Saturday, November 13, 2004

 

Weekend Update: Bartek, Brendl & Bartecko

It was looking like it was going to be another bad tournament for Slovakia as they opened up the German Cup with a 4-2 loss over the Swiss Cheese.

Fortunately, they woke up and beat Canada's E-squad (and 'non-scab' Corey Hirsch), 5-3, and then whipped the Germans today by a 6-2 score.

The real story of this tournament has been Predators' 'prospect' Martin Bartek. In the 3 games played, Bartek has 5 goals (Including 4 against Canada) and 4 assists while playing on a line with Lubos Bartecko and Leafs 2004 draftee Roman Kukumberg.

Drafted in the 8th round by Nashville in 1998, Bartek starred in the ECHL before struggling in the AHL and giving up on North America altogether.

Last season, Bartek surprised the nation and ripped apart the Slovak Extraliga and won the scoring title with 38 goals and 36 assists in 49 games. Finnish team Rauma took notice and signed Bartek away from Zvolen.

Just like his tenure in North America, Bartek has struggled and it's just a matter of time before he's kicked to the curb.

From Rauma fan 'psycho dad':

I have a strong feeling he could have been a good goal scorer. He has a world class shot, but a horrible childish attitude if that article is telling the truth. Loads of way better players are enjoying their time here in Finland, and playing much better hockey than Bartek.

Bartek's problem is his lack of defensive game. He also doesnt use his shot a whole lot. I guess he just cant cope with the defense here, so he has no scoring opportunities. He seemed to whine that his point production dropped after Pirnes got injured. Good players like Pasi Saarela kept on scoring and creating chances even without Pirnes. Bartek totally disappeared.

I guess he is a primadonna then...good riddance.

It really is frustrating to see talented people waste their talent simply due to laziness. If Bartek had played well in Finland, he may have earned himself another shot in North America. According to my pal Dano, Bartek will likely head to evil Slovan Bratislava...where good talent goes to the country club.

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A hot story from my pal Joeri:
Pavel 'Krispy Kreme' Brendl has been kicked off of yet ANOTHER team! Trinec kicked him out after 2 games, Krefeld of the German League didn't want him after the 'buffet' incident, and after a short stint with Olomouc (Czech 1st division), he signed with Malmo in Sweden.

Well, apparently Malmo has told Brendl to take a long walk off of a short plank after just 3 days of practice. Team officials were upset that Brendl came to their team in such poor shape and overweight. His unprofessionalism were the final straw and the team didn't even bother keeping him around to let him 'prove' himself.

I hope Brendl isn't the type to 'eat' away his depression. He may very well end up 300 pounds and playing in Belgium within a year.
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Atlanta Thrashees defenseman Ivan Majesky has decided to join evil Sparta Praha. Instead of joining his brother Boris with HKm Zvolen, $parta lured him to Prague with the big bucks. There is a special place in Hell for this team.

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Today's biggest beating comes courtesy of Norway, which smacked Serbia 21-0 in a Pre Olympic Qualifying tournament being held in Norway.

Here's a question: How the hell did Espen Knutsen end up without getting a single goal or assist in this game??? I'm sure his wife won't let him forget about this.
Poor Nebojsa Banovic finished with a -10!!

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Calgary Flames forward Shean Donovan is the latest Canadian heading overseas...he'll be heading to Geneva in the Swiss League until at least Christmas. As is standard, he has an 'exit' clause in case of an NHL/NHLPA resolution (and then Hell was sunny again). To make room for Donovan, Geneva is expected to release former St. Louis Blues defenseman Phillipe Bozon. Wow, I haven't heard that name in a long time.
Thanks to Joeri for the tip.

Comments:
Well, I hope all the motards that wanted little Sami Kapanen run out of Raleigh on a rail because of his scoring drought are happy. We got rid of a talented scrappy little forward who busted his ass every night and just needed some coaching in exchange for a loafy bastard with lots of potential and a bad attitude (not like we had one of those kind of players already *coughO'Neillcough*).

By the way Jes, I was wondering if you could give me any info on ex-Hurricane Marek Malik and how he's doing for Vitkovice. Czech isn't one of my languages, unfortunately, so I haven't been able to track how my boy's doing over there except through the stat column that you post every week. Thanks.
 
It's kinda sad how Kapanen's offensive production just dissappeared...but he's so useful as a forward and defender. He's a better multi-purpose player than Mathieu Dandenault, for sure. Carolina has a long long long history of bad management and bad trades...how does Rutherford still hold his job after so many years?

As for Malik...I've heard absolutely nuthin on the guy. Let me dig around a little more in the future and I'll have something in a future post for you.
 
If whole NHL would be compared by Malik's performances here in Vitkovice, out high school team would beat any team over there. He is absolutely weakest d-man of Vitkovice and all the fans is wondering, how this guy could win plus minus award in NHL. I've talked with wife of one of the Vitkovice forwards on saturday and even she told me that his team-mates are completely disappointed havin him in the team. But he is NHLer and couldn't be fired, in order the management could keep their faces..

Misha
 
Re: Harry

*sigh* I was afraid of that. See, over here he was improving--especially after the trade to Vancouver (which I still have not forgiven Jim Rutherford for). I was afraid that after the really good season he had last year, something would happen to mess him up. :/

One more reason why I want the lockout to end RIGHT DAMN NOW.

Re: The Hurricanes

Carolina has a long long long history of bad management and bad trades...how does Rutherford still hold his job after so many years?He's friends with the owner--it's the same reason why Paul Maurice was retained as coach for so long after showing that he was in way over his head (even in 2002). Pete Karmanos has a strong loyal streak in him--which is not an altogether bad thing, but unfortunately that sense of loyalty has led to him keeping people around him that really aren't the best for him either business-wise (with CompuWare) or hockey-wise (with the Hurricanes).
 
Thanks for the Majesky update. You'd think the official team websites could manage to keep track of their players (what else is there to do?) but apparently that's too much trouble. And I only know enough Slavic languages to keep up with the Superleague.

-Thrash fan
 
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