Czech Hockey Report

Martin Růžička: European Player of the Month for October.

2012-11-07T17:41:00.000+01:00

For Eurohockey.com

At the first international break, the Czech Extraliga's leading scorer is not Kladno's Jaromír Jágr or Tomáš Plekanec, despite the fine and high-profile tour they've made around the country, filing arenas everywhere they go, nor is it any of the many other locked NHLers who have flocked to the league. It is Oceláři Třineč's Martin Růžička, who has 36 points in 19 games and racked up an amazing total of 20 points in 10 games in the month of October. He did so in relative obscurity, tucked away in a small industrial town on the Polish border.

Photo: NČR PRESS/Lenka Rybaříková.

Far away, in the capital city of Prague, mention hockey and the name Růžička nearly everybody will think of Vladimír, former star player and now coach of Slavia. Even the name Martin Růžička might lead to some confusion, as the starting goaltender in Pardubice has the exact same name. Yet the career that Martin Růžička the forward has made for himself since arriving in Třinec as a 24-year-old in 2009 is impressive.

To that point, he had bounced between four different clubs in the Extraliga and I.liga, never recording more than 18 points in a season and failing to distinguish himself as top-line player. However, in the 2009-10 season, he recorded 47 points in 50 games, which was enough to earn him a spot on that year's gold-medal winning Czech team at the World Championship.

He followed that up with 50 more points the next year, but he that was just a precursor to the playoff he would have. There, he shattered the league playoff scoring record, recording 33 points in 18 games, leading Oceláři to their first, and so far only, national championship.

After a year with Amur Khabarovsk of the KHL, he's back in Třinec this season, and what a season it's been so far. He has failed to register a point in only two of the 19 games he has played. His most dominant performance came October 5, when he was in on all 5 of the game's goals in his team's 5-0 shutout victory over visiting Česke Budějovice, thanks to a hat trick and 2 assists. He finished his amazing month with a 4-point effort against local rival Vítkovice on October 28.

Apparently, a month like that will get you attention no matter where you play -- not only national but all across Europe. Eurohockey.com readers voted him Europe's best hockey player for the month of October. Not only was he competing against Jágr and Plekanec for that honour, but other names like Henrik Zetterberg, Alexander Radulov, Ilya Kovalchuk and Alexander Ovechkin.

Unfortunately, European hockey fans won't get the chance to see him in action this week at the Karjala Cup -- he's being kept out with back trouble. However, it seems to be only precautionary, and he's expected to be back in the lineup when Třinec returns to the ice next week.

A lot of factors to consider when building Karjala roster

2012-11-06T21:29:00.001+01:00

When Europe's top four hockey nations released their roster last week for the Karjala Cup, the first leg of this year's Euro Hockey Tour, there was a lot of head-scratching among observers. With the surplus of bona fide talent playing in Europe right now, some were anticipating an all-star tournament of sorts in Finland that might include the likes of Jaromíř Jágr, Alexander Ovechkin, Henrik Zetterberg and others. But while some locked out NHLers were chosen to represent Finland, Russia, Sweden and the Czech Republic, the teams have mostly been made up of players committed to Europe for the full season.

Tomáš Hertl might get a shot at the World Championship this

year if NHLers are unavailable. Photo: nhlmockdraft.org

The announcement of a roster without Jágr, David Krejči, Aleš Hemský and Tomáš Vokoun was especially disappointing to hockey fans in Liberec, who were hoping to see an all-star cast assemble this Thursday when the Czech Republic hosts Sweden to open the tournament. In fact, the Czech Republic could have built an entire team based completely on NHLers now playing in the Czech Extraliga and KHL.

"Of course, if Jarda Jágr plays, the fans will come," said Czech national team coach Alois Hadamczik. "But for me it can be rather annoying; if the NHL starts, we're going to the World Championships with only players in Europe."

Indeed, he's probably right. Of course, everyone remembers the last NHL lockout, the one that wiped out the entire 2004-05 season and left virtually all players free to compete in that year's World Championship. The Czech Republic, with an all-star cast that included Jágr and Vokoun, won the gold medal with a 3-0 victory over Canada in the final.

However, fewer people remember the tournament in 1995. That year, when a lockout forced the NHL to begin a 48-game schedule in mid January that finished in early May, no NHL players were free to compete in the World Championship. That year, the Czech Republic, with a roster composed entirely of Extraliga players, finished 4th, losing the bronze medal game to a Canadian team composed of players from the AHL, IHL and European leagues. If the scenario of 1995 repeats itself, which seems like a very good possibility at this point, Hadamczik has to create a team of players in Europe, and he wants to get potential players ready to play during the Euro Hockey Tour.

Balancing the possibilities between NHLers and domestics, his roster for the Karjala Cup includes both: Ondrej Pavelec, Marek Židlický, Ladislav Šmíd, Tomáš Plekanec, and Jiří Tlustý will be there (although Židlický and Plekanec will only play in Liberec), but so will young charges Jakub Krejčík, Jakub Svoboda and Tomáš Hertl.

Under normal circumstances, Hertl would probably be at the U20 tournament, which will run concurrently in Sweden in preparation for this year's World Junior Championship, but since an all-European-based Czech team at the Worlds would almost certainly include Hertl, it's important to get him playing time with the big boys.

Even with a few big names missing, there are still plenty of players to follow at the Karjala Cup, however. Most games will be televised in the Czech Replublic on ČT Sport and live text coverage will be available in English at Eurolivescores.com. From hokej.cz, below is the Czech roster, their lineup for the first game against Sweden (Wednesday at 18:00 CET) and the tournament schedule.

Czech roster for the Karjala Cup (November 7 - 10, Turku, Finland and Liberec):

Goaltenders:

Ondřej Pavelec (Bílí Tygři Liberec), Alexandr Salák (Färjestad, Sweden).

Defencemen:

Marek Židlický (Rytíři Kladno), Ladislav Šmíd (Bílí Tygři Liberec), Petr Čáslava (Cherepovets, KHL), Jakub Nakládal (Spartak Moscow, KHL), Filip Novák (Dynamo Moscow, KHL), Jakub Kindl (HC ČSOB Pojišťovna Pardubice), Jakub Krejčík (HC Lev Praha, KHL), Lukáš Galvas (HC Oceláři Třinec).

Forwards:

Tomáš Plekanec, Jiří Tlustý (both Rytíři Kladno), Petr Nedvěd (Bílí Tygři Liberec), Jiří Novotný (HC Lev Praha, KHL), Zbyněk Irgl (Dynamo Minsk, KHL), Michal Vondrka (Slovan Bratislava, KHL), Jakub Petružálek (Khabarovsk, KHL), Petr Koukal (Nizhnekamsk, KHL), Petr Hubáček (Jyväskylä, Finland), Jan Kovář (HC Škoda Plzeň), Jakub Svoboda (HC Kometa Brno), Tomáš Hertl (HC Slavia Praha), Lukáš Pech (HC Energie Karlovy Vary).

General Manager: Slavomír Lener
Head Coach: Alois Hadamczik
Assistant Coach: Josef Paleček
Assistant & Video Coach: Jan Procházka
Team Manager: Jan Černý
Team Doctor: Dr. Zdeněk Ziegelbauer
Physiotherapist: Michal Truc
Equipment Manager: Zdeněk Šmíd
Trainer: Petr Ondráček

Announced lineup (and line combinations) vs Sweden in Liberec:

Salák (Pavelec) - Židlický, Šmíd, Novák, Čáslava, Kindl, Nakládal, Krejčík, Galvas - Nedvěd, Plekanec, Tlustý - Petružálek, Koukal, Vondrka - Irgl, Novotný, Hubáček - Hertl, Kovář, Svoboda (Pech).

2012 Karjala Cup schedule:

Wednesday, November 7:

17:30 Finland - Russia (Turku)
18:00 Czech Republic - Sweden (Liberec)

Friday, November 9:

14:00 Sweden - Russia (Turku)
17:30 Finland - Czech Republic (Turku)

Saturday, November 10:

12:00 Czech Republic - Russia (Turku)
16:00 Finland - Sweden (Turku)

Czech hockey online in English

2012-10-23T16:38:00.002+02:00

For the past six weeks, hockey-starved NHL fans have had to depend largely on hockey from Europe to get their fix. While a few games have been on in the United States and the United Kingdom on various ESPN platforms, most have had to search for internet streams with foreign-language broadcasts. These fans should be glad to know that live text commentary will now be available for many games in the Czech Extraliga and KHL.

Left to right: Marek Židlický, Tomáš Kaberle and Tomáš Plekanec
lead Kladno against Brno Tuesday. Josef Poláček, hc-kladno.cz.

All Czech hockey fans are familiar with the site onlajny.cz, which provides online text coverage of every Czech Extraliga game, as well as in lower men's leagues and top junior leagues. In the past couple of years they have also periodically provided English commentary to international events in the Czech Republic, such last last season's U18 World Championship in Brno, Znojmo and Břeclav.

In the past year and a half, I have covered several international events for the site's English version, called eurolivescores.com. Highlights include the 2011 IIHF Inline championship game in Pardubice and the 2012 U18 Women's championship game in Zlín. Typing events from a hockey game as they happen in rapid succession in a coherent manner takes some getting used to, and at first was a bit stressful, but I've gotten used to it.

Tonight, I will cover a professional hockey game in this manner for the first time: Rytíři Kladno vs Kometa Brno. For the third time this season, Kladno will play a home game at O2 Arena in Prague, the largest venue for hockey in the country. Both previous games drew over 15,000 fans and even more are expected this time. The increased interest in watching Kladno play is, of course, due to the NHL lockout and the subsequent arrival of club owner Jaromír Jágr and several other superstars to the team.

In what will surely be a disappointment to all those who have bought tickets, Jágr will not be in the Kladno lineup tonight, sitting out his second straight game with a yet-to-be-specified lower-body injury (though he says it's not the groin, which has given him trouble in the past). However, familiar names such as Marek Židlický, Tomáš Kaberle, Jan Hlaváč and Tomáš Plekanec will be. For Kometa, non-Czechs might know the names Miloslav Hořava and Róbert Petrovický, who both played in the NHL. The game is important for the league standings, as Brno is in 2nd place with 27 points, one ahead of Kladno.

Zdeno Chára and Alexander Radulov face

each other in KHL action on Thursday.
Photo: Jan Rachota, levpraha.cz.

Tuesday's game is actually the second that Eurolivecores has done in the Extraliga; on Sunday, Bill Meltzer of hockeybuzz.com provided commentary for Liberec-Kladno.

Coming up on Thursday, I return to O2 Arena to begin KHL online coverage as Lev Praha hosts CSKA Moscow, a matchup that will feature Zdeno Chára against Pavel Datsyuk. It will be a rematch of last Thursday's meeting in Moscow, where Datsyuk's CSKA club triumped 3-0. As some readers might know, I write for Lev's English website, so I'll try my best not to be a homer. In addition to all Lev home games that I'll be on location for, myself and a team of other commentators will provide commentary of other select KHL games, either from the arena or remotely.

Tuesday's Kladno-Brno matchup begins at 18:15 CET, 12:15 ET. Thursday's Lev-CSKA battle begins at 19:00 CET, 1pm ET.

Jágr, Plekanec to debut at O2

2012-09-16T14:53:00.000+02:00

Everyone knew that once the Collective Bargaining Agreement between the National Hockey League and its Players' Association lapsed at midnight Eastern Time on Saturday night, it wouldn't take long for players to start joining European leagues. It sure didn't take long.

Jágr in a Kladno jersey. Photo: Josef Paláček, hc-kladno.cz.

On Saturday, before the expiration of the contract, Kladno natives Jaromír Jágr and Tomáš Plekanec were practicing with their home town Extraliga club, Rytíři, the club that Jágr actually owns. The team is apparently so anxious to make a spectacle of the debut of these players that they have moved their October 7 home game against Slavia Praha up to this Wednesday, September 19, and from the small arena in Kladno to the largest hockey venue in the country: Prague's O2 Arena. The change has already been made on the schedule on Kladno's website, but not Slavia's or at hokej.cz.

With a capacity of more than 17 000, O2 Arena would seem to be the perfect stage for such a big event. It also seems that it might not be only Jágr and Plekanec, either. The club's website declared the possibility of the pair playing "with other players". A club press released announced that they would try to sign up to five locked out NHLers; Kladno natives in the league include Michael Frolík, Tomáš Kaberle, Ondřej Pavelec, Jiří Tlustý, Jakub Voráček and Marek Židlický. As this would be a Kladno home game, the website also gives information on ticket information and free transportation to O2 Arena, a mere 35 km (23 miles) away.

"This is an exceptional sporting event and we hope that it will be of great interest," said Václav Bartoš, the club's Executive Director. "We want to offer a great experience to as many fans as possible and promote Kladno hockey with our best players outside of our city. We would also like to accommodate all the Kladno fans and season-ticket holders who would like to go."

In a funny twist, the visiting team will be the building's normal tenant, Slavia Praha. Slavia's season ticket holders won't have their regular seats reserved, but it's expected that because of the magnitude of this event, most of them will buy tickets, along with their usual "fan club" group (who will likely be given their familiar end of the rink) and thousands of other hockey fans who may have no particular affiliation to either team. Despite being the visiting team, it's expected that Slavia will dress in their home dressing room and use their normal home bench, but wear their white road sweaters, while Kladno will wear home blue.

Though Slavia has not officially declared its pursuit of NHL players, their alumni in the NHL include Roman Červenka, an off-season signing of the Calgary Flames who is a former linemate of Jágr on the Czech national team as well as Avangard Omsk of the KHL. Others include Petr Kadlec, Pavel Kolářík and Vladimír Sobotka.

The building is expected to have a different atmosphere than a Slavia home game, as they often struggle to attract a crowd large enough to create a good atmosphere. Last year, the club's dismal season meant that fewer than 4500 fans per game came out. However, Slavia also played host to the league's largest crowd of the season, 11 284 against cross-town rival Sparta on January 15. The last time Jágr played for Kladno at O2 Arena was during the 2004-05 season; a game that attracted 15 785 fans. O2 Arena has attracted four of the five largest crowds in Extraliga history.

Kladno then has a regularly scheduled home game against Vítkovice on Friday, which presumably could be the first game that Jágr et al play actually in their home town.

Increased workload makes blog suffer

2012-09-06T13:38:00.005+02:00

The arrival of a Kontinental Hockey League club in Prague is a watershed moment in Czech hockey, as it means that this country will see arguably its highest calibre of club hockey since the 1980s, when top players began trickling out of Czechoslovakia to the west.

The arrival of HC Lev Praha makes Derek a busy boy.
Photo: Ondřej Kalát, levpraha.cz.

Thursday is the day when Lev Praha makes its KHL debut on home ice at Tipsport Arena against Dinamo Riga. Though it has been known for months that this day was coming, I have not commented much about it, as I knew I would be writing for the team website and I therefore felt writing under the guise of unbiased journalism wouldn't be fair. Therefore, I want to make it clear that I am in fact working for the club.

I started this blog two years ago in hopes of breaking into hockey writing and filling a gap that I noticed, namely the lack of Czech hockey news and analysis in English. As a native English speaker living in the Czech Republic with an extensive background in hockey and writing, I felt myself more than qualified to fill that gap. To that end, I feel I have made definite progress.

In December 2010 I began contributing to HockeysFuture.com, Eurohockey.com in June 2011, and in the past 18 months, I have had paid assignments covering four IIHF World Championship tournaments, including three writing for the English versions of official tournament websites (2011 Inline World Championship in Pardubice, 2012 U18 Women's World Championship in Zlín, and 2012 U18 Men's World Championship in Brno). I also contributed from afar writing for Lev Poprad, the short-lived KHL franchise in the Slovakian Tatra Mountains.

If there was a downside to all of that extra work, it meant that I had less free time to write on this blog. Indeed, the number of entries for the 2011-12 season was approximately half of the previous year. This year, with the KHL in Prague, I have a great opportunity to further my writing career, but it will also take a great deal more of my time. Writing almost daily for Lev, as well as making contributions to the website of their corporate partner, HC Sparta Praha of the Czech Extraliga, added on top of a full-time teaching job does not leave me a whole lot of time to write as a hobby.

I want to make it clear that I am not saying I am finished with this blog. If there is big news from the Czech Extraliga, I will probably still write something. Also, around December, I will report on the developments of the Czech U20 national team as it prepares for the World Junior Championships, as articles I've written the past two years on the team have generated a lot of traffic from abroad. Just don't expect daily, or even necessarily weekly updates, as was common in the past.

As I write this, it is less than seven hours from the opening faceoff. For my preview of the game, click here, and check back often for previews, game reports, and player interviews throughout the season. If you don't already, following me on Twitter (@Djob76) will keep you informed about any other outlets that I might contribute to.

August hockey heats up

2012-08-18T20:47:00.000+02:00

Although I'm away from the Czech Republic for the month of August, the world of hockey continues on. Perhaps the most significant thing I've missed in my absence is the Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament. In 2011, I attended every game played in Břeclav, covering it for Czech Hockey Report as well as Eurohockey.com.

In 2012, Eurohockey was on hand again, with Jon Rowson, Henrik Lundqvist (not the goalie) and Romon Solovyev doing a good job of providing coverage. For those who missed it, Canada won the tournament for the fifth straight year, defeating Finland 4-0 in the final. The Czech Republic, who feared a lack of offense heading in, made it to the semifinal where they fell 2-1 to Sweden on a late goal.

However, the Ivan Hlinka was not the only hockey event going on in Moravia this weekend. The Women's Summer Camp finished up in Brumov-Bylnice, with Tyler Bilton providing coverage. Slavia Praha was the Czech representative at the seven-team event, finishing second by taking 13 of a possible 18 points. Slavia's only regulation loss was to Russian club HC Tornado, who blew away everybody they faced, outscoring their opponents 32-1 over the course of the tournament.

Kverka takes the opening faceoff vs Norway. mhl.khl.ru

While two international tournaments finished on Saturday, another began. For the second straight year, HC Karlovy Vary is representing the Czech Republic at the World Junior Club Cup in Omsk, Russia. They finished second place last year and are off to a good start in 2012, beating the Norway U20 national team 3-1 in the opening game. KV got two first period goals from Tomáš Harkabus and another in the first minute of the second from captain Jaromír Kverka, while Vladislav Habal stopped 19 of 20 Norwegian shots.

"Today it was a very important game that we did not want to lose, we wanted to gain confidence, which we finally did," Kverka told the MHL website. "Norway played aggressive hockey and at the beginning we had problems, but then we started playing smarter and we won."

Things should only get more difficult from this point. After playing the United States Hockey League's Waterloo Black Hawks on Sunday (16:00 MSK, 14:00 CET, 7am CT), they play two MHL teams: the host Omsk Hawks (Tuesday) and Dinamo-Shinnik Bobrusk (Wednesday). Karlovy Vary will be a member of this league too in the upcoming season.

Tournament semifinals will be played Saturday and the final on Sunday.

Czech U17 & U18 teams face challenges at home in August tourneys

2012-08-07T08:12:00.001+02:00

For those looking to pursue a career in hockey, there is no off-season, and by August things are already in full swing. This month, two age categories are staging international tournaments in the Czech Republic, U17 and U18. Starting August 7, the U17s are hosting a five-team tournament in North Bohemia. The following week, the U18s take centre stage in southeast Moravia. The Czech Republic has faced many challenges trying to rebuild a national youth program over the past few years and the coaches of both age groups, Jiří Veber and Luděk Bukač Jr, look ahead to the challenges they face this coming season.

U18 Coach Luděk Bukač Jr looks ahead to the challenges at the Ivan
Hlinka tournament and beyond. Photo: Tomáš Čekal. hc-kometa.cz.

The larger of the two events is the U18 tournament, the annual Ivan Hlinka Memorial, will, as usual, be co-hosted by Břeclav along with nearby Piešťany, Slovakia. Despite underperforming regularly at this tournament, as well as at last year's U18 World Championship in Brno, Znojmo and Břeclav, Bukač brings with him a large part of his U17 team that finished second place in Hradec Králové last February, although there are a few notable exceptions. Three players, Jakub Vrána, David Pastrňák and Martin Kohout, are missing due to injuries. Six other players, Patrik Zdráhal, Adam Zbořil, Dominik Kubalík, David Němeček, David Sysala and Jan Košťálek, are all going overseas to join CHL teams and declined invitations to play for the team.

The lack of dedication to the national team clearly frustrates Bukač. Comparing his situation to the Swedish team, he said, "Their coaches invited their players and all of them accepted. No one was missing. As coaches, our goal is to set up a strategy for our national program, starting at the U16 level, and have the rules respected. We want our players to respect the program.

"The Hlinka Memorial Tournament is difficult, but I believe that we have a very good team," he continued. "As far as conditioning goes, we are ready. It is true that we're missing some forwards who scored a lot of goals for us in the past, but we have to compensate in other areas."

Last year's Czech team at the Hlinka tournament was Jiří Veber, now heads up the U17 team, which will host the USA, Germany, Slovakia and Switzerland in four towns in North Bohemia, with Chomutov serving as the main venue. Veber takes over a squad that was headed last season by Robert Reichel and started well, but had trouble in its last few tournaments.

"I don't know what the reason was; if it was injuries, goaltending, but I'm not looking back. I'm thinking about right now," he said. "We are starting from scratch. We looked at the players in camp, and now we're concentrating on this tournament. We are consistent, and we require certain things. We firmly believe that it will work. Although, it depends on how we respond in the games, of course."

Czech roster and schedule for the U17 tournament:

Goaltenders:
Karel Vejmelka (Třebíč), David Pírs (Sparta Praha), Aleš Sova (Č. Budějovice).

Defencemen:
Filip Pyrochta (Liberec), Jakub Zbořil (Kometa Brno), Tomáš Havlín (Liberec), Lukáš Vopelka (Örebrö, Sweden), Dominik Mašín (Slavia Praha), Filip Moravec (Litvínov), Robert Horák (Olomouc), Jan Ščotka (Vsetín).

Forwards:
Pavel Jenyš (Kometa Brno), Samuel Ollender, Dominik Kafka (both Vítkovice), Josef Stříbrný (Litvínov), Pavel Zacha (both Liberec), Martin Beneš, Václav Krliš (both Plzeň), Tomáš Andres (Slavia Praha), Michal Kovařčík (Třinec), Petr Macháček, Martin Strunz (both Chomutov), Radek Pilař (Hradec Králové).

Team Manager: Milan Hnilička
Head Coach: Jiří Veber
Assistant Coach: Petr Svoboda
Goaltending Coach: Michal Podolka
Team Doctor: Dr. Tomáš Madrý
Treasurer: Maroš Solenský

Tuesday, August 7:
18:00 Slovakia - Switzerland (Chomutov)
18:00 Czech Republic - Germany (Kadaň)

Wednesday, August 8:
18:00 USA - Germany (Chomutov)
18:00 Czech Republic - Slovakia (Klášterec n. O.)

Thursday, August 9:
18:00 Switzerland - USA (Chomutov)
18:00 Germany - Slovakia (Kadaň)

Friday, August 10:
16:30 Germany - Switzerland (Klášterec n. O.)
18:00 Czech Republic - USA (Chomutov)

Saturday, August 11:
12:00 Slovakia - USA (Chomutov)
15:30 Czech Republic - Switzerland (Chomutov)

Czech roster and schedule for the U18 Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament:

Goaltenders:
Štěpán Lukeš (Chomutov), René Svoboda (Vítkovice).

Defencemen:Tomáš Andrlík (Plzeň), Martin Kokeš (Litvínov), Roman Čermák (Jihlava), Ondřej Šafář (K. Vary), Jan Štencl (Vítkovice), Tomáš Dvořák (H. Brod), Michal Beránek (Liberec), Alex Pisárik (Třinec).

Forwards:Jiří Kepka, Roman Přikryl, Miroslav Indrák (all Plzeň), Dominik Pokorný (Sparta Praha), Petr Česlík (Vítkovice), Václav Pašek, Luboš Rob (both Č. Budějovice), Ondřej Kaše, David Kampf (both Chomutov), Martin Slánský (Kladno), Ondřej Kovářů (Lukko Rauma, Finland), Jan Mandát (Jihlava), Dan Nádrazský (Davos, Switzerland).

Reserves:
Jakub Kalfiřt (Liberec), Adam Škutchan (Vítkovice), Jan Litera (Letňany).

Team Manager: Otakar Černý
Head Coach: Luděk Bukač Jr.
Assistant Coach: David Bruk
Goaltending Coach: Radek Toth
Team Doctor: Dr. Milan Novotný
Treasurer: Zdeněk Vojtěchovský

Group in Břeclav: Czech Republic, USA, Russia, Finland
Group in Piešťany: Slovakia, Canada, Sweden, Switzerland

Monday, August 13:
14:00 Switzerland - Canada (Piešťany)
15:30 USA - Russia (Břeclav)
17:30 Slovakia - Sweden (Piešťany)
19:00 Czech Republic - Finland (Břeclav)

Tuesday, August 14:
14:00 Canada - Sweden (Piešťany)
15:30 Russia - Finland (Břeclav)
17:30 Slovakia - Switzerland (Piešťany)
19:00 Czech Republic - USA (Břeclav)

Wednesday, August 15:
14:00 Sweden - Switzerland (Piešťany)
15:30 Finland - USA (Břeclav)
17:30 Slovakia - Canada (Piešťany)
19:00 Czech Republic - Russia (Břeclav)

Friday August 17:
14:00 Placement game (Piešťany)
15:30 Placement game (Břeclav)
17:30 Semifinal (Piešťany)
19:00 Semifinal (Břeclav)

Saturday, August 18:14:00 Final or 3rd place game (Piešťany)
17:00 Final or 3rd place game (Břeclav)

Quotations, rosters and schedules courtesy of hokej.cz.

New season begins July 31

2012-07-31T07:58:00.003+02:00

The last day of July seems to be the start of the 2012-13 hockey season, at least in the Czech Republic.

Action from last year's European Trophy, featuring Sparta

Praha against Linkoping. Europeantrophy.com.

The last day of July sees the first game of the 2012 European Trophy, and it will be hosted by the Czech Extraliga's newest team, Piráti Chomutov, against Slovan Bratislava. Just as last year, seven Czech clubs will compete in the 32-team tournament, with Piráti taking the place of Slavia Praha. The other six are Sparta Praha, Bílí Tygři Liberec, Pardubice, České Budějovice, Plzeň 1929 and Kometa Brno.

What began as a pre-season tournament for Scandinavian clubs, the European Trophy has grown in size and stature over the past few years, to the extent where last season teams were refusing to relinquish players to their respective national teams so they could compete for the championship. This season, more of the tournament has been scheduled into the traditional international breaks, and it is assumed players will stick with their club teams then as well. In recent IIHF-led discussions about the future of club hockey in Europe, one of the speculated scenarios had the competition grow into a full-out international league.

The top eight teams will play in the Red Bull Salute, December 15 to 18 in Bratislava and Vienna. The full tournament schedule can be seen here. Last season, three Czech teams were among the final eight.

The last day of July also sees the first-ever exhibition game for the first Czech-based club to compete in the Kontinental Hockey League: Lev Praha. They kick off their 10-game pre-season schedule on Tuesday night at Svijanská Arena in Liberec against Rytíři Kladno at 17:30 CET. The Lions then take on host Bílí Tygři in a cat fight on Thursday night.

Jaroslav Svoboda shoots on Drew MacIntyre at Lev Praha's

first training camp. Photo: Vladimír Jína, levpraha.cz.

A similarly-named club based in Poprad, Slovakia competed in the KHL last season, and this edition of HC Lev has a few returnees, including captain Ľuboš Bartečko along with defenceman Jiří Hunkes and forwards Juraj Mikúš and Jiří Sekáč. Other notable names include goaltender Tomáš Pöpperle, defenceman Michal Sersen and forward Tomáš Rachůnek, who all played last season for Sparta, as well as ex-NHLers Tomáš Mojžíš, Marcel Hossa, Erik Christensen, Jiří Novotný, Michal Řepík and Jaroslav Svoboda.

The team's pre-season roster and schedule are available now at the Czech version of the club website; the English version should be online within a week.

Jaškin: "I want to go to Canada"

2012-06-27T19:05:00.001+02:00

Less than an hour after being drafted by the Moncton Wildcats in the Canadian Hockey League's Import Draft, hokej.cz's Vaclav Jachim is reporting that Slavia Praha's Dmitrij Jaškin has decided to play there next year.

"I've arranged with Slavia to leave. I want to go to Canada," the report says. "I've thought a lot about it. If I play in the CHL, I have a chance to get from there to the NHL. And that's my goal."

His attitude was different a year ago.

"Playing in the Czech professional league is better," is what the hulking winger told me last April at the U18 World Championship in Dresden, Germany.

And why not? A year ago, Jaškin was coming off an impressive rookie season in the Czech Extraliga, one which led to his second-round selection by the St. Louis Blues in the NHL Entry Draft. At that time, Jaškin seemingly had no interest in jumping to the CHL, as he prepared for his sophomore pro season.

However, the disastrous season to follow has apparently changed his mind. After registering only 1 goal and 1 assist in 30 Extraliga games, the snake-bitten 18 year old was sent back to junior. He seemingly got some of his confidence back at lower levels, registering 17 points in 10 Junior Extraliga games, which led to a loan to Beroun of the First League, where he tallied 8 points in 10 games. Upon returning to Slavia in the play-out round, he recorded a more respectable 4 points in seven games.

A player built in the power-forward mold, Jaškin seems to thrive when the game gets physical, and therefore it was speculated that a move to the more physical CHL might be a good move for him, and he apparently agrees. The only sticking point could have been if Slavia had refused to let him go. However,despite the fact that coach and general manager Vladimír Růžička does not seem to agree with Jaškin's decision, he's not going to stand in his way.

"We've had repeated talks with his agent, Aleš Volek, and I've spoken a lot with Dima and his father (former pro Russian defenceman Alexei Yashkin)," said the man known as "Rosy" in his NHL career. "At first, Lexa Yashkin said it would be better if the boy stayed, but later, that he should leave. Of course, it brings me no joy, but we decided to work with the family and not stand in the way of what he wants."

"I knew that Vladimír Růzička would not be happy with this," said Jaškin, "but I hope this change will get me to where I want to be."

All told, 20 Czechs were taken in Wednesday's draft, although one of them, Planá-born Dominik Kohun, now lives in Germany, whom he represents internationally. Additionally, two other players, Slovak Martin Reway and Slovene Jurij Repe, were drafted from Czech clubs.

4. Martin Reway (SVK) LW Sparta Gatineau

10. Jan Košťálek D Sparta Rimouski

14. Patrik Polívka G Plzeň Victoria
22. Dmitrij Jaškin RW Slavia Moncton
23. Jan Bittner D Litvínov Red Deer
27. Dominik Kubalík LW Plzeň Belleville
28. Patrik Zdráhal LW Vítkovice Acadie-Bathurst
29. Petr Veselý LW PZ Kladno Kootenay

34. Jurij Repe (SLO) D Třinec Saint John
35. Richard Nejezchleb RW Slavia Brandon

39. Dominik Kohun LW Heilbronn (GER) Sudbury
41. Mikuláš Rimmel RW Vítkovice Spokane
44. Aleš Kilnar LW Vítkovice Vancouver
47. Marek Langhamer G Pardubice Medicine Hat
51. Ladislav Zikmund RW K. Vary Ottawa
52. Jakub Ižacký LW Třinec Saint John
56. Ondřej Kopta LW Texas (NAHL) Niagara
59. Jakub Procházka LW Litvínov Kootenay
64. Adam Zbořil LW Kometa Acadie-Bathurst
71. Eustathio Soumelidis C Vaasa (FIN) Everett

96. David Němeček D Plzeň Sarnia
116. David Sysala C Vítkovice Niagara

Eliáš wins 2nd Zlatá hokejka decisively

2012-06-24T15:59:00.001+02:00

With the season he had, it shouldn't have even been close and, when the voting results were released, it wasn't. Patrik Eliáš, who recorded 78 points in 82 regular-season NHL games and then helped lead the New Jersey Devils to the Stanley Cup Final, won the Zlatá hokejka, awarded annually to the best Czech hockey player in the world, by a decisive margin. He previously won the award in 2009.

Eliáš, who is awaiting his U.S. Green Card, was not able to attend the event in person. "I consider the Zlatá hokeja a big award, which I appreciate, and I regret that the time couldn't be managed so that I could come to Karlovy Vary in person," he said via telephone from the Caribbean. On his season, he said, "It was unbelievable how we were able to come together in New Jersey under a new coach (Peter DeBoer). We enjoyed every moment of it."

Jaromír Jágr, a ten-time winner of the award, finished a distant second place, two points ahead of Ottawa Senators forward Milan Michálek. "(The voting result) is a nice reflection of the best season of my career," he told Martin Kézr of website sport.cz.

Other winners from Saturday night's gala were Radka Lhotská, who won as best female player for backstopping the Czech women win the IIHF Division I tournament and qualify for next year's World Championship in Ottawa, Pavel Kubeš, who won for best sledge hockey player, and Petr Mrázek for best junior hockey player.

From zlatahokejka2012.cz, here are the final voting results:

1. PATRIK ELIÁŠ     New Jersey Devils (NHL)   594 points
2. JAROMÍR JÁGR     Philadelphia Flyers (NHL) 409
3. MILAN MICHÁLEK   Ottawa Senators (NHL)     407
4. RADIM VRBATA     Phoenix Coyotes (NHL)    358
5. PETR NEDVĚD      Bílí Tygři Liberec (ELH) 336
6. ROMAN ČERVENKA   Avangard Omsk (KHL)       322
7. JAKUB VORÁČEK    Philadelphia Flyers (NHL) 310
8. MARTIN ERAT      Nashville Predators (NHL) 303
9. TOMÁŠ PLEKANEC   Montreal Canadiens (NHL) 279
10. ONDŘEJ PAVELEC   Winnipeg Jets (NHL)       202

11. Jakub Kovář (Č. Budějovice) 178 points, 12. Jakub Petružálek (Khabarovsk, KHL) 165, 13. Martin Straka (Plzeň) 161, 14. Tomáš Fleischmann (Florida, NHL) 160, 15. Marek Židlický (New Jersey, NHL) 149, 16. Tomáš Pöpperle (Sparta Praha) 147, 17. Aleš Hemský (Edmonton, NHL) 140, 18. Petr Koukal (Pardubice) 110, 19. David Krejčí (Boston, NHL) 99, 20. Jiří Novotný (Astana, KHL) 97, 21. Petr Ton (Sparta Praha) 91, 22. Petr Vrána (Khabarovsk, KHL) 68, 23. Tomáš Vokoun (Washington, NHL) 59, 24. Jakub Štěpánek (St. Petersburg, KHL) 57, 25. Filip Kuba (Ottawa, NHL) 50, 26. Petr Čáslava (CSKA Moscow, KHL) 46, 27. Radek Duda (Plzeň) 42, 28. Martin Hanzal (Phoenix, NHL) 35, 29. Tomáš Rolinek (Magnitogorsk, KHL) 29, 30. - 31. Jiří Hudler (Detroit, NHL), Jakub Nakládal (Ufa, KHL) both 27, 32. Petr Tenkrát (Sparta Praha) 26, 33. Zbyněk Irgl (Minsk, KHL) 22, 34. Tomáš Divíšek (Kometa Brno) 19, 35. Rostislav Klesla (Phoenix, NHL) 15, 36. Petr Sýkora (Davos, Switzerland) 13, 37. Jan Kolář I. (Pardubice) 11, 38. Petr Kumstát (K. Vary) 10, 39. - 42. Jaroslav Bednář (Lugano, Switzerland), Jiří Burger (Vítkovice), Marek Kvapil (Dynamo Moscow, KHL), Petr Mrázek (Ottawa, OHL) all 9, 43. Zbyněk Michálek (Pittsburgh, NHL) 7, 44. - 45. Miroslav Blaťák (Ufa, KHL), Jakub Klepiš (Dynamo Moscow, KHL) both 6, 46. - 48. Petr Průcha (St. Petersburg, KHL), Petr Sýkora (New Jersey, NHL), Jiří Trvaj (Kometa Brno) all 5, 49. - 52. Jan Kolář II, Robert Kousal (both Pardubice), David Květoň (Třinec), Ondřej Němec (Cherepovets, KHL) all 4, 53. - 54. Martin Havlát (San Jose, NHL), Roman Horák (Calgary, NHL) both 3, 55. - 59. Jan Chábera (Kladno), František Lukeš (Litvínov), Michal Neuvirth (Washington, NHL), Martin Růžička (Khabarovsk, KHL),Ladislav Šmíd (Edmonton, NHL) all 2, 60. - 66. Jan Buchtele (Pardubice), Petr Čajánek (Zlín), Milan Gulaš (Č. Budějovice), Petr Holík (Zlín), Viktor Hübl (Litvínov), Jakub Krejčík (Slavia Praha), Vladimír Sobotka (St. Louis, NHL) all 1.

Previous winners:

1969 - Jan Suchý
1970 - Jan Suchý
1971 - František Pospíšil
1972 - František Pospíšil
1973 - Vladimír Martinec
1974 - Jiří Holeček
1975 - Vladimír Martinec
1976 - Vladimír Martinec
1977 - Milan Nový
1978 - Ivan Hlinka
1979 - Vladimír Martinec
1980 - Peter Šťastný
1981 - Milan Nový
1982 - Milan Nový
1983 - Vincent Lukáč
1984 - Igor Liba
1985 - Jiří Králík
1986 - Vladimír Růžička
1987 - Dominik Hašek
1988 - Vladimír Růžička
1989 - Dominik Hašek
1990 - Dominik Hašek
1991 - Bedřich Ščerban
1992 - Róbert Švehla
1993 - Miloš Holaň
1994 - Roman Turek
1995 - Jaromír Jágr
1996 - Jaromír Jágr
1997 - Dominik Hašek
1998 - Dominik Hašek
1999 - Jaromír Jágr
2000 - Jaromír Jágr
2001 - Jiří Dopita
2002 - Jaromír Jágr
2003 - Milan Hejduk
2004 - Robert Lang
2005 - Jaromír Jágr
2006 - Jaromír Jágr
2007 - Jaromír Jágr
2008 - Jaromír Jágr
2009 - Patrik Eliáš
2010 - Tomáš Vokoun
2011 - Jaromír Jágr
2012 - Patrik Eliáš

Most wins:

10 - Jaromír Jágr
5 - Dominik Hašek
4 - Vladimír Martinec
3 - Milan Nový

2 - Jan Suchý

2 - František Pospišil

2 - Vladimír Růžička

2 - Patrik Eliáš

Czech NHL Draft preview

2012-06-22T18:51:00.000+02:00

This weekend, the best undrafted junior-aged hockey talent in the world collectively has its hopes and dreams focused on Pittsburgh, site of this year's NHL Entry Draft. A number of talented Czechs are expected to be taken, led by Radek Faksa and Tomáš Hertl, who were also both taken in the first round of last month's KHL Entry Draft.

Faksa and Hertl are successful products of the two paths that young Czech players must choose between when deciding what is best for their future. The choice is often a difficult one, and the argument over which is best can go on endlessly. Faksa plays for the Kitchener Rangers of the Ontario Hockey League, part of the Canadian junior system, while Hertl just won the Rookie-of-the-Year award in the Czech Extraliga, where he played for Slavia Praha.

Though there has not been a Czech first-round pick since Jakub Voráček in 2007, there is a chance their could be three taken this year. In addition to Faksa and Hertl, Martin Frk of the Halifax Mooseheads is highly-ranked.

I previewed the top domestic-based Czech players for HockeysFuture.com and, to avoid being redundant, I won't re-type it, but link to it here. Also included my preview is Nathan Walker, who is not Czech by nationality, but has played in Vítkovice for the past six seasons and is ranked 25th among European-based skaters.

From hokej.cz, here is a list of all Czech prospects that have been ranked by Central Scouting Services, divided into four categories.

Czechs ranked among North American-based skaters:

  7. Radek Faksa    C    Kitchener (OHL)
20. Martin Frk     RW Halifax (QMJHL)
45. Tomáš Hyka     RW   Gatineau (QMJHL)
97. Matěj Beran    C   P.E.I. (QMJHL)
156. Tomáš Pavelka D    P.E.I. (QMJHL)
163. Dominik Volek  C/RW Regina (WHL)
182. Michal Plutnar D     Tri-City (WHL)
190. Patrik Machač  C   Brampton (OHL)

Czechs ranked among North American-based goaltenders:

8. Patrik Bartošák    Red Deer (WHL)
14. Matěj Machovský    Brampton (OHL)
22. Roman Will         Moncton (QMJHL)
27. Jaroslav Pavelka   Windsor (OHL)

Czechs ranked among European-based skaters:

5. Tomáš Hertl         C   Slavia Praha
26. Erik Němec          C   Vítkovice
38. Aleš Kilnar         LW Vítkovice
39. Jakub Ižacký        LW Třinec
40. Petr Koblasa        RW Karlovy Vary
41. Richard Nejezchleb  RW Slavia Praha
60. Ronald Knot         D Slavia Praha
62. Martin Procházka    LW Sparta Praha
71. Tomáš Nosek         LW Pardubice
75. Matěj Zadražil      LW Karlovy Vary
76. Adam Hawlik         D Pardubice
81. Ondřej Slováček     RW Vítkovice
86. Libor Šulák         D Tatranskí Vlci (MHL)
91. Jan Bittner         D Litvínov
95. Karel Plášil        D České Budějovice
118. Jiří Sekáč          LW Lev Poprad (KHL)

Czechs ranked among European-based goaltenders:

5. Marek Langhamer     Pardubice

Czechs drafted in 2011 (10):
David Musil, Dmitrij Jaškin, David Honzík, Dominik Uher, Lukáš Sedlák, Matěj Stránský, Daniel Přibyl, Richard Nedomlel, Petr Plaček, Ondřej Palát.

Czechs drafted in 2010 (5):
Petr Straka, Jakub Culek, Radko Gudas, Petr Mrázek, Adam Polášek.

Czechs drafted in 2009 (3):
Andrej Nestrašil, Roman Horák, Tomáš Vincour.

Czechs drafted in 2008 (3):
Tomáš Kundrátek, Michal Jordán, Tomáš Kubalík.

Czechs drafted in 2007 (5):
Jakub Voráček, Michal Řepík, Vladimír Růžička, Ondřej Roman, Radim Ostrčil.

Czechs drafted in 2006 (8):
Michael Frolík, Jiří Tlustý, Tomáš Káňa, Michal Neuvirth, Ondřej Fiala, David Květoň, Jakub Kovář, Martin Látal.

Czechs drafted in 2005 (13):
Martin Hanzal, Jakub Kindl, Petr Kalus, Ondřej Pavelec, Radek Smoleňák, Jakub Vojta, Vladimír Sobotka, Tomáš Pöpperle, Tomáš Pospíšil, Tomáš Kudělka, Marek Kvapil, Lukáš Vantuch, David Kuchejda.

Zlatá hokejka time again

2012-06-09T12:57:00.001+02:00

It's almost time once again for the awarding of the Zlatá hokejka, the Golden Stick, to the best Czech hockey player of the past season, regardless of where in the world he played. Ten finalists have been announced, and on June 23, some of the best Czech hockey players in the world, along with other important and well-dressed people will gather at the prestigious Grand Hotel Pupp in Karlovy Vary to crown this year's winner.

Will Patrik Eliáš win his 2nd Zlatá
hokejka? Photo: James Teterenko

For me, this is the second Zlatá hokejka campaign that I have followed closely. Last year, based on the list of ten finalists, I concluded that David Krejčí of the Boston Bruins should have been the winner. Had the vote not taken place before the Final, he still might have been, but I figured he had still done enough to win, considering he was leading the Stanley Cup playoff scoring race. Coming from a Vancouver Canucks fan, fresh off an excruciating defeat, that was a bold prediction. But I forgot to factor something in.

That something is, if Jaromír Jágr has a chance of winning, he will.

Last year, he had 50 points in 49 games with Avangard Omsk of the Kontinental Hockey League before leading them to a defeat in the Gagarin Cup quarterfinals. In the World Championship, he turned on the gas, recording 9 points in nine games, including his first-ever hat trick for the Czech national team, en route to a bronze medal. A fine season, to be sure, but was it the finest of any Czech hockey player that year? I say no, but then, I'm not Czech.

The question this year is, does Jágr have a chance of winning his unprecedented 11th award? Returning to the NHL, he recorded 54 points in 73 regular season games, then 8 points in 11 points, as the Philadelphia Flyers were eliminated in the second round. He declined an invite to play in the World Championships after his team was finished, which may take him out of the running, as so much weight seems to be given by voters to success in that tournament.

So, if not Jágr, then who? The next group of players after him to look at are those from the so-called Zlatá generace (Golden Generation), the group of players that formed the core of the team that won five World Championships and one Olympic gold medal between 1996 and 2005. Though it can be debated exactly which players belong in that class, one player in the top 10, Patrik Eliáš, is certainly a member. This past season, at age 36, Eliáš recorded 78 points in 81 games for the New Jersey Devils, which made him far and away the most productive Czech in the NHL, 16 points ahead of Krejčí and Radim Vrbata. In fact, Eliáš's season isn't even finished yet, as his Devils are currently playing in the Stanley Cup Final. Eliáš has won previously, in 2009.

Of course, New Jersey's playoff success kept Eliáš from playing in the World Championship. However, despite the Czech Republic's bronze-medal finish, the team lacked an outstanding individual performance that they got in 2011 from Jágr and Ondřej Pavelec, who is again a finalist this year. Somewhat surprisingly, goaltender Jakub Kovář did not make the cut this year. The only World Championship players in the top 10 are Martin Erat, Milan Michálek, Petr Nedvěd and Tomáš Plekanec. Plekanec registered 7 points in 10 games, while Erat arrived midway through and got 4 points in five games.

Nedvěd might be a sentimental choice, as he led the Czech Extraliga in scoring at age 40, and also recorded 13 points in 21 games internationally, his first time representing the land of his birth since 1996. I'll slide him into the #2 spot behind Eliáš, however, as no Extraliga player has won the award since Jiří Dopita in 2001.

So that settles it, Eliáš will definitely probably win.

Below are a list of the ten finalists, followed by past winners of the award:

Roman Červenka   C Avangard Omsk (KHL)
Patrik Eliáš   C/LW New Jersey Devils (NHL)
Martin Erat L/RW Nashville Predators (NHL)
Jaromír Jágr    RW Philadelphia Flyers (NHL)
Milan Michálek     L/RW Ottawa Senators (NHL)
Petr Nedvěd   C Bílí Tygři Liberec (ELH)
Ondřej Pavelec G Winnipeg Jets (NHL)
Tomáš Plekanec C Montreal Canadiens (NHL)
Jakub Voráček   RW Philadelphia Flyers (NHL)
Radim Vrbata   R/LW Phoenix Coyotes (NHL)

Past Winners:

Most Wins:

10 - Jaromír Jágr
5 - Dominik Hašek
4 - Vladimír Martinec
3 - Milan Nový

Nine Czechs chosen in KHL Draft

2012-05-28T23:33:00.001+02:00

Nine Czech players were selected in the 2012 KHL Entry Draft, which took place on Saturday in Chelyabinsk. Not surprisingly, the majority of them were taken by the league's lone Czech team, Lev Praha.

Radek Faksa was the first Czech taken in the 2012 KHL Entry
Draft. Photo: sports.yahoo.com.

Two Czech centres were taken in the draft's first round, Radek Faksa of the OHL's Kitchener Rangers and Tomáš Hertl of Slavia Praha. Faksa was taken seventh overall by Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk, while Hertl was taken 14th by Severstal Cherepovets. Both players are also projected to be first round selections in the NHL Entry Draft, which will take place in June, and the chances of either playing in the KHL within the next couple of years has to be considered slim. Faksa will probably either jump to the NHL or, more likely, remain in the Ontario Hockey League, while Hertl, who was recently named the Czech Extraliga's Rookie of the Year, will most likely return to Slavia.

Of the remaining seven players, five were chosen by Lev. Lev's first four choices were from Czech domestic clubs, three of which were from Prague teams. With their first-ever draft pick, they chose Tomáš Rachůnek, younger brother of Ivan and the late Karel, 31st overall. Considering both Tomáš and Ivan, who are ten years apart in age, play for Sparta Praha, who share Tipsport Arena with Lev, the chances of seeing the brothers in the KHL this season seem reasonable.

Roman Will of the QMJHL's Moncton Wildcats was the only Czech goaltender chosen, 166th by Lev.

Below is a list of the players selected.

7. Radek Faksa C Kitchener Nizhnekamsk

14. Tomáš Hertl C Slavia Praha Cherepovets
31. Tomáš Rachůnek L/RW Sparta Praha Lev Praha
69. Vojtěch Mozík D Mladá Boleslav Lev Praha
105. Lukáš Žejdl RW Slavia Praha Lev Praha
111. Jakub Orsava R/LW Třinec Novosibirsk
132. Jan Košťálek D Sparta Praha Lev Praha
155. Matěj Beran C P.E.I. Ufa
166. Roman Will G Moncton Lev Praha

Where will Hašek end up?

2012-05-27T13:01:00.002+02:00

"I haven't received any offers that interest me, so I've decided that I won't play hockey this year. But I'm by no means finished. If I see that my handsand legs are still capable, I think, why run away from it? I'll leave that open."

Could Hašek be headed back to Detroit?
Photo: goaliesarchive.com.

When he said it a year ago, it raised some eyebrows. But now, Dominik Hašek is showing that he wasn't kidding, as he is saying that he intends to return to active playing in the 2012-13 season, at the age of 47.

"Nothing has changed from what I had in mind last year," he recently told Czech newspaper Sport upon return from an overseas trip in which he apparently talked to some NHL clubs. "But I haven't decided anything yet, so I'll wait and see. I'll probably make a decision in June."

It was assumed that, if Hašek did return, it would probably be to the KHL, where he posted a league-leading 7 shutouts in 2010-11, or the Czech Extraliga. The NHL seems a bit of a stretch. After all, in his last stint there, four years ago, Hašek was a backup with the Detroit Red Wings. However, the North American circuit seems to be what the Dominator is eyeing. European options don't seem to interest him.

"I have heard from a variety of clubs in Europe, and had many a phone call. I politely thanked them. I will not say who, why, how. I don't think it will happen. It's not what I want."

Regarding a return to the KHL, he said, "I don't know what's going on over there. Nothing against them, but I'm not interested."

With no disrespect to the goaltending legend, a starting job in the NHL at age 47 has to be almost totally out of the question. The question then becomes, what would be the best backup situation for him?

One of the possible destinations being mentioned is Detroit, where he has done three tours of duty already. Presumably, he'd be backing up Jimmy Howard in that scenario. Detroit already has a Czech goaltender in its system, Petr Mrázek, who is expected to battle for the team's backup job next year.

Mrázek, whose play at last year's World Junior Championship has many Czech fans hailing him as "the next Dominator", does not seem to view Hašek's possible presence as competition, however.

"If Dominik returned (to Detroit) it would help me a lot," said the 20-year-old netminder. "His experience is vast, so it would help me to watch him in training camp, in practice sessions, and in games. If I could learn from him, it would help my career. I don't know what the intentions of the club are, but I would not view it as competition, I would view it as help."

Another team being mentioned a lot is the Tampa Bay Lightning. The club's recent goaltending woes are almost as well-known as its general manager, Hall-of-Famer Steve Yzerman, who is a former teammate of Hašek.

"My philosophy is that I want to find a Hall-of-Fame-quality goalie," said Yzerman. "It's not easy, it takes time. But we want to get someone like that through the draft or through the free-agency market. So far, we don't have one."

Other teams that have been mentioned include the Buffalo Sabres, Toronto Maple Leafs, Edmonton Oilers, Chicago Blackhawks, Boston Bruins and Anaheim Ducks. Whether it's one of those clubs or someone else remains to be seen, but so far, Sport is even reporting that his wife doesn't know at this point.

All quotes are from iSport.cz.

Prague & Bratislava to co-host Worlds?

2012-05-21T16:50:00.000+02:00

The 2012 IIHF World Championships, the first of two in a row to be co-hosted by Stockholm and Helsinki, have just finished. Throughout the tournament, the pros and cons of two countries sharing the event have been weighed, and that will probably continue for some time. Among future possibilities now being discussed is one involving the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Once a single state, the Czechs and Slovaks seem to be a

natural choice to co-host. Photo: Andre Ringuette, IIHF-HHOF.

As far as bi-national co-hosting situations go, none would seem more logical than a tournament held by the two states that used to be one country, specifically their respective capitals, Prague and Bratislava. After all, the two cities have co-hosted the event twice before, in 1959 and 1992, when they were both still part of Czechoslovakia.

IIHF President René Fasel, for one, thinks it could work. "The Czechs and Slovaks speak almost the same language and are very close to each other," he told Michael Langr of of idnes.cz. "I think it's a good idea and a great opportunity."

The World Championship is scheduled to return to the Czech Republic in 2015. Prague will be the primary host and Ostrava, the city that co-hosted with Prague in 2004, is penciled in to do so again. Other options, such as Brno, Plzeň and Pardubice have also been mentioned, and now Bratislava. The sharing would be reciprocated the next time Slovakia is granted to host the event.

Some of the detractors of this type of situation point to the poor attendance this year in Stockholm, suggesting that interest would have been greater in a smaller Finnish city, such as Turku. Fasel disagrees.

"If we'd played this year in Helsinki and Turku, we would probably have had fewer fans than in Stockholm," he said confidently.

History indicates that Fasel is correct. The 30 games in Stockholm this year drew a total of 149,363 spectators for an average of 4979 per game. While that's below what was anticipated at the 13,850-seat Globe, it is still more than a secondary venue normally draws at the World Championships.

To begin with, these secondary venues are generally much smaller than the primary, usually seating somewhere between 5 and 10,000. The arenas are smaller because the cities themselves are. Besides a smaller population, a country's second-largest city usually has a lower average income as well, meaning that that smaller number of fans has less money to spend on tickets. Ticket prices may have to be reduced even further as the home team does not play in their venue, making it more difficult to create fan interest. These cities are generally less cosmopolitan, so there would not be as many local fans of any of the participating teams, and as tourist destinations they are usually not as attractive or easy to get to as the capitals, meaning fewer fans visiting from other countries.

In 2004, Ostrava did well as a co-host, helping the tournament draw a record 552,097 fans to 56 games, for an average of 9859. That record was expected to be broken this year in Helsinki and Stockholm, but wasn't, further fueling the argument that the tournament should stay in a single country.

However, imagining Prague was to draw at the same level as it did in 2004, it is not hard to imagine that a group in Bratislava, which would include Team Slovakia, would draw more than Ostrava could.

A criticism some have about Helsinki and Stockholm co-hosting is the distance between the cities. In particular, it takes two ferries to get from one to the other, and can take over 10 hours. However, Prague and Bratislava are separated by only 330 km of highway, which can be driven in a little over three hours, and there are numerous direct trains and buses per day. That is an easier connection than in many single-nation tournaments. Quebec City and Halifax, the Canadian cities that co-hosted the 2008 tournament, are 1000 km apart by road, and public transportation options in North America are notoriously bad. Russia's two host cities in 2016 are Moscow and St. Petersburg, are almost as distant, separated by over 700 km.

Prague is actually slightly closer to Bratislava than to Ostrava; the two Czech cities are separated by 375 km of highway.

The Czech Republic and Slovakia are not the only countries that wish to co-host the World Championships: a joint bid by France and Germany have been submitted for the 2017 event. One thing is for sure: at least one future tournament will be held in two nations. Next year's tournament will again be held in Stockholm and Helsinki, this time with the Swedish capital hosting the semifinals and finals.

"(This year's) tournament had its pros and cons," said Fasel. "In the summer, we will think about what can be done to improve it."

If things go better, and most expect it will, perhaps the idea of two countries co-hosting the World Championship will have fewer detractors, and the door to a Czech-Slovak reunion (for a couple of weeks, at least) will be open.

The biggest Czech goal of all time?

2012-05-17T00:56:00.004+02:00

So far, fans think Karel Rachůnek's

goal from 2010 is most worthy of

celebrating. Photo: Francis Larrede.

For those who have been following Česká Televize's coverage of the IIHF World Championships, you are probably already familiar with the Nejslavnější gól (Most Celebrated Goal) campaign, in which a selection of the top ten goals in Czech and Czechoslovak international hockey history are profiled throughout the tournament, with fans able to vote for the winner on the internet.

The selection is obviously limited to those in the television age, otherwise it would surely include Augustin Bubnik's game-winner in the last game of the 1949 World Championship, which gave Czechoslovakia its first-ever win over Canada and second gold medal.

All of the goals can be watched and voted on at http://www.ceskatelevize.cz/mshokej/historie/174481-nejslavnejsi-gol/ . Below is a summary of all ten finalists. As is done on the website, they are presented chonologically:

Miroslav Vlach (1959, ČSR - Canada)

Heading into the very last game of the tournament, in Prague, Canada had effectively sewn up the gold medal, as only a defeat of five goals or more could unseat them. The host Czechoslovaks, however, needed a two-goal victory to reach the bronze medal. Late in the third period, with the home team ahead 4-3, Canada pulled its goalie to go for the tie. Vlach scored from centre ice into the empty net to give his team the two-goal margin it needed to earn a medal on home ice.

Though it was only an empty-netter to achieve a bronze, it likely makes the top ten due to the first-hand memory of many fans in attendance, as well as the fact that it was the first World Championship to be televised in Czechoslovakia.

Josef Černý (1969 World Championship, ČSSR - USSR)

Seven months after the Soviet-led occupation of Czechoslovakia, the national hockey teams of the two nations faced each other at the World Championship in Stockholm. Leading 1-0 in the third period, Černý, a defenceman, led a brilliant individual rush from his own side of centre in which he made a nice move to beat a Soviet defenceman and then backhanded the puck past goaltender Viktor Zinger. The Czechoslovaks won the game 2-0, then beat the Soviets again by a 4-3 score seven days later.

In the end, the Soviet Union, Sweden and Czechoslovakia finished tied in points. The Soviets ended up with the gold and the Czechoslovaks the silver, but it was the first time that any country had defeated the Soviet Union twice in a single tournament.

Jaroslav Holík (1972 World Championship, ČSSR - USSR)

With two games for each team left, Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union faced off at Prague's Sportovní hala tied in points. The Czechoslovaks fell behind 2-1 early in the second period but came back to tie it, then Holík beat Vladislav Tretiak with a wrist shot from the high slot for the eventual game-winner.

Two days later, an easy 8-2 win over Finland clinched Czechoslovakia's first gold medal since 1949.

Milan Nový (1976 Canada Cup, ČSSR - Canada)

Despite being World Champions, the players on the Czechoslovakian national team were virtually unknown in North America when the arrived to compete against NHL players and the top national teams of Europe in the Canada Cup. Late in the round-robin stage, the tournament's last two unbeaten teams, Czechoslovakia and Canada, met at the famous Montreal Forum. The goaltending duel between Vladimír Dzurilla and Rogatien Vachon was finally solved with less than five minutes remaining, when Nový scored the game's only goal.

The two teams would meet again in the tournament final and this time Canada prevailed, but not before the Czechoslovakian players made themselves known to Canadian hockey fans.

Bohuslav Ebermann (1977 World Championship, ČSSR - Sweden)

In their second-last game of the 1977 tournament, the defending champions from Czechoslovakia were tied 1-1 with Sweden late in the third period. Ebermann beat at Swedish defenceman to the outside and then cut in to score the go-ahead goal, putting them in the driver's seat to repeat as gold medalists.

Two days later, they could have clinched gold with a win over Canada, but lost 8-2. That meant that they needed Sweden to beat the Soviet Union in the last game to retain first place, which they did.

Jiří Šejba (1985 World Championship, ČSSR - Canada)

In 1985, Prague was once again the host of the World Championships. On the last day, Czechoslovakia faced Canada with the gold medal on the line. Midway through the second period, the host team led 2-1, with Šejba scoring twice. Canada was on the power play, however, and pressing for the equalizer.

Shorthanded, Šejba picked up the puck at his own blueline and raced down the ice, dodged a diving Canadian defenceman and then eluded a poke-check attempt by the goalie to complete his hat trick. Czechoslovakia went on to win 5-3 and capture the gold medal.

Martin Procházka (1996 World Championship, ČR - Canada)

In their first gold medal game since the dissolution of Czechoslovakia, the Czech Republic faced Canada for the gold medal in Vienna. Tied 4-4 late in the game's final minute, the Czechs skated into the Canadian zone, where Procházka took a pass from Pavel Patera and beat goalie Curtis Joseph to the glove side.

An empty-net goal in the dying seconds gave the Czech Republic a 6-4 win and the gold medal.

Petr Svoboda (1998 Winter Olympics, ČR - Russia)

In the long hockey history of Czech hockey, the nation had never won an Olympic gold medal, although twice they were beaten out of one by the Soviet Union in the final game. In Nagano in 1998, they faced Russia in the final. Still scoreless almost midway throug the third period, a faceoff win in the attacking zone by Patera was worked back to Svoboda, who had time to tee up a big slapper and beat Andrei Trefilov for the game's only goal.

Need anything be said about the aftermath of this? Though it was early morning in the Czech Republic, fans across the country erupted in celebration, and the team itself arrived that evening to celebrate what is probably the defining moment in the nation's sporting history.

David Moravec (2001 World Championship, ČR - Finland)

The Czech Republic was two-time defending champions at the 2001 World Championship in Germany, and found themselves in the gold medal game, looking for a third. Tied 3-3, the game against Finland went to overtime, and after almost 11 minutes of extra time, Moravec's backhander from in close found the back of the net, giving the Czechs their "golden hat trick".

Karel Rachůnek (2010 World Championship, ČR - Sweden)

After a shootout win in the quarterfinals against Finland, the Czech Republic faced Sweden in the semifinals at the 2010 worlds in Cologne, Germany. In the dying seconds of the third period, trailing 2-1, the puck came out from behind the net and Rachůnek one-timed it toward the goal and it went in with only eight seconds on the clock.

The Czechs ultimately won the game in a shootout and, the next day, they won the gold medal with a 2-1 victory over Russia.

The fan vote is anything but dramatic, with Rachůnek's goal the runaway winner, currently carrying 74 percent of the vote. The popularity of this goal is doubtlessly buoyed by the untimely demise of the popular defenceman in the tragic Lokomotiv Yaroslavl airline disaster last September, as well as the fact that is is the most recent goal on the list, and therefore freshest in the minds of most fans.

In a distant second place is Svoboda's goal from 1998, with 13%.

Kovář saving Czechs in goal

2012-05-10T17:08:00.001+02:00

After winning the Euro Hockey Tour last weekend, competing in Brno against Europe's best hockey nations with nearly-complete rosters, many were optimistic about the Czech Republic's medal chances at this year's World Championship. Indeed, many still are.

Jakub Kovář makes a save in the shootout vs Norway.

Photo: aktualne.centrum.cz.

If there was an area of concern on this Czech team, it was in goal. Accustomed to getting strong performances from the likes of Dominik Hašek, Tomáš Vokoun and, last year, Ondřej Pavelec, they entered this tournament without an NHL netminder, meaning the duties are being split by Jakub Štěpánek, who has a somewhat spotty international record, and Jakub Kovář, who has performed brilliantly in the past two Czech Extraliga campaigns, but had never before played in a top-level international event.

So far, Kovář has played in two of the Czechs' three games, against Denmark and Norway. And while it may not be surprising to many people that he performed brilliantly, the fact that he had to might, against two opponents that are perceived to be weaker.

On Friday, Kovář opened the tournament with a 2-0 win, and while a shutout against Denmark is not something that's going to make many people stand up and notice, anyone who watched it saw Kovář keep his team in it while it was still scoreless in the second period, particularly during a stretch where they had to kill off three straight penalties. If not for his brilliant play at that point in the game, in which his team was out-shot 26-24, it is easily conceivable that the Czechs would not have taken the full three points.

In Kovář's next game, on Monday against Norway, they didn't take the full three points; only two. However, despite the fact that is was another game against an opponent that the Czechs have a clear advantage in talent and are expected to outplay, it was the play of Kovář that got the game to overtime. Then, in the shootout, he stopped all three shots he faced, to make sure his team salvaged at least something from its dismal performance.

According to Kovář himself, though, part of the issue is that these teams are not as weak as people think.

"For us it was another difficult game. Everybody thinks that the Norwegians are weak, but they showed against us that they're stronger than that."

Of course, in between the two games, the Czechs were badly outplayed by Sweden and lost 4-1 with Štěpánek in net. Now with two days off, the Czechs return to action with back-to-back games on Thursday and Friday against Latvia and Italy, two more so-called weaker teams. Kovář will start Thursday and, presumably, Štěpánek will on Friday. Who starts against Russia on Sunday and Germany on Tuesday will surely depend on those performances.

"I did not expect we would alternate in goal, I did not expect it," said Kovář, who seems to be the only one not impressed with his play. "I thought that I would play once, maybe twice in the tournament. On Thursday will be my fourth."

As for sharing the load, neither goalie apparently has a problem with it. "I don't have a problem with it, and Kuba (Štěpánek) doesn't either. We talk to each other about it, and one cheers the other on."

Latvia, who has beaten Germany already and currently sits in third place in Group S, one spot ahead of the Czechs, will be no pushover. Though the Czechs are confident that they will get good goaltending in the game, they are also hoping that they will play better in front. To that end, they have shuffled the lines around a bit.

NHL reinforcements might help, too, but they won't arrive by Thursday, and they won't be as numerous as originally hoped. Despite three Czechs on the recently-eliminated Philadelphia Flyers, only one, Jakub Voráček, might join the team, but he's still a question mark. Jaromír Jágr and Pavel Kubina have both declined.

"We spoke on Wednesday," said coach Alois Hadamczik. "Voráček has been having problems with his shoulder, so on Wednesday he had to undergo a medical examination. Then we'll see."

Martin Erat of the Nashville Predators is scheduled to arrive in Stockholm on Friday morning, but whether he plays that day has still not been determined.

All quotations are courtesy Eurohockey.com and Hokej.cz.

"We need to get better," says Krejčí

2012-05-06T19:08:00.001+02:00

The Czech Republic is off to a 1-1 start at the World Championships, starting with a less-than-impressive 2-0 win over Denmark, followed by a 4-1 loss to the host Swedes. After the second game, Eurohockey.com's David Schlegel asked David Krejčí of the Boston Bruins to evaluate his team's performance so far and the outlook for the rest of the tournament.

What do you think about your team's performance against Sweden?

I think we played a better game than against Denmark. Now we still have plenty of games before the quarterfinals. We need to get better and better.

The first half of the game against Sweden was very bad, then you improved. Why did it take so long?
We had some chances and managed to score. That woke us up, but we were unable to turn the game around.

What was the game plan? Did you want to play more defensively?

We wanted to play well on defence and to play our game. However, we allowed the first goal very early and that changed our game. I still think it was not that bad. We are still finding each other on ice; we need more games to play together. We definitely played better than against the Danes. We have a strong team and we will keep improving.

How about the power play? It has been miserable so far.

Yes, it is not perfect. We need to shoot a lot more and play smarter. When you can shoot without being blocked, you have to try it. So far, we have had one good power play. However, I felt we played them better than against the Danes.

What do you think about the big ice rink? Is it suitable for you?

There is much more space here. At the beginning, I received the pass and looked around wondering what I was going to do with the puck. We have much more time. In the upcoming games, I will try to be more creative and hold onto the puck more before passing.

The Swedes showed that they are one of the best teams in the tournament. Do you agree?

Yes, I think so. They have a lot of stars from the NHL, but we still were able to create some chances. They were luckier as well. We need to stay positive, because it was not that bad. We did not score many goals, but I hope the luck will come to us in another game.

In the first game against the Danes, your winger was Aleš Hemský; against Sweden, it was changed to Petr Průcha. What do you think about this change?

Yes, it was a big change, as both play a very different kind of hockey. Průcha is a technically skilled player, and we had some chances against Sweden. Pruchic (Průcha) had two nice shots, but no goals.

Will you discuss with left winger Milan Michálek about what to improve?

We also will sit down with our defencemen and have a talk. We need to skate better, mainly me. We want to win the whole thing. It is not usual to win the tournament without a loss.

The stands were quite empty against Denmark: about one thousand fans. Was it a shock for you?

It was very weird. So few people, big ice rink. We came to play here and the arena and city is still not ready for the championship. The organizers have to get things ready. On Saturday more people came. Yes, they supported the Swedes, but the atmosphere was good. And the hockey as well.

Do you think more people will come also to the game against Norway?

I think we expect that the attendance will be low again. We will be ready for it this time.

Are you ready to win the gold medal? You played a long playoff series against Washington.

I've played a lot of games this season, but here it is little bit different hockey. Physically, I feel well and I hope that we will be successful.

Eurohockey.com is providing full coverage of the 2012 IIHF World Championship, live on location from Helsinki and Stockholm.

Nedvěd is Extraliga MVP, Hertl top rookie

2012-05-04T17:16:00.003+02:00

Petr Polák and Derek O'Brien
Eurohockey.com

Forty-year-old forward Petr Nedvěd took home two awards from Tuesday's gala in Prague, making him the second-oldest to win the Player-of-the-Year award in the Czech Republic.

Only one player older than the Liberec forward has ever won the award. In 2010, Pardubice goaltender Dominik Hašek did it when he was 45. In addition to the MVP, Nedvěd was officially recognized as the league's leading scorer of the regular season for his 61 points in 49 games.

"It's a kind of satisfaction to me," said Nedvěd, currently preparing with the Team Czech Republic for his first World Championship.

In addition to Nedvěd, another notable winner was Slavia Praha's Tomáš Hertl, who won the league's rookie of the year award. The 18-year-old, who led all junior-aged players in the Extraliga with 25 points in 38 games, is projected to be a first-round pick in this year's NHL Entry Draft.

Below is a full list of winners at Tuesday's gala:

Award/Player/Team

Player of the Year	Petr Nedvěd	Liberec
Václav Pecina Award	Petr Koukal	Pardubice
Top Goal Scorer	Petr Kumstát (27)	Karlovy Vary
Top Point Scorer	Petr Nedvěd (61)	Liberec
Rookie of the Year	Tomáš Hertl	Slavia Praha
Best Goaltender	Jiří Trvaj	Kometa Brno
Best Defenceman	Jan Kolář	Pardubice
Most Gentlemanly Player	Viktor Ujčík	Vítkovice
Golden Helmet **	Jiří Burger	Vítkovice
BPA Award ***	Tomáš Pöpperle	Sparta Praha
Coach of the Year	Zdeněk Venera	Kometa Brno
Best Referee	Vladimír Šindler	-
Extraliga Champions	-	Pardubice
President's Trophy	-	Sparta Praha
1. Liga champion	-	Chomutov

Nedvěd and Mrázek highlight Czech roster for Worlds

2012-04-30T23:18:00.000+02:00

This past weekend, the Czech national team won the Euro Hockey Tour, a prospect that looked unlikely earlier in the year. However, by taking 7 of a possible 9 points, they overtook Sweden and Russia, whom they beat on Thursday and Sunday, respectively, to win their first title in the 14-year history of the unofficial European championship.

At age 40, Petr Nedvěd will make his World Championship
debut. Photo: Hakan Nordstom, AP.

The following day, they released a list of 25 names that will accompany the team to Stockholm, where they will begin play at the World Championship on Friday against Denmark. As always, the World Championship roster is a work in progress, as players can be added as they become available following their teams' elimination from the Stanley Cup playoffs, and a maximum of 20 skaters and three goaltenders are allowed to dress in the tournament.

As things currently stand, the Czech roster is light on NHLers, relying heavily on players from European leagues, particularly the Czech Extraliga and KHL, unsurprisingly, but it also includes defencemen Tomáš Mojžíš and Zdeněk Kutlák, who play in Finland and Switzerland, respectively.

Up front, two additions that did not play this past weekend include dispatched NHLers David Krejčí and Milan Michálek. Michálek played on last year's squad, while Krejčí was a member of the Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins.

"We have the idea to put them both together," said coach Alois Hadamczik about the new additions. "With whom, it remains to be seen. I have to say that our plans have been slightly affected by the quality performance against Russia."

Two of the most eye-catching names on the roster are the oldest and youngest players, Petr Nedvěd and Petr Mrázek, neither of whom were considered likely candidates to be in this position at the start of the season. Until this season, neither was even eligible to represent the Czech Republic internationally.

That being said, Nedvěd's inclusion on the roster was anything but a surprise when it was finally announced. The 40-year-old led the Czech Extraliga in scoring this past season and was named league MVP. In November, he represented the Czech Republic for the first time since 1996 and, in 12 international games this season, recorded 8 points. His lengthy absence from the Czech national team roster is due to the fact that he represented Canada, the country he defected to as a teenager, at the 1994 Winter Olympics. After that, the dual citizen had to play three consecutive seasons in the country of his birth to be re-eligible to play for them in an IIHF championship, which became the case after last season. At 40 years and five months, Nedvěd becomes the oldest player to participate in his first IIHF World Championship.

The outstanding goalie of the WJC, Petr Mrázek is now on the
A-team roster. Photo: Larry Wong, Edmonton Journal.

The youngest player on the roster has never played internationally for any other country, but until last December, he couldn't play for the Czechs. Goaltender Petr Mrázek left his Vítkovice club in 2009, at the age of 17, to join the Ottawa 67's of the Ontario Hockey League. Despite solidly defending the goal of the club in the Canadian junior circuit, his angry Vítkovice squad blocked his attempts to play internationally for his homeland, insisting his transfer was incomplete and demanding compensation.

After two years had passed, the Czech Ice Hockey Association intervened in the dispute, helping to negotiate a settlement under which Mrázek would be allowed to represent the Czech Republic at the most recent World Junior Championships. The goalie made the most of the opportunity, backstopping the Czech Republic to a quarterfinal birth for the first time in four years and being named the tournament's outstanding goalkeeper.

Mrázek's spot on the roster comes at the expense of Tomáš Pöpperle, who had a remarkable season in goal for Sparta Praha, but was clearly the third man on the goaltending totem pole, and his future on this year's team seemed certain after he failed to appear in the final leg of the Euro Hockey Tour.

Even Mrázek's appearance in any games seems unlikely, as the top two spots seem to be sewn up by Jakub Štěpánek and Jakub Kovář. In all probability, both will see action. However, it's unclear at this point who will get the starting assignment when the games become crucial.

As for future additions, a number of talented Czechs still remain in the second round of the NHL playoffs, including Jaromír Jágr, Pavel Kubina, Jakub Voráček, Tomáš Fleischmann, Patrik Eliáš, Petr Sýkora, Marek Židkický, Martin Hanzál, Rostislav Klesla, Roman Polák, Vladimír Sobotka and Roman Hamrlík. Any whose teams are eliminated could become candidates to join the team.

Below is the current roster of the Czech national team and its Pool B schedule at the 2012 IIHF World Championship in Helsinki and Stockholm.

Goaltenders:

Jakub Štěpánek (St. Petersburg, KHL), Jakub Kovář (České Budějovice), Petr Mrázek (Ottawa, OHL).

Defencemen:

Petr Čáslava (CSKA Moscow, KHL), Ondřej Němec (Cherepovets, KHL), Miroslav Blaťák, Jakub Nakládal (both Ufa, KHL), Jakub Kindl (Detroit, NHL), Lukáš Krajíček (Minsk, KHL), Tomáš Mojžíš (Turku, Finland), Zdeněk Kutlák (Ambri-Piotta, Switzerland).

Forwards:

Tomáš Plekanec (Montréal, NHL), David Krejčí (Boston, NHL), Milan Michálek (Ottawa, NHL), Aleš Hemský (Edmonton, NHL), Michael Frolík (Chicago, NHL), Tomáš Vincour (Dallas, NHL), Lukáš Kašpar, Jiří Novotný (both Astana, KHL), Petr Průcha (St. Petersburg, KHL), Jakub Petružálek (Khabarovsk, KHL), Petr Nedvěd (Bílí Tygři Liberec), Petr Koukal (Pardubice), Michal Vondrka (Slavia Praha), Jan Kovář (Plzeň 1929), Petr Tenkrát (Sparta Praha).

Coaches: Alois Hadamczik and Josef Paleček

Czech Republic "Group B" schedule at the IIHF World Championships. All games will be played in Stockholm:

Friday, May 4:
16:15 Czech Republic - Denmark

Saturday, May 5:

20:15 Czech Republic - Sweden

Monday, May 7:

16:15 Czech Republic - Norway

Thursday, May 10:

20:15 Czech Republic - Latvia

Friday, May 11:

16:15 Czech Republic - Italy

Sunday, May 13:

16:15 Czech Republic - Russia

Tuesday, May 15:

16:15 Czech Republic - Germany

Top Euro teams tune up for Worlds in Brno

2012-04-25T22:56:00.001+02:00

This weekend, Europe’s top four hockey nations finish their year-long preparation for the World Championships at the Kajot Hockey Games in Brno, which also happen to be the final leg of the 2011-12 Euro Hockey Tour.

The Czech Republic welcomes the national teams of Finland, Russia and Sweden to the country’s second city this weekend. The three visiting teams have each already hosted a stop on the tour this year, and now it’s the Czech Republic’s turn. Five of the six round-robin games will take place at Brno’s Kajot Arena with one game, this Thursday, at St. Petersburg Sport Palace in Russia.

It’s been an exciting spring for hockey fans in Brno. They saw their professional club, Kometa, make a Cinderella run to the Extraliga finals and come within two wins of reaching its first national title in 46 years. At the same time, they hosted the U18 World Championships, which concluded this past Sunday. Now they’ll get to witness the most interesting part of the Euro Hockey Tour. Not only is it interesting because the winner will be decided, but because it is the only leg of the tour that includes NHL players; the first three legs are played during the season, but the NHL regular schedule has now finished, meaning that several NHLers from the four participating countries will be involved. Notable additions include Aleš Hemský of Edmonton, Kari Lehtonen of Dallas, Victor Hedman of Tampa Bay, and Semyon Varlamov of Colorado.

The Tour standings themselves are remarkably close, with all four teams still capable of winning. After 12 games each, only six points, which is the equivalent of two wins, separate first-place Sweden from fourth-place Finland. As well, no team has a goals for/goals against differential greater than 1.

Last year, the Czech Republic won the Brno tournament, giving Czech fans a reason to be optimistic about this year’s team.

After the tournament concludes on Sunday, the four teams will head to Scandinavia, where they will start the World Championships on Friday, May 4. Sweden will host the Czech Republic and Russia in Group B in Stockholm, while Finland will host Group A action in Helsinki.

Below are the rosters of the four participating teams for the Kajot Hockey Games, followed by the tournament schedule and the current Tour standings.

CZECH REPUBLIC

Goaltenders:

Jakub Štěpánek (St. Petersburg, KHL), Jakub Kovář (České Budějovice), Tomáš Pöpperle (Sparta Praha).

Defencemen:

Petr Čáslava (CSKA Moscow, KHL), Ondřej Němec (Cherepovets, KHL), Miroslav Blaťák, Jakub Nakládal (both Ufa, KHL), Jakub Kindl (Detroit, NHL), Lukáš Krajíček(Minsk, KHL), Tomáš Mojžíš (Turku, Finland), Zdeněk Kutlák (Ambri-Piotta, Switzerland),Jakub Krejčík (Slavia Praha), Tomáš Kudělka (Vítkovice Steel), Petr Zámorský (Zlín), Tomáš Žižka (Kometa Brno).

Forwards:

Tomáš Plekanec (Montréal, NHL), Aleš Hemský (Edmonton, NHL), Jiří Tlustý(Carolina, NHL), Tomáš Vincour (Dallas, NHL), Lukáš Kašpar, Jiří Novotný (both Astana, KHL), Petr Průcha (St. Petersburg, KHL), Jakub Petružálek (Khabarovsk, KHL), Petr Nedvěd (Bílí Tygři Liberec), Petr Koukal (Pardubice), Michal Vondrka (Slavia Praha), Jan Kovář (Plzeň 1929), Petr Tenkrát (Sparta Praha), Petr Holík (Zlín), Jakub Svoboda (Kometa Brno).

Coaches: Alois Hadamczik and Josef Paleček

FINLAND

Goaltenders:

Kari Lehtonen (Dallas, NHL), Petri Vehanen (Kazan, KHL), Joni Ortio (Turku).

Defencemen:

Pasi Puistola (Cherepovets, KHL), Janne Niskala (Atlant Mytischi, KHL), Lasse Kukkonen (Magnitogorsk, KHL), Juuso Hietanen (N. Novgorod, KHL), Mikko Mäenpää (Khabarovsk, KHL), Topi Jaakola (Lulea, Sweden), Ossi Väänänen (Jokerit Helsinki), Mikko Kousa, Toni Söderholm (both IFK Helsinki).

Forwards:

Mikko Koivu (Minnesota, NHL), Petteri Nokelainen (Montréal, NHL), Lennart Petrell (Edmonton, NHL), Jussi Jokinen (Carolina, NHL), Antti Pihlström (Ufa, KHL), Petri Kontiola (Chelyabinsk, KHL), Jarkko Immonen, Niko Kapanen (both Kazan, KHL), Ville Peltonen, Mikael Granlund, Janne Pesonen (all IFK Helsinki), Jesse Joensuu (HV´71 Jönköping, Sweden), Mika Pyörälä (Frölunda, Sweden), Tuomas Kiiskinen, Matti Kuparinen (both Kuopio), Veli-Matti Savinainen (Pori).

Coaches: Jukka Jalonen, Petri Matikainen and Pasi Nurminen

SWEDEN

Goaltenders:

Jhonas Enroth (Buffalo, NHL), Viktor Fasth (AIK Stockholm), Christopher Nihlstorp (Färjestad).

Defencemen:

Victor Hedman (Tampa Bay, NHL), Staffan Kronwall (Cherepovets, KHL), Daniel Fernholm (IFK Helsinki, Finland), Jonas Frögren, Jonas Brodin (both Färjestad), Mattias Ekholm (Brynäs Gävle), Jonas Ahnelöv (MODO), Mattias Karlsson (HV´71 Jönköping).

Forwards:

Linus Ömark (Edmonton, NHL), Gabriel Landeskog (Colorado, NHL), Jonas Andersson, Patrik Zackrisson (both Atlant Mytischi, KHL), Niklas Persson (CSKA Moscow, KHL), Joel Lundqvist, Fredrik Pettersson (both Frölunda), Johan Harju, Niklas Olausson (both Lulea), Jesper Fasth (HV ´71 Jönköping), Johan Larsson, Calle Järnkrok (both Brynäs Gävle), Patrik Lundh (Färjestad), Daniel Bang (AIK Stockholm).

Coaches: Per Marts, Peter Popovič and Roger Rönnberg

RUSSIA

Goaltenders:

Semyon Varlamov (Colorado, NHL), Konstantin Barulin (Atlant Mytischi), Mikhail Biryukov (Khanty-Mansiysk).

Defencemen:

Alexei Yemelin (Montréal, NHL), Nikita Nikitin (Columbus, NHL), Ilya Nikulin, Konstantin Korneyev, Yevgeni Medvedev (all Kazan), Dmitri Kalinin, Denis Denisov (both St. Petersburg), Yevgeni Ryasenski (CSKA Moscow), Ivan Vishnevski (Atlant Mytischi), Yevgeni Biryukov (Magnitogorsk).

Forwards:

Nikolai Kulyomin (Toronto, NHL), Alexander Burmistrov (Winnipeg, NHL), Danis Zaripov, Alexei Tereschenko, Yevgeni Bodrov (all Kazan), Viktor Tikhonov, Vladimir Tarasenko (both St. Petersburg), Sergei Shirokov (CSKA Moscow), Yevgeni Kuznetsov, Anton Burdasov (both Chelyabinsk), Alexander Svitov (Ufa), Yevgeni Ketov, Vadim Shipachyov (both Cherepovets), Nikolai Zherdev (Atlant Mytischi).

Coaches: Zinatulya Bilyaletdinov, Valeri Belov and Dmitri Yushkevich

Schedule of the 2012 Kajot Hockey Games

Thursday, April 26:

18:00 Russia – Finland (St. Petersburg)
18:30 Czech Republic – Sweden (Brno, ČT4 Sport)

Saturday, April 28:

14:00 Czech Republic – Finland (Brno, ČT4 Sport)
18:30 Russia – Sweden (Brno)

Sunday, April 29:

14:00 Finland – Sweden (Brno, ČT4 Sport)
18:00 Czech Republic – Russia (Brno, ČT4 Sport)

2011-12 Euro Hockey Tour Standings, after three of four events:

 # | Team            |  W | OW | OL |  L | GF:GA | Pts |

 1 | Sweden          |  5 |  0 |  1 |  3 | 24:23 |  16 |
 2 | Russia          |  4 |  1 |  1 |  3 | 19:19 |  15 |
 3 | Czech Republic  |  3 |  2 |  0 |  4 | 22:22 |  13 |
 4 | Finland         |  3 |  0 |  1 |  5 | 21:22 |  10 |

Cinderella Kometa two wins away

2012-04-13T22:01:00.002+02:00

Written for Eurohockey.com:

Who would have predicted this two months ago? Kometa Brno, the eighth-place team in the Czech Extraliga, is now just two wins from its first title in 46 years.

The hungry Brno fans, who have faithfully filled their home arena for years to watch subpar teams in subpar leagues, finally got to see their team on the big stage tonight. They didn’t disappoint and they weren’t disappointed. Far from it.

There was a buzz in the air on the streets of Brno leading to Kajot Arena on a warm spring afternoon before the game. Once inside, the atmosphere was electric, even before the drop of the puck. Once the game started, just watching the crowd was entertaining enough at times.

The game itself was cautiously played for the better part of two periods, in contrast with the loosely-played contests in Pardubice, with neither team wanting to be too reckless in such a pivotal swing game. Jiří Tvaj and Martin Růžička were perfect when they had to be in the first period, and the game was almost half over before the game saw its first goal, the only one of the night for the visiting Pardubice squad.

Kometa fell down two men when first Tomáš Žižka was called for slashing and then, 22 seconds later, Jiří Vašiček cleared the puck over the glass. After over a minute of sustained pressure, Radovan Somík, who had been denied by Trvaj just moments earlier, finally put the puck in when he converted a pass from the side of the net.

As the third period began, the Brno fans continued to keep the building alive, despite the fact that their team had yet to score, or even get many good chances. In the game’s 47th minute, they were finally rewarded. Vašiček nicely set up Jakub Svoboda, whose backhander slid under Růžička for the tying goal, turning Kajot Arena into a madhouse.

Suddenly, Kometa began coming at Pardubice in waves, pushing the visitors back on their heels and forcing Růžička to come up big a few times. But it didn’t take long for them to penetrate once more. With 10:33 left in regulation time, Růžička made the initial save on Jakub Koreis, but was down and out as Hynek Zohorna picked up the loose puck and stuffed it inside the post for the go-ahead tally.

Minutes later, Kometa was penalised for the third time in the game for shooting the puck out of play; this time the puck went into the bench, which unlike elsewhere is a penalty in the Czech Republic. Pardubice generated chances, both on the power play and afterward, but they couldn’t finish them off, as the Kometa defence did a good job of keeping the front of the net clear.

The crowd rose in unison with two minutes remaining and remained standing the rest of the game, with the visitors now desperately trying to tie it. When Pardubice went offside with 8.8 seconds left, the game was effectively over, and the celebration began.

The two teams go right back at it in less than 24 hours, as game four goes Saturday night back in Brno, where Pardubice will try to win back home ice advantage and Kometa will try to move to the brink of a championship.

Two Czech greats face crossroads

2012-04-08T17:25:00.000+02:00

This April is an exciting month in Czech hockey, with the Extraliga finals, the U18 World Championships and, later, the Kajot Cup. And in this exciting month, Brno, the republic's "second city", is the centre of its hockey universe.

Fortunately, I will be spending a great deal of this month in Brno covering these events, particularly the U18 tournament, for which I am editing content in the official program, the English version of the website, Twitter, and during the tournament providing online play-by-play and game reports. Unfortunately, that leaves me little time to keep Czech Hockey Report as up-to-date as I would like, but I will try my best to direct readers to the best sources of information in Czech hockey.

One of those sources is Velvet Hockey, created by fellow EuroHockey writer Jon Rowson. Today, he has written an article, entitled "The end of the road for two Czech greats?", about Petr Nedvěd and Martin Straka, who were both recently eliminated with their teams in the Extraliga semifinals. Respectively 40 and 38 years old, the two are both reportedly considering retirement.

For Nedvěd, for whom my memory goes back to when he was a 17-year-old Seattle Thunderbird, this is not the first time he has considered retirement. Last year, many will remember, he made similar considerations after his team was eliminated in the quarterfinals in heartbreaking fashion.

Though it seems likely we may see Nedvěd back for another season, Straka might be finished as a player. Part-owner of the team, the degree to which he has maintained the role of club general manager while playing has been admirable, especially during the messy registration scandal last season. He has shown innovation as a manager, being a pioneer of recruiting North American players into the Extraliga, and one has to think he has a lengthy career ahead of him in the front office.

Hopefully, as the futures of these two greats becomes clear, it will be the off-season and I will have more time to dedicate to their stories.

Kometa in ELH finals means changes to U18 schedule

2012-04-03T19:13:00.000+02:00

When Brno's Hala Rondo (since renamed Kajot Arena) was named the primary venue of the 2012 IIHF U18 World Championship last August, the possibility for a scheduling conflict was possible.

After all, the arena is also home to Kometa Brno of the Czech Extraliga, and the tournament has traditionally coincided with the league finals. However, when one considered that Brno hadn't won a national championship since 1966 or even a playoff series in the top league since the late '80s, the decision seemed safe.

Five weeks ago, Kometa qualified for the Extraliga's post-season for the first time since joining in 2009 and quickly dispatched of Kladno, whose recent track record has been almost as futile, in the preliminary round.

Waiting in the wings, however, was Sparta Praha, the league's first overall team, in the quarterfinals. After dropping two of the first three games, Kometa then stunned a large percentage of the nation's hockey fans by reeling off three straight wins to take the series.

Their roll continued into the semifinals against #2-ranked Plzeň 1929, a team that has the league's best combined record over the past three seasons. No matter. The streaking Kometa went into West Bohemia and took the first two games.

With their path to the final now clear, people began to see the clear conflict ahead, and many wondered aloud what would happen. Would Kometa be rewarded for their improbable finals appearance by having to play the entire series on the road? Or their "home" games at a neutral site? Would the Extraliga radically alter their pre-determined schedule to make it work?

On March 28, the club made an announcement on its website.

"The priority is the domestic league. Kometa isn't migrating anywhere," said general manager Zdeněk Zikmund. "There is already an agreement in place. We have an alternate plan. That will be announced in the event Kometa advances beyond the semifinal. For sure, though, we can say that the whole tournament will be played in Moravia."

They have indeed advanced, as Kometa went into Plzeň on Monday night and won in convincing fashion, 7-2, to finish off the series in five games. Thus, it became time to speculate on what that alternate plan might be.

From the U18 tournament's official website and hokej.cz, here are the schedules for the two events in conflict:

Date	KAJOT Arena in Brno (Group A)	Zimní stadion Znojmo (Group B)
Thursday 12-04-2012	16:00 DEN - CAN (1)	16:00 LAT - RUS (2)
Thursday 12-04-2012	20:00 FIN - USA (3)	20:00 GER - SWE (4)
Friday 13-04-2012	15:30 CZE - DEN (5)	18:00 SUI - LAT (6)
Friday 13-04-2012	-	-
Saturday 14-04-2012	13:00 USA - CZE (7)	14:00 RUS - GER (8)
Saturday 14-04-2012	18:00 CAN - FIN (9)	18:00 SWE - SUI (10)
Sunday 15-04-2012	14:00 DEN - USA (11)	18:00 LAT - SWE (12)
Sunday 15-04-2012	-	-
Monday 16-04-2012	16:00 CAN - CZE (13)	16:00 GER - LAT (14)
Monday 16-04-2012	20:00 FIN - DEN (15)	20:00 RUS - SUI (16)
Tuesday 17-04-2012	16:00 CZE - FIN (17)	16:00 SWE - RUS (18)
Tuesday 17-04-2012	20:00 USA - CAN (19)	20:00 SUI - GER (20)
Wednesday 18-04-2012	Day Off
Thursday 19-04-2012	15:00 A2 - B3 (21) - quarterfinal	15:00 A4 - B5 (22) - relegation
Thursday 19-04-2012	19:00 B2 - A3 (23) - quarterfinal	19:00 B4 - A5 (24) - relegation
Friday 20-04-2012	15:00 B1 - W21 (25) - semifinal	15:00 A4 - B4 (26) - relegation
Friday 20-04-2012	19:00 A1 - W23 (27) - semifinal	19:00 A5 - B5 (28) - relegation
Saturday 21-04-2012	14:00 L21 - L23 (29) - 5th/6th	-
Saturday 21-04-2012	-	-
Sunday 22-04-2012	12:00 L27 - L25 (30) - Bronze	-
Sunday 22-04-2012	16:00 W27 - W25 (31) - Gold	-

Extraliga Final schedule
Pardubice or Liberec - HC Kometa Brno
Mon, 09.04.2012	Pardubice/Liberec	HC Kometa Brno
Tue, 10.04.2012	Pardubice/Liberec	HC Kometa Brno
Fri, 13.04.2012	HC Kometa Brno	Pardubice/Liberec
Sat, 14.04.2012	HC Kometa Brno	Pardubice/Liberec
*Tue, 17.04.2012	Pardubice/Liberec	HC Kometa Brno
*Thu, 19.04.2012	HC Kometa Brno	Pardubice/Liberec
*Sat, 21.04.2012	Pardubice/Liberec	HC Kometa Brno

When observing these schedules, there does seem to be a bit of wiggle room. Note that on Friday the 13th and Sunday the 15th, there are single tournament games scheduled for early afternoon, leaving the evenings free. Games 3 and 4 of the Extraliga Final, to be played in Brno, are slated for the 13th and 14th. Surely they could change the Saturday game to Sunday, no? That would still leave a day off before game 5.

As for the quarterfinals, scheduled for the same day as a possible sixth game, perhaps they could be moved to Znojmo in the event the game becomes necessary. That would mean relegation round games being moved to Saturday.

Of course, none of that takes into account the logistical nightmare of redesigning the rink back and forth. Anyone who's seen an Extraliga game knows that the ice is littered with advertising to an almost nauseating level. IIHF tournaments, meanwhile, have different and, mercifully, far fewer on-ice ads. Would changing them back and forth be feasible?

Apparently not.

On Tuesday afternoon, the club announced that five games are being moved out of Brno: only one to original co-host Znojmo, and four to Břeclav, which now becomes the tournament's third host city. Břeclav is no stranger to U18 international hockey as a regular host of the annual Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament.

Presumably, the five games being moved are the single game on the 13th, and the two each on the 14th and 19th, and the game going to Znojmo is the one on the 13th: Czech Republic-Denmark. A revised schedule has not yet been released, however.

"We have an understanding," Zikmund said to news agency ČTK. "We are working on it with the IIHF and after the meeting with the (tournament) organizing committee and the international federation, it will be published officially."

EDIT: Within two hours of this post being published, the revised schedule was released by the official website of the U18 World Championship and HC Pardubice eliminated Bílí Tygři Liberec to advance to face Kometa in the Extraliga Final.

Czech women win in Latvia, advance to Ottawa 2013

2012-04-01T14:39:00.001+02:00

After winning last year's Division I, Group B World Championship in Caen, France, the Czech Republic women's national team entered this year's Division I, Group A tournament in Ventspils, Latvia, as the lowest seed. Therefore, the fact that they finished with a 4-1 record to win the group might surprise the casual observer.

Photo: Romualds Vambuts, iihf.com

However, anyone who has paid attention to Czech women's hockey knows that the program has improved in leaps and bounds over the past few years. Their success at the U18 level is evidence of that. They have been a regular competitor in the top group, where two years ago, in Stockholm, they finished fourth. This year, in Zlín and Přerov, they finished sixth, playing their last game before a raucous crowd of more than 3000.

“It’s amazing. We just came up from one level below,” 19-year-old forward Lucie Povová said to IIHF.com's Marek Merk. “We wanted to win, but we didn’t expect to get to the highest division that fast.”

A student and player at Northeastern University, Povová has a good sense of how women's hockey, and the Czech team in particlar, is perceived arond the world. “I think we’re going to get much more respect from the people because in the Czech Republic no one really recognizes women’s hockey and even in the States or in Canada people are going to recognize us. They play well, but we’re up there too now. It’s really amazing.”

Though the Czechs won the group, they didn't take the easiest route, surrendering four goals in the first period of their first game against Japan and losing 4-3. The second game was key, though, as they beat Norway 2-1, with Denisa Křížová scoring the winning goal with 6:58 remaining in regulation time. Norway ultimately finished second, one point behind the Czechs, so taking the full three points in that game proved crucial.

After that, they beat the host Latvians 5-0, Kazakhstan 3-2, and Austria 6-1 to take 12 of a possible 15 points.

The team's leading scorer was Sonja Nováková, with 7 points five games, followed by Alena Polenská and Šimona Studentová with 5 each. All three players scored 3 goals, as did Povová.

In goal, 31-year-old Radka Lhotská was selected as the tournament's top goalie with a miniscule 0.83 goals-against average and a .962 save percentage.

“I haven’t really realized what we have achieved here yet, but I think this will come later,” she said after the last game. "I feel great, but the main thing is that we won. We all battled like a team.”

The win means that the Czech Republic advances to the top group for the first time ever. Next year's Women's World Championship will take place in Ottawa, Canada.

“I’m really looking forward to going to Ottawa,” Lhotská concluded. “It was our dream and now it's come true.”

Final standings:

1. Czech Republic 5 4 0 0 1 19:8 12
2. Norway 5 3 1 0 1 20:7 11
3. Japan 5 3 0 0 2 15:10 9
4. Austria 5 2 0 0 3 16:18 6
5. Latvia 5 1 1 0 3 5:20 5
6. Kazakhstan 5 0 0 2 3 7:19 2