Slovak teams in Czech Extraliga?

In 1993, following the administrative breakup of Czechoslovakia, the Czechoslovak Hockey Extraliga followed suit, ending over 60 years of Czech- and Slovak-based hockey clubs playing together in the same league. For the past 19 years, clubs in the two neighbouring states have not played together in the same league, but that may change for the 2012-13 season.

Igor Liba captained Košice to two Czechoslovak titles in the
1980s. Photo: hckefans.blog.cz.

News agency ČTK is reporting that two Slovak clubs, HC Slovan Bratislava and HC Košice, are seeking to leave the Slovak Extraliga and play in the Czech Extraliga next season. Director of the Czech Association of Professional Ice Hockey Clubs (APK LH) Stanislav Šulc confirmed that negotiations are taking place. "We were visited from Slovakia," he said. "At the meeting we verbally tabled our proposal and then they sent us theirs in writing."

According to Slovan general manager Maroš Krajči, there is a greater financial upside to playing in the Czech league over Slovakia, which would result from higher attendance and more sponsors. "The market would be twice as large, which is attractive to us. The financial situation is bad for Slovak sports and we need to attract sponsors for something more. Playing in the Czech Republic with clubs from a world-championship country is attractive."

Slovan Bratislava and Košice are Slovakia's two most financially successful teams, which play in its largest and most modern arenas in the two largest cities. They co-hosted last year's IIHF World Championships together. If any teams would seem suitable to jump to a supposedly higher league, it would be them. It is no secret that Slovan has been seeking another league to play in. It was speculated that they wanted to join the Kontinental League next season, but that doesn't appear likely at this point. The Czech Extraliga would seem to be a logical alternative.

The Šťastný brothers with Slovan. sport.aktuality.sk. 

Slovan Bratislava won the Czechoslovak national championship in 1978-79, led by the Šťastný brothers, Marián, Peter and Anton. They have also won 10 Slovak titles, three during  the short-lived World War II-era First Republic and seven more since 1993. Košice won Czechoslovak titles in 1985-86 and 1987-88, the latter team included Peter Bondra, and have won five Slovak titles since 1993.

"Czech clubs are extremely interesting for us," Krajči continued. "We played together in a federal league for years, which was very successful for both sides."

The APK has called for a league-wide meeting of current Extraliga clubs to discuss the situation. One of the topics that's sure to be discussed is whether the Czech Extraliga would expand to 16 teams to allow for the entrance of the two Slovak clubs, or if some of the existing members would have to be relegated.

Start of Extraliga season pushed back to Sunday

This coming Friday was supposed to be the start of the 2011-12 season for the Czech Extraliga. However, because that day coincides with the funeral of Jan Marek, one of the players killed in last Wednesday's Yaroslavl airline tragedy, the league has now announced that Sunday will be the new starting day.

Photo: hokej.cz.

The change was hinted at on Friday, the same day the three players, Marek, Karel Rachůnek and Josef Vašiček, layed in state at Prague's Old Town Square. At that ceremony, APK President Stanislav Šulc said, "We have been informed that Jan Marek's funeral will be held on Friday. I spoke with some of the clubs on the weekend about the possibility of moving the first round of games, and then we received the same request from Jan's family."

All three players will have their funerals in their home towns on consecutive days this week. Rachůnek's will be in Zlín on Wednesday, Vašiček's in Havlíčkův Brod on Thursday, and Marek's in Jindřichův Hradec on Friday. 

After unanimous approval from the league's 14 clubs, the full slate of games Friday was postponed. The only thing to be agreed upon now is when they will be made up. "On the schedule we have some open Tuesdays," said Šulc. "It will come down to whatever works best for the two clubs involved."

League fines Boleslav 3 million crowns, Plzeň 300K

The Association of Professional Clubs (APK), which governs the Tipsport Extraliga, has levied fines against two of its member clubs for offenses relating to a recent player registration scandal.

BK Mladá Boleslav faced the stiffest penalty, CZK three million (approximately USD 160,000) for submitting erroneous reports to the league last off-season relating to club finances. There were rumours that the club may be relegated to the First League as punishment, but the league decided this was more a case of misjudgment than malice.

Vaclav Horejší, the club's director, explained, "I would not call it a mistake directly, but rather underestimating the seriousness of the situation."

Horejší also expressed surprise at how high the fine was.

Though they have not been expelled from the Extraliga yet, Boleslav may have to defend its position at the end of the season, if they are unable to climb out of the basement, against the First League champion.

As for HC Plzeň 1929, they were fined CZK 300,000 (approximately USD 16,000) for comments made by forward Tomáš Vlasák, who called APK Director Stanislav Šulc an "arrogant puppet" in the wake of the recent ruling which stripped Plzeň of 19 points in the standings.

Both clubs involved in Monday's disciplinary action, along with HC Vagnerplast Kladno, were recently punished by the league for the improper registration of players. The clubs were penalized all points in which the affected players took part. Boleslav and Plzeň have appealed that ruling, which is still pending.

Plzeň and Boleslav appeal points deductions

As expected, HC Plzeň 1929 and BK Mladá Boleslav have both submitted formal appeals of the decision to strip them of points for using players that had been improperly registered.

Plzeň was the first to file an appeal, on Thursday, with Mladá Boleslav following suit on Friday. The other penalised club, HC Vagnerplast Kladno, has said that it will not appeal. The deadline for filing is Saturday.

Two weeks ago, Stanislav Šulc, who is the Director of the Association of Professional Clubs (APK), ruled that the three clubs would lose all points they earned in games that the improperly registered players participated in. Mladá Boleslav lost 22 points, Plzeň 19, and Kladno 8. The APK is composed of the 14 member clubs of the Tipsport Extraliga, and is given authority to govern the league by the Czech Ice Hockey Association (ČSLH).

"There are many points of contention, but at this point we do not want to release the details. In fairness, the appeal board or the league director should be notified first," Tomáš Tesař, the lawyer speaking on behalf of the Plzeň club, told www.idnes.cz on Thursday.

At a press conference on Friday, Mladá Boleslav attorney Jan Tůma was more forthcoming.

"After considering all the circumstances, we have decided to appeal. Mr. Šulc has been notified," he said. While the club acknowledges the registration errors, they feel that such a strong penalty is not warranted for a clerical oversight that they did not benefit from. Furthermore, Tůma believes that Šulc does not have the authority to make such a ruling. 


"There are several reasons for the appeal. We affirm, and we have a strong case that Mr. Šulc isn't authorized to make such decisions. Such things are for the general meeting of the Association of Professional Clubs. In our opinion, APK Director Stanislav Šulc handing the case is in violation of applicable rules of the APK and the Czech Ice Hockey Association. In league history, there have been a number of cases that were similar, and in these cases the guilty clubs were never given such a high penalty."

At the time of Šulc's ruling, Martin Straka and Cyril Suk, the General Managers for the two clubs, indicated that they planned to appeal.


The case will now move into the hands of an independent appeals board.

The league rules: 3 teams lose points for illegal players

On Friday afternoon, APK Director Stanislav Šulc made a much anticipated ruling regarding the use of improperly registered players: BK Mladá Boleslav, HC Plzeň 1929, and HC Vagnerplast Kladno lose 22, 19, and 6 points in the standings, respectively. All other statistics (wins, goals, et cetera) and the point totals of other teams remain unchanged.

This means that Plzeň drops from seventh place to 12th and Mladá Boleslav from ninth to 14th and last, while Kladno actually climbs out of the basement and into 13th place, one point ahead of Boleslav. The top 10 teams qualify for the playoffs.

The saga began November 2, when news of improprieties in the registration of certain players first came out. The APK soon revealed that Boleslav's Jiří Marušák and Tomáš Divíšek, Plzeň's Petr Přikryl and Tomáš Frolo, and Kladno's Jindřich Kotrla had not been registered properly with the Czech Ice Hockey Association.

At the time, Šulc stated that he saw no possible solution other than forfeiture of the affected matches in which these players participated. Mladá Boleslav and Plzeň requested a period of 10 days to find another solution, but today's ruling should have come as no surprise to anybody.

The affected games were not ruled to be complete forfeits, in that the opposing teams do not gain any points and all statistical information pertaining to the matches remains unchanged. In explaining his ruling, Šulc reasoned, "Although it affects the culprits and punishes them, it has the least affect on the rest of the competition."

The Plzeň and Boleslav clubs have fought this process from the beginning, and indications are that they don't intend to give up now.

On his club's website, www.hcplzen.cz, team captain and General Manager Martin Straka asked fans not to overreact to this ruling and to leave it to the team's management to deal with this situation. He went on to say, "This is just a different interpretation of standards and the club is determined to defend our interpretation by all legal means."

Meanwhile, at www.bkboleslav.cz, Mladá Boleslav General Manager Cyril Suk states, "As a club, we disagree with the verdict. We think that this decision does not comply with the regulations of the hockey league. Now, we will consider further steps to proceed."

Šulc: Sanctions to be announced Friday

At Tuesday's meeting of the Association of Professional Ice Hockey Clubs (Asociace profesionálních klubů ledního hokeje, or APK LH in Czech), the fourteen member clubs gave Competition Director Stanislav Šulc a mandate to rule on the case involving improperly registered players. The ruling will be made public on Friday.

From the sound of things, it seems a certainty that BK Mladá Boleslav, HC Plzeň 1929, and HC Vagnerplast Kladno will lose the points they obtained in games where they dressed ineligible players. The only thing to be decided is how exactly the results of the games will be dealt with.

According to Šulc, there are three possibilities."Forfeits, removal of points or cancelling the results and points. The rules also allow others, but maintaining the status quo or replays are not realistic," he declared.

Forfeits would mean that results from all affected games would be thrown out and ruled 5-0 victories for the opponents of the offending teams. This option would affect the point totals for every team in the league. Removal of points would mean that affected teams would lose any points they acquired in games where they dressed ineligible players, but the opposing team's total would be unaffected, as would other statistics. Cancelling the results and points would mean the game scores would again become 5-0, but opponents would not gain points other than what they achieved on the ice.

After a week-long break in Extraliga action, two of the three teams that face sanctions took to the ice at home today.

Plzeň 1929 blew a 4-1 lead with 7:00 left against HC Slavia Praha and lost 5-4 in overtime. Petr Kadlec scored the game winner at 3:20 of the extra frame. With Plzeň's captain and General Manager Martin Straka out of the line-up following knee surgery, Radek Duda played his first Extraliga game in two years on a forward unit with John Lammers of Langley, BC and Nick Johnson of Windsor, CT. The trio was held off the scoresheet, but created a lot of traffic in the attacking zone and made life difficult for Slavia goaltender Miroslav Kopřiva in a losing cause. Duda had 17 points in 16 games with KLH Chomutov of the Czech First League.

In other action, Vagnerplast Kladno defeated Bílí Tigři Liberec 5-3 on home ice.

No games for a week, but standings could change

Sunday was the last slate of games in the Tipsport Extraliga until next Tuesday, as the league takes an eight-day break for the Karjala Cup in Finland. By the time the teams return to the ice, however, the league standings could have a different look.

Last week, Stanislav Šulc, President of the ČSLH's Competition Commission stated his intention to deduct points accrued by Mladá Boleslav, Plzeň, and Kladno in games where they dressed improperly registered players. The affected teams requested 10 days to argue their case as to why that shouldn't happen, and that time period expires on Monday, November 15.  This Monday, however, Šulc appeared unwavered from his position. "My view has not changed. What I said remains true."

As of the break, this is what the standings currently look like:

Team GP W OW OL L Pts 1 HC Oceláři Třinec 20 11 3 2 4 41 2 HC Vítkovice Steel 20 11 2 1 6 38 3 Bílí Tygři Liberec 20 10 1 4 5 36 4 HC MOUNTFIELD 20 9 3 1 7 34 5 HC Eaton Pardubice 19 9 1 4 5 33 6 HC Kometa Brno 20 10 1 1 8 33 7 HC Plzeň 1929 20 9 2 0 9 31 8 HC Energie Karlovy Vary 19 7 3 3 6 30 9 PSG Zlín 20 6 3 4 7 28 10 HC BENZINA Litvínov 20 8 1 2 9 28 11 HC Slavia Praha 20 7 2 0 11 25 12 BK Mladá Boleslav 21 6 2 3 10 25 13 HC Sparta Praha 21 5 4 2 10 25 14 HC Vagnerplast Kladno 20 4 0 1 15 13

If nothing happens to change the Commission's mind between now and when teams return to the ice on November 16, it appears that things may look this way:

Team GP W OW OL L Pts 1 HC Oceláři Třinec 20 11 3 2 4 41 2 HC Vítkovice Steel 20 11 2 1 6 38 3 Bílí Tygři Liberec 20 10 1 4 5 36 4 HC MOUNTFIELD 20 9 3 1 7 34 5 HC Eaton Pardubice 19 9 1 4 5 33 6 HC Kometa Brno 20 10 1 1 8 33 7 HC Energie Karlovy Vary 19 7 3 3 6 30 8 PSG Zlín 20 6 3 4 7 28 9 HC BENZINA Litvínov 20 8 1 2 9 28 10 HC Slavia Praha 20 7 2 0 11 25 11 HC Sparta Praha 21 5 4 2 10 25 12 13 HC Plzeň 1929 HC Vagnerplast Kladno 20 20 4 2 0 0 0 1 16 17 12  7

14	BK Mladá Boleslav	21	0	1		1	19		3

A tough week for Plzeň

Last season, with the help of a few imports from North America, HC Plzeň 1929 finished first place in the Tipsport Extraliga before bowing out in the quarter-finals. This season, things haven't gone quite as well. Still, with four North Americans on their roster, the "Indians", as they are known colloquially, are likely to command more attention in North America than any other team in the league.

They currently have defensemen John Slaney from St. John's, NL and Nick St. Pierre from St-Étienne, QC and forwards John Lammers from Langley, BC and Nick Johnson from Windsor, CT. To Canadians, Slaney is by far the most noteworthy name, by virtue of his winning goal at the 1991 IIHF U20 World Championships followed by his lengthy career in the NHL and AHL. Currently, however, Slaney is on the sideline. He broke his jaw October 12 against Mladá Boleslav and is due back in mid-December.

Last Friday night, the rest of the Plzeň team paid a visit to Prague's TESLA Arena to take on HC Sparta Praha. Sparta had a pair of North American defensemen in their lineup, Brian Salcido from Los Angeles, CA and Doug O'Brien who, like Slaney, hails from St. John's.

It was Salcido who broke the goose-egg in the first period with a shot from the high slot that beat goaltender Marek Mazanec inside the post. For Salcido, who was known as an offensive defenseman in the AHL, it was his second goal of the season.

Minutes later, it appeared that the Plzeň duo of Lammers and Johnson may have tied the game, but referee Milan Minař blew the whistle first, claiming that Sparta goaltender Tomáš Pöpperle had covered the puck. Lammers explained, "I took a shot and there was a rebound lying in the crease. Johnson whacked it in but unfortunately there was a quick whistle."

After that, Pöpperle was perfect the rest of the way, posting 21 saves and earning his second straight shutout.

Like Pöpperle, O'Brien played for Plzeň last season, which made the win feel even better. "Yeah, defintely. It feels great to beat 'em. Lot of old buddies so it feels good to beat them. They beat us last time in a close game and tonight was a pretty close game."

For the past few games, O'Brien has been paired on the blueline with Michal Gulaší, who is one of Sparta's harder hitters.Though it wasn't an overly rough contest, Gulaší was a noted physical presence on the back end. "He throws the body around a lot. It's a big part of his game. He loves to do it. I love watching him."

After Salcido's first period tally, Karel Hromas scored late in the second and again midway through the third period to give Sparta a 3-0 victory. The win gave Sparta 22 points on the season and moved them one ahead of Plzeň into the tenth place in a tight race for playoff spots. O'Brien added, "It's a big win for us. With the new coach (Miloš Holaň) that's two in a row for us. The guys are excited. Back to back shoutouts; Pöpperle's played great for us."
 
As far as Plzeň is concerned, they were last season's regular season champions and their record to this point is certainly a disappointment. Unfortunately, an even bigger disappointment would be in store a few days later.

On Tuesday, Czech Ice Hockey Association Competition Director Stanislav Šulc dropped a bomb, stating that three teams, Kladno, Mladá Boleslav and Plzeň, had played games with improperly registered players and would likely be forced to forfeit points accumulated in games where the ineligible players participated.

The players reported were Kladno's Jindřich Kotrla, Mladá Boleslav's Tomáš Divíšek, Jiří Marušák and Peter Fabuš, and Plzeň's Tomáš Frolo and Petr Přikryl.

As Kotrla played only eight games and Kladno was almost certain to finish in last place anyway, they are least affected by this ruling. However, for Mladá Boleslav and Plzeň, the results could be disastrous. Mladá Boleslav would lose 22 points and Plzeň 19, making the playoffs a virtual impossibility. What's more,  Boleslav would drop below Kladno into last place, meaning they might end up having to play a series to avoid relegation to the First National League.