Jaroslav Halak had a rough time during the Olympics for Slovakia.
He was pulled in a 7-1 loss to Team USA and took a tough 3-1 loss against Slovenia during round-robin play. Following that game he was benched in favor of KHL’er Jan Laco for their final two games of the tournament, losses to Russia and Czech Republic.
Now Halak is back in St. Louis to help the Blues try to win the Stanley Cup and Jeremy Rutherford of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch heard from him about what happened in Sochi.
As it turns out, he had a feeling he wouldn’t get a chance to redeem himself for his country.
Halak says he was NOT told by Slovakian coach before game vs. Czech Republic that he was "done for the tournament." Said he figured he was.
— Jeremy Rutherford (@jprutherford) February 23, 2014
That’s kind of sad, but when you’re playing goal for a team that was close to winning bronze in 2010 and you lose to Slovenia, things change. Laco playing strong in a 1-0 shootout loss against Russia essentially made the decision for Slovak coach Vladimir Vujtek.
For Blues fans worried he might be hurting confidence-wise heading into the stretch run, Rutherford shares that isn’t the case.