JELGAVA, Latvia — Being left of the official IIHF u.20 World Championship t-shirt has failed to ignite the young Latvians into standing up and being counted.

In Latvia sport begins and ends at ice hockey. Period. However, their passion for hockey goes seemingly unrecognized outside of the hockey-mad nation with the official t-shirt for the IIHF u.20 world championships failing to acknowledge Latvia as one of the competing nations.

Many, particularly in the North American media thought that such a snubbing would be enough to fire the Latvians into action and make a point of being recognized.

Sadly however, the only reputation that the Latvians have forged at the championship in Canada to date is that of the easy-beats of their pool. The team which consists mainly of Dinamo Riga wider squad members has had three heavy defeats to date to being sitting solemnly at the bottom of their groups.

Their losses to date have so far come at the hands of hosts Canada (16-0), Slovakia (8-3) and the U.S. (12-1). Their final pool game will take place overnight against Switzerland, a game they must win if they are to remain in the world top 10 next season. The Swiss have played just two games to date and although they are yet to secure a goal, never mind a win, their defense has been a little more solid than that of Latvia.

The biggest observation that can be made at such a tournament is the depth that is contained in North American hockey. The strength of the North American countries is not always on display at the senior level of the World Championships with many of their leading players not gaining releases from their NHL clubs, so this tournament provides an insight into just how much of a gap exists in world hockey at the moment.