Cernik is scouting for the Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City next February, when the Czechs will defend their gold medal. As Czech players passed Cernik after Monday's Rangers-Atlanta game, he chatted with them in their native language and also discussed in accented English how and why his country has dominated hockey in recent years. Cernik paused, smiled and answered by tapping the left side of his head with his index finger, a gesture that in most cultures suggests intelligence. And the second is a combination. Canadian hockey is hard and tough.
Czech hockey is technique.
Together, ice hockey from Canada and Czech, half and half, is perfect. Since the cold war ended a decade ago with the breakup of both Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union, European players have flowed into the expanding N.H.L., blending their artistic impulses with the rugged style of this continent. Czech players alone hold more than 60 N.H.L. jobs, more than Russians, Swedes, Finns or Slovaks. You could stock three N.H.L. teams with Czechs. The first-year coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins is Ivan Hlinka, the first European head coach in N.H.L. history.