There is a popular story in hockey circles about playing well in the first and last game of the season. The first is for the coach to take him in the team, the last – to leave an impression on himself for the next season and keep him in the team. Human memory is quite a selective lady. What do we remember from the bronze championship? Hopeless 0-6 in the first match against Canada and Christian Rubin’s two goals in the bronze medal match against the USA. Yes, there are people who are still excited about the 3:1 against Sweden, there are those who remember the valuable success against Switzerland – 4:3 (OT), the same result against the Czech Republic, but if you ask how our boys played last year in Riga with Norway (2:1) or Slovenia (3:2), hardly anyone will mention these “minor” games.
Also, there is no digging in the tournament table, where both the Kazakhs and the head coach of the Swiss national team, Patrick Fischer, helped us – to mention the side circumstances is considered a bad tone. But Latvia won. Also fighting for bronze. Malachi!
This long intro just because of one game. I asked Harijas Vītoliņš, which game should I write about to describe the Latvian national team? For a 0:1 loss to Norwegians in extra time or for saying goodbye to 10,000 spectators with 8:0… However, they were two very different chickens – one lame, the other – already turned into a swan! That’s hockey and that’s why Latvians love this game so passionately. That within an hour it is possible to experience such a range of emotions that neither Alvis Hermanis nor Viesturs Kairišs can offer in the theater. Because they don’t have such good “actors” as Rihards Bukarts, Mārtiņš Dzierkals, Miks Indrašis or Elvis Merzlikins. In addition, Hermani’s and Kairis’ “hockeys” are staged, directed, and politically engaged. Everything happens for real in the Vítoliņa Theater! Although there, the main director is eager to predict the course of the show, so that it does not too often end up as a drama.
A colleague from Brussels, Ainis Ulmanis, asks if there was a theater staged at the 11:10 game of Latvian legends. Watch out, die! If 4832 spectators bought tickets for the show? Do such men as Mārtiņš Karsums, Herbert Vasilijevs and Aleksejs Shirokovs allow themselves to stage anything at all? Yes, Koba Yass can go to Sidney Crosby to negotiate that he will return his stick after the game, or challenge one of the best Swedish defenders, Erik Karlsson, to a boxing match. We have plenty of masters who are ready to make fun of the opponent or laugh with the winner after the game. Passions continued to simmer in the Game of Legends WhatsApp group on Saturday.
About the passions of the Saeima hockey team and the game of the Latvian Hockey Federation team, the chronicles of the fine circles are silent, I will also remain silent, because it was just a friendly game! 11:2 in favor of LHF captain Helmut Balder’s team, but there are also men in the Saeima who are not burdened with a stick in their hands. As number one, I would draft Ati Švinka – a progressive defender.
Oļegs Sorokins, the head coach of the Latvian U-18 national team, is not a defender on my scale, but a midfielder who does pirouettes very well. If it wasn’t the quarter-final of the world U-18 championship, I think a pirouette against Canada would also succeed, well 0:4 and 8th place in the world at this age. Canadians being Canadians – they won all six games, including the final against the USA with 6:4.
Artur Shilov, Artur Shilov! The MVP of the World Championship fires in the Stanley Cup. In Nashville in the sixth game – 1-0, and Ventspilnieks leads the Canucks to the semifinals of the Western Conference. “I have only one dry game in Stanley in fourteen seasons, but Artur can be proud of the dry game already after his second victory”, Artur Irbe praises Shilov. May our goalkeepers have many dry games in Ostrava and Prague!
Jānis MATULIS
