Hockey World Championship 2025: Without NHL players, the Slovaks fought for the last time to rescue
BRATISLAVA. The pulling of calculators and the counting of progressive mathematics happened in Slovakia during MS in hockey Folklore.
Already a tradition is also watching players who (not) will come to strengthen the representation during the preparatory matches for the world championship itself.
While in 2024 Slovakia represented up to eight hockey players at the Hockey World Championship, who played at least one NHL match in the season, less than a week before the start of the championship in Sweden and only two of the Danish are nominated.
Preparation does not mean anything, said coach
Slovak hockey players ended the preparatory phase on Saturday. In the rehearsal for the top event of the year conquered France high 8: 1.
« As Béďa Brunclík said, it is always better to win than playing. Every win will please. I am glad that we have shown offensive power, but I believe we saved something for the World Cup, » said temporary coach Vladimír Országh after the last preparatory match.
He replaced the Canadian coach Craig Ramsay, who will not participate in the championship due to health problems.
In less than a month, the Slovaks played eight matches – two with Switzerland, Germany, the Czech Republic and France. They lost five times, enjoying the win three times.
Table: Results of the Slovak national team in preparation for the World Championship in Hockey 2025
« The preparation was fine. We were gradually getting into it. Our performances improved. The hardest double match was against the Czech Republic. We played better against Germany than against Switzerland.
It is still just a preparation, it’s over and it doesn’t mean anything yet. They are just statistics. The most important thing will come on Friday, ”added Országh.
He meant the opening match of the World Cup. Slovaks on Friday 9th May at 20:20 will start in Stockholm against the Swedes. Only five days remains until the start of the World Championship in hockey 2025.
After the last match of the preparation He eliminated the coaching team Four hockey players. Andrej Kukuč, Marek Hecl, Andrej Kudrna and Jakub Minárik will not travel to Sweden.
Video: Coach Vladimír Országh evaluates the win over France (8: 1)
« Other players will meet on Tuesday at the meeting. We will have to send home one more defense player. One back has health problems and we will wait for the AHL situation to develop, » added the general manager of the national team Miroslav Šatan.
The final nomination will be revealed by the team management on Tuesday. But it is already clear that the World Championship will be rejuvenated.
While last year in Ostrava was the average age of the Slovak team 27 years, in the current nomination, which will fall out one more player, it is 25.4 years.
Historically, the youngest team sent Slovakia to the World Championship in hockey 2022, the average age of the team was 25 years.
The amount of absence and apologies
The preparation from the opening days has been accompanied by unpleasant news about the nomination. The coaching team had to receive one apology for another.
Already at the first meeting, the hockey public learned that the traditional couple – Marek Hrivík, captain of the bronze team at the Winter Olympics 2022 in Beijing, and Peter Cehlárik, will not participate in the championship.
Since then, two dozen names have been added to the list, which is extremely long. The most commonly addressed players are worried about injuries, some do not travel for family reasons and others for disagreements in representation or club duties.
Table: The absence of Slovak hockey players before the World Championship in Hockey 2025
The great inconvenience is that the tournament will not participate in the numerous enclave of hockey players from the Czech extraleague. Only from the final couple Kometa Brno – Pardubice coaches were interested in five hockey players. There will be no one.
(Almost) without NHL players
On the roster of players who will not represent Slovakia at the World Championship in hockey 2025, « shine » mainly hockey players from the NHL.
The participation was gradually renounced by all who played more than five matches in the current season.
Dalibor Dvorský and Samuel Honzek are the only players in the nomination who had experience with the NHL matches in the year. However, the young couple played only seven matches in the best league in the world (Dvorský 2, Honzek 5).
Both of them started in the lower AHL, where they played dozens of meetings (Dvorský 64, Honzek 54).
As we mentioned, last year Slovakia was represented by eight hockey players who jumped at least one NHL match.
In 2023 there were two such players – Milos Kelemen and Pavol Regenda. A year earlier in Finland three – Tomáš Tatar, Martin Fehérváry and Adam Húska.
Only one NHL hockey player represented Slovakia at the Covid World Championship in 2021. It was Marián Studenič, who played eight matches for New Jersey in New Jersey.
In 2020, the World Championship in hockey was not played for the pandemic. A year earlier, the tournament Slovakia hosted. Up to seven players arrived from the home championship. In 2018, three NHL players strengthened the representation.
Disaster in Cologne
The last time the Slovaks without NHL players played at the World Championship in 2017. The leadership of the team led by coach Zden Cíger then for the boycott of the group of players was missing up to 45 potential representatives.
At that time, the representative coach perceived the situation as a trick. At that time, up to 13 Slovak hockey players skated in North America.
The team, which was presented in the basic and group in Cologne, were mostly players from the Czech and Slovak extraleague, which was later reflected in the results.
In the international competition, Slovakia scored only four points. Already the first match suggested a lot, the Slovaks conquered an outsider from Italy 3: 2 after overtime. It was the only one win in the tournament.
The representation then lost with Latvia (1: 3), Denmark (3: 4 PP), Germany (2: 3 pp), Russia (0: 6), with the USA (1: 6) and Sweden (2: 4).
At that time, fans did not count the mathematics of the advance to the quarterfinals, but the scenarios under which the Slovaks would not fall out of the elite category.
If Italy won three points in their last match in the group, the Slovaks would have to score against the Swedes, otherwise they would fall out. Did not happen.
Finally, they occupied up to 14.
