Czech This Out

Considering it's an off day here in Nagano, there was quite a bit going on in the hockey world. I stopped by the Czech Republic practice and had a chance to catch up with Petr Svoboda. He plays with Eric and has a cottage near my parents so we've become friends over the years .

You might think that he would pretty fired up about the win over USA, but that's not Pete's style. As it says in the Flyers media guide, Petr feels that the best advice he ever received is "Never get too high when things go great, or too low when things don't go as well".

I asked Pete his thoughts on the semi-final game against Canada. He feels that the Czechs have to execute a strong defensive game by "Playing a really tight hockey game in our zone and hopefully things will work out for us". Petr has been impressed by the play of Keith Primeau, Joe Nieuwendyk as well as the Canadian defense, who he feels are playing well together and pose a challenge for the Czechs. When asked why he is impressed with the likes of Primeau, Pete said that sometimes when you put together a team with as much talent as Canada the less noticeable tasks get overlooked. Primeau is doing a good job supporting the puck as well as winning the battles along the boards. He thinks that Canada has a good mix and their roles are being well executed.

We also talked about Dominik Hasek who Petr believes is far and away the best goaltender in the world. The confidence that comes from knowing the guy between the pipes is so solid translates into an overall edge amongst the Czech skaters. Dominik Hasek is the kind of goalie who stays late after practice and wants you to keep shooting at him. Petr said Hasek doesn't get angry when the pucks are flying high in practice (I've had more than one goalie chase me around for breaking this unwritten rule of keeping the pucks low). Petr says that it gets embarassing when you can't score in practice! The cool thing about Dom is that he has this intense work ethic but he goes about it with a smile.

As practice wrapped up , I headed over to the mixed zone. This is where the reporters can interview the players . It's quite a scene, actually. Radio, TV, Print - all different nationalities. It was pretty packed . The big buzz was Federov's new deal and Sakic's injury. It's kind of weird for me to be on this side of the barrier as opposed to the one giving the interview.

After practice, I popped over to Nike's Car Town for a late lunch. I bumped into some of the Canadian players. Shayne Corson, Wayne Gretzky, Al MacInnis, Joe Nieuwendyk and Chris Pronger decided to come for lunch. They had just come from a team meeting - Team Canada's coaches decided to discuss strategy for the upcoming Czech game and gave the guys the day off. An interesting call by the Canadian coaching staff. The U.S. women's team was there as well. The girls were still on cloud nine after their gold medal performance.

Can't wait to see the semi-finals - it's going to be some of the best hockey in years!