Damien Riat Ready to Face Kazakhstan: A Twist of Fate at the World Championship

2023-05-15 18:52:54

Supernumerary at the World Championship, Damien Riat should have returned to Switzerland shortly. But Calvin Thürkauf’s injury changed the situation and he is ready to face Kazakhstan on Tuesday evening.

The adage that the misfortune of some makes the happiness of others sticks quite well with the life of Damien Riat in Riga. Not recorded by Patrick Fischer, the LHC striker was well suited to imitate Mike Künzle by returning home without having touched the ice. But Calvin Thürkauf’s injury once morest Norway changed things.

And it is above all a novelty of the IIHF regulations which allowed the coach to replace Thürkauf with Riat. Was the LHC man from Geneva aware of this subtlety? “I did not know at all. Fischer told me regarding it on Saturday or Sunday, I don’t remember. He wanted me to stay in case someone was hurt or sick.“

“Ready to Go Home”

But even before Thürkauf’s injury, Damien Riat was not giving a lot of his skin seeing the arrivals of Kevin Fiala and Nico Hischier in attack. “I was ready to go home with what we read in the media seeing the arrival of NHL playershe explains. Knowing that there is automatically one that jumps to make room for the other.“

Facing Kazakhstan, Riat does not yet know where he will be lined up or with which line-mates he will evolve: “The coaches said they were going to see that.“But the winger who played with Nico Hischier last year in Helsinki isn’t worried at all.”Patrick Fischer knows me well, he concludes. He knows what situations he can put me in and I will adapt.“

ats/bur

Read also: “I feel in great shape”, assures Kevin Fiala

Hischier and Siegenthaler arrive in Riga

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