They completed their last training session before the Olympics at the Ondrej Nepela winter stadium. Goalkeeper Adam Gajan, however, could not participate, as his skates did not arrive from Minnesota, where he works in the university team.
“What good is a goalkeeper if he doesn’t have skates. That’s the biggest problem. They stayed somewhere in Minnesota, where they shouldn’t have been at all. It’s nothing that doesn’t happen, but it’s stupid,” Lašák revealed before training. “Adam has a GPS in his bag, he knows exactly where they are. We believe they will still come (to the departure), but it’s 50/50,” he added.
And due to the fact that another nominated goalkeeper, Samuel Hlavaj, will join the native on Tuesday, only Stanislav Škorvánek, who plays for Mountfield in Hradec Králové, was on the ice. It was him that Lašák praised.
“He (himself) is from Hradec Králové. It’s great to see that he’s in a position where the team stands and falls on him. It’s always good to see that he can cope with such pressure. He made a name for himself in the first year in the Czech Republic and now he belongs to the absolute top,” said Lašák, who revealed that he is not yet clear about the number one.
On the contrary, it is already about the captain. Only the name will be revealed by the implementation team led by head coach Vladimír Országh in a few days.
The Slovaks are defending their bronze medals under the five rings, but Országh has other goals. “The world’s best players will be at the Olympics, so the eight would be nice,” said former coach Litvínov. A total of twelve national teams are starting in Milan, which are divided into three groups of four. The winners of the groups and the best of the second places will advance to the quarter-finals, the others will play a pre-round of the play-offs, and the four best will then complete the quarter-final pairs.
The Slovakian team will open the entire hockey tournament when they face Finland on February 11 at 4:40 p.m. In group B there are still the Italians at home, with whom the Slovaks play on Friday, February 13 from 12:10, a day later at the same time coach Országh’s wards will challenge the favored Swedes.
