WC: Team Latvia 2025 Roster Talk

[Summer Rose]

The wonderful thing about HFBoards: I won't say that Namejs or SaF never gaslight people. In my most active HFBoards time I was a college student who, as both of them can attest, had issues. But I learned to gaslight people in writing and got plenty of practice at it.

Years later, I would say that most of my actual hockey takes were eventually proven wrong. But I'm a lawyer now, so gaslighting people in writing is actually a pretty useful skill.

Most of my actual hockey takes are eventually proven wrong as well, so I'm in the same boat. Even knowing that my area of expertise isn't really evaluating players, trade proposals, making predictions, etc. (but I'm decent at analyzing plays that have already happened, as well as how the rules work, due to being a former player myself, and an official), I post my opinions anyway, because what otherwise is this site for, after all?

As for gaslighting... did you hear the joke about gaslighting? ... yes you did.

 

[Vikz]

Well, no Abols the dad, no quarterfinals, I guess.

Still continues to be the biggest loss of the last few years.

Completely agree.

Its hard to rate what the assistant coaches bring - the game plan, motivation, line up is chosen by the head coach.
But the assistant coaches now - Darzins, who was himself a player like yesterday, is probably still more a buddy than a coach to players. Nummelin, who is a foreigner and thus has 0 influence or ties within the organization. Not to mention Vilkoits or that Visockis guy, whoever he is.
Makes you think that Vitolins chose the guys who have zero authority and are unable to challenge him in any way. It may be for the best, if you are looking to build a better environment in the team. But does it actually bring better results?

Wonder how long Vitolins's bronze will carry him. He is certainly to blame for that Austria's game, yet no one is talking about it.

 

[Dofs]

Completely agree.

Its hard to rate what the assistant coaches bring - the game plan, motivation, line up is chosen by the head coach.
But the assistant coaches now - Darzins, who was himself a player like yesterday, is probably still more a buddy than a coach to players. Nummelin, who is a foreigner and thus has 0 influence or ties within the organization. Not to mention Vilkoits or that Visockis guy, whoever he is.
Makes you think that Vitolins chose the guys who have zero authority and are unable to challenge him in any way. It may be for the best, if you are looking to build a better environment in the team. But does it actually bring better results?

Wonder how long Vitolins's bronze will carry him. He is certainly to blame for that Austria's game, yet no one is talking about it.

The way I see it - in the Vitolins/Znarok duo Vitolins was more responsible for the overall game plan and tactics while Znarok was more motivating the players and ensuring they would give their all. This is why their duo worked so well, they really complimented each other. Abols seems like a guy that would do a similar role to Znarok in this, so during the bronze year he essentially took Znarok's role. Vitolins himself just isn't able to do it, he way is too diplomatic. And I think it's telling that all the success Vitolins had was with the likes of Znarok and Abols, his solo career just isn't successful.

Which I think would explain why the team both this year and last year just isn't able to play evenly during the entirety of the tournament like it did when we got bronze medals - Vitolins is just a bad motivator and no one else in his team is as well. The one he had he got rid of, likely because he was now a head coach and wanted to be treated like a head coach after so many years being in Znarok's shadow.

 

[Pan]

The wonderful thing about HFBoards: I won't say that Namejs or SaF never gaslight people. In my most active HFBoards time I was a college student who, as both of them can attest, had issues. But I learned to gaslight people in writing and got plenty of practice at it.

Years later, I would say that most of my actual hockey takes were eventually proven wrong. But I'm a lawyer now, so gaslighting people in writing turned out to actually a pretty useful skill.

No way. I always thought you were a retired engineer or so who out of boredom decided to devote himself to his passion for Austrian hockey.
I understand, of course, that this did not necessarily prevent you from being a college student, but apparently I was wrong.

 

[ozo]

This somehow has become a HFboards international hockey community thread

 

[SoundAndFury]

Years later, I would say that most of my actual hockey takes were eventually proven wrong.

I think there is nothing wrong with being wrong on these boards. Even in the last case we discussed, there were 3 players - Tralmaks, Jelisejevs, Jevpalovs - at broadly speaking same stage and level in their careers. 4 years later, one has been retired for 2 years, another is barely hanging in in the French league and third might make his NHL debut next season. Basically, three massive outliers. How could one be right about any of this?

It's just how you go about your wrongness. I'd like to believe to most people, and that includes me, it's not that personal. Yes, Tralmaks may exceed all the reasonable expectations people had, good for him. Yes, Abols got almost double the salary after the season that could be considered bad for most of the players of his age and stature but good for him too. In both cases, weirder things have happened.

On the other hand, there are people who deal trolling infractions if you disagree with them on 0,7 PPG forward not being an NHL *star*. It's THAT personal for them.

So, like you are saying, this forum isn't so much about right or wrong but about the people.

 

[ellja3]

Completely agree.

Its hard to rate what the assistant coaches bring - the game plan, motivation, line up is chosen by the head coach.
But the assistant coaches now - Darzins, who was himself a player like yesterday, is probably still more a buddy than a coach to players. Nummelin, who is a foreigner and thus has 0 influence or ties within the organization. Not to mention Vilkoits or that Visockis guy, whoever he is.
Makes you think that Vitolins chose the guys who have zero authority and are unable to challenge him in any way. It may be for the best, if you are looking to build a better environment in the team. But does it actually bring better results?

Wonder how long Vitolins's bronze will carry him. He is certainly to blame for that Austria's game, yet no one is talking about it.

Not sure Vītoliņs necessarily intentionally chose 0 authority personnel, maybe he had good intentions, but this is simply not working. Or maybe he did it in purpose, the entire Ābols departure from NT was strange as heck. I am absolutely not on the side of ''he got bronze thus he is allowed room for failure/error'' as Ankipāns said in the post-game podcast after Austria game. We had weak performance last year also, and the main problem of this tournament was inability to adapt/change the weak spots - PP, the royally dumb horizontal cross passes they were doing entire tournament that made my floorball-playing soul go ''oooffff, that was a... choice'' from game1, and whatever the heck was that defensive zone lack of cohesion that made us lose our assignments so, so easily, after medium-danger nothing-special cycles by opponents. This fact - that game1 problems lasted up to the logical conclusion of game7 - makes the aftertaste of this tournament so bitter and I am not sure what to expect from Milano Olympics if nothing changes. Not that much in terms of scoreboard, clearly we will be underdogs in most games, but the way we look on the ice.

 

[fico zg]

Is it true that Herbert Vasiljevs called austrians "rams" before lat-aut game ?

 

[ellja3]

Is it true that Herbert Vasiljevs called austrians "rams" before lat-aut game ?

He did say that. Here's the translation on his opinion re: AUT-SLO:

"I really didn't like Austria's game. They really struggled against the Slovenians there, they created chaos, they opportunistically threw the puck at the net. Most of the time Schneider just shot it from all positions, I don't understand why he didn't try to play even simple combinations. They played like rams, I have no other words how to describe it. Really, it was such a bad game by Austria. If they come to the game against Latvia with that composition and mood, we will tear them to pieces, because against Slovenia they played so inaccurately, they threw the puck at the net from everywhere."

:}

 

[Dofs]

Not sure Vītoliņs necessarily intentionally chose 0 authority personnel, maybe he had good intentions, but this is simply not working. Or maybe he did it in purpose, the entire Ābols departure from NT was strange as heck. I am absolutely not on the side of ''he got bronze thus he is allowed room for failure/error'' as Ankipāns said in the post-game podcast after Austria game. We had weak performance last year also, and the main problem of this tournament was inability to adapt/change the weak spots - PP, the royally dumb horizontal cross passes they were doing entire tournament that made my floorball-playing soul go ''oooffff, that was a... choice'' from game1, and whatever the heck was that defensive zone lack of cohesion that made us lose our assignments so, so easily, after medium-danger nothing-special cycles by opponents. This fact - that game1 problems lasted up to the logical conclusion of game7 - makes the aftertaste of this tournament so bitter and I am not sure what to expect from Milano Olympics if nothing changes. Not that much in terms of scoreboard, clearly we will be underdogs in most games, but the way we look on the ice.

If I recall correctly, Abols told himself he didn't want to leave and wasn't planning to. So he might be fine with coming back, but there is a reason why Vitolins fired him in the first place, which must be something personal. Which, unfortunately makes the chances of Abols' comeback pretty low.

The team itself is just wildly inconsistent. Like the game against Sweden, a very solid first period, then a collapse full of dumb defensive mistakes in the second. In 2023 we were able to play almost all games at the same level from start to finish, yet we couldn't do it neither last year nor this year. And it is especially worrying in terms of the scores for the Olympic games because during these last two years these collapses led to absolutely dreadful final scores, and that's on the level of World Championships and sometimes not even against top teams (like 1-6 to Austria this year and 1-8 to Germany last year). If this trend continues, then some of the scores during the Olympics games will just be embarrassing.

Something absolutely needs to be done with regards to the coaching stuff.

 

[Namejs]

I'm too old for all this drama, honestly.

Back to actual news, Ravinskis signed an ELC with Vancouver. And we have 11 players with an NHL contract right now. An all-time high.

All is good.

 

[ForwardRW]

Vītoliņš has to go. He is a poor motivator. This is the absolute best time for Ābols to step up as a head coach. The game against Austria was an embarrasment and a disgrace.

 

[ozo]

The game against Austria was an embarrasment and a disgrace.

Nice drama. It was just a loss and nothing more, until their 5th goal we were winning the Xg race, but we simply could not score. I'm not excusing our powerplay or finishing in general, but games like this just happen from time to time.

 

[ForwardRW]

Nice drama. It was just a loss and nothing more, until their 5th goal we were winning the Xg race, but we simply could not score. I'm not excusing our powerplay or finishing in general, but games like this just happen from time to time.

2:1 is a loss, 3:1 is a loss. 6:1 is a blowout, im sorry. We had a comical amount of errors in that game. It wasnt just that we couldnt score, far from it.

 

[ozo]

2:1 is a loss, 3:1 is a loss. 6:1 is a blowout, im sorry. We had a comical amount of errors in that game. It wasnt just that we couldnt score, far from it.

Hopefully then next coach will simply tell players to not make errors against Austria and play a good game like we did against Slovakia couple of days earlier.

 

[ForwardRW]

Hopefully then next coach will simply tell players to not make errors against Austria and play a good game like we did against Slovakia couple of days earlier.

You know eventhough i dont believe your sarcasm is appropriate, i do unironically believe this. Our players, mostly, need an authority figure that will kick their ass when they do dumb stuff on the ice. Ābols is that figure, Vītoliņš is not.

 

[SoundAndFury]

It's not really my place to say anything nor am I very knowledgeable on the internal dynamics of the Latvian coaching staff but... I read this "unmotivated, kick their ass" horseshit one too many times. Like seriously, this is the biggest piece of nonsense I have ever read. 1,5 months of work boils down to one game in which you carry the weight of expectations of the entire nation and you think they aren't motivated?

Have you ever played a big game or, more likely, written a hugely important test/exam? And if so, were you tense and anxious or unmotivated before it? Most people aren't good at dealing with pressure. Never has it been discussed more than after the recent Leafs defeat. And while you would expect Auston Matthews to prepare, condition himself and get used to it, most players on the Latvian team simply don't play this big of games, they simply aren't exposed to this kind of pressure pretty much ever.

Now granted, some people have this quality, to ease the tension and inspire confidence and Abols might be one of those. But this "my horse was slow because it didn't get whipped enough" narrative is just idiotic. Especially when we all saw the game, just like ozo is saying, they didn't play bad, Latvia didn't get outplayed 1-6, it was breakdowns, mental lapses, "dumb shit". Much more often that's the indication of people's brains being fried, not them being "unmotivated" and not wanting it enough.

 

[ForwardRW]

It's not really my place to say anything nor am I very knowledgeable on the internal dynamics of the Latvian coaching staff but... I read this "unmotivated, kick their ass" horseshit one too many times. Like seriously, this is the biggest piece of nonsense I have ever read. 1,5 months of work boils down to one game in which you carry the weight of expectations of the entire nation and you think they aren't motivated?

Have you ever played a big game or, more likely, written a hugely important test/exam? And if so, were you tense and anxious or unmotivated before it? Most people aren't good at dealing with pressure. Never has it been discussed more than after the recent Leafs defeat. And while you would expect Auston Matthews to prepare, condition himself and get used to it, most players on the Latvian team simply don't play this big of games, they simply aren't exposed to this kind of pressure pretty much ever.

Now granted, some people have this quality, to ease the tension and inspire confidence and Abols might be one of those. But this "my horse was slow because it didn't get whipped enough" narrative is just idiotic. Especially when we all saw the game, just like ozo is saying, they didn't play bad, Latvia didn't get outplayed 1-6, it was breakdowns, mental lapses, "dumb shit". Much more often that's the indication of people's brains being fried, not them being "unmotivated" and not wanting it enough.

I think you are misreading what im saying. Noone would argue that our guys are unmotivated, thats almost never the issue.
Its precisely the mental lapses that are the problem - this is what coaches like Ābols are good at, they can correct these issues promptly before it turns into a disaster. Not to mention it wasnt that we played a team thats in our tier and just happened to blown out - that happens. Its the fact it happened to f***ing Austria of all teams. If the scores where reversed and we actually lost to Slovakia 1:6 in the last game i would be like "well it sucks, but thats hockey"

 

[ozo]

I think you are misreading what im saying. Noone would argue that our guys are unmotivated, thats almost never the issue.
Its precisely the mental lapses that are the problem - this is what coaches like Ābols are good at, they can correct these issues promptly before it turns into a disaster. Not to mention it wasnt that we played a team thats in our tier and just happened to blown out - that happens. Its the fact it happened to f***ing Austria of all teams. If the scores where reversed and we actually lost to Slovakia 1:6 in the last game i would be like "well it sucks, but thats hockey"

The only thing I'm agreeing with you that Abols indeed is cool. The rest is just a bad take in my opinion. You simply can't coach out mental lapses, you are just reinforcing my sarcastic post. If national team operated like NHL team, you would release/trade out the players making the brainfarts, but it just happens that our nation's best 25-ish players are not that good and we can't replace them with error immune players.

Also you are sleeping on Austria, look at their tournament - the results and performances. Their roster is completely fine, Kickert in net played great against us, Marco Kasper would be our best player on paper (Namejs fury pending), bunch of Swiss league based players, and top guys from ICEHL (our top scorer from our bronze medal run was 68th best scorer in that league in that particular season below Austrian forwards that did not make this particular Austrian team) and they even have Marco Rossi to add. We did not lose to a nation we should feel vastly superior to in 2025.

And the sentiment that we were blown out also is somewhat wrong. We were "blown out" because we went behind 0:3 and chased the game by making risky all in plays because we needed to. As I already wrote, we were up on Xg until their fifth goal, their sixth was an empty netter that doesn't happen in non-elimination game. We were on top of Austrians for majority of the game, Gudlevskis stops that first lucky breakaway and we are not having this conversation.

 

[Dofs]

Now granted, some people have this quality, to ease the tension and inspire confidence and Abols might be one of those. But this "my horse was slow because it didn't get whipped enough" narrative is just idiotic.

The context of 'motivation' from my part isn't that that the players don't want to play and hence need to be whipped. It's the context of getting the team into a mental state where it will do less mental lapses, silly mistakes and overall would be able to play a single game on a consistent basis. And this is a real thing and has been the main strength of Znarok during his glory days that has been acknowledged by multitude of players playing under him and multiple experts that knew him and his team well.

Of course players are all motivated to win, but not all coaches will be able to set the team into a proper mental state to win.

The only thing I'm agreeing with you that Abols indeed is cool. The rest is just a bad take in my opinion. You simply can't coach out mental lapses, you are just reinforcing my sarcastic post. If national team operated like NHL team, you would release/trade out the players making the brainfarts, but it just happens that our nation's best 25-ish players are not that good and we can't replace them with error immune players.

Also you are sleeping on Austria, look at their tournament - the results and performances. Their roster is completely fine, Kickert in net played great against us, Marco Kasper would be our best player on paper (Namejs fury pending), bunch of Swiss league based players, and top guys from ICEHL (our top scorer from our bronze medal run was 68th best scorer in that league in that particular season below Austrian forwards that did not make this particular Austrian team) and they even have Marco Rossi to add. We did not lose to a nation we should feel vastly superior to in 2025.

And the sentiment that we were blown out also is somewhat wrong. We were "blown out" because we went behind 0:3 and chased the game by making risky all in plays because we needed to. As I already wrote, we were up on Xg until their fifth goal, their sixth was an empty netter that doesn't happen in non-elimination game. We were on top of Austrians for majority of the game, Gudlevskis stops that first lucky breakaway and we are not having this conversation.

The problem here is not the game with Austria, but a very consistent trend of getting multiple blowouts (at least 5 goals difference) per tournament for the last two years. Last year it was 1-8 vs Germany, 2-7 vs Sweden, this year we had 1-7 vs Canada, 0-6 vs Sweden, 1-6 vs Austria. Five blowouts in total. In comparison in the 4 tournaments before in the years 2021 to 2023 including the Olympics we had a grand total of one blowout which was the 0-6 game against Canada in 2023 when we played amazing in all the games since and won bronze. That's 1 blowout in 28 games vs 5 in 14.

Austria is not a one-off. It's a part of a very worrying trend that showcases there is something fundamentally wrong with the team at the moment. The team just wasn't prone to making constant stupid mistakes and collapses like it has been during the last two years. And I don't want to blame the roster, roster-wise the team is actually very good by Latvian standards.

 

[ozo]

Our bronze team lost 0:6 to Canada on the opening of day the tournament, and I sure as hell know how it ended.

Znaroks team was praying for its miracle just as hard.

 

[Dofs]

Our bronze team lost 0:6 to Canada on the opening of day the tournament, and I sure as hell know how it ended.

Znaroks team was praying for its miracle just as hard.

I did mention the 0:6 game. One random blowout means nothing, bad game, bad luck, things happen. When your every third game is a blowout, this is no longer random.