The business card of Czech hockey is relentless. The last title of world champions was brought home by our national team in 2010, since then the Old Town Square has been waiting for the welcome of champions. For twelve years.
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What is not can be… Even thanks to the players of the generation that does not have a winning hero from the Czech Republic at home in front of their eyes. Hockey defender David Jiříček is one of them. The nomination of an 18-year-old super-talent for the World Cup in Finland is to be the start of a career for a player who should one day conquer the hockey world.
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He knows the last seconds of the golden match of 2010 by heart.
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No, he was not in the Cologne arena or welcomed the world hockey champions in the Old Town Square.
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“I know this match, as well as all the famous matches from Nagano,” says David Jiříček. “I’ve watched them on YouTube, a few times,” he adds.
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The last time the Czechs in Germany made gold, the Czech defender was seven years old. He was just starting hockey and could hardly make sense of it. At the upcoming World Cup, he will be standing on the blue line, for example alongside Roman Červenka, who was already looking for an opener during the celebrations on the podium twelve years ago. What it’s like to be a world champion, Červenka knows, the generation led by the greatest talent Jiříček does not. She grew up at a time when the adult national team regularly lost the most important matches of the season. And it will be up to her if one day the national team returns to the top of the world.
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“I am from a generation that awaits success, and I hope that things will change. This is very important for little boys who are just starting out with hockey. I wish we could go crazy over the Czechia in hockey and small children could see each other in us. They talked about us at school and at home, they saw an impulse with their own eyes, which will confirm that playing hockey is worth it. “
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Sports talent of the year
The News list represents the sports talents of the year.
List of News is looking for the greatest sports hopes of the Czech Republic. Watch the series Sports talent of the year. Together with experts, we present nine extremely talented athletes who excel in tennis, floorball, biathlon, rowing, ice hockey, MMA, cycling, football and athletics.
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The youngest player of the Czech selection and the independent Czech national team is no coincidence in Kari Jalonen’s team. In Finland, he will be stared at dozens of scouts from clubs from the NHL, which are announcing interest in Jiříček in advance. This is also unprecedented from the point of view of Czech hockey. Český bek is our greatest talent and one of the most significant players of his year across the planet. Experts’ predictions even fit Jiříček into the top ten players in the July draft. For the first time in four years, a Czech player should be drafted in the first round. What used to be the rule is a rather sad rarity today.
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Historical draft
And in the case of Jiříček, this is doubly true, because while Czech hockey is still able to educate a skilful player for world hockey from the attackers from time to time, there is a total need for a defender in our country. Even NHL clubs know this, and when they see a defender with a Czech passport, they are not interested: Since 2005, only one Czech backbone has passed the first round of the draft. Only five defenders entered the NHL season this season, and none of them play in the key role that is once expected of Jiříček.
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“We don’t have many great talents like David. Let’s be happy for him, “says Tomáš Vlasák, the sports manager of Pilsen, for whom Jiříček plays in the Czech Republic, aptly.
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The powerful figure, good skating and work with a hockey stick, all this stands out above the other peers not only in the Czech Republic. A wide variety of these skills make him a deadly defender not only in the game backwards, but also in the offensive. He can play hard in the body, block bullets and be highly effective in the first shot.
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Jiříčka could not have missed the preparatory matches of the national team before the World Cup. As a defender, he hit twice in the distance.
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New Marek Židlický?
With each match, his confidence grew and it became increasingly clear that his name would not be missing in the team’s final World Cup nomination.
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And, as is customary in the Czech Republic, fans began to compare the talented player, preferably with the most successful. This means with Marek Židlický, probably the most significant back of the last golden era of Czech hockey. “This is a decent prediction,” Jiříček smiles. “It’s nice to listen to, even though I only remember Marek Židlický from his haircuts. When I started hockey, he was slowly ending his career. I haven’t seen him play live. “
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“But you know what? I still don’t like this comparison. Every player is different, they have a different style of skating, some can pass better, others can shoot well. Every hockey player is unique, moreover influenced by what a particular coach wants, and these comparisons are in a way frustrating. I don’t want to be like anyone. I want to play hockey according to myself, I want to be David Jiříček, “says the young hockey player quite seriously. It can be seen that on the threshold of a career, he thinks a lot about hockey and has no idea where the path among the best leads.
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“I really like David. He is a young boy, but he plays hockey like an adult guy. It shows that he likes big challenges, “says national team coach Kari Jalonen about Jiříček. And Jiříček smiles kindly this time: “That’s exactly what Mr. Jalonen said. I like challenges, I want to show off, come up with a nice event and, most importantly, win every match. “
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He started in the hockey extraleague for the first time at the age of sixteen, was declared the best rookie of the year last season and made his debut in the hockey team, when he was 16 years old and 345 days old – none of the Czech players could do that before. Now Jiříček has a certain place in the national team. As in the line-up of Pilsen, where he was one of the key defenders until Christmas. He scored eleven points in twenty-nine matches and scored five goals.
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“It simply came to our notice then. I appreciate what I’ve already accomplished, and it’s kind of beautiful, but my career goes on and I have a long way to go. He will start in the draft in July, only then will I see which way I will go, “says Jiříček, who managed to win a place at the world championship, even though he lost his life for twenty-three months after this year’s championship.
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Collision with a Canadian
The clash with Will Cuylleh, a Canadian defender, caused problems with ligaments in his left knee. Jiříček had to undergo surgery and demanding convalescence, due to injuries he also fell slightly in the ranking for the draft, where his name was originally heard in connection with the five highest-ranking players. He planned to return to the ice in the quarterfinals of the Czech extra league, but Pilsen’s season ended a round earlier. And so Jiříček accepted the invitation to the national team camp, where at first, after a long break, probably no one thought that he could stay in the team until the end.
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Pavel Geffert
Pavel Geffert.
In the 1990s, the national team member was at the Olympics in Lillehammer. He grew up in Slavia, but became champion of the republic with Sparta. The current head of the youth academies became involved in the project Sports talent of the year an expert who advised Seznam Reports in selecting the greatest hockey talent.
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He says that the departure of young hockey players abroad is their choice, but he adds: It is said everywhere that Parsnip and Crow succeeded after choosing to go abroad, but nowhere do you read how many players who left too young failed at all.
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“I dropped out of the game for three months, but maybe it helped me. ‘The injury just happened, and thanks to him, I’m a little more experienced and resilient again. I had form before my injury, I was sad, but the fact that I finally made it to the World Cup makes up for all this, ”says Jiříček.
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“I didn’t set any such goal at the beginning of the training, I just unlocked all training and matches. I tried how the knee would react if it held up, and then he started enjoying hockey. Ten thousand spectators came to Ostrava, we played at home and the people were euphoric about our performances. And I have to say I was euphoric about them. After all, I started playing professional hockey during a pandemic in front of empty stands, this was the first time in my life that I boarded the ice in front of so many people, ”Jiříček says of his life experience.
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David Jiříček at the Under-20 World Championships in Edmonton in 2021.
“Yeah, I have to say that this is my greatest experience so far, but at the same time I don’t fly very high, because I see players in the national team in training who are still a little different from me. I have something to look at and I have something to learn from them. It’s clear on the ice that the boys who came to the NHL team are farther than me, “he acknowledges the promising talent, who still has a lot of hard work ahead of them.
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In addition to the World Cup matches, he has to remotely complete the third year of high school, because, as he says, everyone in the Czech Republic should have a high school diploma.
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“And then we have a draft. So far, I have had several interviews with scouts from different teams, who kept asking me the same questions. It is impossible to guess who might be interested in me. The lottery, which will determine the order of the draft, is not on the program until May, and only according to it can we begin to estimate which NHL team could choose me. But to be honest, I don’t deal with it. I don’t have a team there that would be clearly my favorite, “says Jiříček, adding with one breath:” Especially whether it’s over and all the pressure associated with it falls. “
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We will find out who will choose Jiříčka on July 7.
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The Czech player will enjoy one of the most important evenings of his career in Montreal together with his parents.
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“But only then will I have to show in training and matches that I really belong in the NHL. It is my dream, but I am still at the beginning of the path among the best, “he concludes.
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