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Juraj Slafkovsky: 'My back hurts because of the hotel bed'.
David Kirouac-USA TODAY Sports

While the second round of the National Hockey League playoffs occupies much of the attention of hockey fans, let’s not forget the World Hockey Championship, which has just begun.

Like every year, this tournament brings together several countries, most of which count on NHL players.

With the Olympics just around the corner, and the NHL in attendance, there are many more solid players at this tournament.

In fact, there are a few Montreal Canadiens players in attendance, while Kaiden Guhle (Canada), Cole Caufield (USA) and Juraj Slafkovsky (Slovakia) are in the Czech Republic.

In Slafkovsky’s case, well, he got the tournament off to a good start with a superb goal in a warm-up game, and yesterday he picked up two assists in Slovakia’s first game of the tournament, earning him the title of Slovak Player of the Game.

Despite this good start to the tournament on a personal level, it seems that what matters most to the Habs forward is winning.

Yesterday, despite his fine performance, Slafkovsky saw Slovakia lose 6-4 to Germany in the curtain-raiser.

And after the game, in an interview, Slafkovsky was in a bad mood.

He had been angry with the referees during the game, and after the match, Slaf was in an even worse mood, even taking the opportunity to complain about his hotel bed.

Indeed, the Slovak striker explained after the match that his back hurt because of the bed in his hotel, as reported by a Slovak sports website.

“My back hurts because of the hotel bed. I would have preferred to stay somewhere further away from the arena in something better. Unfortunately, that’s not my decision.” – Juraj Slafkovsky

Even though the hotel is only 350 meters from the arena where Slovakia will play all their group stage matches for this tournament, Slafkovsky would have preferred a hotel further away, but more comfortable.

In short, Slafkovsky let out all his frustration after losing to Germany, probably Slovakia’s closest competitor in this tournament.

The two countries are expected to fight it out for third place in the group.

Let’s see how Slafkovsky fares for the rest of the tournament, and whether he’ll find his bed more comfortable after a win.

Complaining about his bed isn’t ideal, but Slaf is still young and will learn to hold back his frustration more.

Slovakia’s next match is against Kazakhstan on Sunday.

To find out more, read the article on the Slovakian website here.

En Rafale

– A game that flew under the radar last night.

– Exactly. I’d be happy with any of the four.

– Trocheck is really having a great series.

– Read about probably the best defenseman of his generation.

– A few statistics on Inter Miami.

This article first appeared on Dose.ca and was syndicated with permission.

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