Read Part 1: the winger-centric nature of the Czech style of play
Read Part 3: CZE women’s hockey is the solution for CZE men’s hockey & vice-versa
To understand a region’s hockey culture, I watch its children practice.
Arriving at HC Pardubice’s home rink for the first time, I see a number of teenagers taking part in a team practice. The coaches are attentive and appear to have played high-level hockey.
The kids have sound skating, stickhandling and shooting technique.
Drills are either 1v0 or 1v1, with emphasis on carrying the puck and winning foot races.
In a 3v3 small area game, the biggest, strongest, fastest and most skilled players rag the puck until a lane to the net opens up.
There is not a ton of passing. Non-carriers are mostly content to watch their teammate and wait for a turnover instead of attacking space with expectation.
(Related: Watch the video workshop below for ways to tweak 3v3 small area games for better game transfer)
Much of the Czech game revolves around winning individual matchups, especially along the boards: using wide speed, cutbacks and puck protection on offense, and using physicality to neutralize opponents when playing defense.
Players who graduate to the highest levels of Czech hockey understand how to use the middle (as discussed in Part 1) and how to create small-area 2v1s, but fundamentally they see the game as a series of individual battles to be won with a decisive physical action.
Here are some examples.
Former NHLer Martin Kaut (#61 red) uses his skating and hand skills to win two duels in short succession before tucking a backhand into the net.
Pardubice’s F1 (in white) absorbs the D’s contact and sets up a goal from behind the goal line, a popular scoring play among Extraliga teams.
Pardubice again scores from behind the net, this time using a cutback to open a lane to F3.
The low cycle/behind the net/pass-out to the slot style of play is highly effective when your team’s forwards are individually superior to the opposition’s defensemen. However this heavy-handed approach makes poor use of the high ice (area above the faceoff dots) and forces defensemen to stay atop the blueline rather than getting involved.
Czechia’s most prolific defenseman, in terms of career NHL points, are Roman Hamrlik, Tomas Kaberle and Marek Zidlicky. All three are solid offensive contributors who dealt damage with their heavy shots (Hamrlik & Zidlicky) or pinpoint passing (Kaberle); none are rovers in the style of Cale Makar, Quinn Hughes or Erik Karlsson.
A meandering young defensemen in the mold of Makar, Hughes and Karlsson would not be well-tolerated by Czech coaches, especially if he were too physically slight to consistently win DZ battles against wingers.
In sum, if the prototypically Czech transition game benefits wingers at the expense of centers, the way the game is played in the OZ favors stubborn forwards while stifling creative defensemen.
Last season, just 32 Czech players took part in at least one NHL game. Sweden had three times as many players for a similar population size (10 million). Finland, a country of 5.6 million, had 48 NHLers.
The list of active Czech players is underwhelming.
The Swedish-trained David Pastrnak is one of the best wingers in the world, but the dropoff is steep. Tomas Hertl, Pavel Zacha and Martin Necas are top-six NHL forwards, but the rest of the list is populated by a number of shutdown centers and big-bodied defenseman.
The prototypical Czech winger is poorly represented. This category of players tend to lack the quick thinking needed to stick in the NHL (examples: Filip Zadina and Dominik Kubalik).
Paradoxically, hockey consultant Thibaud Chatel has the Czech Extraliga as a league on the rise, with an NHL equivalency (a rough measure of overall league quality) equivalent to that of the Finnish Liiga.
With the KHL, SHL and Swiss NL also getting plenty of attention from fans and free agent players, the Extraliga is probably the most underrated league in the world.
The top Czech sides are well funded, well organized and feature domestic talent on the ice and behind the bench. They should be doing a better job of promoting players to the NHL.
The shortfall in Czech difference-makers in North America, both currently and historically, comes down to tactical philosophy. Czech hockey’s biggest strength, its ability to produce heavy wingers, also creates its biggest weakness, an inability to develop dynamic centers and defensemen.
That being said, Czechia has all the ingredients to reverse the trend. To better understand their path toward elite player development at all positions, we’ll have to move away from the most underrated league in the world (CZ Extraliga) and examine the most underrated team in the world: the Czech National Women’s Team.