WC: Team CZE - 2019

[Czechboy]

No Hertl/Francouz for a few more days either. I hope SJ wins. I like their team a lot. I feel like Colorado has been screwing with Francouz for a full year now... hope he signs somewhere else. Mind you, Colorado has a beautiful team and future ahead of it.

 

[Maluk11]

Suprising news for today. Slavomír Lener will not continue anymore in his role (but will continue in Czech hockey), replaced by Filip Pešán. I think it could be positive change, new ideas and energy will come in.

 

[BigBadBoar]

Suprising news for today. Slavomír Lener will not continue anymore in his role (but will continue in Czech hockey), replaced by Filip Pešán. I think it could be positive change, new ideas and energy will come in.

Reasonable choice in my opinion. Filip Pešán is a young, progressive coach and a proficient theorist of the game, including the problematics of the youth/junior hockey. He has proven this as the head coach for Liberec as well as with his theoretical contribution for the Czech hockey federation strategies. Hopefully he will introduce some modern trends especially to the players' development programmes.

 

[BigBadBoar]

Adam Svoboda, the backup goalie of the world champions from 2005, dies at the age of 41 (suicide). Rest in peace.

 

[Chevx]

Did they mention Polak at all? I know he retired from National Team (and at the time this was good news) but Bratislava is an hour from Brno... can't we buy the guy a gift basket or some Czech cheese?

Someone on the Facebook said that he is playing under the injections, don't know how relevant this info is.

Additionally, I don't know if I want Francouz or Hertl more. With Hertl, we get upgrade on 1C (Vrana Hertl Voráček seems quite brutal) and get almost three attacking lines fully from NHL, with Francouz we get a little upgrade in the net. Though I wish SJ/BOS the cup, Hertl and Faksa coming would boost us enormously. Just imagine something like:

Vrána, Hertl, Voráček - Jaškin, Chytil, Palát - Frolík, Faksa, Simon - Kubalík, Kovář, Řepík

 

[Mirinho]

Bye bye Lener and never come back...

Pesan is future of czech hockey.

 

[Czechboy]

Adam Svoboda, the backup goalie of the world champions from 2005, dies at the age of 41 (suicide). Rest in peace.

Awful.

On Friday, I am playing in a memorial tournament for a friend of mine that also comitted suicide this month. Now, we're just old men playing pickup hockey in a rented arena far from the NHL. So I don't try to relate that way.

But, I'm willing to bet, with my friend and Svoboda, nobody really saw it coming and they are both gone too soon.

My point? Gentleman, mental health is very important. I assume most the people on here are male. If you're not feeling 'right', get that looked into!

 

[Czechboy]

Bye bye Lener and never come back...

Pesan is future of czech hockey.

I liked Lener and never saw a bad interview with him. I think he knows exactly what the problem is. About a decade ago he came to a hockey summit in Toronto (I think) and gave an amazing presentation on how Czech hockey is getting destroyed.

He pointed out how most young Czechs get drafted to the CHL, leave Europe, go there, don't make the NHL and come back as 'hybrid players' (eg. not good at Czech hockey or Canadian hockey either) and just fade away.

It was a brilliant assessment and so very true.

I had hoped, that in the last 10 years, that the Czechs would solve that problem. They haven't and so I'm happy to see a new guy.

The solution, to me, is very obvious. Create a situation where the majority of 16 to 19 year old Czechs don't need to leave Czech to make the NHL. Obviously, there will always be 1 or 2 outliers (there are Swedes and Russian in the CHL) but I feel we only develop good players to 16 and then it completely falls apart.

I fully admit, if I had a 17 year old son who was good and got drafted to the CHL.. we'd go too! If I was Swedish, Finnish or Russian, I seriously doubt I would.

That 'black hole' of 16 to 19 year old development is still here 10 years later. For every Necas, Kaut and Hertl there are a dozen Zadina's, Barinka's, Voracek's, Frk's etc. Don't even get me started on all the Straka's, Culek's etc.

I have no idea how I'd fix the youth leagues in Czech to make this better but it seems our best young players are too good for U18 and U20 Czech leagues and sit on the bench in Extraliga and 18 year olds should always be playing hockey.

So, I hope Pesan has the answer! That and I hope he realizes that our best Czechs outside of NHL are in the AHL/KHL and not Extraliga. Instead of ignoring the AHL guys they need to embrace them and make them part of the National Team. I noticed FInland has a goalie and D from the AHL on their team.

Guess we'll see what happens but those would be my major 2 starting points.

 

[Czechboy]

Vrána, Hertl, Voráček - Jaškin, Chytil, Palát - Frolík, Faksa, Simon - Kubalík, Kovář, Řepík

That would be an amazing forward corps. Amazing what 2 NHL C's could do.

I do think Francouz would help us but I do wonder by how much? How much better is he than Bartosak/Kovar/Hrubec.

 

[Babula]

Adam Svoboda why the hell ? Why is that much suicieds in Czechia players in recent history ?

 

[Chevx]

That would be an amazing forward corps. Amazing what 2 NHL C's could do.

I do think Francouz would help us but I do wonder by how much? How much better is he than Bartosak/Kovar/Hrubec.

Definitely, Faksa brings experienced PK and skill in front of the net, Frolík and Simon can build on the synergy they are trying to get nowadays. Hertl brings quality face-off and confidence. But most importantly, he is on fire. Voraček may provide Vrana with some nasty passes.

Honestly, I haven't seen Francouz in action this season. I would personally pick Bartošák as number one, he has shown consistency thoughout the season in both Extraliga and the NT, whereas Kovář had great half of the season, until he was injured... My preferred gk trio was Bartošák, Will, Hrubec. So Hertl would be greater boost, but as I said, it's up to the coaches and I'm looking forward to the first game. We'll see in three days.

 

[Rillijuti]

What kind of lines and powerplayunits they have been rolling?

 

[Czechboy]

Faksa and Polak are available. Faksa played over 25 minutes tonight... coaches clearly trust him!

 

[Maluk11]

What kind of lines and powerplayunits they have been rolling?

Forwards were:

Voráček - Simon - Frolík
Palát - Chytil - Jaškin
Vrána - Kovář - H. Zohorna
Kubalík - Hanzl - Řepík

Tomáš Zohorna and David Tomášek out of lineup. That's all I find.

 

[24 others]

Forwards were:

Voráček - Simon - Frolík
Palát - Chytil - Jaškin
Vrána - Kovář - H. Zohorna
Kubalík - Hanzl - Řepík

Tomáš Zohorna and David Tomášek out of lineup. That's all I find.

Swap Vrána and Frolík. Vrána is a scorer, Frolík is a defence-first player. He has no business being on the 1st.

Also, any news on Faksa or Polák joining in?

 

[Mirinho]

Swap Vrána and Frolík. Vrána is a scorer, Frolík is a defence-first player. He has no business being on the 1st.

Also, any news on Faksa or Polák joining in?

Those lines are from yesterday's training. How they were on the ice.

 

[Vidy]

Swap Vrána and Frolík. Vrána is a scorer, Frolík is a defence-first player. He has no business being on the 1st.

Also, any news on Faksa or Polák joining in?

Polák declined & Faksa'd like to go, if everything goes well, he'll play at 2nd or 3rd match.

 

[Czechboy]

Swap Vrána and Frolík. Vrána is a scorer, Frolík is a defence-first player. He has no business being on the 1st.

Also, any news on Faksa or Polák joining in?

Voráček - Simon - Frolík
Palát - Chytil - Jaškin
Vrána - Kovář - H. Zohorna
Kubalík - Hanzl - Řepík

I agree with considering Vrana up there but he traditionally plays 12 minutes a night on a very deep team. This ight be his chance to show his team (that needs to sign him) that he can handle 16 to 18 minutes a night.

It's funny because Vrana and Jaskin are on the same team. Vrana was one of the leading goal scorers, played every game and is about to sign a very nice contract with Washington. Jaskin played half the games, scored 1 goal and is UFA. At best he'll get offered 650K from Washington but I doubt he will. Now look to see who is higher in the lineup.lol We've parked a Porsche in the garage!

Voracek on offwing - Philly does that too. He's an elite RW and keeps ending up on LW.

Hopefully Faksa does show... that would give us a beautiful 'spine' down the middle. Imagine a third line of Faksa/Frolik/Kubalik. That could cause some problems!

 

[Czechboy]

Hertl led all forwards with 24 minutes. Absolute stud.

Francouz is now available... I'd be happy with Francouz and Faksa if it happens

 

[Maluk11]

Hertl led all forwards with 24 minutes. Absolute stud.

Francouz is now available... I'd be happy with Francouz and Faksa if it happens

Hertl is currently leading the playoff in points (9+5 in 14), tied with Couture, Rantanen and Burns. He really take big step forward this season. Shame he can't participate, but on the other side I wish him all well in the playoff. I am also glad we have strong mark there, Hertl 1st in points, followed by Pastrňák (6+5 in 13) and Krejčí (4+6 in 13) + Mrázek playing really well. Good for Czech hockey.

 

[vil]

Voráček - Simon - Frolík
Palát - Chytil - Jaškin
Vrána - Kovář - H. Zohorna
Kubalík - Hanzl - Řepík

So:

Vrána Simon Voráček
Palát Chytil Jaškin
Kubalík Faksa Frolík
Zaťovič Hanzl Řepík

and we win. Or at least that would be the 12 forwards I would like to see play.

Sadly no Zaťovič. Were they hoping for San Jose or Boston to lose? I would have liked Zaťovič over Kovář, who is just a stop-gap for Faksa and depth experienced back-up if something implodes at center. On the other hand they cant be sure Faksa will be there so Kovář was inevitable. I also like Hanzl over Kovář.

 

[Maluk11]

Lineup at today practice (and possibly at Sweden):

Kolář - Hronek
Sklenička - Gudas
Moravčík - Rutta
Musil - Zámorský

Frolík - Simon - Voráček
Palát - Kovář - Vrána
Kubalík - Chytil - Jaškin
T. Zohorna - Hanzl - Řepík

H. Zohorna and Tomášek outside of lineup.

 

[Retroglyphs]

Lineup at today practice (and possibly at Sweden):

Kolář - Hronek
Sklenička - Gudas
Moravčík - Rutta
Musil - Zámorský

Frolík - Simon - Voráček
Palát - Kovář - Vrána
Kubalík - Chytil - Jaškin
T. Zohorna - Hanzl - Řepík

H. Zohorna and Tomášek outside of lineup.

Kubalik - Chytil - Jaskin

 

[Maluk11]

PP lines:

Frolík - Simon - Voráček
Hronek - Gudas

Palát - Chytil - Vrána
Moravčík - Rutta

 

[Retroglyphs]

Kubalik is a better choice than Gudas for the PP.