| HC ČSOB Pojišťovna Pardubice | |
|---|---|
| City | Pardubice, Czech Republic |
| League | Czech Extraliga |
| Founded | 1923 |
| Home arena | ČEZ Arena |
| Colors | red and white |
| Head coach | Pavel Hynek |
HC ČSOB Pojišťovna Pardubice is a professional ice hockey club that plays in the Czech Extraliga. It is located in Pardubice, home venue is ČEZ Arena. The club previously was named HC Eaton Pardubice, but since the 2011–12 season the club is named HC ČSOB Pojišťovna Pardubice.[1]
Contents |
Ice hockey is being played in Pardubice since the beginning of 20th century. Witness of the hockey beginnings in Pardubice was Matiční jezero where so called “bandy hockey” was played. This way of playing hockey was taken from football – there were 11 players, goals, instead of puck there was a ball and even the site of the field was exactly like in football. The first match in Canadian style of hockey was played in 1913 on the very same lake. In this match played for Pardubice: Weiss, Potůček, Reiberg, Přibík, Komeštík and Kubeška.
Organised hockey was founded in Pardubice by Vilém Weiss in 1923 when also hockey club LTC Pardubice was established. Regular competitions started to be played only in season 1930/1931.
After the end of Second World War was in Pardubice installed ice rink and before the Christmas 1947 new winter sports stadium was opened with artificial ice rink. In season 1949/1950 Pardubice won in its division and managed to get to Extra League. New season 1950/1951 entered the team with new name Slavia Pardubice. Since that time the club has never descended from the top hockey competition.
Slavia in the name of the team didn’t stay long. At the end of season 1952/1953 the club changed its name to Dynamo Pardubice. In 50s of 20th century began their careers in Pardubice Bronislav Danda and goalkeeper Vladimír Nadrchal.
The first important success of the club came in 1960. Dynamo Pardubice reached the medals for the first time getting on 3rd place. In this season was also the winter sports stadium finished and provided with a roof.
The following season began the club with a new name again. This time it was Tesla Pardubice. This name stayed without a change for long 31 years until July 1991.
In 1960s the team was with their results somewhere about the middle of the table of results. From Pardubice team got into representation on winter Olympic Games offensive players Jiří Dolana and Stanislav Prýl. In 1965 Zdeněk Špaček became the best scorer in the league with 33 goals. The arrival of the new generation of players was marked by the arrival of junior players, who became champions in 1967. The offensive tri consisting of Bohuslav Šťastný, Jiří Novák and Vladimír Martinec became the stars of Extra League. Wings of this offensive action became on a domestic championship in Prague in 1972 even world champion.
Pardubice team was waiting for its big opportunity until 1973 when they won the basic part and then even play off and so they got the first title in champion league. Vladimír Martinec became the best pass a ball player with 23 assistances and got his first Golden Hockey Stick.
Season 1975/1976 was started by the final duel between Tesla Pardubice and CSKA Moscow. Tesla in match played in Czechoslovakia showed unbelievable performance when they managed to defeat a professional army team with score 3:2. However, the following match played in Moscow was won by CSKA with score 6:1.
After the won champion ship title the team stayed among the top three teams in Extra League for following 3 seasons when they reached silver and bronze medal. Goalkeeper Jiří Crha at that time was playing on the position of the second goalkeeper on several top competitions but didn’t get any gold medals and so he decided to emigrate. After that he became the first Czech player to play in NHL.
In the following years there were couple of successful players rather than the whole team being successful as the whole. The offensive trio Vladimír Martinec, Jiří Novák and Bohuslav Šťastný reached another world championship title. Besides that Vladimír Martinec became the best player of Extra League with 28 assistances in 1976 and from the mid-1970s he won Golden Hockey Stick three times. In 1979 Vladimír Martinec even became the best offensive player in the whole League with 42 goals. However, Tesla as a whole wasn’t that successful as the individual players.
Since 1982 the senior team started to be on the upturn. New team members became goalkeeper Dominik Hašek, defender František Musil, offensive players Otakar Janecký and Jiří Šejba. Musil and Šejba won the world championship in Prague in 1985 but at that season they were playing for the army team Dukla Jihlava. After that František Musil emigrated to NHL and Jiří Šejba returned to Tesla Pardubice to celebrate the title of League Champion in the seasons of 1986/87 and 1988/1989. In both these seasons Dominik Hašek won the Golden Hockey Stick and again won this title in 1990. In season 1988/1989 was the best pass a ball player Otakar Janecký with 41 passes and the acknowledgement for the best coach was given to Valdimír Martinec. Another player Ladislav Lubina was awarded the best offensive player of the League in 1991.
At the beginning of season 1991/1992 the club changed its name to HC Pardubice. HC Pardubice entered the first Czech competition (1993/1994) as a strong team with both experienced and young players. This was especially true about the goalkeeper Radovan Biegl who became the best goalkeeper in the league and about the offensive player Richard Král who became the best offensive player of the whole competition with 43 goals. With very good performance presented himself 18years old Milan Hejduk who was announced to be the best beginner. The second place for Pardubice helped to win coach Marek Sýkora who was afterwards announced to be the best coach of the season even though he wasn’t local in Pardubice which wasn’t typical at all as till that time all the coaches came from Pardubice.
However, after the second place the team went down to the bottom of the result table and as a result the team had to defend their place in Extra League in 1996. HC Pardubice gradually left Král, Biegl and other players who had to be replaced by juniors. Among the juniors appeared also offensive player Petr Sýkora. Milan Hejduk became the Olympic champion at Nagano in 1998 and after that he left for NHL.
In the following season the team got a new young coach Miloš Říha and Pardubice started to improve their performance. In season 1996/1997 Pardubice reached 4th place. Even though there were no medals the individual players were successful, for example Petr Sýkora became the best offensive player with 26 goals in 2001.
In 2001 there was a significant reconstruction of the winter sports stadium; it also changed its name to Duhová Aréna. In the following two seasons were successful local juniors who managed to get two championship titles. Nevertheless Pardubice A team couldn’t get over the first round of play off.
Pardubice nearly reached the title in season 2003/2004 when after 9 years the team was playing in the final again. In this final Pardubice fought against HC Slavia Praha which eventually won the final and got its first Extra League Title. And so Pardubice had to wait for its 4th championship title until 2005. They won the championship under the leadership of captain Jiří Dopita and after the arrival of Slovakian goalkeeper Ján Lašák. Thanks to the cancelled season in NHL to Pardubice came the offensive tri consisting of Jan Bulis, Michal Mikeska and Milan Hejduk, who were on the top three places in Canadian table of results. The title of the best play off player received Aleš Hemský. In the final Pardubice team was the front- runner and so after 16 years the title returned to Pardubice the city of gingerbread.
During the existence of hockey club there appeared many famous names that are now in the Hall of Fame in Pardubice. The most famous names are: Josef Paleček, Vladimír Martinec, Bohuslav Šťastný, Otakar Janecký, Jiří Šejba, František Musil, Michal Sýkora, Ladislav Lubina, Milan Hejduk and Dominik Hašek.
|
||||||||