Lukáš Dostál has been the picture of vigilance in the Ducks’ net this season, so it might feel foreign to imagine him sleeping on the job.
Yet after the defining moment of his career to date, Dostál dozed, and all while the party raged on in one of the world’s great party cities, Prague, following Czechia’s World Championship triumph on home soil last spring.
“Two hours into the celebration, I was so tired, not from drinking or anything, but it was just like suddenly the whole season – I started practicing last May and the season concluded at the end of May, so basically for 12 months I was practicing and playing – everything kind of hit me,” Dostál said. “After two hours, I went to sleep. The boys were still sending pictures in our group chat at like seven in the morning.”
Dostál was the top goaltender of the tournament. He combined with Ducks teammate Radko Gudas and the rest of the Czech defense corps to capture gold behind a shutout of Kevin Fiala and Switzerland in the final on the heels of a 1-0 blanking of Team USA in the quarterfinal round.
That was a springboard for both players into a Ducks campaign that saw Gudas, 34, become a team captain for the first time in his career while Dostál established himself firmly as a No. 1 netminder at age 24.
“It was a fun month for me and for the whole Czech Republic. I’m really grateful to have had that opportunity. Being able to win on home ice is something very special,” Gudas said. “Seeing Dosty grow and taking these steps is making me happy, and he’s one of the brightest stars this organization has. He’s given us a chance to win any game.”
Gudas said he felt the conquest in the land of hockey luminaries like Radek Dvořák, Jan Havel and Dominik Hašek gave Dostál heightened confidence against elite competition and in high-stakes moments.
Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek concurred.
“It gives them great confidence. It also gives them that pedigree. Even though it’s a three-week tournament, at the end of the day, you’re a winner,” Verbeek said. “I think it was a really good thing for Dostál. Gudas has been around, he lost in the [Stanley Cup] finals the year before, so he’s been around winning programs. Putting a little cherry on the sundae is a good thing for Gudas and it’s a great thing for Dostál.”
Dostál has not only shouldered a larger load, but been near the top of the leaderboard in goals saved above expected, a stat that measures a goalie’s performance relative to that of his team. He remained in the top 10 with just four games to play.
Ducks coach Greg Cronin said the practice habits, visualization and overall work ethic of Dostál were as remarkable as they were purposeful as he continued to bloom under former Kings goalie Peter Budaj, a Slovak who came aboard with the Ducks as goalie coach before this season.
“Dostál is the consummate professional. He works out, he prepares, on days off he comes in, stretches and meets with the medical staff,” Cronin said. “He’s the personification of the ideal athlete that you want to coach. He’s low maintenance, he’s got high standards that he measures himself by on a daily basis in everything he does.”
Dostál, who grew up in a village near Brno, said his parents instilled in him a sharp focus and diligent manner at a young age.
“My dad always wanted, when I’m playing hockey, for me to do it 100%, and the same with my mom when it came to schoolwork,” Dostál said. “Whatever I did needed to be done with 100% effort. They always said that there are no shortcuts to success.”
Meanwhile, Gudas, a Kladno native, said that in his first season as captain he tried to “be as me as possible,” since his teammates and management selected him because of the way he could motivate his teammates and lay his body on the line, playing one of the most physical games in pro hockey. He said his adjustments were more in terms of making himself available and trying to be more vocal, albeit in a room with several other veteran voices that he described as a “community” leadership environment.
“Playing against him is not easy. Even if he’s friends with you, he’s gonna go after you, he plays 100% every game,” said Pavel Zacha, who was on the Czech top line. “Playing with him, just the way he was speaking in the locker room and how hard he was to play against, just being a part of a team that he’s been playing on was huge. Off-ice, he’s just a great person.”
Gudas and Dostál weren’t the only pair of NHL teammates bolstering Czechia’s efforts to win gold for the first time since 2010 and on home soil for the first time since 1985. Zacha and his Boston Bruins cohort David Pastrnak jumped into the fray mid-tournament after being eliminated in the second round by the Florida Panthers. Zacha scored the lone goal in the 1-0 win over Team USA and Pastrnak fired in what stood as the game-winner in the final, sliding across the ice ebulliently afterward.
“Especially coming to play in Prague, too, I almost forgot how much people care about hockey. Every game was sold out and it was a lot of fun,” Zacha said.
Gudas said seemingly the entire country was watching, united around a frozen sheet and a common goal. The numbers bore that out, with attendance setting an IIHF record of nearly 800,000 fans for the tournament, breaking Czechia’s own mark from when it hosted the event nine years earlier. Forbes’ Carol Schram reported that more than three quarters of the country watched the 7-3 semifinal victory over Sweden, and the final fetched an even larger proportion.
“All the media, and all eyes were just on us, for those three weeks it was just ‘hockey, hockey, hockey,’” Dostál said. “We came to the media zone and there were so many journalists. It helped me off the ice, how to handle the media and all that. It was just a massive, massive experience for me.”
Dostál, Gudas and Zacha all remarked the unity and joy they felt among the tens of thousands of supporters who gathered in what’s colloquially referred to as the Staromák, the old town square in Prague.
For Dostál, it’s been another in a series of springboards in a career that sent him to Finland, where he first saw what it took to be a top-level pro and later returned with the national team for his first brief taste of the World Championships, and then to Southern California, where he cut his teeth with the San Diego Gulls and then sunk them into NHL competition as a Duck.
While a new contract awaits this summer with the Olympics on the horizon next season and much of his career lying ahead, there was no doubt what his crowning achievement had been so far.
“Unbelievable, to win it at home,” Dostál said. “To suddenly be playing for the team, being the No. 1 [goalie] and winning at home, it’s a dream come true. It was such a cool experience that I’m going to remember for the rest of my life.”
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