Craig Ramsay to continue coaching Slovak hockey team for another year

The Slovak Ice Hockey Association organized a press conference on Tuesday at ten in the morning, the main topic of which was to break the record for the most untrained matches in the national team. However, everyone suspected that the main topic should be something else.

Will Craig Ramsay continue with the national team or will he retire? He revealed it in the very first answer. “When I came here, I didn’t expect to break the record once. Miro Šatan called me in 2017, we had a long conversation and I decided to come and try to change the direction of Slovak hockey. I think we succeeded in that.

Every year I say this was my last season. Then something happens and I come back. So let’s repeat it one more time,” revealed the 72-year-old coach.

“When I convinced Craig in 2017, I told him that it would be for two or three years. I wanted him to raise his successors for us. Over the years, he has been replaced by many younger coaches who have a perspective for the future.

The work he has done in six years is much more than I myself expected. He changed the philosophy of our game, not only hockey experts but also the public understand and see it. I hope that Slovak hockey will continue in the direction set by Craig for many years to come. We agreed to continue the contract for another year. We’re really looking forward to it,” added the president of the union, Miroslav Šatan.

Who will stand by Ramsay’s side has yet to be decided. At the last championship, they were Ján Pardavý, Andrej Podkonický, Peter Frühauf and goalkeeper coach Peter Kosa. “We haven’t solved it yet. We still have the whole summer ahead of us and the supply of assistants is sufficient, we will deal with it at the beginning of the season.” Originally, the plan was that one of the assistants would directly take over the role of head coach. “It was a long-term plan. We haven’t come to that situation yet.”

Šatan was also asked about the departure of Andrej Podkonický to the KHL, but he only answered that the issue of assistants had not been resolved yet and repeated that they had time to do so. He also denied reports that they were already discussing a possible replacement for Ramsay.

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FUJARA TO FLORIDA

On the occasion of breaking the record, Miroslav Šatan also presented Craig Ramsay with gifts – a fan, a plaque and a cap. “Thank you, it’s really special for me. Records are meant to be broken, I’m extremely proud of this one.” said Ramsay, who has already coached 125 duels on the bench of Slovakia.

He would like to take Fujaru home to Florida, where he would display it in a special room and show it to visitors. “I’ll see how I transport her home. I would like to marry her. I’m really proud to be here and proud of everything we’ve achieved.”

Photo gallery

Craig Ramsay with a blizzard and a cap

Source: TASR

After his decision, he first announced the extension of the contract for another year to his wife, but she already suspected it much earlier. “She told me before the championship that she knew I would come back again. He knows I wasn’t ready to wrap it up. Now she couldn’t come with me to Slovakia, but hopefully it will be possible in the next season.”

What are his plans for the summer? “I’ll be with my family and go golfing, I don’t play that well anymore, but I still like to go play. I know that the summer will pass quickly and my wife will definitely have some surprises for me.” laughed Ramsay, who doesn’t look too far into the future.

“Every year I say it’s my last and then it’s not. I don’t look and I don’t make plans very far in advance, I deal with things as they come. I’m not planning, but when Miro says that he doesn’t want me anymore and throws me out, that will probably be the end of it.” the experienced coach entertained with his answer.

APOLOGIES AND MORE IN THE NHL

Next year will be extremely special, as the world championship will take place in the neighboring Czech Republic. However, it did not play an important role in Ramsay’s decision-making. “I probably would have gone either way. Now we didn’t get the result we wanted, but every game was close. We were one step away from taking what I think is the next big step.

It will be like a home championship for us. We have already had some successes, but we still lost some players. Towards the next season, we hope that many players will return and we will also be looking for new hockey players.”

The national team succeeds in helping the players move forward. In addition to the fact that she significantly helped Juraj Slafkovský to become a draft pick, or helped other young players like Šimon Nemc and Filip Mešár towards the draft, she also helps older players win a contract in the NHL.

Photo gallery

Craig Ramsay receives his commemorative plaque

Source: TASR

Last season, Pavol Regenda and Miloš Kelemen signed her overseas, after these championships, Patrik Koch signed a contract with the Arizona Coyotes. “It seems that every year we are able to move a player somewhere higher. These are small successes that make us happy, and we believe that Patrik was not the last,” commented Šatan, who also commented on the absence of several players at the finished championship.

“We are a country where the hockey elite is very limited. We need the top players to come almost all to have a higher chance of success.

I believe that more will come in the future, because every year we struggle with excuses. Then we are always balancing on the border of the quarterfinals. You saw what Latvia or Germany did this year. We also have the potential to be successful, but we need those players to come.”

The absence of several high-quality players also resulted in lower productivity, the Slovaks scored only 15 goals in 7 duels at the World Cup. “We still have problems scoring goals. We practice it every day. It’s funny that we don’t train defense as much as other teams because we know we have to find a way to score goals and that’s what we do. When we can fix that, we’ll have even more success.” Ramsay reviewed.

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With the passage of time, how do they both evaluate the performances at the World Championships, where Slovakia took ninth place overall?

“We evaluate them positively. We left a bit worried, we didn’t know what to expect. For example, there might have been concerns at the goalkeeper position, but after all, the goalkeepers were the strongest part of the team.

We talk about productivity almost every year, but for that you need scorers or increased quality of players, maybe that could have been improved a little. Weaknesses were exceptional, except for a five-minute blackout with Kazakhstan.

The only thing that was not enough was the discipline, some exclusions were unnecessary. In terms of results, we lacked points with Kazakhstan, the coaches had no major reservations with others. We played well against the favorites and troubled them. I don’t consider it a success, but I don’t consider it a failure either.” commented Satan, who was complemented by Ramsay.

“It wasn’t a success, but it wasn’t a disappointment either. We missed a piece. We still have to work on discipline, we don’t train players to foul, we teach them to skate and attack. But for some reason we always have more ejections than the opponent. We have to keep working on it.” added the head coach at the end.