In a rather tense and unpredictable regime, the Latvian national hockey team played the last two games before going to Beijing. One and a half practice, a flight to Switzerland, and the first game with Slovakia (2: 6) took place a day earlier than planned, two hours after arriving in Fispa.
Even very good hockey came out with the tournament organizer Switzerland (1: 2). Did the headquarters of the national team coaches – Harijs Vītoliņš, Artis Ābols, Viktors Ignatjevs, Juris Klodāns get enough information from these games? Yes and no.
First about the goalkeepers. Vītoliņš intended to test Ivars Punnenovs in both matches. It failed in principle. Because after the cowboy vaccine during the first game, Ivars got worse, and the third third against Slovakia, as well as the whole game with Switzerland, was played by the national team debuter Ēriks Vītols. Maybe not an excellent, but a very good debut, especially in the match with Switzerland.
Did Punnenov give more information about himself in 40 minutes with Slovakia? Hardly. All three lost goals in the minority, moreover, one puck first hit the edge of the field, then Punnenova’s back and came into the goal. Yes, Vītoliņš knows Punnenov from the Olympic qualification, but there his opponents (Italy, Hungary, France) were lower than the first three in Beijing (Sweden, Finland, Slovakia). Yes, Vītoliņš Punnenov can also be seen in the Swiss Championship, but Ivar hardly goes there this year. Yes, Langnava is quite a vice-outsider, but with Punnenov in the goal (2 wins – 11 losses), Langnava goes worse than when the goalkeeper is Major (7-8). The percentage of rebounds is the same for both (90.6), but Punnenov lets in more (3.61) than Maiier (3.11).
Jānis Kalniņš is not doing as well as he would like in the Swedish championship team in Växjö. It is good that I win more (9-6) than the new competitor Ēman (6-6), but in other statistics the Swede is better – 2.12 laps against Jānis 2.65 and 91.4% against Kalniņa 89.2%.
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