WC 20 hockey 2022 – First opponent Slovakia vs
today 07:30
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Good time and best possible opponent. A Slovak fan couldn’t have wished for the best opening duel of the summer junior world hockey championships. Our representatives will face the Czech Republic on Tuesday from 20:00 our time.
Although the solution to the absence did not have to be anywhere near as good as Slovakia. They touched the goalkeeper post the most. Coach Radim Rulík nominated only six players from the oldest possible year, 2002, Slovakia has eight of them. And only 12 hockey players experienced the canceled winter championship. Slovaks have 13 of them.
Why does the Czech Republic have so few players born in 2002? “I honestly don’t know. I joined the team a few weeks ago, I’m here for a short time. Those guys just aren’t. When some already have quality, they either apologized or got hurt. I do not know,” said the head coach according to iSport.cz. They have 14 players from 2003 and five from 2004.
Although they are not among the favorites of the tournament, they have several interesting positions and 12 drafted hockey players.
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Goalkeepers
The excuses affected the goalkeeper position the most. The invitation was rejected by Nick Malík, who already caught the entire last season in the Finnish top competition, and also Jakub Málek, who will be in Liigevat next season. Angína also eliminated Patrik Harmla, who was drafted by Carolina in the 3rd round last year, from the nomination.
The contribution of the unit was thus to hold Jan Bednář. He catches in the overseas QMJHL and was drafted by Detroit in the 4th round in 2020. He was also at the canceled championship and belongs to one of the players of the year 2002.
Two other goalkeepers are also active in overseas junior teams. Pavel Čajan he is also from 2002, he caught last season in the OHL. Tomáš Suchánek he is a year younger and plays in the WHL. Neither was drafted.
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Defenders
A huge loss threatened the Czech Republic in the back ranks. This year’s draft six was received a few days before the departure of the coronavirus. David Jiříček but managed to recover and then join the team in Canada. He should also take part in the match against Slovakia. Unlike the Slovak draft trio from the 1st round (Juraj Slafkovský, Šimon Nemec, Filip Mešár), Columbus let him into the tournament. “They should want to push themselves so that we can represent,” said David Jiřícek for sport.cz at a time when the absence of the Slovak trio is being dealt with.
In it we find two more defenders who heard their name called in the recent draft. Tomáš Hamarawhom Ottawa is in the 3rd round, he already has experience in the Finnish top competition. David Spaček went from the 5th round to Minnesota and is active in the junior QMJHL.
He should be a big support for the back rows Stanislav Svozil. He was selected by Columbus in the 3rd round last year and has experience in the Czech top league, none of the past season was played in the WHL.
While Slovakia will be missing Šimon Nemec in defense, the Czechs will have two – Francis the German a Štěpán Němec. The first named plays in the Brno junior team, the second one worked in the Finnish junior team.
There is not a single player born in 2002 in the defense. Four played in the canceled championship. David Jiříček was injured in the first game, which cost him the rest of the club season.
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Attackers
In the front rows we find seven drafted hockey players and the same number of returnees from the winter tournament. He should be the leader of the attack Jan Myšák, in 2020 from the 2nd Montreal and thus maybe the future one. Juraj Slafkovský He is 20 years old and has already managed to play in the Czech top flight, in three junior championships, played 22 duels in the AHL and won the junior OHL last season.
A year later than Jan Myšák, they went through the draft Jaroslav Chmelař (5th round New York Rangers), Jakub Kos (6th round Florida Panthers) a Martin Red (Columbus Blue Jackets Round 7). Neither has yet signed a contract with an NHL club.
Jaroslav Chmelař played in the Finnish junior team and will be in the university NCAA from the new season. Jakub Kos already got a taste of the Finnish competition last year in the jersey of Ilves Tampere, where he will take place next season as well. Martin Ryšavý works in the WHL.
One of the most attractive names in this is last season’s racket Jiří Kulich. With great performances at the under-18 championship, when he scored 11 points (9+2) in 6 duels and became the tournament’s most valuable player, he impressed scouts so much that he was drafted this year in the 1st round from 28th place by Buffalo.
Twenty places later, the Vegas Golden Knights reached po Matyáš Šapovaliv and in the 5th round of the draft they chose New Jersey Petra Hauserová.
David Jiříček
Source: SITA
CHANCES FOR THE WC AND MATCHES WITH SLOVAKIA
In addition to Slovakia and the Czech Republic, the basic A-group also includes traditionally strong Canada, currently extremely high-quality Finland and outsider Latvia. so, the mutual duel between the Slovaks and the Czechs will be a battle for 3rd place, which should, on paper, better correspond to the expectations from the second group (USA, Germany, Switzerland, Austria).
As with the Slovak and Czech national teams, advancing to the quarter-finals is the main goal, and everything else will be a surprise.
Both selections are tested regularly in the preparatory meetings, but this is the first confrontation on the ground of the championship since the World Cup 2016. At that time, the Czechs won 2:0 and one of the goals was scored by David Pastrňák.
If Slovakia was at full strength with Juraj Slafkovský, Šimon Nemec, Filip Mešár, Martin Chromiak, Samuel Kňažko or Marko Stach, it would be a clear favorite, but now the bowls are hesitantly tilted more towards the Czech side. This brought an extremely young team (the second youngest in the championship) to the tournament. Slovakia has the right to be the youngest, where we also find two players from the year 2005 (Dalibor Dvorský and Maxim Štrbák), the Czech Republic does not have a single one.