“Mom, Dad, relatives, maybe even grandma will come. She always watches our games on TV, or at least she watches the clips. But she recently had an operation. So I will play for her, both in the hall and in front of the TV. This is a journey. I am truly experiencing it, “Laance said Wednesday from the ČTK agency.
During the interview, he spoke Slovak, occasionally an English word crept into his speech and apologized for having too much an American accent. But it’s a compelling story. His father Milan played in the 1993/94 season with Spišská Nova Ves in the first year of the extra-Slovak league. But when the club owed him some payments and he, as a newly married man, ran into financial difficulties, he decided to end his hockey career and move to the United States with his wife. Here their daughter Diane and son Kevin were born, who, as a “father”, started playing hockey.
“We forgot about our friends, we didn’t go to parties. We devoted all our time to the children to prepare them for life as they should,” Milan Labanc told The Mercury News a few years ago.
Who was the best hockey player who never played in the NHL? We are discussing in Příklepvideo: Sport.cz
The son had talent, but also diligence. The OHL coaches described how he was the only one to increase after training, he fired three to four hundred more shots than the others. For this he listened to the advice of his father, who, for example, showed him when to increase training and when, on the contrary, to let him rest. His mother, Anika, was an assistant coach during her school years.
“My parents made sacrifices for me. They gave up life in Slovakia to ensure a better future for me and my sister in the United States. That attitude motivated me and forced me to work hard so that my parents’ efforts would not go through. And there is no better way to repay their trust than to make it into the NHL, ”he explains.
Just a few years ago, the Slovak Hockey Association was around for the player to represent the country of his ancestors. He felt honored and said that his parents and other relatives would be delighted, especially his paternal grandmother who lives in Slovakia and who likes to stay up late or better wake up early because of her grandson (also mother’s relatives settled in America). Finally, Labanca represented the United States at the World Championships in 2021 and won bronze in Latvia.
In the NHL there are no brawlers, hockey is moving towards floorball. Passage from Příklepvideo: Sport.cz
He is an American, but he has not forgotten his roots, which are also recognized by his Sharks teammates – Hertl and Šimek. With them he speaks Slovak-Czech, which is sometimes punctuated by English words. And he promises: “We have a house in Jakubany, but I have a lot of work in the summer to prepare for the season and I spend the summer in San Jose. I am doing my best to prepare for the next season, everyone is important. For me it is difficult to arrive in Slovakia. But one day I’ll fly there, see my family and eat some dumplings. “
