Being born and raised in a country that lives and breathes Ice Hockey, this year is a big deal for us as we get to host this year’s World Championship in Ice Hockey in newly remodeled Winter Stadium of Ondrej Nepela in Bratislava and a brand new second venue, Steel Arena in Košice.
It’s truly killing me knowing that I won’t be there for that, just like I wasn’t home for all the celebrations when we won the title of World Champions on May 11, 2002 after defeating Russia 4:3. As always, I’ll be cheering remotely with hopes that we will show the world what a small country like ours got in them, as we did last year at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver BC, and maybe even blow everyone out of water. We are a small country with a big heart, lots of passion and love for ice hockey.
It looks like that slowly the true hockey spirit and excitement about hosting the World Championship is starting to show, whether it’s on city buses or special coin minted for 2011 IIHF WM.
We’ve had a hockey anthem “Nech Bože Dá” composed back in 2002 that everyone just loves. However, just few weeks ago there has been announcement made that there is a new official anthem for this year’s World Cup sang by Kristína. From the moment the song got out, it has been hated among all Slovak hockey fans. Most people feel that her voice and the song itself that was rewritten from her original “Horehronie“, doesn’t truly embodies the spirit and energy of what hockey means to most of us. Well, you be the judge and compare it with some of the other new songs that have been recently recorded by other artists!
In addition, I did find some great fan videos that capture some of the greatest moments in Slovak hockey. They sure get me pumped and bring back some of those very memorable and emotional moments.