At the first practice with all the San Jose Sharks’ Olympians participating, Pavol Regenda was surrounded by a surprising number of cameras and fans.
“I feel like they were more for Mack, though, than for me,” Regenda joked.
Even if the Bay Area media attention isn’t on him, Regenda showed well in Milan. His three goals and two assists helped push Team Slovakia to the bronze medal game. He was tied for third in points on a team that surprisingly finished fourth in the tournament.
What did his performance at the Olympics help him realize?
“Even I can play against the best guys in the world,” Regenda said.
Despite that showing at the Olympics, and despite scoring eight goals in 16 NHL games this season, Pavol Regenda is a likely scratch against the Calgary Flames on Thursday.
“[It] gave me a lot of confidence coming back here, and even more motivation and more energy [to] finish the season strong, so we can have some run here,” Regenda said of his Olympic experience. “I want to make my [roster] spot, [a] safe spot… Be a valued player for the team. So, that’s just my motivation.”
But, it’s been a tumultuous time for Regenda since leaving Italy. After losing the bronze medal game, the Slovakian players in North American leagues flew to New York (and couldn’t even watch the gold medal game).
“There was only like 17 of us in the whole plane, so it was really comfortable,” he said. “Everybody was sitting in business class. Really empty plane.”
In case you haven’t heard, many Northeast states are under weather advisories from freezing temperatures and severe storms. That’s why Team USA and Team Canada flew into Miami before players flew to their respective teams. Regenda was stuck in New York for two days with fellow Slovakians like the Calgary Flames’ Martin Pospisil.
“We hung out together, spent some more time, tried to go get some food, but all the restaurants are closed,” Regenda shared. “Then we tried to go to Manhattan: everything was closed there. We just [hung] out together. It was a nice time, tried to relax a little bit and spend more time with those guys.
“But I was like, ‘just get me on a plane,’ so I can be home, finally.”
Regenda was home at 7 p.m. Tuesday night. After all that, even though Slovakia was one win away from their country’s second ever men’s ice hockey Olympic medal, Regenda now looks back fondly.
“Everybody was kind of frustrated, sad: we didn’t finish as we wanted,” Regenda said. “You’re top four [after preliminaries], you want to finish with something on your neck. It was really sad. A couple guys [were] crying.
“Big names, big teams, and we have to be proud. Coming into the tournament, I don’t think anybody in the world like believed [that] we [could] finish top four against players like this. So, I’m proud of the team, of all the guys. I feel like people are proud of us too.”