Slovakia roster for the Slovakia Cup 2011

02 Feb 2011 | Petr Polák

Next week(Feb 11-12), the host country of the upcoming World Championships 2011(WC) Slovakia will host also the Slovakia cup – an international tilt of Switzerland, Belarus, Germany and Slovakia. The tournament will be also the first test of the under-reconstruction WC arena – Ondrej Nepela stadium.

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Because of that, the technical side of this event is more important than the sport side, because the arena is still under reconstruction works and it will be opened only in a limited mode although according to the original plan the works should be already done and the arena fully prepared for the tournament and the WC.

The hockey public is naturally very interested and curious of the process of the Ondrej Nepela stadium reconstruction, lot of fans would like to use their opportunity and take a look inside the arena, but not a lot of them can do, because the limited mode of under-construction arena allows entry just for 2,000 spectators and to the smaller part of the hall.

But the technical side is not important for the Slovakia national team and its Canadian coach Glen Hanlon. He is fully wrapped up in the Slovakia World Championship national team and also from this motivation he’ll present the strongest team if we count healthy players with contracts in Europe.

"From my origin nomination a few players are missing. Martin Štrbák didn’t change his conclusion to end his national team career; Michal Maco, Juraj Kolník, Radovan Somík and freshly also Miroslav Šatan are injured. We cannot count with Peter Sejn and Dominik Graňák either, I won’t see them until pre-championships camp," Hanlon told to Slovak Ice Hockey Federation website.

According to his words, he already has a imagination about the final roster for the WC, but the fortune will also have big influence on his nomination. "Of course I would like to have the most possible count of high-quality NHL players in the team, but the situation in NHL is changing every day and I think, that the Slovakia cup roster will be 80% similar to the World cup squad,"Hanlon said, "because of it they should get familiarized with the game style as well as with the ambient in Bratislava arena, where we will play the WC games what is very positive fact."

The Slovakia roster
G Peter Hamerlík
G Július Hudáček
G Ján Lašák
D Ivan Baranka
D Radek Deyl
D Richard Lintner
D Ivan Majeský
D Branislav Mezei
D Peter Podhradský
D Richard Stehlík
D René Vydarený
F Marek Bartánus
F Ľuboš Bartečko
F Martin Cibák
F Rastislav Dej
F Pavol Demitra
F Marcel Hossa
F Rudolf Huna
F Juraj Mikúš
F Ladislav Nagy
F Peter Ölvecký
F Branko Radivojevič
F Jozef Stümpel
F Tomáš Surový
F Richard Zedník