Attacker Kovář apologized from the national team. The reinforcements from the NHL are still being kept a secret by the national team management

“We will have a meeting with Martin Havlát (general manager of the team), we will discuss everything and let you know soon,” said the coach. According to information from the national team management, this should happen on Wednesday.

Even Roman Červenka is not in the team yet, but Jalonen is counting on him. “I’ll talk to him.”

On Tuesday, the national team met in full composition, i.e. with three goalkeepers, nine defenders and fifteen forwards. She trained at the winter stadium in Poruba, Ostrava, where she will also play the mentioned duels against Slovakia. “Against Slovakia, I’m expecting slightly tougher matches than last week in Germany. We had a lot of traveling there, that’s why we gave the team two days off and now we will only have two training sessions before the games,” said Jalonen.

At training, he welcomed six new players, which are goalkeeper Hrubec, defenders Kempný, Kundrátek and Ščotka, and forwards Hynek Zohorna and Sobotka. “Everyone was on the ice, so we don’t have to worry. We will try to put them back into the system,” says Jalonen, who is also targeting several players from Pardubice and Vítkovice, i.e. from the eliminated semi-finalist teams.

However, all the newly called men are eager to fight for a World Cup nomination. Such Michal Kempný only took a few days off after Sparta was eliminated from the playoffs, he went to Špindlerův Mlýn with his family, but he says: “I never finished in March. I want to extend the season.”

Goalkeeper Šimon Hrubec, who excused himself from the national team last year due to the birth of a child, now feels very motivated to fight for a chance. “The boys got bronze and I got one gold. But now I want to fight for a place, because it could well be my last. I will go to the championship as a top three, because then anything can happen at the tournament,” Hrubec admitted.

After a week in Ostrava, the national team will move to Brno. There she will have a duel against Austria next week and the Euro Hockey Tour tournament at the beginning of May. The championship in Latvia starts on May 12.