Go and definitely buy the book, the price is ridiculous and it's also quite often a retrospective look at hockey as it has evolved over the years. The part about the Soviet legend Anatoly Tarasov is very interesting, but I won't tell you more, no spoiler !!!
Hockey and its development is a wonderful example of how inspiring personalities can lead it. Whether it was the time when the Soviets first entered the world stage, huge performance differences from the 60's to the late 1980s, when medals were collected regularly by only three teams until Canada sober up for the 1998 Olympics. The American NTDP team is inspired by a purely Soviet style, added modern elements of the game to it, but the main idea comes from the Soviets. The rise of the Swedes first and then the Finns, all thanks to one magic word - cooperation. Now I would say that Belarus and Germany can also shuffle cards with their powerplay26. Slovakia has been leading Ramsay for the fifth year in a row and today it has achieved historic success, with average players but the courage to go on the ice and not wait for what the opponent will do. And this Olympics also showed without NHL players that the medal circle of candidates is significantly wider than usual.
My opinion is that even a possible descent of the U18 into the B category will not be the impulse for some people to leave their place and leave it to new people. The U18 category is not central to the federation and the drawdown, it is just an adult team. If the senior team fell into the B category, most sponsors and partners would completely give up financial support and that would be a really big problem. Paradoxically, a home championship in two years can prolong the death toll, because if it is with the spectators (which is generally expected), it promises a profit. But as history has shown, there is plenty of reason to doubt that this time it will be different. There has been a tough fight for this gain since this summer, and the situation is such that some people are taking hockey hostage.
The U18 relegation in 2007 came at a bad time as the older and successful generation of players ended and the general opinion was that it would return in two years because the B category is weak. If we look at Sweden, they realized the coming problem even when their U20 team played retention matches. They already knew that the year would have problems, but they did not pay for it with the descent. And in this brief overview, we see how both federations have approached the coming problems. It was at this time that Bukač had to take over the concept of youth with his experience, which he gained throughout his time in hockey in various positions. But the federation itself threw this possibility into the trash, and at that time the criterion for working for the federation was no longer expertise but rather acquaintances and good relations.
That there aren't as many players in the NHL as around 2000 is not such a problem for hockey. The problem arises when there are not enough quality players in their own league or in other European leagues. This returns remotely in a tournament such as the World Cup, because it is not possible to form a team for the tournament only from NHL players, players from Europe must complete it. This has been going on for a long time, but even these players are slowly ending..Červenka, Frolík, Sobotka, Řepík and others..and there is no one to add these players. And the EHT results this season confirm this, but I would be careful here because the EHT tournaments are not an objective enough criterion for evaluating hockey in the country. And so Czech hockey is trapped, now it can no longer rely on quality in European leagues as in the past, it is in my opinion impossible to repeat the 2010 win.
Nevertheless, I think that the federation could and had several options to save the situation or at least slow down. The problem starts already in the league, which is rather slow in terms of gaming, it is played at a slower pace than the Nordic leagues or NL. And this is what will eventually affect the quality of the player in NT. What I don't understand too much and it still takes is the popularity of players who keep the puck on the stick for too long, but in the final it is inefficient and rather the team wastes time. Compared to Czech players, the Swiss are generally considered to be less individually capable, they make fewer loops and they combine less. And they are also consistent in every aspect of the game, which is based on mentality. It doesn't matter if it is a training exercise or a match, the Swiss will not dare to cheat or relieve anything. People call it a habit, but in the Czech hockey dictionary this word appears minimally. So before the duel, the Swiss had a sharp training unit focusing on duel in the corner, where then in the match the Czechs got exactly into this area and thus eliminated their combination. Pesan gave the players the freedom to do whatever they wanted ... but this approach is only valid if the team wins and the coach prepares them for a playoff match. And the result and performance on the ice showed exactly what the Swiss can do if they realize their mistakes. They were precise in every zone, there was no lost puck for them and they did not go into passivity in the lead for the goal but continued to play actively. The reward for them was a win.
