Czech mates facing each other in playoff series
Calgary’s Hudler, Vancouver’s Vrbata are key contributors to their teams
There aren’t nearly as many Czech players in the National Hockey League as there once was, but the Vancouver Canucks and Calgary Flames are happy they each have one very good one.
It is not a stretch to suggest that the Flames and Canucks would not have made the playoffs without the significant contributions of Jiri Hudler and Radim Vrbata.
Each scored 31 goals this season and are now being counted on to lead the way in the best- of- seven Western Conference openinground series that began Wednesday night at Rogers Arena.
Vrbata, who at 33 is nearly three years older than Hudler, first played against him in his teens.
“I played against him when we were like in midget in Czech,” Vrbata said. “He was younger and playing with the older kids, and then at my first world championships I was 20 or 21 and he was already on it as an 18- year- old or something.
“He was considered to be one of the guys that would follow in ( Jaromir) Jagr’s footsteps, which is impossible. But every now and then there was a guy that was coming up like that.”
Hudler, who finished tied for eighth in NHL scoring with 76 points, has formed an effective partnership on Calgary’s top line with youngsters Sean Monahan and Johnny Gaudreau.
“He has been great,” Vrbata said. “That whole line has been good. As the older guy on that line he probably took care of those two young guys.
“He is not the fastest guy, but really smart and skilled. He can score, he can make plays and even for a little guy he knows where to be on the ice. He was in Detroit, right, so he went through that system and I think that really helped his game to play with the players they have there. I think it’s paying off for him right now.”
Vrbata and Hudler have stayed in touch over the years and been occasional teammates on national teams.
Vrbata said given the diminishing numbers of Czech players in the NHL, he and his fellow countrymen who do play in the league have a tight bond.
“Every time you play a Czech guy you at least say ‘ hi’ to him during game, before game or after game,” Vrbata said. “It’s not like we ( he and Hudler) would be hanging out during summer. After a season everyone goes their separate ways and once you start having kids there is no real time. But all the Czech guys pretty much know each other.”
The NHL was loaded with Czechs when Vrbata was selected in the seventh round of the 1999 draft by the Colorado Avalanche.
“It goes in cycles,” Vrbata said. “Back when I was drafted we were winning world championships, world junior championships, we won Nagano ( the 1998 Winter Olympics) back then. My first year in the NHL, when I got called up I was the 112th Czech player in the league that year. Now we have 30 or 35.”
The KHL has something to do with that, but Vrbata said it also extends to player development back home.
“I know it is a concern back in Czech, our junior teams are not doing really well at the world juniors and stuff,” he said. “They have some kind of plan in place and you can see in the last couple of years it is getting a little better. You can see there are some ( young) players like ( David) Pastrnak in Boston. Hopefully, there will be more.”