The Czech could have a surprisingly good team and I'm going to place them around 5th place before I seen the finalized rosters. I believe the Czechs have a balanced attack more so than most nations and if their goaltending is stellar then they will steal some games from some of the big dogs of the tournament.
In Net: The Czech usually have pretty strong goaltending and believe it or not Dominik Hasek is still going. Remember him? He's currently playing for hometown club HC Pardubice and should feature as their backup. I don't believe he'll be their starter however as Tomas Vokoun of the Florida Panthers should get the nod while Ondrej Pavelec of the Atlanta Thrashers will be around to gain valuable experience and may even start if he stays hot.
On Defense: Apart from the Canadians I believe the Czech are more than capable of lining up the second best D of the tournament. The top pairing of former Toronto Maple Leaf and current Maple Leaf Tomas Kaberle and Pavel Kubina should carry most of the workload. Kaberle is always consistent while Pavel Kubina has been playing some underrated hockey for the Thrashers this season. The second paring of Roman Hamrlik of the Montreal Canadians if he's still healthy and offensively gifted Marek Zidlicky of the Wild. Zidlicky will most likely run the PP while Hamrlik will provide leadership and experience. Finally the last pair should consist of Filip Kuba of the Ottawa Senators and shut down defenseman Radislav Kesla of the Columbus blue Jackets. The odd man out should be Jaroslav Spacek of the Montreal Canadians or Zbyněk Michálek of the Coyotes.
On Forward: The Czech's have a very underrated offense as well. They have a combination of firepower and experience which should give them an edge over many Nations. The one problem they might run into is the age factor. Many of their forwards I predict are starting to show signs of wear and tear. The top line of RW Martin Havlat of the Minnesota Wild, C Tomas Plekanec of the Montreal Canadians and LW Milan Michalek of the Ottawa Senators should lead the way offensively against the opposition. LW Jiri Hudler of Dynamo Moscow who recently defected to the KHL should be a fixture on the second line with RW Milan Hedjuk of the Avs and center David Krejci of the Boston Bruins. The 3rd line I'll dub the New York, New York line featuring 2 former New York Rangers and 1 current Ranger. RW Jaromir Jagr (Avangard Omsk) who now dominates the KHL after several season with the Rangers should be the team captain and play an important part for his country. He's a future Hall of Famer that still can rack up the points but he is starting to slow. His center Martin Straka (HC Lasselsberger Plzen) plays responsible hockey while having an offensive touch should be an assistant. The last member of this line features current Ranger LW Vaclav Prospal who has resurrected his career in the Big Apple this season. The last line could feature Robert Lang of the Phoenix Coyotes up the middle with Martin Erat of the Nashville Predators to his right and Rostislav Olesz of the Panthers on the left. The spare forward could be Ales Kotalik, yet another Ranger.
Sleepers: There could be a lot of pleasant surprises to make the Czech this Olympic Games but my bets on this trio. Jan Bulis last seen in Vancouver has been playing the past few seasons in the KHL for Atlant Moscow and has been putting up pretty decent numbers. He was a fixture in several International events before this. Another question mark could be youngsters Michael Frolik of the Florida Panthers and Tomas Fleischmann of the caps. Another name to consider could be defenseman Marek Malik who has quietly been having a great season in HC Vítkovice.
2 comments:
This is such an amazingly informative site!!! This guy knows his stuff!!
If anyones wondering I left off Patrik Elias as I thought his injury woes would scare off Czech management but I was wrong.
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