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A concerning performance or a new start?
An IIHF media article by the team Latvia GM, Kris</div>

Before getting into the main topic of the article, I want to congratulate Norway on winning the tournament, that’s a well-deserved victory! If there wasn’t a Latvian team in the SHL, I would have probably created a Norwegian, always been interested in that nation. It must feel great to finally get the gold after numerous appearances in the medal games, yet not getting the main prize. I’m proud that my nation was the first one to beat them in the group stage, and I hope that in the future we could match up in a finals game.

With that being said, let’s move on to the main topic.
The S35 IIHF tournament was my first as the federation head of this team. As I stated in my previous IIHF article, the journey won’t be easy, especially now when we have our star players entering regression and some valuable players retiring. My first challenge was to actually make a roster out of whoever was available, and man, that was not a pleasuring task. Only 3 players over 1000 TPE and numerous inactives under 300 TPE, I didn’t expect anything much from this team as of now. My expectations were appropriate, as the team managed to get only three wins out of ten games in the group stage. I’m happy that we managed to win seemingly similar team that is Czechoslovakia, and proud of us being the victorious side in matches against the eventual champions, Norway, and a team with a very strong roster but constantly weak performances, Canada. Shootout losses against strong Austrian and German teams also proved that under some circumstances we can bite teams with such a better roster on paper. That’s why I trust LB when it comes to making lines, he’s been doing this for a while now and every now and then the team manages to get some decent results out of the rather-weak roster.

But, if I’m here mentioning our thin roster for the 100th time, how did we win any games?
Well, without a surprise, our only two star skaters, Shane Gagner and Kian Hamilton, were the best players on our roster. I’m especially proud of Shane as he lead every IIHF player in goals scored and was tied with Russia’s Ales Smirnov in points. With more than 500TPE difference between him and the next highest TPE player on our team, goalie Matt Lewis-Flood, Gagner is an undisputed leader of the team. There’s still a pair of seasons ahead of him until he starts regressing, and I hope that we’ll have more players like him on our roster in the future. I also have to mention a veteran player - Kian Hamilton, who was tied best with 2 other players in scoring among centers. He scored at least a point in every game, meaning he’s still very valuable for us.

Without those two, we probably wouldn’t even do as much as we did now. Yet still, there are some other notable players I want to mention.
Andris Bukšs, who announced retirement a while ago played exceptionally in defense, was the third highest scoring player on the roster with 10 points, and along with that he blocked 22 shots. Sad to see our highest TPE defender and 10 season SHL veteran saying goodbye, that leaves even a bigger hole in the already damaged defense. However, I’m hoping that a younger defender - Isaac Cormier-Hale can take his place in the future.
I surely have to mention our initially backup goalie, Artom Zhumbayev. If there’s one position where I can be happy about what we have, it’s the goalie crease. With Matt Lewis-Flood being a well respected West Kendall Platoon starting goalie in the SHL and team Latvia, it was hard to see Artom taking his place in the next season or two, not even saying this season. However, LB trusted him and let the young goalie play the remaining games after Matt’s disappointing performance against Canada in the first game. And how did this young man respond? He did that by having the best save percentage in the whole tournament - 92%. I’m glad that we have at least one position being on the same level as the other teams.
There’s still one player I want to mention. He may not be the best scorer, but he blocked 23 shots and was the best in the tournament at doing that. It’s a player from season 15 (!!, the experienced defender Krišs Labsvārds. Even though he has under 250 TPE as of now, with the situation among defenders being as tragic as it is right now, he still made the roster and was the main defensive presence. However, if the few defensive prospects that we have will develop nicely, this might have been Krišs last IIHF appearance. Therefore I have to thank him for all he’s done for team Latvia, and I assume, he definitely played a big part in earning 2 gold medals more than 10 seasons ago.

<div align="center">What’s next?</div>
This season we already didn’t play without star center Chris Johnson, who retired, and the 4-5 shootout loss versus Germany was the last game of Alex Berkis, Justs Sirmais, and Kristofer Hallfredsson’s (rip) careers. Andris Bukšs, Justs Sirmais, Johnny Watson, Maximus Sarone have all announced retirements. It leaves a huge hole that needs to be filled, hopefully by some recreates like myself, but it’s not enough. I feel like at first, this might seem like a huge hit, but I see a new start opportunity. I really hope that more new players will join the Latvian side, and along with the recreates, they would have a chance to blossom in dark red and white and take some pressure off of Gagner and Hamilton. There’s work to do in terms of recruiting those new players, but I’m looking forward to it. It’s a challenge I’m willing to take and I hope everything turns out well in the end. This is the start of a new era.

Here’s to a promising future and strong Latvia!
-Kris

Around 1000 words.

Francesco Bellucci will save Latvia

Capy Bara || D || Vancouver Whalers
Name: Capy Bara
Age: 17
Birthplace: Japan, Sendai
Height: 6ft 11
Weight: 200 lbs
Number: 1
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Career Statistics:
SMJHL Regular Season:
S64 | 0 GP | 0 G | 0 A | 0 P | 0+ | 0 H | 0 SHT | 0 SB
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SMJHL Playoffs:
S64 | 0 GP | 0 G | 0 A | 0 P | -0 | 0 H | 0 SHT | 0 SB
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Transactions:
Drafted 30th Overall by the Vancouver Whalers

oh my

I love your avy :lol:

Chris McZehrl III - Texas Renegades
Chris McZehrl III - Anchorage Armada