Jaškin: "I want to go to Canada"

Less than an hour after being drafted by the Moncton Wildcats in the Canadian Hockey League's Import Draft, hokej.cz's Vaclav Jachim is reporting that Slavia Praha's Dmitrij Jaškin has decided to play there next year.

"I've arranged with Slavia to leave. I want to go to Canada," the report says. "I've thought a lot about it. If I play in the CHL, I have a chance to get from there to the NHL. And that's my goal."

His attitude was different a year ago.

"Playing in the Czech professional league is better," is what the hulking winger told me last April at the U18 World Championship in Dresden, Germany. 

And why not? A year ago, Jaškin was coming off an impressive rookie season in the Czech Extraliga, one which led to his second-round selection by the St. Louis Blues in the NHL Entry Draft. At that time, Jaškin seemingly had no interest in jumping to the CHL as he prepared for his sophomore pro season.

However, the disastrous season to follow has apparently changed his mind. After registering only 1 goal and 1 assist in 30 Extraliga games, the snake-bitten 18-year-old was sent back to junior. He seemingly got some of his confidence back at lower levels, registering 17 points in 10 Junior Extraliga games, which led to a loan to Beroun of the First League, where he tallied 8 points in 10 games. Upon returning to Slavia in the play-out round, he recorded a more respectable 4 points in seven games.

A player built in the power-forward mold, Jaškin seems to thrive when the game gets physical, and therefore it was speculated that a move to the more physical CHL might be a good move for him, and he apparently agrees. The only sticking point could have been if Slavia had refused to let him go. However, despite the fact that coach and general manager Vladimír Růžička does not seem to agree with Jaškin's decision, he's not going to stand in his way.

"We've had repeated talks with his agent, Aleš Volek, and I've spoken a lot with Dima and his father (former pro Russian defenceman Alexei Yashkin)," said the man known as "Rosy" in his NHL career. "At first, Lexa Yashkin said it would be better if the boy stayed, but later, that he should leave. Of course, it brings me no joy, but we decided to work with the family and not stand in the way of what he wants."

"I knew that Vladimír Růzička would not be happy with this," said Jaškin, "but I hope this change will get me to where I want to be."

All told, 20 Czechs were taken in Wednesday's draft, although one of them, Planá-born Dominik Kohun, now lives in Germany, whom he represents internationally. Additionally, two other players, Slovak Martin Reway and Slovene Jurij Repe, were drafted from Czech clubs.

  4. Martin Reway (SVK)   LW Sparta          Gatineau

 10. Jan Košťálek         D  Sparta          Rimouski

 14. Patrik Polívka       G  Plzeň           Victoria
 22. Dmitrij Jaškin       RW Slavia          Moncton
 23. Jan Bittner          D  Litvínov        Red Deer
 27. Dominik Kubalík      LW Plzeň           Belleville
 28. Patrik Zdráhal       LW Vítkovice       Acadie-Bathurst
 29. Petr Veselý          LW PZ Kladno       Kootenay

 34. Jurij Repe (SLO)     D  Třinec          Saint John
 35. Richard Nejezchleb   RW Slavia          Brandon

 39. Dominik Kohun        LW Heilbronn (GER) Sudbury
 41. Mikuláš Rimmel       RW Vítkovice       Spokane
 44. Aleš Kilnar          LW Vítkovice       Vancouver
 47. Marek Langhamer      G  Pardubice       Medicine Hat
 51. Ladislav Zikmund     RW K. Vary         Ottawa
 52. Jakub Ižacký         LW Třinec          Saint John
 56. Ondřej Kopta         LW Texas (NAHL)    Niagara
 59. Jakub Procházka      LW Litvínov        Kootenay
 64. Adam Zbořil          LW Kometa          Acadie-Bathurst
 71. Eustathio Soumelidis C  Vaasa (FIN)     Everett 

 96. David Němeček        D  Plzeň           Sarnia
116. David Sysala         C  Vítkovice       Niagara

7 Czech teams will compete for European Trophy

The European hockey season just ended on Sunday, but on Friday it was announced that the 2011-12 season would officially begin on August 11 with the European Trophy.

Sparta in action against Djurgårdens IF in 2010 European Trophy
competition. They will renew acquaintances in Stockholm on
August 13, 2011. Photo: bart70.rajce.idnes.cz.

What began as the Nordic Trophy in 2006 as a pre-season tournament between Swedish and Finnish clubs, the event was expanded in 2010 to include teams in other European leagues. Last season, Sparta Praha was the lone Czech team to compete in the 18-team tournament which was won by Eisbären Berlin. This year, the tournament has been expanded to 24 teams, including seven Czech clubs. In addition to Finland and Sweden, there will also be clubs competing from Austria, Germany, and Slovakia. Last year, there were also clubs from Norway and Switzerland involved.

The 24 teams have been divided into four divisions of six, with Czech teams in three of the four groups. Sparta and Slavia Praha will play in the North Division, Bílí Tygři Liberec, Eaton Pardubice, and Kometa Brno in the South, and Mountfield České Budějovice and Plzeň 1929 will compete in the East.

Having Sparta and Slavia in the same group is convenient for teams travelling from other countries, who can play both teams on back-to-back nights. It also means that Prague fans will be treated to an August edition of their derby. The two teams will square off at Zimní stadion Eden in Prague's Vršovice district on August 20. Eden is where Slavia played its home games before O2 Arena opened in 2004. The club's training facilities and youth teams are still based there.

"When we've played summer pre-season games in the past, such as the Tipsport Cup, they attracted about 800 spectators. I think that a foreign team will attract even more," said Slavia general manager and coach, Vladimír Růžička, about what kind of crowds might be expected at Eden, which can accommodate around 3,000 spectators. "I'm hopeful that the games will be of good quality, even when they're played before the season."

Teams generally look at the tournament as a good way to get players into competitive games before the start of their domestic leagues. "In past summers, we had the Tipsport Cup, which won't take place this year," Kometa Brno coach Zdeněk Venera told hokej.cz's Jan Vacek. "We welcome the chance to play in this tournament to get a good look at our team in pre-season games against strong teams." 

Each team will play the other five teams in its group, plus one additional game against a team from each of the other three groups for a total of eight. The top two finishers in each group will advance to the playoff round, which will be a three-round, single-knockout event played in Salzburg and Vienna, Austria, December 16 to 18.

Below is the schedule of games involving Czech teams. Home teams are listed first. For a complete tournament schedule, visit:

http://www.europeantrophy.com/schedule.php

Thursday, August 11 HC Sparta Praha - HV71 Jönköping (Sweden) Adler Mannheim (Germany) - HC Bílí Tygři Liberec HC Eaton Pardubice - Linköpings HC (Sweden) Djurgårdens IF Stockholm (Sweden) - HC Slavia Praha   Saturday, August 13 HC Kometa Brno - Linköpings HC (Sweden) HC Eaton Pardubice - HV71 Jönköping Luleå HF (Sweden) - HC Slavia Praha HC Mountfield Č. Budějovice - HC Plzeň 1929 Djurgårdens IF Stockholm - HC Sparta Praha Sunday, August 14 HC Kometa Brno - HV71 Jönköping Luleå HF - HC Sparta Praha TPS Turku (Finland) - HC Slavia Praha Thursday, August 18 Adler Mannheim - HC Kometa Brno HC Bílí Tygři Liberec - HC Eaton Pardubice Oulun Kärpät (Finland) - HC Plzeň 1929 KalPa Kuopio (Finland) - HC Mountfield   Saturday, August 20 HC Bílí Tygři Liberec - HC Kometa Brno Adler Mannheim - HC Eaton Pardubice HC Slavia Praha - HC Sparta Praha Oulun Kärpät - HC Mountfield KalPa Kuopio - HC Plzeň 1929 Sunday, August 21 EC Red Bull Salzburg - HC Kometa Brno Tappara Tampere (Finland) - HC Eaton Pardubice Thursday, August 25 HV71 Jönköping - HC Bílí Tygři Liberec HC Slavia Praha - Jokerit Helsinki (Finland) HC Sparta Praha - Helsinki IFK (Finland) HC Plzeň 1929 - Vienna Capitals (Austria) HC Mountfield Č. Budějovice - HC Slovan Bratislava (Slovakia) Saturday, August 27 Linköpings HC - HC Bílí Tygři Liberec HC Eaton Pardubice - HC Kometa Brno HC Sparta Praha - Jokerit Helsinki HC Slavia Praha - Helsinki IFK HC Mountfield Č. Budějovice - Vienna Capitals HC Plzeň 1929 - HC Slovan Bratislava Sunday, August 28 HC Plzeň 1929 - Tappara Tampere HC Kometa Brno - Jokerit Helsinki HC Eaton Pardubice - Helsinki IFK Oulun Kärpät - HC Bílí Tygři Liberec Thursday, September 1 EC Red Bull Salzburg (Austria) - HC Mountfield Č. Budějovice Saturday, September 3 HC Sparta Praha - Eisbären Berlin (Germany) HC Bílí Tygři Liberec - Luleå HF HC Kometa Brno - HC Mountfield Č. Budějovice HC Slavia Praha - HC Plzeň 1929 Sunday, September 4 HC Bílí Tygři Liberec - Eisbären Berlin Adler Mannheim - HC Slavia Praha HC Plzeň 1929 - HC Eaton Pardubice HC Mountfield Č. Budějovice - HC Sparta Praha

Vlad Růžička offered KHL coaching position

After losing in the quarterfinal round of the KHL playoffs this year, hokej.cz's Václav Jáchim is reporting that Avangard Omsk is looking for a new coach, and they have offered the position to current Slavia Praha coach and general manager Vladimír Růžička. "It's true, I got an offer on Tuesday," he is quoted as saying. 

The report is interesting, since the KHL club has not officially relieved current coach Raimo Summanen of his duties. However, it has been reported that Summanen had butted heads with several players on the team, including Jaromír Jágr. After the disappointing playoff loss, club general manager Anatoli Bardin said that he had not made a decision regarding the future of the team's coaching situation, but he would quickly.

Could Vladimír Růžička (left) and Jaromír Jágr be re-united in
Omsk? Photo: Petr Horník, Právo.

The attempt to hire Růžička, who was known as "Rosy" during his NHL playing days, may be a ploy to keep Jágr in the Siberian city. Jágr's contract with Omsk is now finished, and it has been widely speculated that he is going elsewhere, or possibly even retiring. His clashes with Summanen only heightened this speculation. One of the most interesting scenarios, which was mentioned by his father, Jaromír Jágr Sr., has the younger Jágr returning to play for hometown Vagnerplast Kladno, while simultaneously taking over the duties of club president from his father. Růžička coached Jágr at the 2005 World Championships, and they were teammates in the 1998 Winter Olympics. Both tournaments were won by the Czechs.

Though it seems clear that the offer has been made to Růžička, and he is considering it, he still has some reservations about leaving Slavia."You know me, leaving Slavia is difficult to imagine. It's hard, very hard. Years of building something here, something to try. I'm involved with the whole sports program, the youth, the first team. Everything."

Though he played in the Litvínov system growing up and also played one year for Dukla Trenčin before going to the NHL, he returned to the Czech Republic in 1994 and played six years with Slavia before taking over as coach in 2000. Under his command, Slavia has won national championships in 2003 and 2008. 

Růžička played five seasons in the NHL for the Edmonton Oilers, Boston Bruins and Ottawa Senators. He was on the roster during Edmonton's 1990 Stanley Cup victory, but he didn't play in enough games to qualify for his name on the Cup.

Třinec beats Slavia, advances to final

And then there were two.

Oceláři Třinec, who trailed their semifinal series with Slavia Praha 3-1, came back with three straight wins to take the series. This sets up an all-Silesia final series between the aforementioned Třinec and Vítkovice Steel, which begins Monday.

Byan McGregor (far left) and Lukáš Zíb are among the Třinec
players congratulating Slavia on a long, hard-fought semifinal
series. Photo: Marian Ježowicz, hcocelari.cz.

On Friday night, Třinec hosted Slavia in game 7 of the semifinal and got off to a quick start, when David Květon scored after only 47 seconds of play. That was the only goal of the opening period, but Třinec busted it open with three goals in a 3:13 span midway through the second that chased goaltender Miroslav Kopřiva from the game. After being given much of the credit for Slavia's 3-1 lead early in the series, Kopřiva was pulled from two of the last three games, and was criticized for allowing two bad goals in game 6. Two of  Třinec's goals in that span were power-play markers by defenceman Lukáš Zíb, the second coming after Slavia rookie Dmitrij Jaškin was assessed a major and game misconduct for checking from behind.

Slavia scored twice in the third, but that wasn't enough to get them back into the game, and it finished 5-2. Though they were heavy underdogs going into the series, the loss is a bitter pill to swallow after holding a 3-1 lead in games, and also leading by a score of 3-1 in game 6 on home ice. "It is a pity that we could not win the sixth game at home," said coach Vladimír Růžička after the game. "But I must admit that in the previous two home games we were very lucky. The sixth game, unfortunately, we made a lot of mistakes with promising lead."

Růžička went on to speak about his team's shortcomings on specialty teams, their lack of a game-breaker like Martin Růžička (no relation), who had an incredible 16 points in the series, and general lack of experience. "Nevertheless, I would like to thank the players for what they showed in the playoffs."

While Martin Růžička was the star of the series, it was Zíb's two big goals that made him the hero of the decisive game. "This series we showed great character and strength of the team," the veteran blueliner told Dnes's Martin Stebel after the game. "We have a great group. We showed great resilience when the series wasn't going well. Although we were down 1-3, I didn't feel like we were the worse team. We were really the better squad, but unfortunately we weren't converting on our chances. By no means did we pack it in. The series also showed our fantastic fans who have helped us much."

Třinec has two days off without travel before the final starts Monday. They will host a Vítkovice club that will have had six days of rest. After games Monday and Tuesday in Třinec, the series moves 50 kilometres northwest to Ostrava for the third and fourth games next Friday and Saturday. A possible seventh game would go on April 16.

Slavia to celebrate 110th anniversary Tuesday

HC Slavia Praha, circa 1901. Photo: hc-slavia.cz.

Founded in 1901, HC Slavia Praha is celebrating its 110th anniversary in 2011, and as part of the celebrations have announced that they will don retro sweaters from the start of the 20th century at Tuesday's home game against HC Plzeň 1929. For their part, Plzeň will wear sweaters from the 1950s.

The festivities will include a pre-game ceremonial face-off performed by Czech hockey legend Augustin Bubník. Bubník was a member of Czechoslovakia's 1948 Olympic silver medal-winning team and their 1949 World Championship team. After spending five years in jail for an alleged plot to defect, he became the first Czech to coach abroad, leading Finland internationally from 1966 to 1969 and the Netherlands in 1980 and 1981.

"One hundred and ten years as a club, it's a wonderful thing, so we decided to take this opportunity to hold this event," said Slavia coach and general manager Vladimír Růžička on the club's website. "Who else would we choose to play other than the oldest club in the league (Plzeň)? I'm very glad that this match-up can take place. We originally wanted to play it on January 6, when it was exactly one hundred and ten years after the first match, but we had to thoroughly discuss with sponsors. Now, additionally, we play an attractive opponent."

Plzeň's retro sweaters and socks. Photo: hcplzen.cz.

"Many of our biggest fans still wear retro jerseys to cheer us on at home and away games," said Plzeň's captain and general manager, Martin Straka. "They know the tradition well. After all, these jerseys are an important piece of our successful history and present. And they are beautiful." 

After the game, the sweaters will be autographed by the players and then auctioned off, with the proceeds going to charity.  


Beyond the festivities, the game is also a big one. With only six games to play, each team is battling for playoff positions. Slavia currently sits in seventh place with 71 points, 2 back of Mountfield České Budějovice and 3 behind Eaton Pardubice. They are aiming at a birth in the top six, which would mean a bye past the first round into the quarter-finals.


Just behind Slavia in the standings is a group of four teams that are battling for the final three playoff spots. They are Energie Karlovy Vary with 66 and a then a three-way tie between Plzeň, Kometa Brno and Benzina Litvínov with 65 each. 

Jaškin out, Frk added to preliminary WJC roster

It's a tale of two 17 year olds on the Czech Republic's initial 41-man roster for the World Junior Championships. The player who is perhaps their top domestic hopeful is out, while a rising star currently playing in Canada is in.

A knee injury will cause Dmitrij Jaškin to miss the World Junior
Championships. Photo: Pavel Vrtiška, hc-slavia.cz.

Dmitrij Jaškin, who has 8 points in 23 games for HC Slavia Praha this season, injured his knee on Sunday when he was hit by Jindřich Kotrla of HC Vagnerplast Kladno in Kladno's 3-1 victory.

Though no penalty was called on the play by the on-ice officials, the APK has handed Kotrla a three-game suspension for the knee-on-knee hit.

At the club's website, www.hc-slavia.cz, coach Vladimír Růžička speculated that Jaškin would likely be out five or six weeks and return to the lineup in early January, at best. This would rule out participation in the WJC.

Jaškin is currently the highest scorer among junior-aged players in the Extraliga, so his loss hurts. The 17-year-old made a strong case for his inclusion on the World Junior team a couple of weeks ago in a U20 tournament in České Budějovice and Karlovy Vary. There he was one of the offensive stars of the Czech team, recording a hat-trick against Russia in the tournament opener. 2011 will be the first year that he will be eligible for the NHL Entry Draft.

Jaškin's spot on the preliminary 41-man roster has been replaced by Martin Frk, who plays for the Halifax Mooseheads of the QMJHL. The 17-year-old right winger has 10 goals and 19 assists in 26 games for the Mooseheads this season. His 29 points leads his team and also all rookies in the league. As his October 5 birthday is after the cut-off, he won't be eligible for the Draft until 2012, and the season he's having is starting to make his name mentioned among that year's top prospects.

As for Slavia, they have suffered a rash of injuries as of late, and the loss of Jaškin only compounds the problems. They took to the ice without Jaškin on Wednesday night and, after spotting HC Oceláři Třínec a 3-1 lead, came back to win in a shoot-out. The comeback spoiled a three-goal effort from Třínec's Ladislav Kohn.