Czech Assistant Coach Robert Reichel Slams TD Place Rink Conditions, Looks Ahead To Quarterfinal Against Canada

Over 30 years ago, Robert Reichel played in three IIHF World Junior Championships for Czechoslovakia in 1988, 1989 and 1990, and he still holds the Czech record for most points in a single tournament with 21 in 1990. Now, the former World and Olympic champion, IIHF Hall-of-Famer and long-time NHLer is in Ottawa as an assistant coach for this year’s Czech team.

The Czechs have just finished playing four Group B games at TD Place, the smaller and older of the tournament’s two venues. Even though the Czechs won three of those games to finish second in the group, Reichel didn’t hide his opinion that it isn’t a suitable venue for a tournament of this stature. 

“Here at TD Place, you can see that they don’t have things up to the standards you’d expect for a world championship,” Reichel told Hokej.cz on Tuesday. “Bad boards, bad glass, bad ice... If something similar happened in Europe, everyone would be talking about it. It’s quiet here. It’s unfortunate that one arena is excellent and the other is bad.”

TD Place, formerly known as the Ottawa Civic Centre, opened in late 1967 and has been home to the OHL’s Ottawa 67’s ever since. It was also home to the Ottawa Senators from 1992 to 1995 while the team’s current home, Canadian Tire Centre, was under construction. 

“I remember this rink from when I played in the NHL for the Calgary Flames,” Reichel continued. “It hasn’t changed since then. I don’t know. I don’t want to say it’s unfair, but to me it’s not the right place to play hockey.”

Fortunately for Reichel, the Czechs will play their quarterfinal game against Canada – as well as a semifinal and medal game if they make it that far – at the “excellent” arena, Scotiabank Place.

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Reichel’s primary duties with the Czech team are the power play and, as a former center, faceoffs. Those are both areas that could be critical against Canada.

All four Czech centers – Vojtěch Hradec, Dominik Petr, Miloslav Holinka and Jiří Felcman – are over 50 percent in the circle but Canada has two of the top three face-off men by percentage in the tournament in Cole Beaudoin and Braden Yager.

“The guys have a video of each player,” he said about the Czech centers. “I show them the technique so they know what to expect. We spent the entire camp focusing on faceoffs. I think they are well prepared for it.”

As for the power play, that’s how that Czechs might have to get their goals because Canada is the only team in the tournament that has not yet been scored on 5-on-5. Czechia’s power play is tied for third in the tournament at 23.08 percent, while Canada’s penalty killing is fifth at 77.27 percent. Canada took a tournament-leading 29 minor penalties during the group stage.

“We try to work on it all the time – we have training sessions and video,” said Reichel. “The special teams have been decent.”

As for the team’s big power-play weapon – the Eduard Šalé one-timer, he said, “We have some options. It doesn't matter if (Šalé) is there. Last year it was Jiří Kulich. We try to find what could work for the team we’re playing against. If it works, great, if not, we need to know why.”