Twelve-time champion (with Comet recorder) has symbolically returned to her after twelve years. However, although in the premiere he was humiliating Mlada Boleslav 4: 3, which may be a stir, the crucial question remains: Will the comeback not only last year as in 2005?
At that time, the club paid off on a lock in the NHL. Without a star, he was a bastard when the Budějovice beat him in the bar with Prospal or Dvorak. And this year’s an outsider, with a 150: 1 course for the title, the biggest one ever.
And really, no wonder. Jihlava after the late – and more or less unexpected – spring advance to the extraliga was hard-pressed for reinforcements.However, at the end of April, the market is a lot overcrowded and, while the ice is littered with colorful advertising like Picasso’s canvas, Jihlava is equally in league with poor relatives.
Her expenses for the team are 19 million crowns, which for other clubs is an annual spending for three to four better players. For example, Dukla is still looking for an attacker, but club executive Bedřich Ščerban says flatly: “We are looking for a player who will benefit us and will accept our financial possibilities.”
And Friday, in certain passages of the game, complete quality is missing. However, the successful barrage “surprised” in another. From the outside, Horácký zimní stadion looks almost the same as in the times when the army was still commanded and the rivals were here to “survive” rather than win.And at the entrances line and the same smell from the nearby brewery.
Inside, it has been redecorated, seats have been added, yet there is a shortage, so Jihlava has had to apply for an exception to the league leadership (as on Friday, the series remained empty). Exception was given, and Josef Řezníček, director of the extraliga, also praised: “In Jihlava, hockey is a taste of when we were surprised to find out what they could do.” Although the city is talking about a major reconstruction or a brand new multifunctional arena on the “green meadow” in the city, it remains only with words and nice sketches.
What could, however, help Jihlava to survive in the extralines? Perhaps the old icons that live and work for the club.Bedřich Ščerban, a long-standing representative, is head of the club. Breathing for him, he calls himself a workaholic. A few hours after the tournament, the sponsors sent out and begged for more help in the new season.
26 years ago he was on the ice at the last Jihlava title, then declared him the best play-off player. He also experienced a sad fall into the first league, but now people around him are cheering on his coaching erudition and the desire to learn.
After all, even in a barrage, Jihlava succeeded – in a squad without big names – by fighting, working and performing defensive tasks. And it is also to be the money in the extralize. “We were all pulling a rope last year and it did not matter if the player was on ice for three or twenty minutes.That was our strength, and I would be glad if we could bring it into the new season, “says Captain Tomas Cachotski. “And we also want Dukla to be a permanent member of the extraliga and at the same time she was the mark she used to be.”
Still back to the back. Petr Jaros, a respected coach of goalkeepers, is helped by Vltava, whose goal in Jihlava was also the goal of Jakub Škarek, one of the greatest talents of the Czech national ice hockey. The sinful question, however, continues: Is it enough? “We believe the team will be competitive. And that we will be able to defeat other teams in the competition, “says coach Wolf.
