For Šimek, the NHL in Prague was another great experience, he enjoyed playing with Jágr
Update: 09/10/2022 00:11
Issued by: 09/10/2022, 00:11
Prague – Czech hockey defenseman Radim Šimek highly valued the opportunity to play in the NHL in Prague and listed two appearances in the San Jose jersey against Nashville in the O2 arena as the greatest experiences of his career. He was sorry that the Sharks did not win any points from the fights with the Predators. The 30-year-old former player of Liberec was also the actor of the pre-match honor ball, which was thrown between him and the opponent’s captain Roman Josi by the second most productive player in the history of the NHL, Jaromír Jágr.
“I knew it since yesterday. I was chosen probably because I’m Czech. It was my first and probably my last bulls. I enjoyed it, I’m glad I could shake Jard’s hand. I’ve never met him before. It’s a legend, one of the best players in history. It’s another experience for me in terms of the trip to Prague that we had as a team,” said Šimek after today’s 2:3 loss. On Friday, San Jose lost 1-4.
The entire performance in Europe, which began for the Sharks at the beginning of the week in Berlin with a preparatory duel with Eisbären and continued from Wednesday in the Czech capital, excited her. “I will remember it for the rest of my life. Like when we won the title here with Liberec and now we won the bronze medal with the youngster,” said Šimek, who celebrated the extra-league triumph with the White Tigers in 2016 after the victory in the O2 Arena on the ice of Sparta and this year in May in Tampere and Helsinki, the national world championship saw the first precious metal with the team.
“There are a lot of Czech players who were 100% better than me and never played in Prague. I have to appreciate it and one day I can tell my grandchildren and children that we played an NHL match in Prague,” added Šimek, who is a native of Mladá Boleslav and lives in Venice nad Jizerou.
The duels in Prague were as touching for him as for striker Tomáš Hertl, who is even starting his professional career in the O2 Arena in the colors of Slavia. “Tomáš is from Prague, I live not far from Prague in Venice. But it was also moving for me, if I take my entire career, that seven years ago I was playing in the second (highest) league in Venice nad Jizerou. Now I have the opportunity here to play for an NHL Global Series team, so it’s something unreal. I’m very grateful that I had that opportunity, because not everyone is lucky enough to have it,” Šimek pointed out
“I had a family here. Although my parents had already seen me play in America, but maybe my brother saw me play for the first time. He wrote to me yesterday after the game that he could even imagine yesterday that hockey in the NHL is such a hoot. They had seats close to the ice, so they played even faster hockey. He wrote to me that he was proud of me and that I was happy as a brother,” added Šimek.
They enjoyed the atmosphere in the O2 arena. “The fans were great in both games. I was surprised that there were a lot of Nashville fans here. The spectators supported us in both games and we regret that we didn’t win at least one game,” Simek regretted.
“Of course, it’s a pity, because we wanted to take away at least one victory so that the eleven hours to San Jose would be a little better for us. This way, the atmosphere will probably be a bit gloomy on the plane. We didn’t play a bad game today. It’s just a shame that we quickly conceded the second goal 2:1,” said Šimek.
“We probably should have played more patiently or watched it more. Unfortunately, we scored a bad goal from a spin from behind the goal. I was just there. That probably decided it, then they immediately added the third. We had a chance in the third period, but we are already they can’t answer that at all,” stated Šimek.
He himself tried to force overtime at 2:3. In the 48th minute, he controls the attack even in his own weakness. “I tried to shoot, it was a good goal, then we had two more shots, I think from Vlasic. Then there was another chance when Nico Sturm put it in from behind the goal, but the puck was still behind the goal and I tried at least you need to hit the goalkeeper so that it bounces off somewhere. Unfortunately, I hit the side netting and nothing came of it,” Šimek said.
“It was an excellent substitution from the fourth line and, unfortunately, nothing came of it. We got on our shoulders at that time. We probably lacked a bit of luck in the power play. There were chances, the boys pushed for the goal, but the goal did not come from it,” he added Šimek, who is playing in the NHL for the sixth season and managed 167 games.