The way up was not entirely easy. Rather turbulent.
At last year’s Olympics in Beijing, Czech women’s hockey players under coach Tomáš Pacina were already considered by many to be the dark horse of the tournament, but it didn’t work out. In the end, they only finished seventh and Pacina didn’t take the napkins. The team harshly criticized the American. Some didn’t like it, some appreciated it.
And even though the Czech coach left the team immediately, he undoubtedly left a good mark. This is how team captain Alena Mills spoke about him after the Olympics for isport.cz:
“Czech society is not used to the truth, Tomáš knows what potential we have, so far we have not been able to use it fully… We have only scratched the surface of what we can do. That’s behind us, the players. I guess we were afraid of a big change. In any case, we did not meet her and were not open enough.’
Fortunately, Pacino’s work did not fall apart, on the contrary, it managed to maintain continuity. The Canadian star Carla MacLeodová immediately came on his recommendation as a new coach. A woman who not only won two Olympic golds with Canada in Turin 2006 and Vancouver 2010, but even played under Tomáš Pacina. To this day, the two are friends and she considers him a mentor.
It was undoubtedly a pivotal moment. MacLeod didn’t scatter the team, she didn’t start from scratch. It was enough to build further on the solid foundations that Pacino had laid and add his approach and coaching methods.
By the way, even though she is only 40, we can say that she already has thirteen years of rich coaching experience behind her.
She started right after her playing career ended in the fall of 2010, when she became an assistant coach at Mount Royal University. During the following 2011–12 season, she became an assistant coach of the U18 national team, which participated in a three-game series against the USA in August 2011. From February 2012, she worked as an assistant coach of the Japanese national team and was immediately successful when, in February 2013, Japanese women qualified for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia for the first time.
There was nothing but praise for MacLeod – she is said to have excellent coaching skills, a sympathetic demeanor and also a tactical understanding of the game. She instilled in the players a hockey mentality and a style of play that exerts strong pressure on the opponent.
She was successful almost immediately with the Czechs, when last year after half a year with the team she brought home a bronze medal from the World Championships in Denmark. The first medal in the history of Czech women’s hockey.
At the same time, you might not say all this to her. The woman from Spruce Grove in the Canadian province of Alberta is just 163 cm tall, perhaps a little short for the former mainstay of Canada’s defence. But in addition to the two most valuable Olympic metals, she also has gold and three silver medals from the World Championships.
When you search the family tree, you stop wondering. Hockey is in their blood. Through her paternal grandmother, MacLeod is related to Montreal Canadiens legend Maurice Richard. This Mr. “Rocket,” as he was called, became the first NHL player to score 50 goals in a season, in 1944-45 in 50 games and the first to reach 500 career goals.
His relative will lead the Czech team to the semi-finals against the USA on Saturday evening (18:00 our time).