Team Czech Republic center Vladimir Sobotka suffered a clavicle injury in Thursday’s exhibition game against Team Russia and did not play in Saturday’s rematch.
He had an MRI after Thursday’s game, and the results came back negative. Team officials say the injury isn’t major and that the plan is for him to fly with the rest of the team to Pittsburgh on Sunday and skate in Wednesday’s exhibition match against Team North America.
The team is fortunate to have him as a possibility going forward. They were a huge underdog to start the tournament, then they lost David Krejci, Tomas Hertl and Radko Gudas to injuries before the tournament even started.
The Czechs had to play Saturday’s game with just 11 forwards and defenseman Tomas Kundratek as their extra. Kundratek was a late addition to the roster to replace Gudas. The team was down a forward because Roman Cervenka — tabbed as a replacement for Krejci — is not able to join the team until they leave for Pittsburgh. His NLA club, HC Fribourg-Gotteron, wouldn’t release him until that time.