Czechia’s skill, goaltending could surprise top teams at Olympics
The top two teams at the Olympics are widely believed to be the United States and Canada, but other teams are going to be in the mix as well.
When it comes to top end talent that, on their best day, can rival what the U.S. and Canada will have on the ice, look no further than Team Czechia.
With a first line consisting of NHL stars like David Pastrnak, Martin Necas and Tomas Hertl, along with an emerging high-level NHL goalie in Lukas Dostal between the pipes, the Czechs are here to win.
Their chances took a blow when it was announced that center Pavel Zacha would miss the tournament, robbing them of precious depth behind their elite top line, but don’t count out the Czechs when it comes to challenging for a spot on the podium when all is said and done in Milan.
On Wednesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk and co-host and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton were joined by former NHL video coach Steve Peters to discuss why Dostal, Necas and Pastrnak make the Czech’s a formidable force in this tournament.
Tyler Yaremchuk: You mentioned Czechia there is one of those tough matchups for Canada. What do you like about that group? Why are they kind of the team you’re looking at as one that can push maybe a little bit more than we think?
Steve Peters: You worry about these tournaments and then everybody, and we are doing it here on the media. We’re looking at Canada U.S., Canada U.S. and we’ll talk Finland, Sweden a little bit. But you look at one of the rosters outside of that big four that has an NHL presence that can score. You’re talking about Marty Necas, Tomas Hertl, and David Pastrnak leading the way for Czechia. They have the ability to score but more importantly for Czechia is their ability to stop the puck. You look at Dostal, Vladar and even Karel Vejmelka who I’ve seen play a lot. When those three goaltenders get dialed into their game, man, this might be the best. When you talk about USA’s goaltending, Czechia might have the best three goaltenders playing right now going into this tournament. And their team is going to have to win low scoring games. That’s going to be 2-1, 3-2. They’re not going to overpower and outscore Canada and the U.S. They’re not good enough to do that, but this is a team that has offensive players from the NHL, and they can stop the puck. So keep an eye on Czechia. Don’t count them out yet.
You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…