Dinamo Riga 2021/22 - From Worst to First?! Sarauj!

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SoundAndFury

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So Dzierkals and Bukarts all but confirmed to have signed elsewhere. Doesn't matter much from competitive standpoint but the team has lost almost all of its Latvian flavor.
 
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SoundAndFury

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He is also leading forwards in TOI.

Cerveny was never a bad signing anyway, the guy was one of the last Czech NT cuts for a reason. What does seem to be a problem is the fact that Wannstrom is getting scratched while Jelisejevs is playing 17 minutes per game. You know, the guy that is 27 and has a career-high of 3 points.
 

SoundAndFury

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Well, Cerveny played for the god-awful Slovan team back in the day and was one of its best forwards, I don't see why it should be any different in Riga.
 

SoundAndFury

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The penalty kill this season... Oh boy. 63.2% before this game and 0/2 so far today. Zubov is playing bottom-6ers on the PK by design but I doubt these boys can get the job done. At some point they will either be forced to sign someone with the clue about defensive duties or play guys like Radil and Cerveny.

Edit: make it 0/3
 
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Rigafan

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The penalty kill this season... Oh boy. 63.2% before this game and 0/2 so far today. Zubov is playing bottom-6ers on the PK by design but I doubt these boys can get the job done. At some point they will either be forced to sign someone with the clue about defensive duties or play guys like Radil and Cerveny.

Edit: make it 0/3
What is Sandis doing these days? He could always come back for one final season
 

SoundAndFury

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A must-win of sorts against Severstal today. Seva are favorites in theory but I think that's just purely inertia of what they are supposed to be. In reality, two teams that seem very close to each other. Healthy Dinamo's roster might actually be better if anything.
 

Rigafan

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A must-win of sorts against Severstal today. Seva are favorites in theory but I think that's just purely inertia of what they are supposed to be. In reality, two teams that seem very close to each other. Healthy Dinamo's roster might actually be better if anything.

That's a nice way to explain it. I supposed an OT loss is not as bad, but it's looking like the same old for this season. Getting close but not close enough.
 

SoundAndFury

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No Darzins and Cerveny also hurts a lot, that's 2/3 of a fairly legitimate scoring line not in the lineup. Tied for last in the conference after today's game rather than dead last, minor victory :sarcasm:
 

Dofs

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Jun 25, 2021
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I honestly don't get it, the roster is not that bad on paper, there are players from team Finland, players that proved themselves in KHL already, in Finnish league, yet from the two scoring leaders, one came from Slovakian league and another from Latvian. It seems like half of the roster is underperforming.
 

SoundAndFury

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I honestly don't get it, the roster is not that bad on paper, there are players from team Finland, players that proved themselves in KHL already, in Finnish league, yet from the two scoring leaders, one came from Slovakian league and another from Latvian. It seems like half of the roster is underperforming.
I wouldn't say the team has underperformed results-wise, frankly. The schedule has been really tough, the losses came against teams that are clearly better. If anything, the win against Barys was a pleasant surprise. There aren't going to be games against strong teams for almost a month from this point on. If they continue losing against Sochi, Amur and the likes - that's bad. But currently, the situation in the standings is fine all things considered.

Regarding the production from the players, Zubov likes balanced lines so someone like Radil, probably the biggest star of the team, is playing with Protapovich and Jelisejevs. The same applies to Shinkaruk. They can't be expected to produce scoring line numbers when they aren't really playing on scoring lines. That's why I mentioned before, not having Darzins and Cerveny really hurts because it means skilled players aren't playing with skilled players, they are expected to carry a lot of deadwood around.

Furthermore, scoring 0,5 PPG is kind of "grandmaster norm" on a bad team KHL team so quality players - Shinkaruk or Radil - being on 0,4 PPG after this streak of tough opposition aren't even far from the pace. I'd say it's more of a surprise that Poirier and Jelisejevs manage to contribute on the scoresheet so much than it's top guys that are underachieving.

A tough schedule, injuries and such a limited sample size is what doesn't let me panic at this point. Those aren't excuses, these are legitimate arguments why things are what they are. Having said that, in two weeks' time those aren't going to apply anymore and it will be the time for some harsher words if need be.
 
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Dofs

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This was honestly hard to watch. Almost no offense period. And this overreliance on dumb plays among the boards, especially in entrances into the offensive zone really caught my eye. Seems like it's just Zubov's playstyle. The team looks good only if it's doing a heavy forecheck. If it doesn't, it seems they can't do anything.

My patience is running thin.
 

SoundAndFury

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Yeah, this was rough. The team has scored 5 goals over the last 5 games. Needless to say that requires fixing, as mentioned, this team is better than that.
 

SoundAndFury

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Tiivola and Shinkaruk scratched, I assume :huh: It feels like Zubov's goal throughout this season is to make his skill players as uncomfortable as possible. Dubious strategy, I'd say.

Having said that, he also deserves credit for the things that do work well: PP is clicking in at 25% and team defense is at the level where Mattsson is one of the league's best goalies in all categories. Compared to the complete gong show of the previous years this is a massive improvement.

Yes, the team isn't scoring but as long as you allow below 2 goals per game that's not all that bad. West doesn't have truly weak teams other than Sochi which is too bad but in the league's overall standings the team is in 15th place (albeit with more games than many teams) which isn't bad at all. Had this team played in the East, it would be fighting for the PO spot. This is really all you can ask for from the roster/budget like this.

Unfortunately, Torpedo is just crushing Sibir which means not only that they gain 2 points in the standings but also Sibir will be desperate for a bounceback game against Riga.
 
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