He’s only 18 years old, but in first CHL playoff game against Sparta Prague he centred Linkoping HC’s first line. Jakub Vrana is one of Europe’s bright young stars, and he showed why on Tuesday.
by Karolina Antosova
PRAGUE – Even though he didn’t score, he collected one assist on his team’s first goal. But moreover, you couldn’t have missed him on the ice. Jakub Vrana started this season at the rookie camp of the Washington Capitals and when he didn’t make the NHL team, he decided to go back to Sweden and play for Linkoping again instead of being assigned to the Capitals’ AHL affiliate. Right now, that seems to have been a good decision, as Vrana is considered one of Linkoping’s top players.
You’re from Prague, but you didn’t play for Sparta, did you?
That’s right, I’ve never played for Sparta before. When I was younger I played for Letnany, so Sparta was something like a rival team. But anyway, it’s my hometown, so it was really nice to play here.
So it must have been very emotional from your side.
It was such an emotional game for me. I grew up here. My family and all my friends were in the stands so, obviously, I wanted to do my best. But at the same time I had to relax a little bit, so I wouldn't be, you know, “over-motivated”.
Was it really hard to keep your emotions?
To be honest, it was really hard. When I came here I saw my dad, my former coach and family in the stands, so it was harder than usual. But I think I was able to keep my emotions quite well.
I could hear a few people supporting Linkoping in the arena, especially one girl. How many of those people were ones you brought here?
Well, I think it was something like 15 to 20 people. And the girl . . . it was my sister. (laughing)
Did you notice her there during the game?
It was quite easy to see her when she was jumping and screaming behind our bench. (laughing again)
As for the game itself, what did you think of it?
I think we just tried to play simply. We tried to get out of our zone quickly, create some pressure in front of their goalie. That might have been the difference in this game.
But there’s still one game left in this series. How close or far away do you think you are from advancing to the next round?
At first, we need to forget about this game and just start concentrating on the upcoming game. We just need to take some positive things from this game with Sparta.
You got a lot of ice time today, carried the puck a lot and also played on the power play. You must be happy about that.
I think so. I got lot of ice here in Prague, I’m satisfied with that but it’s really warm in this rink. I was sweating a lot, so it cost me so much energy. But in the end it was okay.
And what about the situation with Tomas Rolinek near the Sparta bench where you got a penalty?
So that was Rolinek, was it? Well, I don’t really know what happened there. I got a little cross-check from behind and must admit I was a bit frustrated. I think there was something from both sides but the referee saw it as he saw it.
After that you really didn’t want to go to the penalty box, it seemed.
Actually, initially I even didn’t know that I was getting a penalty. I noticed that after a while.
You have these CHL playoff games in the middle of your SHL season. Do you approach these games the same way as in your league or are they different?
I think that for us it’s a game like all the others. We lost our last away game in the SHL to Leksand, so we were practising for this game against Sparta quite a lot. We didn’t want to lose two in a row. So we don’t take these CHL games lightly, they're real games for us.
Your next CHL game is next Tuesday, but before that you have quite different plans than the rest of your team.
Yes, I’m not going back to Sweden with my team. I’m play for the U20 Czech national team.
There you'll meet up again with David Pastrnak. How much do you miss your buddy who played in Sweden with you the last few seasons?
We're still in contact. I keep an eye on him, so I know he's playing quite well in the AHL. And yes, it’s quite different not having him in Sweden anymore. We were together almost all the time there.
You could have also played in North America this season, but you came back to Europe. What did you learn from the camp in Washington?
I gained a lot of new experiences there. I learned something more about the physical game and so on. It was really useful.