Out with the old, in with the new: Czech teams to play for Masaryk Cup

Written for Eurohockey.com, with information from Václav Jáchim of Hokej.cz.

The world of hockey has the Stanley Cup, the Gagarin Cup, and now the Masaryk Cup.

The new championship trophy of the Czech Extraliga was unveiled to the media on Wednesday at the Clarion Hotel in Prague. Upon first glance, it was apparent that both the name and the appearance of the trophy were an enormous step up from it's predecessor.

Radek Bonk of Třinec awkwardly lifts the old, nameless trophy in
2011. Photo: hcocelari.cz. 

To begin with, the old trophy didn't really have a name. It was just casually referred to as "pohár mistrů" (champions' cup), and its appearance was equally as generic. Looking like something in the display window of a trophy shop, except much larger, it was awkward to hoist and prone to disaster. The championship teams of Pardubice damaged it in both 2005 and 2010 -- the first time it needed to be replaced altogether, while the club had to pay to have the second one repaired.

"It might sound funny now, but at the time it was not funny at all," APK president Tomáš Král said about the cup's problems. But while stories of early misadventures are now part of the lore of the Stanley Cup, the sport of hockey's most recognizable piece of hardware, The Extraliga's biggest prize seemed to receive nothing but scorn and ridicule. Finally, league owners decided that their teams should compete for a symbol that commanded both reverence and respect, both in appearance and in name.

"We considered several proposals, we took into account aesthetics, dimensions and other criteria," said Král about what the finished product should look like.

The Masaryk Cup. Photo: hokej.cz.

The winning proposal was submitted by studio Artcore, and was built by Golfface, both Czech companies. It stands 73.8 cm tall and weighs approximately 15 kg. The main part is lightweight silver casing with gold plating and a stainless steel base. On the base, names of all future championship teams and players will be engraved year to year, much like the Stanley Cup.

Also like the Stanley Cup, the name has meaning to the roots of the sport in the country it represents as well. Lord Frederick Arthur Stanley of Preston was the Governor General of Canada, Queen Victoria's representative in the young dominion. The new Czech cup goes beyond that, to Czechoslovakia's first head of state.

"When searching for a name we were thinking about multiple personalities, inspired from abroad, and eventually decided on the TG Masaryk Cup."

Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk was the first president of Czechoslovakia, presiding from 1918 to 1935 and is one of the most respected figures in the nation's history. He is also connected to some significant Czech hockey firsts as well, donating the first domestic championship trophy in 1924 and presenting the winning team to the gold medalists at the 1933 World Championships in Prague. Lord Stanley's sons were big hockey fans and so were Masaryk's -- his son Herbert even played for HC Slavia Praha.

The new trophy will tour around the country during the 2013-14 season, appearing at a game in every Extraliga arena starting with the first game of the season on Thursday, when defending champion Plzeň hosts Vítkovice. Plzeň, of course, was the last winner of the old trophy, which will now be retired to the Czech Hockey Hall of Fame, which is scheduled to open in time for the 2015 World Championships.

"I think we've done it," Král happily declared. "I believe that the Masaryk Cup will be a worthy prize for a champion, and that it will give them their proper due."

Nedvěd and Mrázek highlight Czech roster for Worlds

This past weekend, the Czech national team won the Euro Hockey Tour, a prospect that looked unlikely earlier in the year. However, by taking 7 of a possible 9 points, they overtook Sweden and Russia, whom they beat on Thursday and Sunday, respectively, to win their first title in the 14-year history of the unofficial European championship.

At age 40, Petr Nedvěd will make his World Championship
debut. Photo: Hakan Nordstom, AP.

The following day, they released a list of 25 names that will accompany the team to Stockholm, where they will begin play at the World Championship on Friday against Denmark. As always, the World Championship roster is a work in progress, as players can be added as they become available following their teams' elimination from the Stanley Cup playoffs, and a maximum of 20 skaters and three goaltenders are allowed to dress in the tournament.

As things currently stand, the Czech roster is light on NHLers, relying heavily on players from European leagues, particularly the Czech Extraliga and KHL, unsurprisingly, but it also includes defencemen Tomáš Mojžíš and Zdeněk Kutlák, who play in Finland and Switzerland, respectively.

Up front, two additions that did not play this past weekend include dispatched NHLers David Krejčí and Milan Michálek. Michálek played on last year's squad, while Krejčí was a member of the Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins. 

"We have the idea to put them both together," said coach Alois Hadamczik about the new additions. "With whom, it remains to be seen. I have to say that our plans have been slightly affected by the quality performance against Russia."

Two of the most eye-catching names on the roster are the oldest and youngest players, Petr Nedvěd and Petr Mrázek, neither of whom were considered likely candidates to be in this position at the start of the season. Until this season, neither was even eligible to represent the Czech Republic internationally.

That being said, Nedvěd's inclusion on the roster was anything but a surprise when it was finally announced. The 40-year-old led the Czech Extraliga in scoring this past season and was named league MVP. In November, he represented the Czech Republic for the first time since 1996 and, in 12 international games this season, recorded 8 points. His lengthy absence from the Czech national team roster is due to the fact that he represented Canada, the country he defected to as a teenager, at the 1994 Winter Olympics. After that, the dual citizen had to play three consecutive seasons in the country of his birth to be re-eligible to play for them in an IIHF championship, which became the case after last season. At 40 years and five months, Nedvěd becomes the oldest player to participate in his first IIHF World Championship.

The outstanding goalie of the WJC, Petr Mrázek is now on the
A-team roster. Photo: Larry Wong, Edmonton Journal.

The youngest player on the roster has never played internationally for any other country, but until last December, he couldn't play for the Czechs. Goaltender Petr Mrázek left his Vítkovice club in 2009, at the age of 17, to join the Ottawa 67's of the Ontario Hockey League. Despite solidly defending the goal of the club in the Canadian junior circuit, his angry Vítkovice squad blocked his attempts to play internationally for his homeland, insisting his transfer was incomplete and demanding compensation. 

After two years had passed, the Czech Ice Hockey Association intervened in the dispute, helping to negotiate a settlement under which Mrázek would be allowed to represent the Czech Republic at the most recent World Junior Championships. The goalie made the most of the opportunity, backstopping the Czech Republic to a quarterfinal birth for the first time in four years and being named the tournament's outstanding goalkeeper.

Mrázek's spot on the roster comes at the expense of Tomáš Pöpperle, who had a remarkable season in goal for Sparta Praha, but was clearly the third man on the goaltending totem pole, and his future on this year's team seemed certain after he failed to appear in the final leg of the Euro Hockey Tour.

Even Mrázek's appearance in any games seems unlikely, as the top two spots seem to be sewn up by Jakub Štěpánek and Jakub Kovář. In all probability, both will see action. However, it's unclear at this point who will get the starting assignment when the games become crucial.

As for future additions, a number of talented Czechs still remain in the second round of the NHL playoffs, including Jaromír Jágr, Pavel Kubina, Jakub Voráček, Tomáš Fleischmann, Patrik Eliáš, Petr Sýkora, Marek Židkický, Martin Hanzál, Rostislav Klesla, Roman Polák, Vladimír Sobotka and Roman Hamrlík. Any whose teams are eliminated could become candidates to join the team.

Below is the current roster of the Czech national team and its Pool B schedule at the 2012 IIHF World Championship in Helsinki and Stockholm.


Goaltenders:

Jakub Štěpánek (St. Petersburg, KHL), Jakub Kovář (České Budějovice), Petr Mrázek (Ottawa, OHL).

Defencemen:

Petr Čáslava (CSKA Moscow, KHL), Ondřej Němec (Cherepovets, KHL), Miroslav Blaťák, Jakub Nakládal (both Ufa, KHL), Jakub Kindl (Detroit, NHL), Lukáš Krajíček (Minsk, KHL), Tomáš Mojžíš (Turku, Finland), Zdeněk Kutlák (Ambri-Piotta, Switzerland).

Forwards:

Tomáš Plekanec (Montréal, NHL), David Krejčí (Boston, NHL), Milan Michálek (Ottawa, NHL), Aleš Hemský (Edmonton, NHL), Michael Frolík (Chicago, NHL), Tomáš Vincour (Dallas, NHL), Lukáš Kašpar, Jiří Novotný (both Astana, KHL), Petr Průcha (St. Petersburg, KHL), Jakub Petružálek (Khabarovsk, KHL), Petr Nedvěd (Bílí Tygři Liberec), Petr Koukal (Pardubice), Michal Vondrka (Slavia Praha), Jan Kovář (Plzeň 1929), Petr Tenkrát (Sparta Praha).

Coaches: Alois Hadamczik and Josef Paleček

Czech Republic "Group B" schedule at the IIHF World Championships. All games will be played in Stockholm:

Friday, May 4:
16:15  Czech Republic - Denmark

Saturday, May 5:

20:15  Czech Republic - Sweden

Monday, May 7:

16:15  Czech Republic - Norway

Thursday, May 10:

20:15  Czech Republic - Latvia

Friday, May 11:

16:15  Czech Republic - Italy

Sunday, May 13:

16:15  Czech Republic - Russia

Tuesday, May 15:

16:15  Czech Republic - Germany

Mrázek's confidence infects Czechs

Petr Mrázek is excited to be at this year's WJC. Photo: Larry Wong,
Edmonton Journal, sports.nationalpost.com.

Tomáš Král looks like a genius right now.

After watching the last two World Junior tournaments, where the Czech Republic got mediocre-at-best goaltending while they had a world-class goalie on the sidelines, the president of the Czech Ice Hockey Association saw that he had to intervene. And so he helped negotiate a settlement with HC Vítkovice, the club that held the playing rights to Petr Mrázek, which would release the Detroit Red Wings draft pick and make him available for the 2012 championships.

Helping to make Mrázek available might have actually denied Král's son, Tomáš Král Jr., the opportunity to play in the tournament; the younger Král is currently the third-string goalie. But obviously Král's duties as association president overrided nepotism.

"This is an extremely helpful step in the interest of representing the Czech Republic," he said back in late November at the announcement that Mrázek would be available. "An extremely high level of competition awaits us in Canada, and we need a goalkeeper of the quality of Petr Mrázek." How right he was on both counts.

For those that missed it, Mrázek was nothing short of incredible on Friday in Edmonton, stopping 52 of 54 shots in a 5-2 victory over the United States, a win that vaulted the Czechs into the quarterfinals and, incredibly, dropped the Americans into the relegation round. About the only thing more he could have done for his team was score a goal, and in the 59th minute, he almost did that too. 

"I tried it last year too, in Ottawa," he said to hokej.cz of his attempt. "I saw the puck heading toward the net, then it skipped and went a bit wide. But that's okay." He added: "Defeating the Americans in this game, it's an unbelievable feeling. I am very happy."

A lot of people are happy, and a lot more are surprised. The fact is, though, an upset seemed possible for a while against Canada, as well. Although they seemed overmatched in the first period, the goaltending of Mrázek held them in, particularly his penalty shot save in the dying seconds. In the second period, the Czech team was playing with more confidence, and if not for a lapse late in the period that allowed Canada to score twice and open up a three-goal lead, they could have made it a battle to the end. As Mrázek said after the Canadian game, "It's a game of inches."

As anyone who's watched the Czech team last year and this year at the World Juniors, a big difference is the confidence on the team. Although being critical of goaltending is not often done publicly by players, as it can be seen as a cop-out, the amount of confidence a team has in its own goaltending is often evident in how the team plays in front. Though goaltending was far from the team's only problem last season, they didn't seem to be confident that either Marek Mazanec or Filip Novotný would hold them in there. All of that has changed this year, and it shows. It shows in the exuberant goal celebrations, and in particularly it shows in how physical the team is playing; they're not afraid that every minor penalty will result in the puck going into their net.

"When a goalie plays like that, it becomes infectious and affects the whole team," said coach Miroslav Přerost.

Not only his play, but his enthusiasm. Mrázek has twice denied opponents on penalty shots, which were followed by fist-pumping theatrics. In the last half of the third period, when the Czechs broke a 2-2 tie with three straight goals, the celebrations around the USA goal were only part of the story; Mrázek couldn't control his excitement in front of his goal either. He didn't even try.

“He’s showman. He’s a real funny guy," defenceman Daniel Krejčí told Postmedia News. "He’s awesome. When you have him in back, you’re feeling great. You can’t lose with him."

How can this team not be confident heading into its final group game against Finland on Saturday? It's a big game, too. Although both teams will play in quarterfinal games in Calgary on Monday, the winner will get second place, which will earn them a game against Switzerland or Slovakia, rather than Russia or Sweden. "We're going right after the Finns," said defenceman David Musil. "We're going to fight for second place."

As hard as it was for Král to watch those last two tournaments, it was even more difficult for Mrázek, and now he's making the most of his opportunity. "I'm happy that I'm able to play in the World Juniors. I would like to thank the Vítkovice club and Mr. Král for allowing that to happen." 

Surely all Czech hockey fans would like to thank them as well.

Record crowd watches junior game in Brno

The Czech Junior Hockey Extraliga, usually ignored by all but the most enthusiastic fans of the sport, was front and centre in Brno on Saturday night, as a league-record 4,823 fans went through the turnstiles of Kajot Arena to watch hometown Kometa take on Sparta Praha.

The record-sized jersey is visible in the background as the national
anthem is played. Photo: Martin Kocourek, hc-kometa.cz.

Junior hockey games in the Czech Republic and throughout Europe are usually played before friends-and-family gatherings, even at the leagues' highest levels. As an example, the final game of last year's league championship series between Znojmo and Karlovy Vary was attended by 1,914, and that was considered a good crowd.

The event was organised by the Kometa club to try to get into the record book in a few different categories. In addition to the crowd, they also set the record for largest fan scarf, at 60 x 6 metres, and largest jersey, at 300 square metres.

"This game was great publicity for junior hockey," said Czech Ice Hockey Association President Tomáš Král on the Kometa website, who has long tried to increase the profile of Czech junior hockey. "It was just a wonderful atmosphere that I completely absorbed. I am convinced that every visitor at Saturday's game felt it is sure to return to see another game, which only helps junior hockey."

Raising interest in junior hockey in Brno is good news for the Czech Ice Hockey Association because that's where the IIHF World U18 Championship will be played in April. 

The fans in attendance were treated to a great effort from their team as well. Despite outshooting Sparta 49-29 on the night, it took a goal by Jan Káňa with 11:42 remaining in regulation time to break the 3-3 tie, a goal that held up as the eventual game winner. Kometa was led by two goals from Jakub Novák and a goal and an assist from Tomáš Dujsík. Sparta got two goals from Martin Procházka and two assists from Stanislav Eis. Káňa's goal gives him 28 points, which makes him the league's leading scorer.

After 22 games, Kometa Brno is second place in the Junior Extraliga standings with 50 points. They trail the leaders, Litvínov by 3 points. Sparta is currently fifth with 41 points. With a victory, they could have jumped ahead of Jihlava and Chomutov into third.

Mrázek cleared for WJC, on preliminary roster

The Czech Republic hasn't fared well in recent World Junior Championships, but this year they will have one benefit that they did not have the past two seasons, that being the presence of goaltender Petr Mrázek.

Petr Mrázek will backstop the Czechs at this year's
WJC in Alberta. Photo: ottawa67s.blogspot.com.

In 2009, Mrázek and defenceman Adam Polášek left the Czech Republic and their Vítkovice club to join junior teams in Canada. Vítkovice protested, claiming that the players were not properly transferred and they still retained their playing rights. The club used this power to block the pair from playing for the Czech national junior team at the 2010 and 2011 World Junior Championships.

Polášek is now 20 years old, but Mrázek is 19 and still has another year of tournament eligibility. This time around, the Czech Ice Hockey Association was determined to have him on the team, and negotiated a financial settlement which freed him to play.

"This is an extremely helpful step in the interest of representing the Czech Republic, for which I want to thank both the management of HC Vítkovice Steel and personally (club president) František Černík," said ČSLH President Tomáš Král, upon announcing the news. "An extremely high level of competition awaits us in Canada, and we need a goalkeeper of the quality of Petr Mrázek."

Although goaltending has not been the team's only area of concern the past two years, they failed to qualify for the quarter-finals both times. Having the starting goaltender of the Ottawa 67's and draft pick of the Detroit Red Wings on its roster will give the Czech team a much better chance at advancing.

Five others will battle for the remaining two goaltending roster spots. None of them have WJC experience, but Matěj Machovský played very well for the Czech team at last year's U18 World Champonship in Germany.

Defenceman Bohumil Jank and forwards Jakub Culek, Martin Frk, Petr Holík and Petr Straka are the only returning players from last year's squad. All five are expected to not only make the team, but be leaders. Frk, who, barely aged 17, recorded 6 points in six games at last year's tournament in Buffalo, will again be the player who gets the most attention from scouts.

Additionally, defenceman David Musil and right winger Dmitrij Jaškin were both locks to be on last year's team, but both missed due to injury. Both were taken in the second round of last year's NHL Entry Draft, by Edmonton and St. Louis, respectively.

The European-based players will assemble in Rokycany on December 16 and then rendezvous with the North American-based players in Alberta for a short training camp beginning on the 18th. They play a pair of pre-tournament exhibition games before opening their Group B schedule against Denmark on December 27. Also competing in their group is Canada, the USA and Finland. The top three teams advance to the quarter-finals, with the top team receiving a bye to the semis.

Here is the preliminary roster:

Goaltenders:

Patrik Bartošák (Red Deer, WHL), Libor Kašík (Zlín/Olomouc), Tomáš Král (Oulu, Finland), Matěj Machovský (Brampton, OHL), Petr Mrázek (Ottawa, OHL), Roman Will (Moncton, QMJHL).

Defencemen:
 
Tomáš Bartejs (Chomutov), Marek Hrbas (Kamloops, WHL), Bohumil Jank (Poprad, KHL), Daniel Krejčí (Slavia Praha), Vojtěch Mozík (Ml. Boleslav), David Musil (Vancouver, WHL), Richard Nedomlel (Swift Current, WHL), Filip Pavlík (Třinec/Ústí), Jiří Říha (Liberec/Benátky), Daniel Sobotka (Sparta Praha/Beroun), Petr Zámorský (Zlín).

Forwards:
 
Jakub Culek (Rimouski, QMJHL), Tomáš Filippi (Baie-Comeau, QMJHL), Tomáš Fořt (Zlín), Martin Frk (Halifax, QMJHL), Tomáš Hertl (Slavia Praha), Petr Holík (Zlín), Tomáš Hyka (Gatineau, QMJHL), Dmitrij Jaškin (Slavia Praha), Jan Káňa (Brno), Denis Kindl (Montréal, QMJHL), Tomáš Nosek (Pardubice), Tomáš Rousek (Č. Budějovice), Petr Plaček (Harvard Univ., ECAC), Daniel Přibyl, Tomáš Rubeš (both Sparta Praha), Lukáš Sedlák (Chicoutimi, QMJHL), Jiří Sekáč (Poprad, KHL), David Stach (Lukko Rauma, Finland), Petr Straka (Rimouski, QMJHL), Michal Švihálek (Č. Budějovice), Dominik Uher (Spokane, WHL), Michal Vachovec (K. Vary), Jaroslav Vlach (Liberec/Benátky).

Coaches: Miroslav Přerost, Jiří Kučera, Jiří Fischer.

Pre-tournament exhibition games:

Tue, Dec 20: Czech Republic-Latvia (Okotoks)
Thu, Dec 22: Czech Republic-Russia (Lethbridge)

Group B games (at Edmonton):

Tue, Dec 27: Czech Republic-Denmark (6pm MT, 02:00 CET)
Wed, Dec 28: Canada-Czech Republic (6pm MT, 02:00 CET)
Fri, Dec 30: USA-Czech Republic (1:30pm MT, 21:30 CET)
Sat, Dec 31: Czech Republic-Finland (2pm MT, 22:00 CET)