HC Pilsen’s David Stach has had a pretty good start to this season in the Champions Hockey League. The forward currently tops the entire competition for points, as his side went into the Round of 16 undefeated.
“We simply did great,” said the 26-year-old about his team’s Group Stage performance. “JYP, Lugano and Banská Bystrica were some of the best teams we could have faced but we had a great start to the season and capitalised on that. Games with Bystrica were really open, up and down, but the most important games were the first ones and we won them all.”
Pilsen’s good form saw them beat defending champions JYP Jyväskylä home and comfortably away, something that made a lot of people sit up and take notice. “We were outstanding in the two games against JYP, I was expecting everything else except the results we got, especially that we won 6-2 on the road!” he explained. “It helped us to qualify for the playoffs early, which was great lift for us heading into the Extraliga season.”
"I think the biggest difference is style of play, not quality level."David Stach (Forward, HC Pilsen)
Stach wasn’t so much of a stranger to Finland, having played there as a junior. How does learning hockey there differ from in the Czech Republic? “Back when I was playing in Finland, they already had academies for young players and you basically had training camp all year long, not just in the summer. In the academy, we had two practices every day and it was a tough drill. I went there when I was 18 and didn’t know the language, so the years over there helped me to grow as a person too, I had to take care of myself, I found my way through everything,” he told us. “Luckily there were other Czech players in the team too, they were always helpful. Jakub Petružálek, Milan Jurčina, Josef Straka from Pilsen, and some other younger guys like Antonín Routa, who came there a year before me and managed to learn Finnish, he’s now a scout for the Detroit Red Wings. So these guys made it a bit easier for me.”
For Stach though the Champions Hockey League experience shows more the differences in style, and not that certain countries are better than others. “Both the Finnish Liiga and the Swiss National League are great competitions and we played one of their top teams, but I think they might be on a pretty similar level of quality to the Czech Extraliga,” explained the native of Kladno. "Based on my experience from Finland, I think the biggest difference is the style of play, not the quality level. I think our Czech league is much more held back by tactics."
The LGT Top Scorer of the entire CHL after the Group Stage thinks this European style of play suits him more. “The games in the CHL group stage were more open and not so tied by the tactics, so that played out well for me. It’s more offensive style of hockey and at least the teams we faced played up and down. I felt good in these games and I’m obviously glad I could help my team like that.”
Next up for the Czech regular season champions are EBEL winners HC Bolzano, and a trip to Italy. “To be honest, I don’t know much about Bolzano yet. I know that they’re champions of the EBEL and that they have lot of Canadians, so I’m expecting sort of North American style of hockey,” he said. “Our target is simple, we want to play good games and make it through, but we’re not looking any further than this just yet.“