Plenty of Nothing

Johah and the Whale in Pardubice

Source.

Bata Shoe Factories

East Tilbury, Essex. Source.

Batawa, Ontario. Source.

Bataville, France. Source.

Zlín, Czechoslovakia. Source.

Kometa Brno

A tram car painted like the Brno Dragon that terrorized the city but in the end turned out to be just a crocodile. Source.

Sparta Prague visit Kometa Brno at DRFG Arena for the last regular season game of the season. Sparta are 3rd, 3 points behind Vitkovice. Brno are 8th.

Results so far:

2022/10/21    Sparta Prague 2 - 3 Kometa Brno

2022/12/4      Kometa Brno 2 - 6 Sparta Prague

2023/1/20      Sparta Prague 5 - 3 Kometa Brno

[2023/3/5       Kometa Brno 5 - 2 Sparta Prague]

Brno was at one time the capital of Moravia. Botanist Gregor Mendel lived here. Kurt Gödel of the supergroup Gödel Escher Bach was born in Brno in 1906.

Brno won the Czechoslovak league in 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965 and 1966, and the Czech league in 2017 and 2018. They also won the Spengler Cup in 1955 and the Europa Cup in 1966, 1967 and 1968. Vlastimil Bubnik was team captain during those glory years of the Fifties and Sixties.

The European or Europa Cup was a predecessor of the Champions Hockey League. It was organized by the IIHF and ran from 1965 to 1996. The tournament was dominated by the USSR, in particular CSKA Moscow who won it 20 times. But Brno won it the first three years it was held, and Poldi Kladno also won it once, in 1977.

Třinec

Radek Bonk played for Třinec in 2004-05 and from 2009-10 to 2013-14. Source.

Sparta Prague visit HC Oceláři Třinec at the Werk Arena. Sparta are third with 92 points, Třinec sixth with 77.

The club was founded as SK Třinec in 1929. They did not reach the top tier of the Czechoslovak league until 1986 and have been in the Czech Extraliga since 1995. They won the championship in 2011, 2019, 2021 and 2022.

Třinec is a town of 34,000 in the Silesian foothills, near the point where the Czech, Slovak and Polish borders meet. It has a steel plant. Třinec is the birthplace of astronomer Petr Pravec, who discovered several hundred asteroids, including 15907 Robot.

The town of Třinec was annexed by Poland briefly from 1938 to 1939. SK Třinec played one season in the Silesian league under the name KS Zaolzie before Poland itself was broken up.

Previous games this season:

2022/10/16    Třinec 4 - 2 Sparta Prague

2022/11/16    Třinec 2 - 1 Sparta Prague

2022/11/29    Sparta Prague 1 - 0 Třinec

[2023/2/26     Sparta Prague 4 - 2 Třinec]

Liberec

Liberec Zoo has a white tiger breeding program. Source.

Sparta Prague visit Bílí Tygři Liberec at the Home Credit Arena (capacity 7,500) in Liberec.

Liberec last joined the Extraliga in 1995 and won the championship in 2015-16.

Liberec is in the very north of the Czech Republic, near the German/Polish border. Ferdinand Porsche was born there.

Results so far:

2022/11/25    Sparta Prague 3 - 1 Liberec

2022/12/6      Liberec 0 - 1 Sparta Prague

2023/1/6        Sparta Prague 2 - 5 Liberec

[2023/2/19     Liberec 2 - 1 Sparta Prague]

The Champions Hockey League final took place yesterday:

Luleå 2 - 3 Tappara

Sparta Prague versus the World, 2022-23:

2022/8/18      Sparta Prague 3 - 2 Slovan Bratislava (exhibition)

2022/8/19      Sparta Prague 3 - 2 Lukko (exhibition)

2022/8/21      Davos 6 - 1 Sparta Prague (exhibition)

2022/9/2        Sparta Prague 2 - 3 Aalborg (CHL)

2022/9/4        Sparta Prague 2 - 3 Luleå (CHL)

2022/9/9        Aalborg 2 - 6 Sparta Prague (CHL)

2022/9/11      Luleå 5 - 2 Sparta Prague (CHL)

2022/10/4      Jukerit 3 - 0 Sparta Prague (CHL)

2022/10/11    Sparta Prague 3 - 6 Jukurit (CHL)

2022/12/26    Sparta Prague 3 - 2 Team Canada (Spengler)

2022/12/28    Sparta Prague 9 - 2 Davos (Spengler)

2022/12/30    Sparta Prague 4 - 3 Örebro (Spengler)

2022/12/31    Sparta Prague 2 - 3 Ambri-Piotta (Spengler)

Vítkovice

Retro. Source.

Sparta Prague visit Vítkovice at the Ostravar Arena. Vítkovice are second in the Extraliga, Sparta third.

Vítkovice were Czechoslovak champions twice (in 1952 and 1981) but have never won the Czech Extraliga. Their captain Roman Polák has 806 NHL games under his belt, with St Louis, Toronto, San Jose and Dallas.

Results so far:

2022/11/4      Vítkovice 3 - 2 Sparta Prague

2022/10/26    Sparta Prague 3 - 2 Vítkovice

2022/9/27      Sparta Prague 5 - 3 Vítkovice

Watch the top 10 comebacks in Extraliga history.

[Vítkovice 3 - 4 Sparta Prague]

Czech and Slovak hockey during World War Two:

Czechoslovakia had a national championship prior to 1936, contested by the winners of the regional leagues. The first national Czechoslovak hockey league played in 1936-37. The teams were LTC Prague, Sparta Prague, Stadion České Budějovice, Tatry Propad, ČSK Vítkovice, Troppauer EV Opava, Slavia Prague and BK Mladá Boleslav. They played a single round robin and finished in the order I've listed them, with LTC Prague as champion.

The next season saw a league of 14 teams divided into two divisions. Again LTC were the champion.

The dismantling of Czechoslovakia began in October 1938 when the German-speaking Sudetenland was absorbed into the Reich. Then in March 1939 the Germans occupied the rest of Bohemia and Moravia, and Slovakia became a separate country, minus a large chunk taken by Hungary.

There was a Bohemian championship in 1938-39, won by LTC. A Slovakian championship was started but the ice melted before they could finish it.

The authorities then organized the Českomoravská liga, which played from 1939-40 to 1943-44. LTC Prague, Sparta Prague, ČSK Vítkovice and SK Horácká Slavia Třebíč were the four members the first year. LTC won every year but 1940-41 when 1. ČLTK Prague prevailed. There was also a Slovak league. ŠK Bratislava, VŠ Bratislava, HC Tatry and Slávia Prešov were the four initial members. Troppauer EV entered the German hockey system. The club dated back to 1908, but was dissolved in 1945 when the German-speaking population was expelled from the country.

Mountfield

Mountfield captain Radek Smoleňák has also played for Kladno, Kingston Frontenacs, Johnstown Chiefs, Springfield Falcons, Norfolk Admirals, Mississippi Sea Wolves, Abbotsford Heat, Tampa Bay Lightning and Chicago Blackhawks, Ässät, Pelicans and TPS, Medveščak Zagreb, Slovan Bratislava and Ugra, Timrå and Modo, and Rapperswil-Jona Lakers. Source.

Sparta Prague visit Mountfield HK at Zimní stadion Hradec Králové. Zimní means winter. Hradec Králové is a city on the river Elbe in eastern Bohemia.

Mountfield have been in the Extraliga ten years and have yet to win the Czech championship. They're currently 8th in the standings.

Results so far:

2022/10/18    Mountfield 3 - 2 Sparta Prague

2022/12/2      Sparta Prague 2 - 1 Mountfield

[2023/1/15     Mountfield 3 - 4 Sparta Prague]

Hockey in the first Czechoslovakian Republic:

I can find no record of organized hockey in Austria-Hungary during World War One. It looks like the only clubs that were playing at all in Europe were the Swiss ones.

Czechoslovakia was created in October 1918, comprised of Bohemia, Moravia plus a bit of Silesia, Slovakia and Ruthenia. Hockey quickly started up, but it took years to get to the point of organizing a national league. In the 1920s there were invitational tournaments and friendly matches, and a national championship if there was still ice when they got to it. By the 1930s there were regional championships for Bohemia, Moravia, Slovakia, and a federation of German-speaking teams, and from 1930 the winners of these regional leagues met in a national championship.

In 1936 the top clubs from these groups combined into a national league. The member clubs that year were LTC Prague, AC Sparta Prague, AC Stadion České Budějovice, HC Tatry Poprad, SSK Vitkovice, Troppauer EV Opava, SK Slavia Prague and BK Mlada Boleslav. The league lasted only two seasons before the Germans disassembled the Czechoslovakia.

LTC Prague were the dominant club of the era.

Kladno

Tomáš Vokoun played for Kladno in 1994-95. Source.

Sparta Prague host Jaromir Jagr's team Rytíři Kladno. Sparta are currently sixth and Kladno fourteenth in the Extraliga.

[Sparta Prague 4 - 0 Kladno]

Earlier results:

2022/11/27    Sparta Prague 5 - 1 Kladno

2022/10/14    Kladno 2 - 5 Sparta Prague

Hokejový odbor sportovního klubu Kladno was founded in 1924 and has gone through multiple name-changes in subsequent years. In 2011 the club took on its current name Rytíři Kladno (Kladno Knights), but for a long time it was known as Poldi Kladno after the town's big steel mill, which was founded in 1889 by Karl Wittgenstein and named after his wife Leopoldine.

Kladno won the Czechoslovak Extraliga six times but have never won the Czech Extraliga.

Zdeněk Miler, creator of Krtek the mole, was from Kladno.

Hockey in the Kingdom of Bohemia

Sparta Prague was founded in 1903, but played bandy until 1909 when the club switched to "Canadian hockey". So even if you count 1909 as their start date they're just as old as the Montreal Canadiens.

The Kingdom of Bohemia was one of the constituent parts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and maintained its own national identity, at least in regard to international sporting events. Bohemia participated in the European Hockey Championship from 1910 to 1914 and won it in 1911 and 1914.

There was also a Bohemian hockey championship from 1909 on. Two championships were played in February 1909. (In the early years of the Stanley Cup there could be multiple championships in a season, too.) In the second championship Slavia beat Sparta 4 - 0 in the final. Slavia were the top Czech club in this era. (See Hockey Archives.)

Leopoldine Wittgenstein's profile served as the Kladno team logo for many years.

Bohemian Noblewoman

By Wenceslaus Hollar (1607 - 1677). Source.

Plzeň

Jaroslav Špaček pushes the home brew at the Sochi Olympics. Source.

You may know Plzeň as Pilsen, the birthplace of pilsner beer. Plzeň is another one of those Czech towns with a central square crying out to be transformed into a rink for the Winter Classic.

Plzeň go back to 1929. They won the Czech championship in 2013.

Jaroslav Špaček started and finished his career with HC Plzeň.

Previous result:

2022/11/2      Plzeň 4 - 0 Sparta Prague

[2022/12/22    Sparta 3 - 0 Plzeň]