Not far away from the Czech hockey team locker room, deep inside the Sazka Arena is based a service room, where is taken care of the most important things that hockey players need. Everyday couple of players visit the service, they either want to regrind or repair skates or change stick.

 

"It is not that tight yet, everyday I repair about eight pairs of skates“ says about his work on the World Hockey Championship serviceman Karel Janouch. “The Swiss, Latvians and Kazahks are the most frequent visitors“ affirms Janouch. The most usual problem that Janouch has to take care of is replacement of broken blades. “The Swiss team wanted to change all the blades on the skates just because they had green ones and they have to be white for this Championship“ explains Janouch the special order of the Swiss team. “This kind of service is for free, everything else must be paid by the teams“ adds Janouch.

 

Even more frequent requests have the serviceman from the referees. “I don’t know why, they probably don’t want to buy new skates, but from time to time it is really necessary“ laughs Janouch. “The NHL players have usually two to three pairs of skates per season“ gives additional information equipment manager of the Czech team Pavel Krizek.

 

Players who came over from North America have skates tailored. “They take measure of both feet. Since some players have left skate a bit bigger than the right one. The goaltenders then fix the pads by special leather belts instead of classic twine“ explains Krizek and adds “the skates are not as compact as it could seem. They usually unloose, soften or crack. Therefore each player has skates for practice and skates for game. Heavier players have to have more pairs of skates, since the blades break more easily. If the blades break during the game time, they get chnaged immediately, but the serviceman have to grind it down so it matches the previous grinding.“