Does the Czech hockey enclave hold together in the NHL, or is there competition there too?
We were lucky that the boys from Kladno, with whom I grew up and played from a young age – Jirka Tlustý, Ondra Pavelec, Michael Frolík or maybe Radek Smoleňák – really played there. We keep it with us all the time.
And did you actually experience Jarda Jágra there?
I played with Jarda Jágr when he came back to Philadelphia, so we met there. We were neighbors.
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Is it true that his girlfriend at the time cooked for you?
Also, Ina cooked and helped me. I have such a funny story. We played the match from one o’clock, Jagr was injured and went to training early in the morning. Ina says: come at half past ten, I’ll cook you some spaghetti, because the program is so broken at that one o’clock. I say, yes. So I came upstairs, Ina was cooking spaghetti in a bathrobe, I’m sitting at the table, suddenly Jágr comes in and says: you, what’s going on here?
But we enjoyed it. It also happened once that I came with a teammate from such a party, we started playing songs at about half past three in the morning. And Jagr came to our house, wearing a beanie, jacket and shoes. I came from the bar and he was just going for a run. I thought I must be making a mistake somewhere.
A lot of players succumb to the pressure
Jakub, there are parents who send a boy to hockey with the idea that he will play in the NHL, that he will earn money and secure it for the rest of his life…
And that’s wrong when parents are full of dreams for their children. Children should be children and develop as children, whether in collective or individual sports. Then, of course, if possible, give him the best possible conditions.
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Once the parents go into it with the clear goal of him earning a living from the sport, it rarely works out as far as I can remember.
Nowadays, I think parents stick to one sport and do it for 12 months straight, but the child doesn’t develop at all. A child should be a child, move as much as possible, in the greatest possible range of sports, in my opinion. Then, when it starts to mature at 12-14 years, then it can be selected. But it’s a shame that parents often go crazy about it.
You had a crush on your parents.
Big, I keep saying that. My father kept me, you could say, always on the same line, he never pushed me completely anywhere, he always gave me advice when he could.
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But when things were going well – I was never a badass, but when I had signs that I was doing well and I was so sovereign – he kept me grounded. On the other hand, when it didn’t work, he always supported me that it would work again.
This is very important in life. Then in the NHL, the pressure is really big. When you’re making enough money, when things aren’t going well, a lot of players succumb to the pressure. And I always knew it would work, I never thought it wouldn’t work. This is the result of the upbringing of my parents, for which I am grateful to them. I think I have learned to use it in normal life as well, that keeping the middle line is very important.
You didn’t make a little money, yet you don’t splurge. A boy is sitting here in a T-shirt, shorts and slippers. Did you somehow learn financial literacy so you wouldn’t end up like some hockey players who didn’t quite succeed?
Just because I’m sitting here in a t-shirt and shorts doesn’t mean I haven’t done shit in my life, it’s just that no one knows about it. You learn from mistakes all your life, there were mistakes in adolescence even after I was making money. Pay the Lord, the money was so much that I am still doing well.
Who in the NHL continues to collect points for the Jakub Voráček Foundation? And how much do hockey players play through pain? Listen to the full interview.
