Pastrňák: We had an unbelievable team here! What health problems did he struggle with at the championship?

After Svoboda and Moravec, the Czech hockey nation has another golden scorer. David Pastrňák scored in the 2:0 win over Switzerland and praised the incredible team that coach Radim Rulík has assembled at this World Championship. What health problems did the Czech hero have to overcome?

It happened in the middle of the third act. Hajek pushed the puck to Kundrátek, who drew a great cross pass to Pastrňák. Exactly like the one the Czech shooter gets from his teammates in Boston. And he followed it up with an unbelievable bomb from the first. Genoni had no chance.

“I’m glad the signal worked. I think you saw it at my goal celebration. I didn’t think I’d ever get down on my knees after a goal, but the emotion was just so great! I didn’t even know I had it in me,” Pastrňák was overjoyed in front of the Czech TV cameras.

It was the first ever goal and point at the championship for the fifth man to score in the NHL regular season. He needed four games to get it. But history won’t ask that. The twenty-eight-year-old Havířov native shot his thirteenth world gold.

Pastrňák brought his sore hip to Prague

“We had an incredible team here, an incredible group. The guys here put it together great. I came in, new system, new coaches. A coach I didn’t know. It definitely took me a while to get used to the system. We all trusted him,” Pastrnak added.

Pastrňák arrived in Prague after Boston was eliminated from the NHL playoffs, but his employer didn’t think much of it because the author of fifty-one goals had been plagued by health problems for a long time. Still, he didn’t hesitate for a moment and came.

“I have a bad hip. But what Mr. Kolář did with me here… I haven’t felt this good in eight months. I’m very grateful to him. I don’t know what magic hands he has. I really didn’t feel as good skating as I did at the championships,” Pastrňák praised Czech physiotherapist Pavel Kolář.

After fourteen long years, the Czech hockey nation is celebrating gold medals again. Moreover, at the home championship. Only the Swedes and the Finns have managed to do that in this century before. And it was shot by the golden goal scorer Pastrňák.

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