‘They have the most talent’: Czechs react to shutout loss against Canada

Czechia dropped its first game of the men’s hockey tournament at the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics Thursday, suffering a 5-0 loss at the hands of Canada. While the Czechs were certainly hoping for a better start to their tournament, they understand there’s no shame in falling to a superpowered Canadian team led by Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, and Sidney Crosby.

“They’re a great team,” said Czech defenseman Radko Gudas about the Canadian squad. “Obviously, they’ve been the best put-together team for a while. We’ve all been looking forward to this tournament – best of the best. They brought their great team. They played a hell of a game.”

Czechia’s top-line center Tomas Hertl echoed Gudas’ sentiments after the game, showing respect for Canada’s talent and remaining positive about his team’s performance despite the lopsided score.

“They probably have the most talent in the tournament, some of the best players in the world, but I think we had a pretty good start,” Hertl said. “We’ve been right there – with a couple of chances, it could be different.”

Hertl is right that the Czech’s didn’t look completely overmatched for much of the game. Through two periods, Canada had a slim 23-22 advantage in shots on goal. But Czechia couldn’t find a way to solve Canadian goaltender Jordan Binnington, and the game got out of hand in the third, with Canada firing 13 shots on goal to Czechia’s four, and scoring twice more.

Ultimately, Czechia can come away from this game with their heads held high, knowing they battled against the gold-medal favorites and the opportunity to improve still lies ahead of them.

“We tried to battle all the way to the end,” said Gudas. “We don’t like the outcome, but it’s a tournament and the most important games are coming up, so we’re going to focus on those.”