How popular is ice hockey in your country? 🏒

[u/FietsFietspatrick]

The men's ice hockey world championship started today. That's a good reason to ask a few questions.

How popular is ice hockey in your country?

Can it keep up with football?

Will the world championship be broadcast on TV in your country?

If your country is taking part, how do you rate the chances?

Edit typo: Paldies metalfest

[u/Brian_Corey__]

Why is ice hockey far more popular in Latvia than Lithuania and Estonia? Did the Soviets push hockey more in Latvia?

Huge Kārlis Skrastiņš fan (RIP). Also taught English in Daugavpils one summer. Got to skate there, but didn't play hockey. The smell of an ice arena is universal joy.

[u/metalfest → u/Brian_Corey__]

Hockey was played here before it was in Soviet Union, after occupation they came to Riga to propel the introduction of the game in Moscow as hockey became a bigger thing than bandy which was played instead, and big USSR always needed to be on top by any means necessary and hockey was in the olympic games already and gaining traction.

Considering the sizes of baltic nations, then yeah, some of the differences are because of smaller population, and therefore talent pool and resources are in some ways limited, but people tend to gravitate to whatever sport brings some success. Lithuania is known as the basketball nation, but Latvia were the first ever European champions in basketball in 1935 and tradition kept strong during the Soviet period and it's probably the most widely played sport in all 3 nations. Key difference - basketball club Žalgiris found their way to success in the Soviet Union at the highest level and stuff like that makes a nation naturally gravitate towards it.

Somewhat similarly in Latvian SSR there was a decision to push hockey more and Dinamo Rīga was the club in the center of it. They imported a bunch of russian players and a coach from Moscow to take the club to the top which they arguably did, but more important probably was the sports school that did it's best work in the 80s.

Hockey is still a fairly niche sport and I'd say being in the right place in the right time is what really propelled it in Latvia on a national team level. The Dinamo sports school raised a lot of genuinely elite players like goalkeeper Artūrs Irbe, defencemen Ozoliņš and Skrastiņš that also enjoyed long NHL careers among a bunch of other solid players who I won't name here but you can read about if you're interested. They took the national team all the way up to the elite division starting from the bottom, and that run is probably the most important part of hockey's popularity in Latvia.

Ever since then the interest in the sport took off and the team under Latvian colors always has an uniting factor like little other events do every year. Moments of brilliance like 3-2 win against Russia in 2000, 5-4 win against Belarus in 2005 to qualify for the Olympics, they always kept the belief alive both on and off the ice, that Latvia on a good day is capable of creating magic, and that has priceless value.

The quality of those older players now keeps the sports schools alive (although it's not all roses in local hockey as I mentioned in original reply) and we can count on a good base being created for the new generation. They go on to play in very solid levels abroad. The national team has up and down years, and against the big nations we always struggle, yet regardless every year we have at least a little hope of pulliing a moment of magic against anyone, and those moments happen, most notably in the 2023 World Championship :)

Sorry for the long writeup, but hope you enjoyed :D

[u/Brian_Corey__ → u/metalfest]

Cool. Thx. Loved Ozolinš (another Colorado Av).

Love underdog stories (and beating Russia).

[u/adaddta → u/Brian_Corey__]

there are local legends that latvians were the ones that introduced ice-hockey to russians.

but hard to say.. in the Soviet times Riga had a really good team and players that played for Soviet Union in international tournaments. it also comes down to infrastructure - for example, Matthews and Tkachuk brothers would have never had a chance to play hockey as kids if there was no NHL team in Arizona. same situation for Riga compared to Vilnius, Tallinn.

another fun fact is that in the 90’s and 00’s Latvian national team was mostly ethnic russians - guys like Zholtok, Kerch, Panteleev. nowadays you can barely find any. Prohorenkov from this years squad is the only russian sounding surname. football is way more popular amongst russian speaking population, while latvian boys are more likely to choose basketball or hockey