Vitek Vanecek spoke in his native Czech about his sadness about the Jakub Vrana trade during an interview with the CNN Prima NEWS podcast.
Vanecek also detailed a terrifying moment the team had during the season while flying to New York for a game. According to the story and a translation by RMNB’s Alexandra Petáková, almost all of Vanecek’s season on the ice was overshadowed by this terrible flight.
As Vanecek recalled, a thunderstorm was raging over New York and the Capitals team plane had to fly through it to land on the runway. As the pilot was getting ready to touch down, a lightning bolt struck the hull of the plane directly.
“It smashed right into the plane,” Vanecek said. “A massive blow. The whole plane lit up. I was so stressed out, thinking that was the end. I looked at Zdeno Chára and even he looked a bit stressed.”
Chara, one of the toughest and unflappable players in NHL history, has taken hundreds of flights during a 23-year career which has seen him play in over 1600 games.
His reaction “definitely didn’t help,” Vanecek said. “I definitely didn’t take that as something good.”
But in the end, the Capitals’ plane touched down and landed, “scorched with 17 small holes” from the lightning strike. The Capitals would play the Islanders for two important points the next day.
Headline photo: Pixabay
