“When the staff fell apart in the preliminary round, I felt terrible because I knew this team was successful. Doubles, threes, powerlifting, it all worked out. But the edge of success and failure is terribly thin. I’m sorry this happened, “said Holan.
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You managed the series against Olomouc, not against Třinec anymore. How did you feel about the end of the season? Was it a hair better than a year ago with Kometa, when you lost the lead 2-0 in the series?
It’s 100 percent better. My vision was to move it a step further every year. And we succeeded. I have to be extremely satisfied with that, because it was not easy to advance through Olomouc. There were a lot of trouble we had. I didn’t have a chance to build the same line-up for two matches. From this point of view, it is a huge success that we crossed Olomouc with the stellar David Krejčí.
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You didn’t win a single match in the quarterfinals against Třinec. Is it disappointing?
Třinec is a tough opponent, but we did our best and it was no failure. The results were tight, the Trail, which gave us hope, was fantastic. It’s a 0: 4 defeat, but not a disgrace. Moreover, in the composition when we lacked three key players that we cannot replace.
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Would it be different with the trio Polák, Marosz, Bukarts?
Roman Polák is a cabin personality, a captain who claims music. I don’t know if Třinec would score other goals, but we wouldn’t get the ones we collected. At key moments, he’s on the ice and the front gate area is his office, no one will enter. Bukarts and Marosz are players who score and are useful in attack. We were not able to replace them. After all, some players scored one goal in nine playoff games.
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Was there a chance that at least one of them would hit the quarterfinals?
As for Roman (Pole), he had a broken leg in the foot before the playoffs. He didn’t know it at first, but eventually he went for an X-ray and they found out there. But he is a rafan, he has a shifted pain threshold, he also cared about the team’s result, so he went for it. I have never experienced the fact that a player comes to a match on crutches, drops them and goes to play. Imagination! I believe that eighty percent of the players would cough it up, but he, like Captain Vítkovice, wanted to move on. Although he could not board every time, because his leg immediately swelled after the match. He took a day or two off without training and went back to it. But we clearly agreed – and such was his health condition – that Olmík would finish as much as possible and then we should no longer count on him. When I saw him walking on crutches and it didn’t get any better, I didn’t dare address him. (smiles) But it was a huge loss. The procedure was also his great merit, but it did not go any further.
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And the other two? Marosz and Bukarts?
Buky had a chance to go to the last match of Thursday. But what would he do to play after two months? I’ve always been in favor of having a weaker, but one hundred percent healthy player in quotes than the other way around. And in this case, I didn’t believe it could be a bonus. That Bukarts will take it and decide the series. Marosz also injured us in the last match of the basic part, he had a concussion. One day it was good, then three days for mushrooms. His head was spinning under the load. He tried it in the second match in Třinec, left after four substitutions.
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Vítkovic players after the match.Photo: Jaroslav Ožana, CTK
You are going to the playoffs for the whole basic part, then the key players will hurt you and the rest of the team will get a virus. How were those feelings?
Terrible! I felt from the team that we had success. That we have to go even further. I don’t want to make an alibi, but the performances were really good, the team sat down. But the edge of success and failure is terribly thin. Whatever has to come together to get to the top of the pyramid. And that is primarily the health status of the players, the wider staff and so on. I’m sorry this happened.
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Was the quarterfinals the maximum in the current situation?
In this composition the total maximum. I’ll be a realist. It’s not a reduction in the quality of the players, but we didn’t have a chance to move on in this line-up. I’m not talking about winning one match. That’s what I really wanted. Win once at home and in front of the spectators. It would be a fantasy and a miracle to beat Třinec in its current composition – that is, with boys from the first league and most players under the age of 21. We only had a few more experienced. We could play one match with fighting spirit and heart. But unfortunately.
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Did the virus you went through in the preliminary round still affect you in the quarterfinals?
I don’t think so. It jumped from one to the other. Once the player got it, he didn’t have it in five days, but it spread that almost everyone had it. And even rest was not enough. After all, we finished the fifth match and after a day off we went to the quarterfinals in their awkward state. It just went wrong.
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Dominik Lakatoš did not play in the playoffs. He scored four goals in nine matches, but scored alone. Should it be more valid?
I have to say, Dominik completely dropped out of the role of leader and shooter. I will not hide. Soloviev, too, failed … I might not have said it so hard there, because he is going through a very difficult situation in connection with what is happening in Ukraine, and therefore in Russia. I know they’ve spent a lot of time since the war with Pedan. They had families in Russia, they dealt with money, their friends couldn’t come to see them. It was too much for the psyche. This excuses their performance because they had something other than hockey in their heads.
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Did you have to work with them a lot to be valid on the ice?
It would be better for them to talk about it than to pull out what we have in the cabin. They asked me about it, they know that I trained in Ukraine, that I have friends there. Taly noticed that the Russians were perceived negatively here now, it wasn’t easy for them. But I don’t know what they were going through internally, I didn’t get that close. Even though I have excellent Russian, they didn’t want to talk much about what they were experiencing inside. But they were very sorry for the situation and they were still dealing with it. They were a lot together, you could say a bit of separation from the team, maybe they didn’t know what our boys thought about it. It wasn’t nice and hat down that they played it all.
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How did the team perceive their presence?
They are both good boys, excellent in character, there was great communication with them in the team, they both speak excellent English, so they agreed with the boys and they were not a closed group. They were interested in what was going on in the cabin, but this was a difficult test for them.
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How will it be with them?
Technically, Solovyov is signed, but we do not know how it will be. If they extend their visas for the next season, if they let his girlfriend in or not. If anyone from the KHL calls him. We don’t know how it will turn out. We will negotiate with Ruslan now. We will meet Šimon (sports manager Roman Šimíček) and walk one player after another.
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What were you dissatisfied with in the quarterfinals against Třinec?
With productivity. We didn’t deal with the chances we had. We chose the wrong solutions, we shot at areas we knew Kacetl didn’t collect there. It’s also about the art and quality of the players. Not every shooter. But maybe Laky (Lakatos) is a shooter and he couldn’t.
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What about experienced players Polák, Krenželok? Will they decide for themselves whether to continue? Would you like to keep them?
I’d like to keep them one hundred percent, because Poly is just a captain. Although he has never done so, he has an aura of experience around him. There is no problem with it in training or wrestling. He bombs when he climbs the ice. No one next to him will dare do it. I can’t say it’s Vítkovičák because he wasn’t there, but it’s Ostravák and we have to have boys from here on the team. Who else will seal the cabin. Who has the name and experience? Poly and Kržel. Even though Kržel is aged (38), I think he can still give the season, although his icetime will probably go down a bit to have the energy for the rotations he has.
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We can say that now. It is worth appreciating the approach of Captain Roman Polák, to highlight his dedication – The end of the basic part and the playoffs with Olomouc took place with a broken leg! On the blood, despite the pain, he decided to go to matches himself despite the injuries!
Hat down Poly and thanks! pic.twitter.com/YCftWFB7Y2
– HC VÍTKOVICE RIDERA (@hcvitkovice) March 25, 2022
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Is Lukáš Krenželok still a player for the first formation?
He flew out, scored sixteen goals, who of the players has it? Nobody expected that. Before the season, when I made it so hard, we had fun that if he scores ten goals, that’s great. And he will give sixteen! It was valid in power play and weakening. I know he’s not a player anymore … maybe I think he should drop and adapt to the new hockey. But he likes that fried cauliflower, tartare, potatoes (laughs). But as there are three matches in a row, the third one is gone. Krzel will do the season, maybe more. I saw him finish last year and move next to me as an assistant. But he did very well to keep playing. I know those guys are going to end one day. Poly, too, will have to decide. He can safely say it’s over. We have long negotiations ahead of us, persuasion.
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