Olympics: 2014 - Latvia Roster Discussion

[DrStrangelife]

Originally Posted by ozo

Also Pelss is a really nice 4th-liner for us to have on the team.

Does anyone know more about him?(has seen him play in AHL?)
I really liked him in his last WJC, seemed a very solid, smart player. (Seemed a possible 3rd line player for our future NT)
Now a year later, I have no idea how he has progressed since then besides his stats in AHL (14GP - 0G,6A)
Right now he's more of a mystery to me, can't say whether I even want to see him play in the Olympics.
Interesting whether someone knows anything about him?

[BalticWarrior]

Originally Posted by Namejs

Girgensons hasn't exactly been stunning in the AHL this season, the transition to professional hockey isn't going that well for him. He's a great talent, but he would be a 3rd/4th-liner at this point, most likely. At best. So you're giving him a lot of credit tbh. He's definitely going to improve over the next few years, but your expectations might be a bit too high.

Ņiživijs, Ķēniņš (can play as a C), Meija, Štāls, even Džeriņš and Bērziņš (C) are better than a 19-year-old Bļugers, who hasn't been shining in the NCAA this season either.

No idea what the 33yo (in Sochi2014) Širokovs from NLB is doing in the lineup.

As for Pelšs, I don't know what to expect from him. His stats are bad in the AHL, I haven't seen that many games of him, apart from the U-20 WJC, where he was pretty solid. In any case, it would make absolutely no sense to have so many young, inexperienced players in the OG, who have 0 experience at this level.

Just because they're playing in NA doesn't mean they're better than the players at home.

Also, what the hell is Porejs doing there? Pretty sure he wouldn't even make my Latvian B team. Not to mention that most likely Galviņš won't play in the national team under Nolan's leadership.

All these players have one year till sochi,Girgensons could be in Sabres lineup by that time and Blugers could be a ppg player in NCAA.
As for Pelss,he will be great on our 4th line,as he works and hystles hard,exactly what we need in a 4th line player.

[Shrimper]

What's the likelihood of Bleugers getting a place?

[BalticWarrior]

Originally Posted by Shrimper

What's the likelihood of Bleugers getting a place?

Well Ted Nolan said that both Blugers and Girgensons will probably be at Olympics.

[Namejs]

Originally Posted by Helo

Well Ted Nolan said that both Blugers and Girgensons will probably be at Olympics.

And when did he say that? In one interview he listed our most promising talents also including Jevpalovs, E. Kulda and Pelšs (+Bļugers and Girgensons). So are they all going to play in the OG?

I think there's a possibility that he might make the lineup, if he impresses the coach in exhibition games, but I don't think it's that certain at all. Especially considering that he's playing in NCAA, which means it's not clear if he will be able to make the international exhibition tournaments, which are played in the off-season. So how much time will they have to test him?

[ozo]

I'm still surprised that Helo didn't pencil Ri. Bukarts on the first line yet...

Anyway, now that you look back at these three games, we can clearly see that these hardly were our best ones so we have a lot of "internal" potential without even adding those small reserves that we do have (Daug, Sirokovs, Galvins and some kids).