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I hate to be the one piling more grief onto things, but Vladimir Ruzicka must be regretting passing up the move to SKA St. Petersburg right now. The Czech GM must have the Olympics solely on his mind, as he needs something to forget this season from hell for last seasons beaten finalists, HC Slavia Praha.
Slavia had a rough offseason after losing in the finals of the Ceska Pojistovna Playoffs, where Karlovy Vary pounced on the frailties of Slavia’s goaltending, and nothing short of calamitous signings (or lack thereof) has lead to Slavia sitting in 12th place in the Extraliga at the time of writing. Albeit, with a win against Ceske Budejovice they can rise all the way up to seventh, showing the parity in the Extraliga but the big spenders will be expecting a lot more. Slavia have made deep runs in the playoffs for years, but if they’re not careful they could miss out on the playoffs altogether.
Slavia lost any hope of winning the Extraliga in the offseason, when Jaroslav Bednar departed to Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod, via a nixed deal at fellow KHL team, Atlant Mytischi. Slavia’s replacement for their top scorer came in the form of Daniel Branda, signed from HC Litvinov. Branda was no replacement for Bednar, and after 16 games was quickly shipped out, and he’s gone on to record a humble 1 point in 10 games on the roster of second bottom GEUS OKNA Kladno. Next, in game Tomas Kurka, signed from HC Ceske Budejovice, who has 20 points in 22 games, still half the points of top scorer Roman Cervenka. Slavia veteran Michal Vondrka has seen his ice time numbers rise thanks to the departure of top line fixture Bednar, but Vondrka has struggled to get close to Cervenka’s ridiculous numbers of 64 points in 41 games, which has seen him become one of the few European based players to make it onto Ruzicka’s Czech Olympic squad.
Slavia are the true definition of a one man team, and Roman Cervenka, who will more than certainly be leaving for pastures new in the off-season will be irreplaceable for the team from Vysočany. However, the pressing concern for Slavia for the rest of the season and for the season after has to be the goaltending. Since losing Adam Svoboda to Avangard Omsk in 2008, Slavia has ridden with Dominik Furch for the playoffs in 2009, and that turned out to be a disaster, with Stanislav Neruda taking his place for the playoffs. This season has seen no less than FIVE goaltenders take their place in the cursed Slavia Praha goal, with all but one failing miserably. First we saw the product of the Slavia youth system, Dominik Furch try to reclaim his place in goal, and after an 8 game spell, with a meagre 87.5%, he saw himself packing his bags down to Slavia’s feeder club, HC Rebel Havlickuv Brod, where he’s now the backup after failing to impress in the Czech 1-liga. Last seasons playoff saviour, Stanislav Neruda also came and went back to Havlickuv Brod, doing slightly better than Furch but still failing to crack the 90% mark. Both Zdenek Orct and NHL veteran Milan Hnilicka also signed contracts with Slavia, with both failing to impress, especially the latter with a shocking 83%, including conceding 6 on 19 shots in a 6-0 loss against Vitkovice Steel.
Robert Slipcenko is the unlikely hero for the reds. The 24 year old, who has mainly been riding the pine in the minor leagues has found himself on the biggest stage in Czech hockey, backstopping at the o2 Arena. Slippy as he is fondly known was a feature for HC Tabor in the Czech 3rd tier, but has found his way to becoming the starting goalie in the Extraliga, with a mind blowing 92.4%, considering his pedigree. If Slavia want to get anywhere in the playoffs they will require a suitable backup netminder as all too often, goalies can go off the boil and this could happen to Slippy.
Poor old Vladimir Ruzicka. How he wish he had the millions at SKA now..
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