Will Craig Ramsay Remain on the Schedule of the Slovak Hockey Representation? – Pros and Cons

Falling to an imaginary bottom helped Miroslav Šatan return to Slovakia. He then took on the role of general manager and brought in an expert to guide him as an assistant in Boston. Craig Ramsay turned our hockey upside down. With gradual steps, he returned the national team’s face and taught the players to believe in themselves more. The historic Olympic bronze medal was the pinnacle of his work.

At the World Cup, he helped the team to return to the playoffs. However, the Slovaks did not reach the coveted quarterfinals for the third time in a row in Riga. In addition, the renowned coach celebrated his 72nd birthday in March. It is therefore questionable whether he will continue on the substitute team of the national team, where he revived his coaching career. In the NHL, he was more than just a consultant.

We analyzed the pluses and minuses of his possible further work with the most watched national team in our country.

WILL CRAIG RAMSAY REMAIN ON THE SCHEDULE OF THE SLOVAK HOCKEY REPRESENTATION?

PROS

HOCKEY TEACHER

„When I watched the videos from the World Cup in Cologne, the players were just circling in places,” sighed Craig Ramsay after his arrival in Slovakia in the summer of 2017. In a year, he completely redesigned the team’s identity. He made an offensive team with an aggressive style that charmed the experts out of a tomboy who didn’t know whether to play more offensively or defensively. He taught Slovak hockey players to believe in themselves against every opponent. Gradually, excellent matches and great results came.

It is enough to mention the victories over Russia at the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, or at the “bubble” World Championships in Riga in 2021, or the home win at the 2019 World Championship in Košice over the USA and the wild memorable match against Canada, which our players only lost in 5:6 in the last seconds. He taught the Slovaks to play again and to challenge even the favorites from the strongest hockey countries in the world.

THE PLAYERS REPRESENT THE RADI UNDER HIM

Until this year, there weren’t many excuses for the team. Ramsay was able to put together strong squads and knew how to pull experienced leaders in them, such as Marek Hrivík, Petr Cehlárik, Petr Čerešňák, Tomáš Tatar, Martin Marinčin, Michal Čajkovský and, at the end of his career, the aging Ladislav Nagy. The players always liked to represent under him. The offensive, aggressive style of skating is challenging, but hockey players mostly enjoy it.

KNOWS HOW TO WORK WITH YOUNG PEOPLE

Ramsay was not afraid to take seventeen-year-old Juraj Slafkovský, Šimon Nemec and Adam Sýkora, or eighteen-year-old Martin Fehéváry and Samuel Kňazek to the World Championships. He believed in them, supported them, and they repaid him with their performances. Overall, Slovakia had mostly younger selections, in which there were always few thirty-year-olds.

He didn’t only help the youngsters to the draft, but he is also responsible for the fact that the slightly older Miloš Kelemen and Pavol Regenda moved up to the NHL. Róbert Lantoši also fought for it. Maybe even Patrik Koch, who was the team’s leader in defense now in Riga, can do it. It’s a shame that Dalibor Dvorský didn’t get a chance in preparation before these WCs. A Canadian expert could help him.

CONS

EACH

We can talk that age is just a number and it’s all about how a person feels. However, Craig Ramsay is already 72 years old and the health problems that come with such years. Even last year in Helsinki, or now in Riga, he seemed tired in places. Sometimes one thinks that the overseas coach needs to be squeezed and wouldn’t it be better to let him enjoy golf and the heat in Florida. At a similar age, almost no coach leads teams at the top level.

THE TEAM DID NOT WORK PERFECTLY

Slovak hockey players started the world championship in Riga very promisingly. The performances against the Czechs and the Canadians were probably their best in the group, except for a number of unnecessary fouls. If our team scored or won in both duels, it would not be a surprise in the game shown. Even the experts raved about it, even the Czech expert Milan Antoš praised it highly in our interview. But then the performances went down.

Against the Swiss, the Slovaks were kept in the duel by dedication and the great Samuel Hlavaj. With the Kazakhs, the team exploded in the second period and chased a turn in the duel in vain. It was a disaster with Slovenia in the third period, but our team came back with a good game against the tired Norwegians. However, the players often made a lot of mistakes, they didn’t shoot enough and they lacked a better offensive, which was also reflected in weak power-ups. This also applies to the head coach and his assistants.

COACHING DURING MATCHES

Since Ramsay is more of a hockey teacher who sets the system and has worked mainly as an assistant in his career, he is not so good at reacting to the development of the game during matches. He does not like to intervene in formations, does not speak to changes in the power forward, or to reduce the game to fewer attacks in key moments, or to the rotation of only six defenders. Perhaps an assistant with more significant powers could help him in this.

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