2024-05-07 21:03:24
Polish ice hockey players will present themselves in the elite group of the World Championship after 22 long years. And just conveniently in Ostrava, near the border. Former goalkeeper Ondřej Raszka discusses their team’s chances in an interview for Aktuálně.cz. A native of Třinec, who caught 11 years in the Polish league and was also part of the Polish national team.
You certainly have a lot of friends in the Polish team. How are you looking forward to their performance in Ostrava?
It’s a great joy for Polish hockey, it was already close a few years ago. In Katowice 2016, it did not lose a single point. It’s great that the Poles are back, I’m looking forward to it and I’m curious how they’ll turn out.
What are your chances of survival?
They have Kazakhstan and France in their group, I think those are the only teams they can take some points with and save themselves. That will be the most important thing. They play the Kazakhs at the end, maybe that will be key, but you never know with Kazakhstan. They are able to surprise even strong opponents.
Just so that Poland’s encounters with Sweden or the USA aren’t too harsh, don’t you think?
That’s kind of assumed. It depends if the Poles want to look good and not lose so much, or if they want to focus mainly on the two mentioned matches. From my point of view, it doesn’t matter if you lose 1:4 or 1:10.
Who should be the driving force of the Polish team? Extraliga players Aron Chmielewski and Pawel Zygmunt?
I read yesterday that Aron probably won’t go. Given that he played little in the season. It’s a surprise for me, I think he would contribute to the team with his play. Anyway, even Zygmunt has been playing in the extra league for a long time, the team needs that kind of quality. I’m interested in who will go from the goalkeepers. The naturalized American John Murray is clear, in form he can trouble even very experienced shooters, which he showed several times at the Olympic qualifications. Czech Tomáš Fučík also caught in the preparation, but he was waiting for his Polish passport.
An interesting character is the thirty-nine-year-old Marcin Kolusz, long after his thirties, he was retrained from an attacker to a defender.
(smile) Marcin is a robocop. He played in attack all his life, but coach Tomek Valtonen moved him to defense in the Polish national team. He became a great defenseman, which is unusual in today’s hockey. He is experienced, physically he is still very good. The same striker Grzegorz Pasiut. He too is approaching forty, but he is one of the best in Poland.
What is the current level of the Polish league?
It gets better every year. When I started in Poland in 2010, players from the Czech second league went there and they were among the best. They can’t get there today and it’s difficult even for players from the first league. Hockey players with experience from the KHL or Northern Europe come to Poland, the teams pump money into it and can afford it. This, in turn, pulls young people, because the more competition there is, the more they have to try to get into the lineup.
On the other hand, when Poles are also paid above standard, they have no motivation to go abroad and improve themselves. It is so? Most of the players from the national team play in the Polish league.
That’s another thing. It helps them in terms of performance, on the other hand, if a Polish player succeeds and has a good season, the Polish club will offer him such money that it will not be worth it for him abroad. If a Polish club offers a player three times the monthly salary of, say, a first-league club in the Czech Republic, a lot of people understandably hear about it. He’d rather provide for his family. I think the key is to go abroad at a younger age.
A lot of young Poles have been going to the Czech Republic lately.
For sure, he goes in the youth or junior, sometimes even earlier. For example, in Třinec there are a lot of Polish players in the youth. It’s good for them, because youth hockey in Poland is at a very bad level. Some youth matches look like a school category. That is why it is better for them to go to the Czech Republic. For example, Krzysztof Macias played some matches for Vítkovice last season, now he is doing well in the Canadian junior team.
In the past, you said that in some places in Poland the education of youth hockey is strictly at the amateur level. Why? Missing coaches?
It is also because football, volleyball and handball are leading in Poland. Hockey is far behind them. If there’s money in hockey, it’s in the league, but not in the youth. However, this area is also on the rise recently, some trainers make a living from it and try to educate themselves. But it’s not so much an initiative of the union, the guys are doing it on their own.
Let’s go to your past in the Polish national team. According to the statistics on the Elite Prospects website, you caught nine games, is that right?
Officially, probably yes, with some other preparations there was more. I have been to the WC of lower divisions twice, in Budapest and Tallinn, always in the stands. Then covid came, there was no championship for two years and then I was done with hockey. I also completed the Olympic qualification in Bratislava with the team.
How do you remember it?
I take it that if I hadn’t gotten Polish citizenship and I hadn’t caught in Poland, I probably would have finished hockey earlier. I enjoyed it, we traveled the world. When Ted Nolan was coaching us, he took us to training in Canada. Valtonen and I spent two weeks in Vierumäki, Finland. Lots of nice experiences.
You went to Poland from Třinec at the age of 20. How was the decision making?
In retrospect, I think it was a good thing. They did offer me a junior contract in Třinec, but I didn’t see any prospects. There was Peter Hamerlík, Martin Vojtek, then Tomáš Duba came. I didn’t see a chance and thanks to my Polish ancestors I could go to Poland without being taken as a foreigner. I made it there, I stayed for a long time.
You also have two Polish titles with Kraków and Sanok. You finished two years ago at the age of 32. Why?
Because of the injury, because of the hips. I was injured at the beginning of the season in Tychy. It was discovered that I had a ruptured joint socket, my back was caught in it. There, they again found a tumor in my spine. When I got the resonance results, the club fired me overnight. I consulted with the club doctor, Třinec, and he told me that if I didn’t want to have an artificial hip in two years, then I should leave it. I have a young son, I want to play sports with him, so I was clear.
You started training young goalkeepers in Třinec. Do you continue to do so?
No longer. I was training but now I work in an insurance company. I was promoted to manager of the business group and that didn’t go together with training anymore.
Finally, back to the Polish team in Ostrava. How much help can the fans who take the hall by storm mean to him?
They have it close, a lot of people are looking forward to it. I believe that even the fan zone will be full of Poles and it will drive the boys to better results. Hockey in Poland largely takes place here in Silesia. Katowice, Tychy, Auschwitz, these are nearby hockey cities. Fans will certainly come in large numbers to support the national team.