ago, there's a chance they will make the opening game vs. Sweden. And since the game vs. Slovakia is over a week away, they should be fine by then.
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If they really are or were recently sick, quarantine is not the only thing I fear. depending on whether they have simptoms or no, they can be in poor condition upon returning. And even in the best case scenario, quarantine still means that you sit in the hotel instead of training with the team.
 
Vikz said:
If they really are or were recently sick, quarantine is not the only thing I fear. depending on whether they have simptoms or no, they can be in poor condition upon returning. And even in the best case scenario, quarantine still means that you sit in the hotel instead of training with the team.
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Most vaccinated people have little to no symptoms with the Omicron, so this isn't really a big issue anymore.

Obviously, not practicing and having a fever can affect your performance slightly, but that's the least of our worries.

Update: Abols got his first negative test today and Dzerins had a borderline negative test as well.
So it's looking promising now.
 
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Both Abols and Dzerins are cleared for practice and have left isolation.

Mamcics arrived today.
Kalnins is arriving tomorrow.

A big sigh of relief.
 
We just played a practice/exhibition game vs. Denmark. I'm not sure, but I think it was just 2 periods and 3 on 3 OT, and we won the OT, but lost the 'game' 1:2. So 2:2 I guess?

I think they are practicing empty net play now after the OT so it really does look like a random practice session rather than an exhibition game.

There was no video feed, but from the reporters on site it sounds like the 1st period was complete shambles, but we improved massively as the session went on and had some good looks in the 2nd.

As far as I can tell, Daugavins is playing 2C between Karsums and Kenins, or at least that was one of the PP units. No word yet on Abols/Dzerins or the lines, but I hope they publish them after the practice.
 
vitolins seems like a good coach. was a good player aswell. but i wonder why he wasted 8 years of his playing career in NLB...
 
Eye of Ra said:
vitolins seems like a good coach. was a good player aswell. but i wonder why he wasted 8 years of his playing career in NLB...
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Well same reason Znaroks or Pavlovs played in Germany's 2nd division, Tambijevs and Ignatovics played in Denmark, Belavskis went to Bjorkloven, etc. They all dominated their leagues but back in the day, it was not as easy to change teams as it is now in terms of connection network and the same applies to the teams looking for A-grade import players so often times you just found a warm place under the sun where it paid a lot (especially by Latvia's in the 90s standards) and stuck with it.

It applied to many great Russian players as well. Bykov, Khomutov, Krutov, Shiryayev.. The leagues they have chosen to play in were pretty suspicious but it worked for them.
 
SoundAndFury said:
Well same reason Znaroks or Pavlovs played in Germany's 2nd division, Tambijevs and Ignatovics played in Denmark, Belavskis went to Bjorkloven, etc. They all dominated their leagues but back in the day, it was not as easy to change teams as it is now in terms of connection network and the same applies to the teams looking for A-grade import players so often times you just found a warm place under the sun where it paid a lot (especially by Latvia's in the 90s standards) and stuck with it.

It applied to many great Russian players as well. Bykov, Khomutov, Krutov, Shiryayev.. The leagues they have chosen to play in were pretty suspicious but it worked for them.
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shiryavev was from ukraine Valeri Shiryayev at eliteprospects.com
 
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