HC “Lausanne” hockey player Ķeniņš admitted in a conversation with Latvian Television (LTV) “Sporta studio” that winning a bigger role in the team is a difficult task.
“If you think that I used to play in the first, second shift, now I play in the third, fourth. Now the fourth [maiņa] is stable,” said Kēniņš. “I do what I want, but they don’t put me higher. In the last game, I was put in third, and then immediately there is more willpower. When they put you in the fourth, you get used to it. Go in and talk, the coach says – we don’t care about points, we want this job from you. It also settles in the brain. You have to find a way to get back somehow.”
On the other hand, HC “Lausanne” head coach Jeff Ward sees that
Ronald gradually regains the joy of playing hockey.
“When I came here, for him [Ķēniņam] there was no more joy in playing hockey. That’s how we started, and we’ve kind of gotten the love of hockey back a little bit,” Ward said. “Now we’re trying to turn it into a more efficient game on the ice, and it’s coming back. The last game was his best since I’ve been here. He is very capable – the sky is his ceiling. We hope he plays like he did in the NHL again.”
Coach Ward is working in Lausanne for the second season. Before that, he was a coach in NHL clubs in Boston, Calgary, New Jersey, and Anaheim. Ėeniņš sees certain similarities between Ward and the former head coach of the Latvian national team, Bob Hartley.
“He [Vords], to be honest, is like Bob Hartley, but a lighter version,” Kēniņš explained. “Bob was very detailed. He’s also detailed, but Bob…explained the same thing every day like a retard. Jeff is different. He respects you and understands who you are. About man believes.”
When LTV visited Lausanne, the coaches had 16 hockey players for 12 forward positions, and Ronald laughs that sometimes players are chosen for the team, just like throwing dice in a casino.
Ronaldo also had to play several games in the Swiss second league, but he is not going to leave Lausanne. The Latvian has a contract for two more seasons.
“It would be for me – you’re a fool. If you don’t believe in yourself, you have to prove that you can, and luck also has to play its part,” emphasized Kēniņš. “No, that’s not why I signed [līgumu]to say after three years – that’s all, I’m leaving.”
Arriving in Switzerland, Ronald lived, studied and played hockey on the German-speaking side and learned the language perfectly. The French language dominates in Lausanne, but
Even though Ronald is playing here for the sixth season, he has not made friends with the French language.
“One word can mean ten others. I can’t, my tongue doesn’t turn. Here I feel like I’ve come and I have to do my job – hockey. It’s different on the German side, I feel at home there,” Kēniņš said. “The French culture is like that… they are a bit closed off. When you go to the store – I only speak English – I see that the person can speak… No, they have their own principle – they will speak French. Then you turn around and say – no one no, you can talk to me normally. Then you get something – well, okay…”
Kēniņš was a key player for the Zurich Lions as the team won the last of their nine championships. As if the team is strong, but there are four or five more, and the bottom teams especially want to bite the champions. The Latvian national team will also have to deal with something similar this spring.
Ronald expects that the national team will face an important challenge, but at the moment he does not think much about national team matters, because the agenda is the season at the club and his team.
“When that moment comes, we will have to fight for the squad [izlasē]. That’s how it is, everything has changed,” Kēniņš admitted. “It’s not like before – there were all the cracks, chips and everything. You already knew the lineup three years ago. Now it’s different, now you have to fight. It’s always been that way, but…
Kēniņš has participated in 11 world championships in 12 years. He will be 33 years old in the spring, and he is ready to fight for a place in the national team.
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