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| Do you believe in miracles? |
And, when Nolan and 20 yr. old Sabres forward Zemgus Girgensons are slated to face off against the mighty Canadian team, it will be awesome routing for Latvia and against Canada.
It's doubtful that a Miracle On Ice-type upset is in the works, and I wouldn't bet the farm on Latvia even adding a spread of two goals or so. But, ya gotta love the way this team is playing.
This might be the hardest working team at the Olympics.
Latvia had never made it to the quarterfinals in the Olympics before Sochi In fact, they've never finished higher than 7th in any international tournament.
Although Girgensons was not in on the scoring today, he is a direct conduit between Nolan and the Latvian team. Sandis Ozolinsh--the 41 yr. old captain and veteran of 15 NHL seasons complete with a Stanley Cup--is the undisputed on-ice leader of the team and the two are getting Nolan's message across.
With the Latvians up 2-0 vs. the Swiss and the team playing sloppy in front of goalie Edgars Masalskis, Ozolinsh became irate and chastised the team. They tightened things up and came away with the upset.
And lets not forget Masalskis.
With the Latvians up 2-0 and their team playing weak in front of him, Masalskis made the save of the game--and possibly the tournament--when he robbed Switzerland's Adres Ambuhl from point blank range:
(thanks to Getty Images Europe)
Once again, though, Nolan is working his magic with a bunch of pluggers as the Latvians avenged a previous 1-0 loss to Switzerland when the Swiss scored with a mere 7.9 seconds left in regulation.
Buffalo Hockey Beat's Bill Hoppe wrote a piece on Nolan and his brief history with the Latvian National Team last week.
The chronology certainly is interesting enough with Nolan being offered the job and admittedly not even knowing where the country was. Taking the job also got him out there in the coaching circles (no matter how far removed from the NHL) for Sabres newly appointed President of Hockey Ops, Pat LaFontaine, to tab him for the Sabres interim coaching vacancy.
But what the gig did for Nolan, according to Hoppe, was re-ignite his passion for coaching again. It actually took him back to his pre-NHL days when he was coach of the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds.
'I didn’t coach to get to the National Hockey League; I coached because I really loved assembling the team and putting it together and making each individual player collectively (work toward a championship),' Nolan said.
Probably the most important thing that Nolan had done for this group of overachieving Latvians, according to Hoppe, was to allow them to get back to their Latvian heritage.
Latvia had been under Soviet/Russian occupancy from 1944 to 1991 and the native peoples were forced to speak Russian. For Nolan, a Native American, it was similar to what his forefathers went through during the United States' Manifest Destiny. And he did not want them to lose what he had lost.
Nolan insisted that only Latvian be spoken in the locker room, even though he knew very little. 'When I first took over, the one thing I really wanted to do was get the Latvian language involved with them all over again, get the guys studying who they are, where they’re from as a nation so they’re very proud of who they are,' Nolan said.
They know who they are on the ice as well, and through the guidance of Nolan are finding out just how far it can take them.
For now, it takes them into the quarterfinals, a goal that had been set earlier, but Nolan is aware that things can happen in the Olympics, just like what happened with the 1980 USA team. 'You never know,' Nolan said in Hoppe's piece, 'One thing with the Olympics, that’s where dreams come true and miracles happen.
Much thanks and much respect to Bill Hoppe for that article on Ted Nolan's road to the Latvian National Team
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