MILAN – One day after Canada closed its practice at the Olympics, Czechia followed suit by shutting the media out of their practice on Tuesday.
“There’s obviously some special teams stuff that we want to work on and some other stuff that goes along with the team game,” assistant coach Tomas Plekanec told TSN. “It was an option; we decided to take it.”
Canada and Czechia will play each other in their first game of the Olympics on Thursday. Was Czechia’s decision to close practice a response to what Team Canada did?
“No, not at all,” Plekanec insisted. “I didn’t even know they closed it. We had some team stuff going on so, like I said, it’s an option for teams that is good for them.”
But not good for the media covering the event in Milan and, apparently, not good for the family of players.
“I didn’t know we could close it up,” said Anaheim Ducks defenceman Radko Gudas with a smile. “I tried to get my kids here, but they wouldn’t allow them to go in the stands. Maybe that was the problem.”
Canada coach Jon Cooper explained his decision to close practice by saying there would be too many people in the small practice rink, which would create a distraction.
The Czechs, though, made it clear they believe there’s a competitive advantage in keeping outside eyes away from their workouts.
“We did some special [teams] stuff,” said Gudas. “We did some faceoff [plays]. We did a lot of things that only we should know probably so maybe that’s why.”
“We did some power play and PK,” noted Vancouver Canucks centre David Kampf. “The coaches probably don’t want you to see it.”
Czechia is also closing Wednesday’s practice.
TSN’s Ryan Rishaug reports that Canada will hold an open practice on Wednesday.
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Czechia is in tough on Thursday when they face Canada, and they know it.
“It’s going to be the hardest game of our career I would say for everybody,” said Gudas. “But it’s still the first game of the tournament so we’re trying to get better as the whole tournament is going to go. Maybe we catch them sleeping a little bit too with the time zones.”
Canada’s entire 25-man roster is NHL players. After losing Boston Bruins centre Pavel Zacha to injury, the Czechs are down to 12 NHL players.
“They have a great team,” said Utah Mammoth goalie Karel Vejmelka of Canada. “Maybe one of the best in history, so exciting to have that team as a first to play against. [Sidney] Crosby especially is a legend, but we are excited for sure.”
In a sign of just how deep this Canadian team is, Crosby skated as the third-line centre at the first two practices.
“That’s the biggest ‘wow’ for us,” said Gudas, “having Sid as third-line centre.”
So, how do the Czechs pull off a big upset?
“No turnovers for sure,” said Dallas Stars centre Radek Faksa. “No taking penalties. No turnovers at the blue line and good goaltending and just simple stuff. We know Canada got all four lines really good. We got to show them no respect as well. We need to play hard. That’s how we can beat Canada.”
Czechia feels like they are set up to hit the ground running in Italy. They have 18 players back from the team that won the 2024 World Championship on home ice.
“We have a good style of hockey for us, that works in our favour and we can beat anybody,” Gudas said. “I think the resiliency of our group will be a big problem here for some other teams.”
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The Czechs also have great depth in net with Anaheim’s Lukas Dostal and Philadelphia Flyer Dan Vladar joining Vejmelka.
“I would say our goalies are our best players,” said Kampf. “We are very excited about our goalies.”
“It’s big confidence for us,” said Gudas. “I don’t think we really scored on them yet. It’s been fun practising.”
Czechia has already decided who will start on Thursday, Plekanec said, but won’t inform the goalies until Wednesday morning.
Dostal was the go-to guy during that run to gold at the 2024 Worlds.
“He showed up two years ago on one of the biggest stages at the World Championship in Czech and showed he can be in big games and stay calm,” said Gudas. “His calmness helps the team feel confidence on the back end.”
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Team Czechia projected lines based on Monday’s practice:
Necas - Hertl - Pastrnak
Palat - Kampf - Kase
Cervenka - Sedlak - Tomasek
Stransky - Faksa - Kubalik
Flek, Chlapík
Hronek - Simek
Kempny - Gudas
Spacek - Rutta
Tichacek - Kundratek
Dostal
Vejmelka
Vladar
