“I would like to play, but my health does not allow me to do so. I have a herniated disc, so I will only be on the rotation,” admitted Martin Ručinský, whose coaching colleagues will also be Martin Straka, Jaroslav Špaček, Josef Beránek and Pavel Patera. “My back hurts, I can’t even play tennis, which I love. I would have to train all January, because you can’t play a match like that from the spot. I haven’t been on the ice for two and a half years, I only played in the summer at the farewell of Franta Lukeš and Viktor Hübl, where I hurt my back again. But it’s crazy how time flies and that it’s already that since Nagano 25 years.”
Despite the absence of hockey elegance, despite the absence of the insurmountable Dominator in the goal or the scorer of the golden goal Petr Svoboda, a decent spectacle is being prepared in February. The team of Czech legends will include Patrik Eliáš, Petr Nedvěd, David Výborný, Petr Klíma and Jan Hlaváč.
And since the match will also be a rematch for the recent similar match in Bratislava, which the Czechs won 5:4, the Slovaks are preparing a bloated roster. Ľubomír Višňovský is putting together a team in which Mariánové Hossa and Gáborík, Richard Zedník, Žigmund Pálffy will appear, and Peter Bondra and Zdeno Chára are also in talks.
“In Bratislava it was heated and charged. Now we want to give it back to the Czechs,” promises Višňovský. And Ručinský, who also stood on the substitutes’ bench in Bratislava, nods in agreement. “Normal hockey was played, which is good because the people who come to watch don’t want to see a few retired hockey players they slide in there and just push the puck.”
Tickets for the duel are on sale from Tuesday and cost 790 to 2,990 crowns.
