Earlier, the playing owner of Kladno, Jaromír Jágr, returned to the Knights’ group and was able to enjoy a win in Mladá Boleslav 1-0 in overtime in the finish of the 43rd round of the extra league.
Jágra is pleased with how the team has risen in recent weeks, which was confirmed by the fourth victory outside in a row, and in the fight to the rescue he escaped the last Zlín by a difference of 14 points. In preparation for the match, Jágr escaped watching Ester Ledecká’s morning triumph at the Beijing Olympics, but according to her, he counted 100% on her defense of gold in a parallel giant slalom on a snowboard and sent her congratulations during the day.
Jágr returned to the team after two matches after the ill Ladislav Zikmund dropped out. “I played in Litvínov for about three minutes. I haven’t been on the ice for about three or four weeks, my legs were completely knocking. I didn’t go to practice, and when, like a coach in coveralls. “But Ziki got sick, we needed one player. So I went. We don’t have many extra players, actually no one, just four lines,” said Jágr, who will be celebrating his 50th birthday in a week. He spent eight minutes and 39 seconds on the ice and didn’t even go to power.
“I knew that I would go to the fourth line, where the goal is not to score a goal. They had one chance for us in the match, it was my fault,” Jagr said. In the 10th minute, however, he was able to open the score in the first big chance of the match, when Jakub Babka released him from behind the goal. “I was scared like I was eighteen. I didn’t expect to get such a record in the fourth line. I didn’t get that from Pleky in a whole year,” Jagr laughed at the mention of the absence of the usual cooperation with the team’s main leader. Tomáš Plekance.
Since mid-December, when he started having problems with the puller, he has often been missing from the lineup. He only played the sixth of the last 17 matches. “The conditions are also a problem. We have minus three degrees in the training hall. I was injured twice before the winter exercise started. It’s a fairy tale here in Bolka, the thermometer in the hall showed 18 degrees. I feel like in Florida here. “This is what our conditions are like this year,” he mentioned the reconstruction of the Kladno stadium.
In the near future, he has no ambition to increase his time on the ice. “It suits me quite like that. I mean, I moan completely for me personally, I’m not feeling well. On the other hand, I can watch the team, in the first line I focus more on myself than on the others. This is something like a coach and a player,” he said.
He likes how the team got up since January 4, when he lost to Zlín in his home asylum in Chomutov. “They started to play much more responsibly. It can be said that everything has improved. Even the training is on a completely different level than before. Hats off. I’m happy how young players grow match after match. Maty Filip, Áda Kubík, Jirka Ticháček… Players, What else they didn’t get much of a chance, they appreciate it and they play all the time. It’s a pity we didn’t play like this from the beginning. I believe we could be on the fifth or sixth spot. the future, “Jagr said.
His team is seven points away from the escape of the extra league, but at the same time he takes care of Zlín behind him. “Nothing is over yet, there are a lot of matches ahead of us. Anything can happen. We have risen as a team and we are playing back more responsibly. The form of the goalkeeper who holds us is important to us. We bounce back from it. It’s not very nice, but we play to win, I like that, for example the first third in Hradec 4: 1, they had a total of 60 shots, but otherwise it can’t be played, you can’t play openly against Hradec, we play what is needed “I like that we have found a way to win. And for me, it is important that players grow match by match,” he said.
Kladno can rely on the great performances of goalkeeper Landon Bow, who did not make it into the Canadian staff for the Beijing Olympics. “For us, it is liberation on the one hand. However, it is a pity for him, it would be something special. Even if he would probably drive as a three,” said Jágr, who registered today’s triumph of Ledecká in Beijing with a delay.
“It wasn’t until I woke up. I didn’t watch. I have my system like that when we play. We didn’t get up at all, but of course I registered that she won. Which was probably expected before the Olympics. I wrote her a message that congratulations. But that “We could all tell her before the Olympics. This gold is counted on. It’s like when the Soviet Union went to the Olympics or the World Cup,” he praised the dominance of the Czech national team.
However, he does not dare to estimate how the hockey players will turn out. “When you listen to it, it’s not much about the sport. The first thing is not to get infected, it’s crazy. It must be terrible for the coaches and the team management. You are counting on something and suddenly the player is not available. At the same time, he is completely healthy. “He just didn’t pass the test. Maybe he’s healthy and only the test showed that he isn’t. It’s one of the Olympics where you have to be lucky,” said Jágr.
“It helped us a lot that NHL players don’t go. We have a much better chance like this. It’s a shame for us spectators, I’d like to see the best Canadians, Americans, Russians, Swedes. That would be a delight to the eye. The World Cup isn’t like that either. “The Olympics were the only measure by which you can say that the best are in top form,” added Jágr.
