Tragedy in a Slovak team | When misfortune strikes twice …

Within three days, the Capitals in Bratislava, Slovakia learned of the death of one of their teammates, Boris Sádecký, and their general manager, Dušan Pašek. Marc-Olivier Roy, the only Quebecer on the team, recounts.

Katherine Harvey-Pinard
Press

It was October 29. The Capitals hit the road at 6 a.m. that morning for Dornbirn, Austria, to face local club the Bulldogs. A long 10 hour drive.

On the ice, the warm-up went well. Everyone seemed to be doing well, says Marc-Olivier Roy during a call with The Press, Wednesday afternoon.

“At the end of the first period, there were six seconds left, we were on the power play. I win the face-off, we shoot on goal and there is an altercation in front of the goal. We see Boris [Sádecký] who is kneeling right in the middle. We thought he got hit, [qu’il avait reçu] a bastard that we had not seen. ”

“The buzzer had just sounded,” he adds. We went to see him and he said, “I don’t feel well, Marco.” He turned to his side and fell backwards. ”

Roy and his other winger immediately called the team doctor.

“You could see it in his eyes that he [Boris Sádecký] was not there, he explains. He was glassy. There was something, I knew it. Usually, if you’re hurt, you talk. ”

The ambulance arrived and the paramedics took charge of Sádecký. As the period had just ended, Roy and his teammate returned to the locker room with the team, awaiting news.

The match was eventually called off. The Capitals returned to the hotel not quite knowing how their teammate was doing. They returned to Bratislava by coach the next day. Then they were told that their teammate would be in a coma for 48 hours, “to recover”.

“So life went on… The next morning, everyone was praying for him to be better,” says Roy. We didn’t know anything. We weren’t thinking of the worst because we had been told it was okay. ”

The team played another match on November 2, and the news broke the next day: Sádecký, 24, had passed away.

“The news was really hard [à encaisser] for everyone. It was not easy. It’s not like we learned of his death in a car accident. When you live it, it’s a little different. ”

“We were a very close team,” he continues. […] We still see each other more often than our families. We see each other every day. I never expected to experience this in my career. ”

In Slovakia, the exact cause of Sádecký’s death has not yet been disclosed.

Other drama

After hearing the news about their teammate, the Capitals players arranged a team meeting to decide what they were going to do to honor him. But the general manager, Dušan Pašek Jr., did not show up.

“We were looking for him,” recalls Marc-Olivier Roy. We looked on WhatsApp and he hadn’t been online for about six hours. Someone from the team called him and he wasn’t answering. ”

Roy lives right across from his managing director, with whom he had a great relationship since arriving in Slovakia in August. Behind their apartments there is a hill with a tower. The DG’s vehicle was found there.

” [Les autorités] have done some research, he says. We thought he might have gone to decompress, walk in the woods, near the lake behind. We didn’t think about that. “

The next day, the attacker received the news by text: Pašek, 36, had ended his life. It was another shock for the team, already in mourning.

Since the death of his CEO, the 27-year-old Quebecer has never stopped asking questions.

“Dušan, I’ve been around him for four months,” he says. I used to go to a restaurant in Bratislava for dinner and he was there all the time. He came to see us, he looked happy. He had everything in life: big cars, the apartment. He has no family. Maybe that’s what he was missing, I don’t know. ”

In front of the arena in Bratislava, players and fans left photos, candles and team jerseys in memory of Boris Sádecký and Dušan Pašek Jr.

“Every evening, when I pass there, there are people who will light up [des bougies] and add [des objets], he said. Dušan was known all over Slovakia. It’s like a legend here in hockey. His father was well known, too. ”

Dušan Pašek Jr.’s father also died in 1998 at the age of 37.

Canceled season

On November 8, the owner of the Bratislava Capitals met with players and the media to announce the club’s closure for the remainder of the season.

“He compares it to the tragedy of the plane that crashed in Russia,” explains Marc-Olivier Roy. There are fewer deaths, but two deaths in a team is a tragedy. He said as a doctor it was inconceivable [pour lui] to let us play in that environment. ”

The Quebecer, for his part, is doing well. He is still in Slovakia with his partner and 10 month old baby girl, but he is preparing to move to Finland, having signed a two year contract with SaiPa in Lappeenranta.

“It was hard, but we are trying to move forward,” he suggests. With my new opportunity, I will try to start over and forget about it, but keeping [Boris et Dušan] in my heart. ”

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Marc-Olivier Roy

A native of Boisbriand, Marc-Olivier Roy has had a long career in professional hockey in Quebec. The 2013 Edmonton Oilers second-round pick, he has spent the last six years between the AHL and ECHL. He notably played for the Laval Rocket for 10 games in 2018-2019. Last year he won the Kelly Cup with the Fort Wayne Komets in the ECHL. Then, last summer, he decided to accept the offer from the Capitals in Bratislava, Slovakia. ” [Dušan Pašek] called me to tell me he was interested, he says. The Austrian League is still very well recognized here. I saw the opportunity and was a bit tired of playing in ECHL and the American League. There was a lot of travel. With the family, I wanted to come to Europe to travel. The salaries are much more competitive here, it is not comparable. There are lots of positive sides. ”