Wednesday, September 29, 2004
Extraleague Update Machine: 09-29-04
Absolutely no worthy 'lockout' news to report. The players are obviously going to drag this out for awhile, as their next planned proposal will likely wait until November.
Anyway, I give you more Stats and News about your favourite players in the "Homeland"
CZECHIA:
1. Ex-Blues defender Libor Zabransky has retired from professional hockey. He had been playing with Pardubice and Sparta Praha the past few seasons, but has been suffering through a bevy of injuries.
2. Martin Havlat has still not suited up for a game with Znojmo; He's probably too busy with his 'disgustingly hot' girlfriend :)
3. The big story in the Czech Extraleague continues to be the floundering of a very deep and powerful Pardubice squad. They have 1 point in 6 games and are clearly in last place in the standings. This team was expected to be right at the top, and they don't shown signs of getting better.
Milan Hejduk: 6 games, 0 points, -8!
Ales Hemsky: 5 games, 1 goal, -5
Jan Bulis: 6 games, 1 goal, -3
Maybe they ought to tell these NHLers 'Thanks, but no thanks.' It doesn't look like these 3 have fit in at all and Pardubice may be better off sticking to what their original roster looked like. As is stands right now, Pardubice has a boatload of offensive-minded players floating around, and not enough gritty players doing the dirty work.
The stats...
SLOVAKIA:
1. Lubo Visnovsky left the Slovan/Trencin game with an undisclosed injury. We?re still awaiting news on how serious it is.
2. Vladimir Orszagh played for 1st division Banska Bystrica (his hometown) and scored a goal in a 5-2 loss.
The stats...
Lubomir Visnovsky (Slovan), Injured and finished with all 0?s
Pavol Demitra (Trencin), 2 goals, 1 assist, +4 with 2 PIM
Marian Gaborik (Trencin), 1 goal, 2 assists, +3 with 2 PIM
Marian Hossa (Trencin), 1 goal, 1 assist, +3 with 2 PIM
Martin Cibak (LMikulas), 0 pts, +2 (Returns from injury)
Martin Strbak (Kosice) 1 assist, +3
Ladislav Nagy (Kosice) 3 goals, 1 assist, +4 (First ever Extraliga Hat Trick)
Jiri Bicek (Kosice) 1 goal, 3 assists
- Jason
: 12:48 pm or I'd just have a massive satellite hooked up to the PM's house and get the live feeds from Czechia ;)
exclusively from Czechia by Misha :)
: 5:02 am Tuesday: Liptovsky Mikulas 4-0 Skalica.
Return of Martin Cibak but he didn't look very good. To be fair though nobody except Jan Laco in the home net did.
Two quick goals in the first and LM never looked like losing it. However the game was dull and the atmosphere was flat compared to the Trencin game.
Skalica looked very ordinary and will struggle this year.
Sunday: Zilina 7-1 Dubnica
My first view of Dubnica this season and boy did they live up to their rep. Only outshot 33-21 but they only had two decent chances, both after the Zilina keeper got penalties for delay of game for needlessly scooping the puck out of the playing area. After the second time he did his best to send his stick after the puck but was stopped by the netting.
Zilina looked good and while Petrovicky showed signs of things to come Zilina's captain Kontsek was the one to watch controling the game completely.
Friday: Liptovsky Mikulas 3:4 Trencin.
Note to self: When Trencin are in town get your ticket early. Sell out crowd of 3,600 saw Mikulas do their best against the unstoppable Trencin. The game was always close but if every time you take a penalty the opposition send out a line of Hossa, Demitra, Gaborik there isn't much you can do.
To their credit LM played very well and were unlucky not to grab a draw but Trencin deserved their victory.
Next games for me (work permitting).
Friday: Zilina vs LM
Saturday: Trencin vs Zvolen
Sunday: Zilina vs Kosice (or LM vs Slovan)
Tuesday: Trencin vs Nitra
: 7:44 am Dakujem! I am really quite jealous that the Znojmo/Zlin match will be so fun to watch. It's also great to see Peter Pucher is leading the league in scoring, even with the NHLers playing in Czechia.
and what is wrong with Milan Hejduk??
Hamish!! It sounds like you are having a blast watching all of those Slovak Extraliga games. Try taking some photos for us ;)
Dubnica looks like Spisska Nova Ves from year's past...a poor club that has no chance at winning any games. I'm surprised to see Hk36 doing so poorly....
Thanks for the updates!
- Jes
Well tonight's game was indeed Zilina vs LM.
At first I wasn't sure who to support as I'd seen all of both teams home games so far, but soon enough it became apparent that Mikulas were the team for me. Probably around the time that Kriska scored on a breakaway midway through the first period.
The game was one of the best I've seen all season with LM seriously picking their game up from Tuesday.
Both sides were out for the win but it allways looked like being a low scoring afair.
Late in the second Zilina scored on the powerplay, an easy tap home for Rešetka after a nice move. The game had been filled with penalties but this was the first decent chance with the man advantage.
The third was more of the same, tight, defensive hockey with the atmosphere increasing with every second.
I was sure the game was headed to OT and was busy trying to decide who had the edge going into 4 on 4 when Zilina scored. Arse. Two minutes left and little chance for LM to make a late comeback.
Final score 2-1 Zilina. A very good game in all.
I'm rather surprised aswell by Skalica's poor results. Tonight they went down 2:3 to Slovan but they really need to get some kind of momentum going. One point from seven games really isn't good enough.
Poor poor Dubnica. They do have the league's best jersey though so it's not all forsaken.
Trencin vs Zvolen on the TV tomorrow. Can't wait.
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