Kari Jalonen | Photo: Jan Beneš, Czech hockey
National team head coach Kari Jalonen and general manager Martin Havlát revealed the roster for this year’s World Cup at a press conference on Sunday evening. 25 players will travel to Latvia: three goalkeepers, eight defenders and fourteen forwards.
As expected, the situation between the three poles developed, a strong trio consisting of Karel Vejmelka, Marek Langhamer and Šimon Hrubec will travel to Riga.
Last year in Finland, Vejmelek played the role of number one goalkeeper, with Langhamer covering his back. Two years ago, in the Latvian capital, the national team relied on Hrubek.
Last minute loss of underdog Jiříček
Michal Kempný should be the expected leader of the Czech defense. Tomáš Kundrátek, Jan Košťálek, Tomáš Dvořák and David Němeček remained among the eight backs from the extra league. Overseas representatives Ronald Knot and Jakub Zbořil also spoke about the nomination.
On the other hand, Jan Ščotka and Jakub Jeřábek took the last cuts. And the talented David Jiříček will also be missing, as he suffered another health problem against Switzerland on Sunday.
“Jiříček didn’t finish due to an ankle injury and we don’t know how long that would be.”
“He had a hip injury after the match against Austria. That should be fine, but he missed tonight’s game against Switzerland with an ankle injury and we don’t know how long that would be. That’s why we decided not to include him in the nomination,” explained Jalonen.
What about the attack? Coach Jalonen announced in advance that the matador Roman Červenka will be the captain of his selection. The MVP of last year’s championship brought the Czech Republic to the precious metal after ten years.
Dominik Kubalík, Michael Špaček and Lukáš Sedlák still had almost certain tickets to the Baltics, Filip Chytil will join before departure.
In contrast, the coaching staff does not count on Michal Kovařčík, Radan Lence, Hynk Zohorna, Roman Horák and Tomáš Hyka.
The guy made it, Voženielek is writing a fairy tale
Filip Chlapík, whose non-participation in the World Cup was widely discussed last year, remained among the chosen ones. And the great story is being written by Daniel Voženílek, a recent master from Třinec. In addition to them, Ondřej Beránek, David Tomášek, Lukáš Sedlák and Martin Kaut are eyeing their first championship.
A total of twelve nominated players played in the domestic competition this year, six across the Atlantic, five in Switzerland and one each in Sweden and Finland.
“This year it was not easy to make the final decision. We had to discuss all the players in detail, determine their roles. I’m glad that we have so many typologically different players here. This is exactly how we wanted to build our team,” mentioned the national team coach.
“This is exactly how we wanted to build our team.”
In addition, general manager Havlát closely monitors the development of individual NHL playoff series. However, he did not want to reveal who the national team might be interested in.
The Czech national team will start the tournament program on Friday afternoon with a regional derby against the Slovaks. In Group B, they will later compete against the Kazakhs, Latvians, Slovenians, Norwegians, Swiss and Canadians.
Nomination of the Czech Republic for the WC in Riga and Tampere
Goalkeepers:
Simon Hrubec (Zurich, Switzerland), Karel Vejmelka (Arizona, NHL), Marek Langhamer (Lynx, Finland).
Defenders:
Michael Jordan (Rapperswil, Switzerland), Tomáš Kundrátek (Comet Brno), Jan Košťálek, Tomáš Dvořák (both Pardubice), Michal Kempny, David Nemeček (both Sparta Prague), Ronald Knot (Tucson, AHL), Jakub Zboril (Boston, NHL).
Attackers:
Ondřej Beránek, Jiří Černoch (both Karlovy Vary), Filip Chlapík, Michael Špaček (both Ambri-Piotta, Switzerland), Jakub Flek (Comet Brno), Vladimír Sobotka, David Tomášek (both Sparta Prague), Lukáš Sedlák (Pardubice), Jiří Smejkal (Oskarshamn, Sweden), Martin Kaut (San Jose, NHL), Roman Cervenka (Rapperswil, Switzerland), Dominik Kubalik (Detroit, NHL), Daniel Voženilek (Třinec), Filip Chytil (New York Rangers, NHL).
Photo: Vít Golda
Implementation team:
Head Coach: Kari Jalonen
Assistant coaches: Libor Zábranský and Martin Erat
Goalkeeper coach: Zdenek Orct
Video trainers: Jiří Horáček and Fredrik Norrena
Manager: Milan Hnilička
Physiotherapist: Radovan Sakaláš
Custodians: Zdeněk Šmíd, Oldřich Kopecký and Petr Šulan
Fitness coach: Michal Hamršmíd
Doctor: Tomas Madry
Media Manager: Ondrej Kalat
The program of the Czech team in the basic group of the WC
Friday, May 12:
16:20 Slovakia – Czech Republic
Sunday, May 14:
20:20 Czech Republic – Kazakhstan
Monday, May 15:
20:20 Czech Republic – Latvia
Thursday 18 May:
16:20 Czech Republic – Slovenia
Saturday, May 20:
12:20 Norway – Czech Republic
Sunday, May 21:
20:20 Czech Republic – Switzerland
Tuesday 23 May:
16:20 Canada – Czech Republic
Note: the beginnings of the WC matches are given in Latvian time. It will be one hour less in the Czech Republic.
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2023-05-07 18:11:00
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