The man who led Slovakia to bronze: I haven’t seen such a team in 50 years of hockey! – Športky.sk

BEIJING – Craig Ramsay has jumped a lot, he has been playing hockey for more than fifty years, but he has been waiting for the greatest success so far. He is winning bronze at the Winter Olympics in Beijing, to which he brought the Slovak national team in Beijing.

In the hierarchy of his achievements, he placed him on the highest pedestal even before the famous Stanley Cup, which he won as an assistant coach in the 2002/03 season with Tampa Bay. “She’s at the top,” said the former wingman, who played more than 1,000 games in the NHL, scored 720 points and in 1985 won the Frank J. Selke Trophy for the best defending striker.

“How many years have I been in this business … I left home when I was 16 and now I’m 112?” joked at a press conference after winning the first Slovak medal in hockey at the Olympics.

The boys pulled on one rope

He took a young team to Beijing that was not a favorite. He was not afraid to call five players from the much underestimated domestic extra league and he did something with him that even the golden generation failed to do. “Seeing a group of players put together like this and pulling on one rope was great. Being a part of it, even if I’m not a player, seeing it, feeling it was very exciting.” said a Canadian expert, who included only two 17-year-olds in the team.

One of them is Juraj Slafkovský, the best scorer in the tournament with seven goals. “He’s on his way to becoming a great player. I’ve seen many and not many who can handle things so well. He has a great mindset, he’s still smiling, he wants to play. I’ve been calling him a gunner for two years and he’s finally shown that it’s the truth,” Ramsay said.

Players would lay down their lives for themselves

The initial two losses in the tournament with Finland and Sweden did not indicate the medal possibilities of the team. However, the circumstances also caused it, as the Slovaks were hit by a pandemic shortly before the tournament and the players could not train together for a long time. However, the team lost even more and each additional performance was better than the previous one.

“In the 50 years or more I’ve been playing hockey, I haven’t seen a team where every single player has” laid down their lives “to win a match. Communication on the substitute and on the ice has been unbelievable. im one thing: “We will try to win every single match.” You will never win every match, but the important thing is that you have to try, to see that we have shot everyone, and we also wanted to win the matches we lost. And that is the most important thing we are trying to do in Slovakia, “ carried on.

Ramsay believes that bronze success can please and unite people in Slovakia: “I’m excited for the whole country. They may feel proud.” After three weeks in the bubble, he knows what he will do after coming to Slovakia. “I’m looking forward to walking around Štrkovec and Kuchajda, I’ll get out again, it will be fun,” he added.

• The author: © List
• Source: TASR