Czech forward Jan Kovář in Saturday’s match of the Czech Hockey Games against Russia.
Vlastimil Vacek, Right
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How do you tolerate the “bubble” in which you got stuck upon arrival?
We haven’t seen practically anything in Riga yet. Room, a lot of big food and nothing more … We’re really looking forward to going back to hockey.
The staff brings the doors to your door in five bags, what did you say for large portions?
It is impossible to eat, but it is good that one can choose. It’s such a waste of food, but probably a little more than less for us.
He was terribly sorry, he couldn’t even sleep! Tomas Zohorn is sorry that his brother Hynek lost the World Cup
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During the day, the trainers prescribed you fitness exercises, how difficult is it forcing you to get out of bed and complete them?
The worst is fatigue from doing nothing. So one has to say that in a moment he will get up and do it. But it’s not exactly pleasant, there isn’t much space here and motivation is harder to find. But on the other hand, just lying is not good either.
Do you already know if each player will be in the room alone throughout the tournament?
I guess we’ll probably be alone.
The championship is long, how difficult will it be to live in “solitude?
I’m sure we’ll always meet the boys, watch a movie or play cards and have some fun, because staying in the room for more than two weeks is probably not possible.
Hockey World Championships participant in trouble! The group was in ruins, they called a 16-year-old goalkeeper
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You’ll probably get bored. Aren’t you wondering during the day what to do now?
Every five minutes (smile). One cannot even walk. So I look out the window for a while, to the computer for a while, to the phone for a while, so it’s such a cycle. A book also helps me, but you just don’t like it when it’s so limited.
What are you reading?
Detectives, I like them.
Did you catch up with Saturday’s duel of the Czech Hockey Games against Russia, what impression did the team make on you?
In the match, I mainly tried to focus on myself. Tactical stuff to do what I have and get used to the system. After all, it’s a little different. But the match was successful. We won, we didn’t get a goal, which is positive.
In the staff of Belarus for the World Cup is Sharangovic from New Jersey, Andrei Kosticyn is missing
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You will enter the tournament with a captain’s check and responsibility. Filip Pešán wanted you to take the cabin under your wings and be the right hand of the coaches in the management of the team ….
It’s more about certain details, because the communication between coaches and players is great here. But I hope it will work out for us from the beginning of the tournament and we won’t need any speeches or anything like that.
Aren’t you going to have one in the cabin?
I have no plans for it yet and I really hope that none will be needed.
How do you perceive that the matches in the basic groups will take place without the presence of spectators?
It will be strange, but what should we do … We will not affect this, we are faced with a finished thing, no one has asked us. The team that fights better will have an advantage in the tournament.
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Jan Kovář during the training of the hockey team before the Beijer Hockey Games tournament.
Vlastimil Vacek, Right
Do you have a better chance of success than in previous years?
Hard to judge, I have already experienced when the teams were really very crowded and then fell out in the quarterfinals. Or, conversely, the team was not so strong and we played good hockey.
You will present yourself at the World Championships for the seventh time in your career. You also absorbed the atmosphere during the 2010 Gold Championships in Germany, when you didn’t get on the roster and only watched the matches from the stands. How do you remember this tournament in retrospect?
At that time, it was right after the World Twenties Championship, you can say by chance that I fought my way to the venue of the championship, because a lot of players were falling off. The coaches expected NHL players to arrive, who eventually refused and did not arrive. I took it as a very valuable experience and a little miracle that I could even see there. Since then, I have somehow started in the national team and built a position in it …
How has hockey changed over the years you have been on the national team?
Of course it changes. Hockey in general. At that time, experienced boys in their thirties rode and I started at twenty, so I looked at them like the Gods and tried to learn.
With Zug, you won the Swiss league, mastered the Canadian scoring of the basic part and the playoffs. How did you feel on the ice?
Definitely good, but I don’t think I played an absolutely amazing playoff. It was good in terms of points, but I didn’t score many goals, only one. However, even one of my friends wrote me that one goal for the whole playoff is a disgrace (smile). I wouldn’t overestimate it, after the final of the playoffs I had a few days break. Of course, I will only be happy if I pull the team on the ice, but we are a large group of people here with one common goal and we will try to do the best on the ice.
Kovář won the Swiss title with Zug and won the playoff scores
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Have you been in Switzerland, is this season special for you?
It can be extraordinary, but I have a long-term goal in my head that I would like to prove. I won the title this year, but I have won it in the past. Now my goal is to be able to play something with the national team.
In preparation for the World Cup, the Czech team won all the matches, can a favorable balance in the tournament have an effect on it?
I wouldn’t overestimate them, although it’s always better to win than lose. I hope this helps us to have a healthy self-confidence. But at the beginning of the tournament, very tough opponents are waiting for us, it will depend on the results with them. Teams are changing and so are ours, so we’ll see what it all looks like.
Two years ago, you played in Bratislava in a striking line with Vrána and Kubalík. Would you like to play with them this year as well?
It offers and I think we will start anyway. But you know what it’s like, we won’t make it start and the coaches will tear us apart. But I would really like it to work for us.
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