When Carla MacLeod watched Czechia play at the 2021 IIHF Women’s World Championship, one word came to mind: poetic.
MacLeod, a former blueliner for Canada’s national team, took over as head coach for Czechia after the 2022 Beijing Games, where the team finished seventh in its first Olympic appearance. She’s preparing for her third world championship as Czechia’s bench boss when the 2024 IIHF Women’s World Championship gets underway Wednesday in Utica, N.Y.
Changing the players’ mentality has been one of MacLeod’s main undertakings. Czechia had all the pieces to succeed on the international stage. In the quarter-finals of the 2022 Olympics, they were tied 1-1 with the U.S. after two periods before the Americans were able to pull away. “Just help tweak some of those pieces of the game that we thought could help get us over that peak of – we never finished better than sixth. So, trying to help to understand – how do you get to that top echelon? How do you get onto the podium?” MacLeod said.
“She brought confidence to the team. She always says that we have to just play, just enjoy the game,” Czech captain Aneta Tejralová told TSN. “We don't have to play like robots…. just trust ourselves that we can beat everyone.” MacLeod recalls a conversation she had in 2019 with Mark Johnson, her coach at the University of Wisconsin, that has helped shape her as a mentor.
“From a Czech perspective, I can see the speed difference already in our players,” she said. “I can see the capacity to absorb that pressure and not worry.”
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