Former national team player Olegs Sorokins is back behind the bench of the Latvian U18 national team.
photo: Steve Kingsman / HHOF-IIHF Images
Olegs Sorokins had a long and successful playing career that took him from his hometown in Riga to North America, Finland, Slovakia, Austria, Denmark, Belarus, Russia, Switzerland, and back to Latvia. He also played in seven World Championships as well as the 2002 Olympics. Soon after retiring in 2017, he went into coaching, taking on the head coaching position for Latvia’s U18 team that was in Division I-A after finishing last at the 2017 WM18.
The Arena Riga played host to the 2018 WM18, Division I-A, and Sorokins led the team to a perfect 5-0 record to earn promotion for the top-level 2019 WM18. And at that tournament, Sorokins again worked his magic, leading the team to the quarter-finals for the first time in Latvia’s U18 history.
The Latvians faced Canada in that elimination game, and although the favoured Canadians prevailed, 3-1, it was no cakewalk. Canada went up, 2-0, but a Latvian goal midway through the third period made for an intense finale.
“Last time we were in the World Championship we made it to the quarter-finals,” Sorokins recalled after last night’s 4-2 loss to Switzerland. “We played a great game against Canada. It wasn’t just getting the empty netter in the end.”
Last year’s cancellation of the U18 was a blow for every U18 program across the world, but Sorokins is back with an entirely new roster and higher ambitions. “This year, we have made much higher goals for our team, so we’ll see how it goes. It’s not over yet.”
For Sorokins, success lies in the details. He doesn’t have a world-class scorer who can put the puck in the net every time the team needs a goal. He doesn’t have a big defenceman who can play 30 minutes and keep the puck out of his end all night. And he doesn’t have a goalie who can win a game on his own. Instead, Sorokins has a team, and as a team he emphasizes all the little bits that can contribute to victory.
“We have to focus more on the small things like backchecking, going hard for the full shift, identifying situations when players from our opponents join the attack,” the coach explained. “We need to analyze this game and see how we can make changes to improve for our next game. But we don’t have to change too much. We just have to be a little bit smarter and not go all out on the attack and have everyone deep in our opponent’s end when we don’t have the puck. That was one of the reasons we gave up those two goals in the first period.”
Because it was two years ago that the U18 was last played, Sorokins’s role is even more important, as a leader and team builder. Part of that duty has been constant communication with his players this season, even though most of them have not played many games because of the pandemic.
“I know these guys really well,” he continued. “We had a lot of practises in the summer at the beginning of the season. They are all capable of helping the team win games. They’re all capable of doing great things, big things. Today, we just didn’t have that in the end. We had more scoring chances than our opponents, but Switzerland also played really well in front of their net.”
At the end of the day, Sorokins has to be patient. These are kids, not pros, and they’ll make mistakes, just like the kids on every other team.
“We have good offensive power from the forwards. I hope they go far in hockey, but of course the only thing missing today was scoring goals. They are young, so when they fall behind on the scoreboard, and they’re 17 or 18 years old, they try to push themselves more and sometimes forget about the small things you need to do, like playing defence first.”
Sorokins still has three more games in the round robin, but if the team hopes to meet his lofty expectations, it will need a better effort in its next game tomorrow night—against Canada.
The Arena Riga played host to the 2018 WM18, Division I-A, and Sorokins led the team to a perfect 5-0 record to earn promotion for the top-level 2019 WM18. And at that tournament, Sorokins again worked his magic, leading the team to the quarter-finals for the first time in Latvia’s U18 history.
The Latvians faced Canada in that elimination game, and although the favoured Canadians prevailed, 3-1, it was no cakewalk. Canada went up, 2-0, but a Latvian goal midway through the third period made for an intense finale.
“Last time we were in the World Championship we made it to the quarter-finals,” Sorokins recalled after last night’s 4-2 loss to Switzerland. “We played a great game against Canada. It wasn’t just getting the empty netter in the end.”
Last year’s cancellation of the U18 was a blow for every U18 program across the world, but Sorokins is back with an entirely new roster and higher ambitions. “This year, we have made much higher goals for our team, so we’ll see how it goes. It’s not over yet.”
For Sorokins, success lies in the details. He doesn’t have a world-class scorer who can put the puck in the net every time the team needs a goal. He doesn’t have a big defenceman who can play 30 minutes and keep the puck out of his end all night. And he doesn’t have a goalie who can win a game on his own. Instead, Sorokins has a team, and as a team he emphasizes all the little bits that can contribute to victory.
“We have to focus more on the small things like backchecking, going hard for the full shift, identifying situations when players from our opponents join the attack,” the coach explained. “We need to analyze this game and see how we can make changes to improve for our next game. But we don’t have to change too much. We just have to be a little bit smarter and not go all out on the attack and have everyone deep in our opponent’s end when we don’t have the puck. That was one of the reasons we gave up those two goals in the first period.”
Because it was two years ago that the U18 was last played, Sorokins’s role is even more important, as a leader and team builder. Part of that duty has been constant communication with his players this season, even though most of them have not played many games because of the pandemic.
“I know these guys really well,” he continued. “We had a lot of practises in the summer at the beginning of the season. They are all capable of helping the team win games. They’re all capable of doing great things, big things. Today, we just didn’t have that in the end. We had more scoring chances than our opponents, but Switzerland also played really well in front of their net.”
At the end of the day, Sorokins has to be patient. These are kids, not pros, and they’ll make mistakes, just like the kids on every other team.
“We have good offensive power from the forwards. I hope they go far in hockey, but of course the only thing missing today was scoring goals. They are young, so when they fall behind on the scoreboard, and they’re 17 or 18 years old, they try to push themselves more and sometimes forget about the small things you need to do, like playing defence first.”
Sorokins still has three more games in the round robin, but if the team hopes to meet his lofty expectations, it will need a better effort in its next game tomorrow night—against Canada.