“Podme chlapca! Podme do toho!” It’s Slovak for “Let’s go, boys! Let’s get started!”
The head of Frantisek Nutar’s snare drum is heavily pitted, the skin’s white coating worn down to a clear blister. This is what a heavy nationalistic pride and two drumsticks can do.
On Thursday afternoon, Nutar was in the stands at TD Place Arena, banging on said drum as he cheered on Slovakia as it faced Sweden in the opening game of the 2025 World Junior Hockey Championship.
The drum wasn’t Nutar’s only means of animating the crowd: He now and then blew a red horn that he wore around his neck and also used his vocal cords to great effect, leading his fellow countrymen and women in a chant of “Podme chlapca! Podme do toho!,” Slovak for “Let’s go, boys! Let’s get started!”
It was a fitting rallying cry, and not just for fans of Slovakia, but for those of all 10 countries participating in this year’s tournament. After all, for all the talk of gold-medal final games and medal-round upsets, it’s now, at the beginning of the competition, when everyone’s hopes are at their highest. This is when fans of all the teams get to bang a drum, whether they actually own one or not.
Nutar, 50, is a Halifax resident who’s lived in Canada for 20 years. I asked him what hopes he held for Slovakia in the tournament.
“All the best. The top of the top,” he replied. “A gold medal at the very minimum.”
“The MINIMUM? What could possibly be the maximum?”
“That everyone is healthy, that we get the gold and have lots of fun.”
That sense of optimism, be it for Slovakia, Sweden or any of the eight other teams competing, pervaded the arena on Thursday.
Evening Update
The parents, two grandparents and girlfriend of 19-year-old Swedish forward Felix Unger Sörum were also in the stands for Thursday’s game after flying to Ottawa from Stockholm on Christmas Day. Each wore a Team Sweden hockey sweater with Felix’s No. 16 on the back and carried with them as much hope for their country and son/grandson/boyfriend as did Nutar for Slovakia. Their hopes were further buoyed by Sweden’s 5-2 win over Slovakia, with Unger Sörum collecting a pair of assists.
“Of course we’re hoping for gold,” said Felix’s mother, Catarina, “but we’ll be happy to be in the bronze-medal game.”
Libor and Tatiana Volas, parents of Czechia defencemen Patrik Volas, were also at TD Place on Thursday. They perhaps understand hope better than most, with Patrik only with this year’s team as an alternate. He played in the pre-tournament exhibition games, scoring a goal against Latvia. “But he may not play here in Ottawa,” Libor said.
Slovak Juraj Daubner, meanwhile, was scotch-taping his country’s flag to a railing at TD Place. He flew here from Bratislava with his 16-year-old daughter. “We love ice hockey,” he said. “My daughter plays.”
Daubner’s hope as Thursday’s game got underway was “to see as many goals of ours as possible, and hopefully make it at least to the semifinals. It’s been 10 years since Slovakia made the semifinals (in 2015, when it defeated Sweden to win bronze), so we’re due … we hope.”
Elsewhere in the arena, fans wore their hopes on the sleeves and chests and heads: not unexpectedly numerous Team Canada jerseys and hats as well as many NHL ones.
Swedish-born expats now living in Ottawa, Mats Sjöberg and his daughter Emma Sjöberg each wore a Team Sweden sweater with former New York Rangers goalie “King” Henrik Lundqvist’s name and number on the back. They, too, wanted to see gold.
“Over the years, Sweden has been to the semifinals, and even the finals, a lot,” Mats said. Only two golds, though, in 1981 and 2012. Could this be the year for the much-interrupted three-peat?
Prior to Thursday’s opening game, I dropped in to the Fan Zone in the Aberdeen Pavilion, where, amidst the beer taps, music stage, miniature rinks, ringette demonstration, bouncy castle and merch and sponsors’ booths, there was an impressive display of hockey paraphernalia: sweaters, sticks, pucks, medals and other related gear. It all served as a reminder of the hope and possibility that sport offers (including, I almost-but-not-really hate to remind some, the Toronto Maple Leafs sweater worn by team captain George Armstrong during the 1966-67 season, when, with the Leafs winning their fourth Stanley Cup in six years, hope seemed like the last thing they needed).
But tucked away in one display case were nine pucks that accounted for the goals in Slovakia’s unlikely 5-4 victory over Sweden in the 1999 World Juniors bronze-medal game, the first time that the country reached the podium in the post-Czechoslovakia era.
Anything’s possible.
So let’s go, boys. Let’s get started.
