Slovak ice hockey players will not play in the quarterfinals at the WC. Although they beat Norway 4:1 on Tuesday, in the evening match the Latvians won 4:3 over Switzerland after extra time and gained the necessary points, thanks to which they overtook Slovakia in the table.
This year’s championship can thus be recapitulated by the Slovaks, and when looking for the reasons for the failure, it is possible to find a parallel with the performance of Richard Pánik in Tuesday’s match against Norway.
Pánik had an excellent start to the match and already confirmed his talent in the 4th minute. With a clever movement behind the goal, he deceived the defenders and the goalkeeper, and after his back pass, Hrivík easily scored. The Slovaks followed up the nice hockey moment with two more goals and won 3:0 after a successful first period.
However, the second part came, the performance was no longer of such quality, and after the Norwegian reduction, another moment came from Richard Pánik. This time negative.
At 3:1, the Slovakian forward skated alone on the opponent’s goalie in a weakened state, but instead of the standard finish, he tried a technical trick that didn’t work at all, and in the end he didn’t even shoot at the goal.
Hockey experts Rastislav Staňa and Ivan Švarný supported Panik in the poll, but they analyzed the situation at a moment when it was already clear that Slovakia had won the existential match. Marián Gáborík and Boris Valábik, who in the RTVS studio rated Pánik’s performance between the second and third third, were significantly more critical of the player.
“I don’t think it was appropriate. Especially at 3:1. I think that the ending has to be more forceful, there wasn’t even a shot like that. I wouldn’t give him praise for this,” said Gáborík. “In such a state, moreover, in the third, when we got the Norwegians on the horse and started to play much better, then he cannot finish like that.”
Valábik also didn’t like another thing. – casualness and reliance on others. Panik reproached that before how