Dominika Laskova remembers ready for a move that by no means landed on her stick.
Laskova was 12 years previous taking the ice for the Czech Republic’s under-15 nationwide camp. Her teammate, Tereza Vanisova, was hogging the puck.
“I do not wish to say we did not like one another, however Tereza sort of did not move to anyone,” Laskova stated from the Verdun Auditorium. “She was sort of egocentric on the ice.”
Fifteen years later, the 2 Czech gamers are greatest associates — and sharing greater than only a puck.
Laskova and Vanisova are the one Europeans on Montreal’s Skilled Girls’s Hockey League staff, pursuing hockey careers which have led them each to new lives in Canada.
The 2 27-year-olds have been drafted collectively by Montreal and moved near the staff’s major enviornment within the metropolis’s Verdun borough. In addition they shared an condominium as members of the Premier Hockey Federation’s Toronto Six final season.
Vanisova, doing her greatest to shake the `puck hog’ label Laskova tagged her with so a few years in the past, had a team-leading 4 assists via 4 video games coming into Tuesday’s sport in opposition to New York. Laskova hadn’t but discovered the scoresheet.
Laskova says Vanisova is a “quick” participant. Vanisova describes Laskova as expert and sensible: “She will see the ice very properly.”
Off the ice they discover methods to blow off the strain of taking part in high-stakes hockey — and protecting homesickness at bay.
“We’re in the identical boat, and it is like, if I’ve a nasty day, she sort of is aware of what it looks like,” Laskova stated. “Simply being away from household and like being a European and having a unique tradition and stuff like that, it is at all times good to have any individual who can perceive that.”
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Occasional meals of conventional Czech consolation meals ready by Vanisova assist to deliver a few of their homeland nearer.
“Tereza loves her kitchen and she or he would not let me cook dinner, so I am simply bent out,” Laskova stated.
“I can cook dinner too, however she simply would not let me so I simply make enjoyable of it and like she’s the mother, I am the dad of the household. So I simply at all times ask. `What time is the dinner? What time ought to I be prepared?”‘
And Vanisova provides, nobody could make her snicker like Laskova.
“As a roommate, she’s humorous. She is one thing else,” Vanisova stated earlier than bursting out in laughter. “She at all times makes enjoyable of the whole lot. Typically I am like, ‘OK, cease! I am not in a temper for it.’ However she retains going.”
They’ve skilled skilled hockey nearer to dwelling by taking part in within the Czech and Swedish leagues.
However the newly-formed PWHL gives them an opportunity to play on the highest degree on a constant foundation, they usually’re decided to make it regardless of having their households six time zones away.
“If I’d return to [the Czech Republic] I’d in all probability stop hockey,” Vanisova stated. “And in Europe, Sweden, possibly Finland [could be options], nevertheless it’s not the identical for certain.”
Laskova provides that taking part in in North America may also help enhance European groups on a world stage dominated by Canada and the U.S. for many years.
“You at all times chase your desires and this league I believe is the highest league I’ve ever performed in,” Laskova stated. “Enjoying alongside Workforce Canada, Workforce USA gamers or simply taking part in in opposition to them the entire yr spherical is clearly good for us.
“I believe for Europeans it is undoubtedly a superb step ahead to get nearer to the North American groups and win on the worldwide degree.”
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