Slovak National Hockey Team Nomination for the 2023 World Championships: Craig Ramsay’s Thoughts and Plans

His nomination for the championship in Finland and Latvia includes twenty-five names, among which we find eight debutants at the World Championships. The experienced 72-year-old coach believes that he had a lucky hand in making the decision and that his team will eliminate all the mistakes that appeared in the preparatory meetings before the start of the championship.

We offered Gajdoš and Okuliar an opportunity, which they seized, says Slovak coach CRAIG RAMSAY

In which game activities do we need to improve before the first duel against the Czech Republic?

“We have to be better at playing without the puck and going back. We had a lot of chances and shots on goal in the last few matches, but we couldn’t score a goal. That’s always annoying. We have to keep finding a way to score. We also have to have fewer suspended players, because when we defend against weakening, key hockey players have to stay on the substitutes and do not get into the game.

It is important that we use all players and as evenly as possible. Of course, it will be important that we stay healthy and have all the boys from the nomination at our disposal, so that we can build the best possible lineup for each match.”

You took 25 hockey players to the championship. Are some of the names surprising to you?

“Of course, we always wish that we had a lucky hand when making decisions and found the right people in the team to give them a chance. I didn’t know much about Gajdoš or Okuliar, but it’s great that we gave them a chance and discovered other young people. We offered them an opportunity, which they took. It will be a great experience for them at the championship, on which they can build their future.”

Statistically, it currently works out that our offensive is better than defensive. Do you see it the same way?

“I think our defense was overwhelmed at times. We often played with seven backs and in several games we played a lot of minutes in a weakened state. It was too much for the defenders. It’s a problem I’ve mentioned before, exclusions cost us a lot of energy unnecessarily. We need to have everyone in the game, not just special formations. In preparation, we also tried different defensive pairings and how they function on the ice. That’s also why we conceded more goals.”

You take eight newcomers with you to the championship. There is a special situation with goalkeepers who have not played a single match at such an event and only caught in the Slovak extra league. Will you have any special interviews with the debutants before the start of the World Cup?

“It is interesting for all of us to be at the World Championship. Each year, building a team is a difficult process. When building the squad, we have to take into account that not all the players we want in the squad can be in it. Every year, some apologize to you due to injuries, workload and other reasons, or some of them are still playing for their clubs. We therefore have to give a chance to new players, whom we test in preparation. Some of them we will take, others we will send away. It’s great that we still have new faces in the team.”

It is your seventh nomination for the top events, if we include the World Championships and the Winter Olympics. How satisfied are you with it compared to the previous ones?

“Each of them was something different, always one of the players could come and another could not. For example, at the first Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, we had more older and more experienced players, players from the NHL did not come. Each of the teams is too different for me to compare them. It’s always about how we play together, how we work as a team and how much enthusiasm we all put into it.”

Do you have a special talisman to take with you to the championship?

“No, I don’t take anything like that with me, nor do I have anything similar. Every day I try to do everything to the best of my ability, I don’t use any tricks.”