ZOH 2022 – hockey – Slovakia won bronze. Craig Ramsay gave the team a new face – ŠPORT.sk

Even before the announcement of the nomination for the Olympic Games 2022, the assistant coach Andrej Podkonický stated that no other coach would take such a young team to the Riga World Championships. Slovakia sent its historically youngest team to the May World Championships, its average age was 24.75 years. And coach Craig Ramsay also coined the philosophy of rejuvenating the staff when making the nomination for the Olympic Games.

The Canadian expert did not hesitate to take a pair of 17-year-old talents, Simon Nemec and Juraj Slafkovsky, to Beijing, and finally 19-year-old defender Samuel Kňažko presented himself under five circles. This was despite the fact that the situation at the club became more complicated at the end of 2021. He traveled from TPS Turku to the Seattle Thunderbirds (WHL) in the Canadian junior competition. The player himself said at the time that he did not even hope to get to the Olympics.

In Beijing, Simon Nemec played the least of the three, but Ramsay went on strike against Juraj Slafkovsky. The young striker hit the hockey world, scored seven goals in seven matches and asked for the prize for the best striker and the MVP of the tournament. He did not win only in the quarterfinals against the Finns.

He was particularly impressed by the audacity in the offensive zone, the courage to play one on one, and after the coaches moved him to the first formation between Marek Hrivík and Petr Cehlárik, he was even more hockey-free. It was Cehlárik who was declared the best striker at the May championship, now the tournament has an even less expected star.

It is interesting that five players from the home Tipos extra league got to the Olympic Games – Peter Zuzin, Samuel Takáč, Adrián Holešinský, Pavol Regenda and Nemec. Ten players were from the Czech extra league, six from the KHL, two from the highest Swiss competition and one from the Finnish. This is one of the reasons why the credit of the highest competition in Slovakia will increase, which Miroslav Šatan wished for after the position of President of the Slovak Ice Hockey Association (SZĽH).

The Slovaks also showed Ramsay’s offensive philosophy at the tournament – to keep the puck and play in the opponent’s zone. In all seven matches at the Olympic Games 2022, they shot their opponent. The Canadian coach came under the Tatras in order to give the national team a new face. At the tournament in Beijing, he told his charges before the quarterfinals with the US not to be afraid to play.

“Hockey is about mistakes. That’s why we don’t tell players:” stay behind and be careful. “On the contrary, we want them to step in and attack. They shoot, wait for hits and play aggressively. We go into the match to win.”

And that’s exactly what they showed in the bronze battle. Their active play at the turn of the second and third period did not allow the opponents to shoot for a long minute. And the Slovaks did not play behind, even though they led 2: 0, even in the final third they undertook constant raids on Lars Johansson and thus did not allow the Swedes to exert pressure.

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