Update: 15.05.2022 12:39
Released: 15.05.2022, 11:32
Tampere (Finland) – The national hockey team at the World Cup in Finland will have defender Michal Kempný from Washington. Team management is also interested in other reinforcements from the NHL – strikers David Pastrňák and Tomáš Nosk from Boston and David Kämpf from Toronto. But it will only have room for two players. The Bruins and Maple Leafs conclude the season tonight. According to the initial agreement, the team at Tampere will be left by defender David Musil, who is not on the list.
Washington was eliminated in the first round of the NHL playoffs with Florida 2:4 in the game, the last game taking place on Saturday night. 31-year-old Kempný, who won the Capitals Stanley Cup in 2018, did not play in the playoffs. He will have to join the national team on Monday and it will be his third start at the World Cup. He will enter the list as the Czech eighth defender.
“Michal Kempn is a defender with international experience and I am sure he will be a very good reinforcement for us. He is not as busy in Washington as we thought, but he is still an outstanding defender who will help us national team manager Petr Nedvd.
“David Musil understands his role during training in Sweden and we thank him very much for his professional approach. He should return to the Czech Republic tomorrow morning, where he will start preparing for next season,” he added.
Nedvěd plans to call Pastrňák, Nosk and Kämpf today. “I will find out how well they are and if they are interested in strengthening the Czech national team in the championship. Then I will contact the representatives of both organizations, because one thing is the boys’ interest, so wait for the club. to finally let players go,” said Nedvěd. The NHL playoffs also ended for another Toronto striker, Ondřej Kaše.
Strikers Petr Holík and Petr Kodýtek, who were not registered at the start of the tournament, will await the outcome of negotiations between Nedvěd, the players and their clubs.
Kempný last played a competitive match on March 28, when he started in a home defeat to Washington with Carolina 1:6. He has played just 15 games this season in the NHL and has scored two points for goals and assists.
He started the season after a prep camp on the farm at Hershey in the AHL and joined the Capitals for the first time until December 29. After the last 16 months he played for Washington in mid-August 2020 in the first round of the playoffs against the New York Islanders. Prior to the following year, he had Achilles tendon surgery in October and only managed to complete two AHL games in the end. Hershey has played 24 games this season and scored seven points for seven assists.
“It wasn’t easy, of course. David Musil accepted the role and knew what he was getting into. We thank him for his approach, because he was very good professionally and humanely. free We know that Michal hasn’t recorded much right now, but he’s healthy, abrasive, he can fit into that system.
Roles that Kempn knows personally play in the decision-making process. “We always have to respect the head coach and it’s true that Kari – even because Michal went to big hockey via Comet – asked me what Michal was like. I know him as a human and I think he would fit in typologically. I have this information. He handed it over to us. to Karim and we agreed that we needed this type of player,” Zábranský said.
He added that the team will want to play with eight defenders. “Then it’s about how the game will develop and how we will react to it. Of course, there are certain situations and every player has a role to play. From the start, we claimed that everyone must know their role in order for the team to play. to work. If a player didn’t accept the role, they couldn’t be here. Based on that, we also selected the players,” said Zábranský.
Kempný last played for the national team at the World Championships in Paris in 2017. The year before, he made his World Championship debut and then started at the World Cup in Toronto. He has 54 games in the national team and has amassed 22 points for five goals and 17 assists. In the national team, he will meet his former teammate from the Capital, Jakub Vrána. Together with the current Detroit striker, they won the Stanley Cup four years ago.
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