Team Czechia Summer Training Camp: What Two Red-White Scrimmages Revealed

Team Czechia opened a new era in Chomutov this week as the 2026-27 season officially kicked off .Brian Idalski’s first national-team camp began with Czechia’s established stars imposing themselves and ended with the program’s emerging depth pushing back. Following physical testing in Prague earlier in July, 46 players assembled from July 24-30 for the first on-ice camp under their new head coach. The roster brought together nearly the entire Olympic team, established PWHL and European professionals, emerging NCAA players and several of the most promising teenagers in the Czech development system.

The large group was divided into two training teams and concluded its work with a pair of Red-White scrimmages. Red won the opening game 4-0 before White responded with a 5-2 victory three days later. Let’s ground our analysis of these games in reality. These were internal summer games, not formal internationals. No shot totals, possession data, individual ice time or complete goaltending statistics were published and while we wish we could have spent more time deliberately picking apart the footage, it was a difficult week, so we did what we can. However, taken together, the games offered an illuminating first look at the competition, generational integration and positional ideas that could shape the next four years of Czech women’s hockey.

Game One Recap and Thoughts:

The two initial rosters were not constructed with identical positional strengths. Red carried the more imposing collection of top-end forwards, including Tereza Vanišová, Natálie Mlýnková, Klára Hymlárová, Adéla Šapovalivová, Tereza Pištěková and Tereza Plosová. White, meanwhile, was deeper on defense but lacked the same concentration of proven senior scoring, a difference that showed quickly.

Vanišová opened the scoring four minutes into the game from a great pass from Mlýnková and added another goal at the 15-minute mark. Seventeen-year-old Lucie Šindelářová converted a penalty shot between Vanišová’s two goals, while 18-year-old defender Aneta Paroubková completed the 4-0 result in the second half. For Šindelářová, the moment represented exactly what this camp was designed to provide. The young forward said in a n interview with Czech Hockey that the coaching staff challenged the less experienced players to compete fully and demonstrate that their invitations were meaningful opportunities. She was fully bought into that mentality, and it paid off sweetly for her.

The game also offered a closer look at Ottawa Charge draft pick Tereza Pištěková. Centering a line with Adéla Mynaříková and Tereza Plosová, Pištěková displayed many of the qualities that have defined her development: using her long reach and frame to control possession below the goal line, protecting pucks through contact and generating speed while advancing play through the neutral zone. Pištěková did not record a point in either scrimmage, but her value was never likely to be captured completely by a summer scoresheet. The responsible, possession-oriented elements of her game remained visible to us even without a goal or assist.

The opening result nevertheless appeared to confirm what the rosters suggested on paper. Red’s established offensive talent controlled the game, while White struggled to create enough sustained pressure to respond. Český Hokej’s first-game report documented the full scoring sequence and rosters.

Game Two: Recap and Thoughts

The second game produced a dramatically different story. Barbora Bartáková (who we have not been shy about praising in the past, as we think she is severely underrated) gave White the lead only two minutes into the contest. Vanišová answered for Red from Julie Jebousková, but White then scored four consecutive goals. Noemi Neubauerová restored the lead with an assist from Aneta Tejralová before Hana Haasová, Tereza Plosová and Tereza Gildainová extended it to 5-1. Mynaříková, assisted by Anna Kalová, completed the scoring for Red in the 49th minute.

White did not steal the game with a late goal or rely upon one dominant scorer, there five different players found the net, and the team had already built a four-goal advantage by the 36-minute mark. Johanna Tischler (Ontario Hockey Academy) said the players were more familiar with one another by the second game, resulting in faster play, more accurate passing and better execution of the concepts practiced during camp. Hearing that progression is more important than the change in winning colors. The second came after several additional days of on-ice work, gym sessions and individual meetings. Český Hokej’s camp-closing report described the second performance as a noticeable step forward.

Only two returning skaters switched teams between games, but both appeared on the scoresheet. Anna Kalová moved to Red and assisted Mynaříková’s goal. More significantly, University of Minnesota Sophomore Tereza Plosová moved from Red to White and recorded a goal and an assist. Plosová’s reassignment broke up the Pištěková-Mynaříková-Plosová combination from the opening game and gave White a proven transition threat and playmaker. Bartáková and Neubauerová had already created a 2-1 lead before Plosová took over, but her assist on Haasová’s goal and subsequent goal of her own transformed a competitive game into a decisive White advantage.

At 20 years old, Plosová occupies an important space within Czechia’s evolving hierarchy. She is already an Olympian and established senior international, yet remains close enough to the U18 and NCAA generation to serve as a bridge between the current core and the players expected to follow it. Now as a second year NCAA player, her growth will remain a massive storyline to follow this upcoming season

The teenagers: What We can Glean From the Young Upcoming Core:

Perhaps the most encouraging result of the two games was the distribution of the scoring. Nine players accounted for the 11 combined goals, and four teenage players scored: Šindelářová, Paroubková, Mynaříková and Gildainová. Jebousková and Kalová also collected assists in the second game. The development group did more than fill out a 46-player camp. Young players affected both games, created competition across the roster and demonstrated that Czechia’s next generation is beginning to produce players capable of contributing around the senior team.

The interactions away from the scoresheet mattered as well. Both Šindelářová and Tischler spoke positively about the willingness of the established players to welcome, support and teach their younger teammates. Creating that environment will be essential if Idalski wants to build one playing identity across the senior, U18 and U16 levels. Idalski said the size of the camp allowed him to see the program’s talent in one place and begin envisioning how the next four years could develop. The scrimmages provided some substance behind that vision. Czechia does not possess a veteran core with just a few prospects waiting behind it. It is developing a deeper competitive layer capable of challenging that core.

Vanišová established the veteran standard

No individual made a stronger impression on the scoresheet than the Vancouver Goldeneye’s Tereza Vanišová. She scored twice in the 4-0 opening victory and supplied Red’s first goal in Game Two, finishing camp with three of her team’s six total goals. She scored early in both games and connected with players from two different generations-Mlýnková in the opener and Jebousková in the rematch.

Vanišová also enters the new era with a unique role. Having played for Idalski in Vancouver, she is the Czech player most familiar with his personality and expectations. That familiarity could make her an important conduit between the new coach and a team still learning how he communicates. Her public comments also provided a valuable counterweight to Idalski’s ambition. While Brian has openly stated his desire to challenge Canada and the United States, Vanišová cautioned that confidence cannot replace performance and that Czechia still has a significant competitive gap to close. Both perspectives are necessary, Idalski is attempting to raise the program’s ceiling, Vanišová understands the standard required to reach it.

Neubauerová’s move to defense appears deliberate (and it’s starting to show results)

Noemi Neubauerová’s deployment was one of the camp’s most intriguing positional developments. Although known primarily as a forward throughout much of her career, Neubauerová was officially listed among the defenders for this camp and remained on White’s blue line during both scrimmages. Her second-game goal, assisted by Aneta Tejralová, provided an early offensive return from the experiment. The move makes conceptual sense (and one we saw former Head Coach Carla MacLeod experiment with for the first time last season). Neubauerová brings skating ability, puck skill and extensive international experience to the position. If she can develop the necessary defensive reads and manage pressure consistently, she could give Czechia another mobile, puck-moving option from the back end. It’s not yet at the point where we can say definitively whether the transition has remained permanent (we believe there is still time for evaluation), but what the camp established is that this appears to be more than a temporary practice experiment and continued deployment in this role. A carry over decision from MacLeod’s decision making that appears to be holding firm.

Final Thoughts

The temptation after any coaching change is to interpret the first visible event as the unveiling of a new identity. That would overstate what happened in Chomutov obviously. Vanišová told Czech media that Idalski spent much of the camp observing because he is still learning the players and is likely to become more interventionist with time. The daily schedule included individual meetings alongside practices and off-ice work, reinforcing that the primary objective was to establish a baseline and understand the broader player pool. Still, Idalski’s early evaluation aligns with Czechia’s known strengths and weaknesses. He praised the players’ skating, puck skill and offensive instincts while identifying defensive mentality, physical engagement and work away from the puck as areas that must improve. Czech reporting from camp also indicated that he wants those habits introduced throughout the younger national-team levels.

The scrimmages supported the first half of that assessment, but more complete answers will begin to emerge in August, when Czechia travels to Switzerland for its first Women’s Euro Hockey Tour event under Idalski. With the World Championship beginning November 6 in Denmark, the staff has only a compressed series of tournaments in which to transform camp observations into a defined roster and recognizable playing identity.

The week did not establish a final hierarchy. It did not tell us which young players will travel to Switzerland, whether Neubauerová will remain at defense or how Idalski intends to structure his lines and special teams. What it did show was a program with more internal competition, more emerging talent and more lineup possibilities. Idalski’s first camp shows promise and excitement for the future.

Lot’s more to come, and the season is fast approaching.