Czech Republic men's national ice hockey team Czech Republic men's national ice hockey team The Czech men's national ice hockey team is the national ice hockey team of the Czech Republic. It is one of the most successful national ice hockey teams in the world and a member of the so-called "Big Six", the unofficial group of the six strongest men's ice hockey nations, along with Canada, Finland, Russia, Sweden and the United States. It is governed by the Czech Ice Hockey Association. The Czech Republic has 72,075 players officially enrolled in organized hockey (0.7% of its population). The Czechs won the gold medal at the 1998
Ice hockey in Slovakia Federation in what was then Czechoslovakia. The first organized competition was held in 1930. Throughout the course of ice hockey history in Czechoslovakia, many Slovak players became eligible to play for the Czechoslovak national team. Among those who were able achieve this was Ladislav Troják; A native of Košice who left for Prague in 1934 to play for the LTC Praha, which was at those times considered to be the best ice hockey team in the country. From there he was only a step away from playing for the national team. Czechoslovakia and its successor states are rated as being