The Slovakians had their best showing in an Olympic games in 2006 when they finished fifth after cruising through pool play. GM Peter Bondra has brought together a fairly solid team with a mixture of players playing primarily in North America and Europe. Most of the players have had NHL experience at some point.
Get To Know An Olympic Roster: Slovakia
Goaltenders
Peter Budaj, Jaroslav Halak, Rastislav Stana
Peter Budaj went 2-1 in the 2006 Olympics and is looking to become the number one goaltender for the Slovaks. He is the only one of the three goaltenders that Slovakia is bringing that has Olympic experience but Halak has a fair share of international experience. He was a part of two World Championships in 2006 and 2009.
Both Halak and Budaj have had good starts to the season this year, with Halak going 10-6 with a .924 SV% and Budaj going 4-3-1 with a .927 SV%. Stana is playing in the KHL this season, with Severstal. He has a minor amount of NHL experience as he played six games with the Capitals in 2003-04. He is 12-14-6 with Severstal with a 2.74 GAA and .890 SV%. For the Slovak goaltenders, all we can hope is that this doesn't happen again:
Defensemen
Zdeno Chara, Milan Jurcina, Richard Lintner, Andrej Meszaros, Andrej Sekera, Martin Strbak, Lubomir Visnovsky
The Slovak defense has a bunch of solid players, led by Zdeno Chara. Chara played in the 2006 Olympics and in the six games in which he played, he had one goal and two points. Jurcina, Meszaros, Strbak and Visnovsky were all apart of 2006 squad as well. Sekera has played fairly well for the Buffalo Sabres this season with two goals and six points. Lintner currently plays for Minsk in the KHL, with two goals and ten points in 28 games. He has had two stints in the NHL, once with the Nashville Predators and again with the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Forwards
Lubos Bartecko, Branko Radjvojevic, Martin Cibak, Pavol Demitra, Marian Gaborik, Michal Handzus, Marian Hossa, Marcel Hossa, Tomas Kopecky, Zigmund Palffy, Jozef Stumpel, Miroslav Satan, Richard Zednik
The forwards for the Slovaks feature a handful of current and former NHLers, led by the scoring leader this season in Marian Gaborik. Gaborik is having a career year, with 26 goals in 36 games this season and that play should carry over onto the bigger stage. Marian Hossa has played well since coming off his injury with 13 points in 16 games this season for the Blackhawks.
The majority of the forwards are all currently playing in the KHL. Cibak and Radjvojevic are playing for Spartak, Barteco is playing for SC Bern, Marcel Hossa is playing for Dinamo Riga, Palffy is playing for HK 36, Stumpel is playing for Barys, and Zednik is playing for Lokomotiv. Miroslav Satan is not currently playing for any professional team after playing with the Penguins last season.
The Slovaks are going to be a good team in the Olympics that will probably upset a team or two in the round robin portion, but are not going to be serious contenders for any medal.
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