The 2001/02 Czech Extraleague hockey season is over.

Before the season started, many people forecasted a simple victory for Sparta Praha, and they were correct. Sparta, with by far the biggest budget, won the regular season convincingly, and did not get into much trouble in the playoffs. In their pursuit for title, they beat Ocelari Trinec (Trinec Steelers), Slavia Prague and HC Vitkovice. The Czech playoffs quarterfinals were played in a best-of-seven system, and the semis and finals were best-of-five series this season. Sparta only lost twice to Trinec, once to HC Vitkovice and won 10 out of 13 playoff games overall. In seven semi-final and final games, there were just nine goals scored against them! Last year‘s champion, HC Vsetin, had grave financial troubles, and for much of the season, they were unsure if they would even be able to continue playing hockey in the top level. HC Vsetin had its‘ best players leave the club, and this made the way open for Sparta to succeed them as champions. Sparta, who reportedly has almost a twice-greater budget that any other Czech club, bought the best players (many from HC Vsetin), and the team, under experienced coach Vaclav Sykora, did not allow any complications. Veteran Petr Briza proved again that he is the best goalie in the Czech Extraliga. He ended his national team career and is not ambitious to leave for the NHL, which is perfect for Sparta. Sparta had three defensive formations of equal strength. For example, Martin Richter played in the 3rd pairing, earned no goals or assists for Sparta during the season, but still made it onto the Czech national team roster for World Championships. On offense, the formation that got responsibility for the result could be always found. When Jaroslav Hlinka`s line, with wingers Zemlicka and Zelenka, (who joined Sparta after unsuccessful attempt in Finland) could not score, there was the powerful second unit of Kratena-Bros-Chabada ready to score. The third unit also played well. The only big disappointment was Radek Belohlav, who left for Lada Togliatti after the season. Sparta did not meet any crises during the season, although just before the regular season ended, they lost four games in a row. Despite this, the team came into playoffs in a very good shape.

Sparta beat HC Vitkovice in the finals. HC Vitkovice played relegation games just two seasons ago, but a year later they won a bronze medal. The improvement was made in hands of the "Champion of Strategy" Alois Hadamczik, who is also an owner of the soccer club Banik Ostrava (Vitkovice is a part of Ostrava and also a name of a steel company who supports the club the most). Hadamczik was also a hot candidate for the national team coach after Josef Augusta was called off, but he lost 5:6 in voting by the Executive Committee of the Czech Ice Hockey Association. He chose to have a year off, so he will not continue to coach HC Vitkovice next season. After Martin Prusek moved overseas (and became the AHL’s best goalie during the 2001/02 season), Jiri Trvaj jumped on in his place. Trvaj was very good, and was also noticed by the national team coaches. There was no superstar in the defence, just mostly young players who always show big heart, many of whom would deserve to get their chance on the Euro Hockey Tour, e.g. world junior champion 2001 Jan Vytisk (quite unfathomable that he is still undrafted!!!). The only experienced defenseman, Radim Tesarik, was injured most of the season. The offense had to accept the loss of Martin Prochazka, who joined his "HC Kladno twin" Pavel Patera in Omsk. Fortunately, David Moravec, Olympic champion from Nagano, once again found his form. The Padelek brothers, Ivan Padelek and Ales Padelek and Marek Melenovsky had their best seasons, and two players who came to the team during the season also added a big boost - Leos Cermak who came on loan from Slavia (and played 1.CP liga in Trebic two years ago!) and Jiri Burger, who did not receive the money he deserved from starving HC Vsetin. HC Vitkovice ended up fifth after the regular season, but beat Keramika Plzen and Continental Zlin in the playoffs. The series against Plzen was a "war on ice". Plzen star Radek Duda cried into the microphone right after one game: "We will show these Poles and the babbling Hadamczik!" The enfant terrible of Czech hockey could not keep his emotions down, and he made the long time rivalry between Plzen and Vitkovice even bigger. Alois Hadamczik is one of the most disliked people among Plzen fans, and Ostrava (=Vitkovice) is close to the Polish borders. This quarterfinals series was very hot, and the whole country watched the spicy events (HC Vitkovice chief Frantisek Cernik, second man of the Czech hockey poked his head into Plzen`s V.I.P. suite, to which Plzen assistant coach Radek Kampf shockingly cried about a so-called injustice against Plzen on TV. Vitkovice assistant coach Mojmir Trlicik tried to get in the referee box during the intermission, etc.) HC Vitkovice beat Plzen 4-2 in the series, and were able to beat Zlin in 5 games. In the finals, HC Vitkovice won the first game against Sparta, but could not win their first hockey title in 21 years.

HC Continental Zlin ended up in second place after the regular season. They won the bronze medal, but had a chance to win more. In the quarterfinals, Zlin was down 1:3 against Znojmo Orli, and managed to win the series in the overtime of the deciding 7th game! This series was played in a very gentlemanly manner in comparison to HC Vitkovice-Plzen or Slavia Prague-Pardubice. In the semi-finals against Vitkovice, Zlin won only once despite the fact that Cajánek, Leska, Balastik, Pivko, Somik and Marusak were among the best scoring players in the Extraliga. Zlin could not agree on a new contract with a goalie Vladimir Hudacek and traded him to Ceske Budejovice for Michal Marik (now playing in Havirov). Zlin has had a good defence for years, and a very good first two forward lines. Petr Leska, a skilled and subtle technical player, came almost out of nowhere to win the productivity award for the regular season... However, Zlin may have problems next season. It got a new mighty sponsor (Hame instead of Continental), but Petr Cajánek is heading for the St. Louis Blues, Radovan Somik for the Philadelphia Flyers, and Petr Leska for Sparta Prague.

Slavia Praha lost to cross-town rival Sparta in the semi-finals, and the team of Vladimir Ruzicka equalled the best result in Slavia‘s history. Ruzicka builds the team with players who are good types for play-offs, and with newcomers Frantisek Kucera, David Hruska and Marek Posmyk, may take another step next season. Slavia players are tough, patient and can avoid bad mistakes. In the play-offs, they met the second wealthiest team in HC IPB Pojistovna Pardubice and showed a great performance. This was another series with big emotions, which was influenced by a situation from an early game on Slavia ice, when Pardubice scored a disputable equalizer a few seconds before the end of regulation time. The question was if the puck got over the goal line, and could any of the cameras could prove it... Pardubice players and management were not happy about this, and could not stop talking about this situation until the series ended. Slavia won the series 4:2. In the semi-final series against Sparta, Slavia had very few chances. Slavia scored only three goals and lost 0:3. A good performance was turned in by goalie Roman Malek. Defensive left-winger Milan Antos had an incredible season offensively, and sharpshooter Viktor Ujcik scored plenty of goals. A newcomer from the Pittsburgh Penguins, Josef Beranek, started fantastically, but later broke his leg and did not find his former form again - not even in the playoffs. Another example of this was Daniel Branda, who started well, but was invisible during the playoffs.

Pardubice had big hopes and dreams this spring. They opened a new arena, organised a very good WJC, and the team played very well. HC IPB Pojistovna Pardubice had a good regular season, led by experienced players like "Mr. Jokerit" Otakar Janecky (41 years old!), paceful East Bohemianer Ladislav Lubina, world champion Michal Sykora, and a good middle generation - the technical Tomas Blazek, fast Petr Sykora (younger brother of Michal Sykora) and shooter Jaroslav Kudrna. When two-time world champion Dusan Salficky came back from Bridgeport, Dominik Hasek`s city had two star goalies – Salficky and rising star Adam Svoboda. Pardubice, however, could not equalize the aggressive play from Slavia and their season ended in the quarterfinals. Most of the players will receive a new chance in Pardubice for next season, including Ota Janecky and Ladislav Lubina. Only the coaches were fired. New coach is a former Pardubice coach in Milos Riha, who won the Slovakian Extraliga last season with underdog Slovan Bratislava. The coaches were probably not solely responsible for their result. According to many experts, Pardubice has too many technical players, and no tough fighters.

A very bad start, a good comeback, but sadness in the end - that was HC Keramika Plzen in the 2001/02 season. Goalie Dusan Salficky moved overseas, and his substitute, Slovak goalie Miroslav Simonovic from Poprad, did not start very well. After the 11th round, Plzen was in the last spot with a poor five points, and with the most goals scored against. Plzen management bought a substitute goalie in Pardubice’s Libor Barta, exchanged their coaching staff, and Keramika started moving up. A very important development was exchanging the third line for the first line. A new leading line of Michal Dvorak - Josef Straka - Dusan Andrasovsky substituted for Michal Straka`s line (a new player of CSKA Moscow, Michal Straka is a brother of Pittsburgh Penguin Martin Straka. Josef Straka is unrelated). This young generation line played very well with older players, such as defenseman Josef Reznicek and Ivan Vlcek. Plzen started the quarterfinals against Vitkovice very well, but some important players were injured, and Keramika, playing exhausting physical hockey, did not have enough strength to win the series.

The most important thing for Znojmo was the signing a new contract with a big sponsor - Jihomoravska Energetika. The club changed its name from HC Excalibur Znojemsti Orli to HC JME Znojemsti Orli, but remained the "Znojmo Eagles". Znojmo is a really new hockey city on the Czech map, and their great audience proved it. The club relies on the relatively unknown, but honest and devoted players. Eagles have two unbeatable stars on their team - Slovak world champion duo Peter Pucher and Marek Uram. The third cornerstone is goalie Oldrich Svoboda. The Slovaks were not very satisfied with the way they were treated during the Olympic break by the Slovak national team management, but came right back to the Czech Extraliga. During the second part of the season, they showed some brilliant performances. Zlin, but in the 7th game, Zlin came back to win by an overtime goal from league top-scorer Petr Leska.

HC Ocelari Trinec had an awful second half of the season. There were rumours about financial problems on the team, and the team did not play well collectively. This ambitious team was happy that it managed to make the playoffs in the 8th and final spot. Talented goalie Vlastimil Lakosil, who has not yet realized his potential, and has just remained a prospect, along with his substitute Martin Vojtek (who broke the Extraliga record by keeping a shutout in the three consecutive games) was not very consistent. Head Coach Antonin Stavjana, creator of Zlin`s good defense and top defenseman of past years (Also a world champion from Prague 1985), failed to make the players responsible in the defensive end. In addition, the offensive part of Trinec were down against Sparta 0:3, but came back to make it 2:3, and led almost the whole 6th game. In the end, however, Sparta`s power prevailed.

HC Vsetin did not make it to the playoffs for the first time in their Extraliga existence, but there was not any disappointment among the fans at all. The fans were mostly very satisfied. All the stars left the club, but the fruits of building the junior team squad from the best players around Moravia came to bear. Young stars like Jiri Hudler, Radim Kucharczyk, Petr Kubos, Ondrej Nemec and Tomas Demel joined the few veterans like Rostislav Vlach and Radovan Biegl to create a good atmosphere, even with the club’s permanent lack of money. HC Vsetin tried to make the playoffs until the end of the 3rd quarter of the regular season. 9th place is a direct consequence of the departures of players such as Martin Strbak, Lubomir Vaic and Jiri Burger, all of who left the club during the season. All of them fought with all of their strength, in spite of the fact they played almost for free.

HC Becherovka Karlovy Vary also did not have money to waste. The club changed its main sponsor during this summer, so its future became clear at least for the upcoming season. Its new name will be HC Energie Karlovy Vary (the name of new main sponsor is Sokolovska uhelna, a.s.). Karlovy Vary had very young team with only one big name - goalie Petr Franek (third-string goalie for the Czechs at the World Championships in Vienna - 1996), and was expected to play in the relegation round by most experts. The team, however, led by experienced duo Marek Sykora and Radim Rulik, had a good atmosphere within the club. Every player worked very hard, and it showed up in the best result in Karlovy Vary Extraliga history - 10th place.

HC Ceske Budejovice had to overcome big losses before the season. Among others, Radek Martinek went to the New York Islanders, Vaclav Nedorost moved to the Colorado Avalanche, Filip Turek went to Swedish club AIK Stockholm, and Sparta Prague. This resulted in an exchange of General Managers, and the building of a new hockey team. Minnesota Wild gave a big gift to Ceske Budejovice due to the fact that the Wild did not give much of a chance to Slovak Peter Bartos, who chose to come to his new home in Southern Bohemia. The team also had to overcome playing in a rebuilding arena, where only minimum audience could attend. The main goal for the new team was not to play relegation games, and after a coach exchange (former Plzen coach Jaroslav Liska for Jaroslav Jagr, who is unrelated with Jaromir Jagr) the goal was easily fulfilled. The team has a good perspective – acquiring new goalie Vladimir Hudacek for inconsistent Michal Marik, while big futures are expected from Michal Barinka, Jiri Novotny and many other juniors who belong to the best program in the country. There is always the threat of them leaving for overseas, however.

HC Havirov Panthers is probably the least popular Extraliga club, and many opponents wished that Havirov would play in the relegation round. Their non-transparent management has a bad reputation, but at the start of the 2001/02 season, it looked like they were trying to change that. Once again, however, the season ended up again the same way as many others – The club owing money to their players. At the beginning of the season, the team acquired a new coach, Frantisek Vyborny, as well as players Petr Vala, Lubomir Korhon, Vaclav Eiselt, and later David Hruska, all of whom lifted the quality and results of the team a great deal. In the end, these moves resulted in only the 12th spot, and none of these players will continue in Havirov. Vyborny also broke his two-year contract and moved to Litvinov. Most of Havirov‘s players left the club, and now the squad seems to be very weak heading into next season.

HC Chemopetrol Litvinov fans feared the worst for their team this season. Last year`s quarter finalist fought until the last round to avoid the relegation games. In the crucial game, they played an away game against their direct relegation-bound opponents in HC Kladno, needing at least a tie. HC Kladno led for almost for the whole game, but Vlastimil Kroupa equalized the game about 10 minutes to go. Litvinov’s jersey was worn by an incredible amount (46-) of players this season, the most out of all Extraliga clubs. The only player who played consistently was captain and NHL veteran Petr Klima, who dressed up in a hockey jersey after he had been selling cars for the past two years in Florida. New General Manager Vladimir Macholda was usually held responsible for his team’s problems.

Tragedy was waiting for another team - HC Vagnerplast Kladno. Jaromir Jagr’s home team, who fought many years to save their elite league lives, bought several new good players before the season, and according to the words from management, was ready to reach the playoffs. Unfortunately, their start was disastrous, and at the beginning of December, Kladno was desperately last. Jaromir Sindel substituted for Coach HC Kladno won 26 points during their last 18 games. For a while, they even overtook HC Litvinov in the standings. Sadly, they lost their last, most important game. During the relegation games, Jaromir Sindel did not motivate the team well, and HC Kladno underestimated HC Liberec, losing 1:4 in the series. With this loss, the funeral for a very successful team in Czechoslovakian history became a reality.

David Schlegel

Czech Extraliga after 18th Round

The top candidate for the title is last year`s runner-up Sparta Prague. Sparta Prague has an outstanding goalie in Petr Briza, acquired Jan Srdinko and world champion Jan Tomajko from Vsetin and what is more two top stars joined the team during October. Olympic and World Champion Frantisek Kucera refused to play on the Washington Capitals` farm team and came back home. Jiri Zelenka was fired despite fair performance for Blues Espoo and signed a two-year deal.

However, Sparta is still at the third place in the Extraleague table. First spot belongs to HC IPB Pojistovna Pardubice. Its 40 year-old captain Otakar Janecky was suspended for few games because he offended the referee, but his fantastic passes to Petr Sykora keep Pardubice winning, fanatstic shooting form has another veteran, Ladislav Lubina and Pardubice goalie Adam Svoboda earn his national team spot for the first time in his life.

Inspite the fact respected coach Antonin Stavjana, the world champion from 1985, left Zlin, the well-known defence stayed there. Marek Posmyk could not get to the Tampa Bay roster for a longer time so he came back to Moravia and together with Martin Hamrlik (a brother of New York Islanders star Roman Hamrlik) leads Zlin defense. However, the main reason of the second place for Zlin is somewhere else. 26-year-old Petr Leska and his second line exploded. Subtile and small Leska, the typical third or fourth liner few years ago, incredible increased his performance and now leads the whole shooting table in extraliga and attacks the all-time record of Pavel Patera who made 87 points out of 52 games. He was invited to the team for Sweden Hockey Games.

On the fourth spot there is Slavia Prague, led by Vladimir Ruzicka, the captain of Olympic champion from Nagano. Slavia had to play without last year Philadelphia Flyers` draft Roman Malek, who is having a head injury after being hit with the puck, and former Pittsburgh Penguin Josef Beranek (also an injury) who was unstoppable in the beginning of the season. Viktor Ujcik, who was one the deciding factors in last year`s WC finals, cannot find his optimal shooting form so far but is substituted by skillful Daniel Branda, another newcomer in the Czech national team. Good play comes also from Milan Antos, who moved from Pilsen before the season. In last days traded its captain Jan Alinc, who played at the Olympics in Lillehammer, for Becherovka Karlovy Vary captain Ondrej Steiner.

At the fifth spot there is Trinec led by a new coach former great defenceman Antonin Stavjana. His main goal was to improve defence and he mde it. At least partially. Trinec bought Olympic champion Libor Prochazka who suffered aweful in Karlovy Vary last year, and Petr Jancarik from Pardubice. Also Miroslav Guren after several productive years on Toronto Maple Leafs' farm system, returned to the Czech extraliga. Last year national team player Mario Cartelli (has Italian grandfother) is now only seventh defenceman.

Vitkovice have a great team and could have even better but were unable to pay Pavel Patera after his return from Minnesota. Vitkovice have a great goalie in Jiri Trvaj, long time substitute for Martin Prusek (now with Ottawa Senators` farm team). He was nominated to the national team for Sweden Hockey Games. Vitkovice have Olympic champion and three times World Champion Martin Prochazka and Olympic champion and a gold medal goal scorer from Hannover David Moravec in the first line but money problems were reported from this club. They fired forward Ludek Krayzel after receiving 7 games suspension. Krayzel said the main reason is not his productivity but money issue...

Seventh is Znojmo. This team had an aweful start and made many changes so far. It has a new captain Slovak Peter Pucher, the only foreign captain in the Czech extraliga, and brought several low leagues player in after desperate start and this policy brought results so far.

Litvinov sold almost all above average players from the last season - Robert Reichel, Zdenek Orct, Angel Nikolov, Karel Pilar or Robert Kysela, for example. The only new star came from U.S.A. Petr Klima did not want to sell cars anymore and came to the Czech Republic play hockey again. The Stanley Cup holder plays in the first line and scored several crucial goals so far. Many points in last games came from second line led by David Hruska who finally found his lost talent in connection with Jiri Gombar and Martin Filip.

9th spot belongs to the last year`s champion Vsetin. Vsetin lost majority of all sponsors but had great start into the season. Former star 39-year-old Rostislav Vlach joined the team again after spending several years in Slovakian extraliga and 17-years-old Jiri Hudler led the third line towards great performance. However, Vsetin is in a deep hole last few games - did not win six games in a row.

Ceske Budejovice had to play its first home game on Tabor`s ice and it was terrible ice, few spectators and bad light caused their bad start. Budejovice lost their top stars during summer but are still in the run for eight spot. They recently traded national team player Kamil Brabenec for Pilsen`s Petr Korinek.

Plzen had a horrible start. After first round victory over Znojmo could not win for nine games in a row. The goalie Miroslav Simonovic (former Slovak national team goalie) allowed tons of easy goals and was sent back home. Pilsen borrowed No 2. goalie from Pardubice Libor Barta and its performance improved a bit.

On the 12th spot there is Havirov with great Pavel Cagas in goal and a big surprise named Pavel Vala in the first line. He came from fourth line of Zlin but used the chance it was given to him in Havirov.

Thirteenth is Karlovy Vary. Becherovka has the lowest budget because the main sponsor announced it will stop support the team after this season. Great coach duo Marek Sykora and Radim Rulik (they led Pilsen in last years) made competitive team out of no name players, they play very collectively and Petr Franek in goal is a key factor.

Vagnerplast Kladno has had strong team in the last few years. However, its results are very bad. Zdenek Orct and Robert Kysela, the newcomers from Litvinov, have not been in a good shape so far, World Junior Champion Tomas Plekanec cannot lead team by himself yet and the experienced players are much weaker than the expectations were. Olympic champion and three time World Champion Pavel Patera played three games for his home team but was pointless in the first two games and made two assists in his third game. After the game, he moved to Russian team Avangaard Omsk where he finnish this season. Kladno made its only regulation time victory in the 3rd round.

According to the prestigious magazine, The Hockey News, the Czech Extraleague is the best hockey league in Europe. It is difficult to say though, as Czech clubs do not usually win international competitions like Continental Cup or European Hockey League. Many experts explain that the most important competition for Czech teams is Czech Extraleague. It is a very exhausting competition where you need maximal effort to win any game and club competitions cannot be won without giving everything to it. Players are simply exhausted and cannot give international competitions the dedication they deserve. The Czech national team experiences "its goldest outof golden times". Czechs won world championship in Vienna, Austria 1996, and went ahead to win the Tournament of the Century - Olympic Games in Nagano 1998. A year later, they won the World Championship in Lillehammer, Norway 1999. In winter 2000 Czechs won the World Junior Championship for the first time in their history. In 2000 they repeated their World Championship triumph in St. Petersburg, Russia - and they even remained unbeaten there. In 2001 the Czech junior team defended their World Championship title in Moscow. The Czechs are also World Champions 2000 and 2001 in veteran competition, they have Art Ross Trophy holder Jaromir Jagr, goaltenders Dominik Hasek and Roman Cechmanek and the Devils duo Petr Sykora and Patrik Elias, who were the main forces of the Stanley Cup winners 2000. Today, ice hockey is most popular sport in the country. It has the best coverage on television, the most people in stadiums and a growing number of active players. But this article should not be an ode to Czech hockey. It should just be the story of the "Cesky Telecom Extraliga" (as the official name of their competiton) season 2000/01.
    The 2000/01 season was one of the closest and most thrilling seasons since the start of the play-off system in 1986. Until the last 52. round was over, the eight teams for play-offs was known. The only thing that was known before this round was that Slovnaft Vsetin would enter play-offs round from the 1st spot and that either Sparta Prague or Ocelari Trinec (Trinec Steelers) would not make the play-offs. The teams between 2nd and 7th place could have ended up anywhere and calculations concerning who would play whom were futile until it was all over.
    Sparta, the defending champions, needed to earn at least one point in a home game against Pardubice. Trinec needed a loss from Sparta and a home victory against Keramika Pilsen. Sparta severely beat Pardubice and demoralized players of Trinec acknowledged the live score from Paegas Arena (the stadium where Sparta play their games) after two periods and in desperation lost a game, which was almost won, in overtime. The fans were whistling to the end and did not say good-bye to their players. When it was announced Karlovy Vary were leading Continental Zlin, the heart of many teams really relieved because they really did not want to meet Vsetin in the first play-off round. Slavia Prague needed one point to end up seventh in their last game in Znojmo and they met the same opponent in the first round of the play-offs. Vitkovice beat Havirov, a nearby city, and finished sixth. They started the most important game of the year on Pardubice ice. Sparta Prague won the last game and it meant fifth spot for them, which resulted in a series against Litvinov, starting on Litvinov ice.
    Before the start of the season, a big change occurred in the rules of the Czech Extraleague. A new three point system was brought in. Ties after 60 minutes now brought one point to each team and both teams could earn one extra point in the five minute overtime which was played with four players on both sides. A victory in regulation would be awarded by 3 points. It was criticized a lot at the beginning, but as the time flew by people warmed to the thrilling open overtimes and the league was very equal so there was no big point difference among teams as was predicted. There was no rule changes in the 1. CP liga (2nd highest league), 2. Liga (3rd highest league) and lower leagues. If the counting was according to the old system, the position of many teams would be changed, but the top eight teams which made the play-offs, would remain the same. The league was extraorinarily close. Several rounds before the end, all the teams except Karlovy Vary, Kladno and Havirov had a chance to make the play-offs.

    Practically since New Year, it was clear the play-offs would not be missed by HC Slovnaft Vsetin. On January 5th, Vsetin won in Ceske Budejovice and took over the league leadership. With just one exception they remained on the top to the end. Vsetin experienced hard times prior the season. The management lacked money and many people speculated the end of hockey in Vsetin. The club owed a lot of money to the players and the renewing of contracts was postponed several times. Several times it was announced the club bad been sold - once to Luxembourg, once to Switzerland, but as it turned out, it was pretence. Jiri Dopita did not lose his confidence in the team bosses and he waited with signing of the new contract until the situation was stabilized. He refused a million contract from the Florida Panthers and stayed at home. In the end, the management paid all their debts and signed new contracts with key players. However, Olympic champions Martin Prochazka and Pavel Patera did not live up to expectations in previous season and they moved to Vitkovice (Patera left for Minnesota eventually) and the corner-stone of success, Roman Cechmanek, signed a contract with Philadelphia Flyers. The Moravian team bought a new goalie Jaroslav Kames from Eisbaren Berlin where Kames was only No. 2 goalie and brought a silver medallist from St. Petersburg, Martin Strbak, from Litvinov and former national team defenceman, Milan Nedoma, from Ceské Budejovice. At the beginning of the season, the team had only two lines able to compete with the rest of the league as the third line consisted from juniors. Shortly after the season started it was filled out by two players returning from Finland - Jiri Burger and Ludek Krayzel. Mainly Burger brought a lot of power to the team. In the beginning it was mainly Dopita`s first formation with Slovak sharp shooter Jan Pardavy leading Vsetin to their victories. The five time champion had a weaker period at the end of November when they had several injured players. An assistant coach, Miroslav Venkrbec, was fired and replaced by Jan Neliba, who coached Slovakian Martin at the beginning of the season and came back to Vsetin after several years. Neliba and the previous head coach Zdislav Tabara were put on the same level. Vsetin overcame the small crisis and started to put their opponents out to dry again. Eventually they won the regular season 17 points ahead of HC Znojemsti Orli (Znojmo Eagles).
    Znojmo ended up second in the regular season competition and it was the best success in their history. Their second season in the Czech extraliga did not start very well though. At the end of October, when the coach Milan Chalupa was called out from the team, they were 12th out of the 14 teams. After 49 rounds they manage to be on the second spot! They went up through the table in small steps and they did not give any big goals for this season. Their power was modest and they achieved much better results than some other economically stronger teams. The team from northern Bohemia had a strong goalie, Oldrich Svoboda, who suffered a brain stroke last season in German club, Essen Moskitos, and many clubs were scared to offer the contract to him. Znojmo fired the Slovak national goalie, Pavol Rybar, who went to Slovan Bratislava and signed a deal with Svoboda. It was a great move in the end! They had also two fantastic attackers. The brain of the first line, Peter Pucher, and the shooter Marek Uram. The Slovak duo was almost unstoppable and their combination reminded fans of the Patera-Prochazka duo at their best. It was a real pleasure to watch them, however, unfortunately, Uram lost his form during the play-offs and was also cut off the Slovakian national team before the World Championship. Uram competed to the last round with Patrik Martinec of Sparta to become the best scorer in the league and with Petr Sykora of Pardubice to become the best shooter in the league. There was a cheating by a Znojmo registration clerk who marked one goal and one assist to Uram in spite of the fact he was not even on the ice on one occasion and did not touch the puck in the other case. All the games in Czech Extraliga were televised (one game a week is live from 17:00 on CT2 and the programme named BULY is one of the best hockey programmes in the world), so the cheating was not hard to reveal Uram did tell the truth right after the game though. Znojmo had a really weak second line in the beginning. Many goals were scored against them so when they found the optimal combinations, their results went up. The defenceman David Havir was very productive and as a no-name player even made it to the national team for few games. Milan Prochazka, Patrik Fink, Radek Haman and Karel Plasek (when healthy) also had good regular seasons.
    Pardubice ended up eighth in last three season, but they built up really great players for this season. After 10 years in Finland, forty year old veteran, Otakar Janecky, called "Mr. Jokerit" or in Czech lands "Janeba" after a guy who likes to smoke from a famous funny story of Czech entertainers. Some players who easily could have made the team in previous seasons did not succeed and were sold to other clubs. Eighteen rounds before the end, the Eastern Bohemians even led the whole league, but a small crisis came their way and their spot in play-offs was in jeopardy with three rounds to go. Probably the best audience in the league loved their new captain Otakar Janecky, who helped in his last season, before leaving for Finland, capture the last title for Pardubice. He was the last from Pardubice attackers who scored a goal in the season, he had incredible passes, which helped his teammate Petr Sykora II (played few games for Nashville several seasons ago and a brother of Michal Sykora from Philadelphia) to become the best shooter in the league. First part of the season was great for a young goalie, Adam Svoboda. Many people wanted him on the national team but he lost his form in the second part of the season and did not find it in play-offs.
    Litvinov had a strong first part of the season and led the competition in mid August.. But they had pretty small roster and lot of injuries so they could not hold their position. They had a strong defense, the best for many years. The defense was led by most productive defenceman Karel Pilar who was thrown out of Sparta Prague for a lack of talent during his junior years. Litvinov had besides Dopita the greatest attacker and leader of the league - Robert Reichel, former NHL star who might return to Phoenix after the manager there, Smith, was fired. The only Finn in the league, Vesa Karjalainen, did not meet expectations and left the team after several months, he finished the season with the Italian Sterzing Broncos. Petr Rosol, the last world champion from Prague 1985 in Czech extraliga also had a weak season. He still had good technical skills but he lacked speed and physical play. He did not remind fans of the old Rosol from the Rosol-Ruzicka-Klima line. There was a famous saying at the time of this line: Rosol, Ruza, Klima, zatocime s nima! (Rosol, Ruzicka (abbreviated), Klima, we will give you you`ll catch it - the free translation). Rosol stayed on the roster till the end but after the season he retired.
    The biggest disappointment of the regular season was Sparta Prague. Economically this very strong club did not play good hockey at all and almost did not make it to the play-offs. Before the season they even sold permanent tickets which were valid only for play-offs. They had to make a charge to even get there! After last year`s title and world championship triumph, three defencemen Frantisek Kucera, Michal Sykora and Ladislav Benysek and one attacker, David Vyborny went to the NHL and the newcomers did not show good quality in the beginning. Vlastimil Kroupa from Essen and Libor Zabransky from Vsetin have both NHL pasts but did not find their form until the play-offs. During the season, Canadian Johnathan Aitken also came to Sparta from Providence (AHL) but his discipline and performance were poor and he was fired after several months. In late November, coaching duo Frantisek Vyborny and Pavel Hynek were completed by Milos Riha who coached Karlovy Vary at the beginning of the season, but on the last day in February, Riha was taken off the team and Vyborny with his assistant coached the team again. The team suffered several injuries during the season - world champions Michal Bros and Vladimir Vujtek were the biggest offensive losses. However, some results were really terrible. The home loss with Pardubice 1-9 was really humiliating. It was not very far from first missing the play-offs for Sparta Prague since the 1994/95 season.
    Vitkovice ended the previous season in complete desperation. Finally they saved themselves in the Extraliga by beating Jihlava in a relegation series but it was obvious many changes have to come. And they really came. They signed a deal with a new coach, Alois Hadamczik, who has strong financial connections and can find sponsors for the team he leads. They also signed Olympic champions from Nagano, three time world champions and the true symbols of Czech hockey in second part of 90`s, Martin Prochazka and Pavel Patera. Russian Dmitrij Jerofejev came back from loan in Trinec, Vitezslav Skuta, who is well known for his cruel hit with the hockey stick a la Marty McSorley (it was said, it was not intentionally though) on his new Vitkovice teammate Roman Kadera, and Marek Ivan, who played a big part of his life in East Coast Hockey League where only the strongest survive. His style filled with hits and lack of the use of his brain put many teams off their tracks. They had the most equal goaltending duo in the Extraleague. Martin Prusek and Jiri Trvaj were very dependable goalies and the team had a strong start. In the first half of January they held themselves in 5th position but then lost several close games and if an outstanding series in the final part of the season had not come, they would not have played in the play-offs. Olympic champion David Moravec solved his family problems and after several weak years he had a great season and was called up to the national team again. Martin Prochazka and Roman Kadera had also very fine seasons, in spite of several tough injuries for Prochazka. Interesting was that all the defencemen except Jerofejev scored only one goal in total in the whole regular season.
    Slavia Prague experienced their best season in their history. Their new manager, Vladimir Ruzicka, the world champion from 1985 and the captain of Olympic winners from Nagano 1998, brought several new talented players from his home in Litvinov and also several players from the second highest league. Slavia did not start season well and it did not look like making play-offs for a long time. After a weak autumn, general manager Ruzicka exchanged Jaromir Sindel (another world champion from 1985) as a head coach and Slavia went up. They started to play very offensively and the team with the lowest audience in the league improved. After trade of former Slavia star Viktor Ujcik from Trinec (in the past Ujcik and Ruzicka played amazing hockey in the same line), Slavia made a big move towards play-offs. They have possibly one of the best goalis of the future Roman Malek and he helped Slavia a lot in its bad times. There were very strong performances by players brought by Vladimir Ruzicka - Daniel Branda and Viktor Hubl from Litvinov and Petr Martinek and Leos Cermak from the 1. CP liga (Chomutov and Trebic respectively).

David Schlegel

WC'2000: Heavily and uncompromisingly

Author: © Ada 
Date: 02-08-00
Language correction: pilgrim and Autumn
Other languages: Czech (by Ada), German (by Tina), French (by Jack Barron)

(I just want you to know I am very happy about the Czech victory inspite of the fact that the following sentences do not indicate it.) The 64. World Championship is over. We did not experience any assassination, robbery with violence, poisoning from food or other blunders and failures as some Czech newspapers impregnated with anti-Russian propaganda had forecast. Even the awaited disaster of the Czech national team did not occur. The exact opposite! THE CZECHS BECAME THE WORLD CHAMPIONS AGAIN! In the Czechoslovakian finals the Czechs beat in the Czechoslovakian finals their Slovakian brothers 5-3 and defended their World Championship title. All the Czech newspapers sang praises up our hockey players on their front pages. The Czech fans met again on the Old-Town square in Prague to watch the finals on a big screen. This time 25 thousand fans united their vocal chords. Again and again in a short period of time we could heard touching words about how this small country in the heart of Europe overcame all the troubles which plagued their national players, overcame the whole big world and gained the gold medals. I will not add any such words. For me personally the gold medal of the Czech hockey players from the World Championship is an overwhelming experience, but if I contribute also with some sublime words I would consider myself to be a liar. I realize the other side of this winner-story only too well.

The Czech hockey players experienced feelings of being unbeatable. They incredibly and unobjectively criticized the performances of referees in the key games. After the only loss in the tournament -- with Finland - though the referee made quite correct calls during the entire game, the players gave the impression he was a nincompoop who does not know what is going on. After the finals against Slovakia, players blamed a Canadian referee Acheson for many penalties for the Czech team, but most of the time they really deserved them. Also the answer of Jiri Dopita, one of the best attackers of the tournament, who replied to a question about the preparation for the tie against Latvia: "I will not see Latvians until the game starts, I think that is enough." That did not sound very sympatetically. By the way, the independent foreign press wrote about the help of referees to the Czech team in this game…
    The Czechs should not forget how lucky they were last year on their way to the gold. They were no less lucky in 2000. It is true that this time the Czech players obtained victory independent of the results of the other teams but not independently of individual failures. Arturs Irbe gave a key goal to the Czechs (but the great perception of Vaclav Varada should be also rewarded), in the following power-play, due to the protests, the Czech scored their leading goal; in another power-play which every judicious fan just laughed at, the Czechs added the decider.
    In the game against Canada the Czechs succeeded mainly because of Roman Cechmanek who deserves the respect of all the Czech fans. Canada had a crushing supremacy in places. In some moments I had a feeling it was only a question of time before the "Maple Leafs" would eventually somehow "push the puck" over the scoring line. But a fatal mistake of José Theodore came and Canadians were down for the count after the heavy punch by a Czech captain Robert Reichel and did not recover till the end of the game.
    Finally in the finals the Czechs were better than the other team, in this case the Slovaks. This year unlike last year, we did not need to rely on the help of others but I still cannot escape the impression that World Championship was won by others for the Czech team and I will be factual - Irbe, Theodore, the coaches of Finland and U.S.A., solidarity of the Russian team and "original" methods of the Swedish hockey federation.
    To be objective, Arturs Irbe experienced a great championship. He got the most credit for reaching the quarterfinals. He was really good also in the quarterfinal game but his one and only mistake came in the least timely moment. Jose Theodore was selected for the B-team All-Stars-Game. In spite of that fact he did not uphold his team in crucial moments when the medals were at stake. Thanks to cable television TSN, the whole Canada could see the ricocheted shot or pass of Robert Reichel which resulted in the deciding goal. In the bronze medal game he made a similiar blunder after a shot by Tuomainen. By the way, also very questionable was the selecting of Martin Prochazka (Czech Republic) for the most valuable player of the championship.

If I was a Finnish fan I would hardly be able to bear strange decision of Mr. Hannu Aravirta. SM- Liiga is considered to be the best league in Europe. This year's Finnish championship was won by TPS Turku where its first line, Rintanen-Nurminen-Kallio, streamed out onto the floor in fluid motion and overpowered the opposing line in such a manner that they laid down and quit. Patera's blue line in the golden times of AIK Stockholm performed in the same manner. The so-called "knight-line" Hentunen-Kapanen-Parsinen was instrumental in winning the bronze medal for Hameenlina. The goalie for Jokerit Helsinki Pasi Nurminen managed to catch many pucks during the season and was considered to be the one who captured the silver medal for the team. Not only the Czech players in SM-liiga believed Nurminen is the best of the three Finnish goaltenders who were selected for the World Championship. Aravirta went his way which proved not to be the best solution in the end.
    Nurminen has scored the most points during the regular season and the play-offs in the Finnish league. Despite these facts, he was not selected for the national team and Jokinen took his place instead. Similiarly, Parsinen was not chosen for the team and Lind was. The youngster Nurminen was only the third choice for Aravirta. Even though Toskala and Sulander in their match-ups against Austria and Canada respectively, performed pathetically, the coach trusted them more and chose them for the deciding games. In the semifinals - in the most important game of the season - Toskala disappointed again. Eventually in the bronze medal game the goaltender of Jokerit got his chance and he confirmed his high standard from SM-liiga.
    The other two Finnish lines with veterans Helminen and Tikkanen played much worse than both lines based on SM-liiga players, with the exception of the bronze medal game when the first Finnish line with Helminen could be seen on the ice (showed some good combinations on the ice). Both veterans only commemorated the old bygone times. Especially famous left-winger Esa Tikkanen could not follow the pace; the times of combinations with Wayne Gretzky flew by long ago. In spite of this, this championship did not need to be the last one for Tikkanen according his own declaration. Who knows the way the two "scraped players" from Turku and Hameenlina performed but Lind and Jokinen could easily create the base of another striking line. The record number of nine players from NHL was not enough for Finland to defend last year's position.

It is true the coach of the U.S.A., Lou Vairo, has Italian ancestors, can name half of the Slovakian national team from the middle 90's, was an assistent to the head coach during "Miracle on ice" in Lake Placid, led U.S. team at the Olympics in Sarajevo and spent two years as an assistent coach for New Jersey Devils. In spite of all these facts he backed the wrong horse. The star of the World championship could have been called Robert Esche. However, for Americans NHL is NHL no matter what is going on. It must be admitted that Damian Rhodes played well against the Swedes in spite of three goals scored against him. But he was full of holes in an opening game against Switzerland - and what is even more important - he repeated his poor performance in the quarterfinals against Slovakia which removed all the chances of the U.S. team for a medal.

The Russian team - that is a horse of another color. The Russians living in the Czech Republic had to suffer through more than one humiliation (sometimes the Czechs like to move from one extreme to the other) and yet did not need hockey to suffer such. Ice hockey is not a matter of politics - in spite of that many Czech journalists relished the Russian team's failure. Russian stars came to Europe because they wanted to represent their home country; however, they did not manage to form a compact team. Players from Europe and NHL did not fight as a team and what is more the trust in a talented goalie, Bryzgalov, turned out to be a fatal disaster for the Russian team. Bryzgalov was placed on the team by the intercession of Vladimir Tretjak who was freshly selected as a Russian hockey player of the century. His non-orthodox style did not catch on, but the career of this young Russian goalie is still ahead. The cheap goals put Russians down on the floor and the other goalie, Podomackij, who played most of the games for Russia during the season, got his chance after it was too late to be helpful.

Only Sweden worked on its failure in World Championhip systematically throughout the whole season. The coaches rotated before every international event, each coach having his own "corner-stone" players, so the team frame did not develop during the whole season at all. For all that it is good to recall that the Swedish coaches did not respect the inviolability of NHL and they did not hesitate to send Eriksson, the defenseman with Chicago Blackhawks, home because of bad performances in games before the World Championship.

The Czechs and Slovaks took advantage of these problems. Although 12 Czech players refused to play for the national team for various reasons and head coach, Ivan Hlinka, left for Pittsburgh Penguins, the frame of the Czech team remained unchanged. A difficult obstacle known as Roman Cechmanek filled the goalie stop, Frantisek Kucera led the defense and a couple attackers Robert Reichel and Jiri Dopita starred also. A Slovakian team was well set up by a young coach, Jan Filc. The team, centered around Miroslav Satan, finally had a good goaltender Jan Lasak. The bad goaltending of the Slovaks was famous but now it seems they have a good prospect for the future. Lasak is a very young, inexperienced goalie but he is still the best in Slovakia. The move to use an inexperienced goaltender which was not made by American and Finnish coaches was realized by Filc. The head coach also considered that Pavol Rybar, until that time No.1, played more games for the Slovak national team than in Znojmo in Czech Extraliga this season! Slovaks achieved their greatest success in ice hockey history. The performance of Satan was really devilish! He scored the goals in the most important moments of the games and became according to many observers the most valuable player of World Championship, closely followed by Roman Cechmanek.

The first eight teams in the World Championship this year, statistically did not differ much from last year's, only the Russian team was replaced by the Latvians. However, this year's World Championship was full of big surprises, the outsiders rejoiced about their remarkable victories. History was written by Norway who sensationally beat Canada; Belarus and Latvia also defeated Russia for the first time ever. The Slovaks managed to advance to the finals.

The sadest team of the championship was, without a doubt, the French. France defeated Switzerland after a heroic performance in the qualification round and only their loss to the U.S.A. and a miraculous performance of the Swiss against the Russians sent the French team to the relegation round. After a draw against Austria, they lost to Ukraine by one goal despite of vast pressure in the final period. In the last day of the relegation round France led 4-1 over Japan after two periods of play, and Ukraine was leading 2-0 over Austria at the same time which meant the preservation of France in Pool A. But then the Austrians came back and frankly the whole French team cried in the locker room...

The Japanese might be whooping it up at the prospect of playing at the highest level again next year. They will play China, South Korea and country of similiar talent in ice hockey during the Qualification Round. It should be just a formality to endure these games. Fortunately, this dubious rule about the preservation of Japan in Pool A will be valid for only one more year.

In this year's World Championship it was shown that the differences among the teams are decreasing. The only team that appeared to be out of its league was Japan. However, the Czech Hockey Federation officials proved to be short-sided. They suggested only 12 countries to participate in the World Championship to save money for the 2003 Championship which takes place in the Czech Republic. Every man and woman all over the world who love hockey should realize that only competitive hockey playing with the top teams will contribute to the spread of ice hockey.

David Schlegel

PS: I did not miss that besides Cechmanek, Dopita, Kucera and Reichel also other players as Sykora, Vyborny, Prospal, Varada and Kaberle performed fantastically. This article is just a different point of view.

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