 Rookie forward Ondrej Otcenas is this week's player in “Breaking the Ice with…” The feature will be a season long series on plymouthwhalers.com and showcase a different Whaler each week so we can get to know them better.
This past summer, Otcenas was drafted into the OHL by Plymouth 25th overall in the CHL Import Draft and into the NHL by the Carolina Hurricanes in the 4th round (123rd overall) in the NHL Entry Draft. With the departure of Vaclav Meidl in January, Otcenas, who is a Piestany, Slovakia, native, is the only European on the squad. He took a few minutes before practice to help us break the ice.
» On the best advice he has been given…
“Never give up.”
» On how he started playing hockey…
“I was 6 years old. My father took me to the rink and said to go and try it. At first I didn’t want to go on the ice, like ‘No, I don’t want to play’ and he just said ‘Ok, so let’s go home.’ Then he left, but he left me there. I just started skating then since I had nothing to do.”
» On his youth hockey highlight…
“Getting drafted by the NHL. My agent called me to let me know. It was 1 o’clock in the night and he called me right after I had been drafted. I went to the rookie camp and it was pretty good.”
 » On his most memorable goal…
“It was at the Under-18 Championships in the Czech last year. It was against Switzerland. The game was tied 1-1 and I scored with I think 20 seconds before the end of the game.”
» On his best moment in a Whalers uniform…
“Probably scoring my first goal (10/28/05 at London)."
» On the championships he would like to win…
“I want to win World Juniors.”
» On who has influenced him in hockey…
“My father and my girlfriend are the two people, but mostly my father because he took me to all my practices.”
» On playing at the World Under-18 Tournament…
“It was great. It was my best tournament ever.”
» On his most embarrassing hockey moment…
“There are a lot of embarrassing moments this season. The most embarrassing thing is when you’re not playing and just sitting there.”
» On how his rookie season is going…
“My first half of the season was pretty good; the second half I have not played as well.”
» On playing other sports…
“I didn’t play any other sports like I played hockey. I played those for fun. I play soccer, but just for fun.”
» On his typical day…
“My day here, I just wake up and maybe go to morning practice, then go home and eat something, go to another practice, go home, sleep.”
 » On his pre-game routine…
“It is almost the same; I just wake up, eat a pre-game meal and go to the arena and play.”
» On adjusting to billets…
“My billets are really good. I had other billets before, but then moved to where Vaclav (Meidl) was staying.”
» On what he misses from home…
“My girlfriend, my home, everything. I get to talk to my girlfriend every day for like an hour.”
» On the hardest adjustment to make from Slovakia…
“The language.”
» On what type of city he lives in…
“I live in a city where 60,000 people live there, but it’s a small city.”
» On his relationship with former Whaler Vaclav Meidl…
“We were together every day doing stuff together. I miss hanging out with him.”
» On his siblings…
“I got one brother and one sister. My brother is 7 and my sister is 16. I can only talk to them sometimes. I talk to my sister sometimes on MSN messenger.”
» On what type of music he likes…
“I like techno, but not just techno. I like everything, everything that is good. I don’t have one style. I like techno, I like rap, I like hip-hop, I like rock.”
» On the toughest player he has played against…
“The whole Team USA that we played against in World Under-18s.”
» On if there is anything behind his jersey number…
“You know, at first I chose #25 because I had that number for the Under-18 Championship. Then on my Slovakian Junior Team I wore #69. We got jerseys from senior players and they had weird numbers. There wasn’t really any numbers I would like to have, so there was 69 so I took it. I wanted a number with 9. At first I took #25, but (Joe) Gaynor came to me and asked me if he could have it since he wanted #25. I was like ‘Ok, take 25, I don’t really care about this number.’ So there was #29 and I was said, ‘Alright, that’s a pretty good number. I had a 9 in my last jersey and now I have a 9 in this jersey.”
 » On his nicknames…
“Ochy is my nickname.”
» On his superstitions…
“I don’t know. I just do the things I usually do like tape my stick or eat the same meal. It’s not something I have to do; I could get away with not doing it.”
» On his summer plans…
“Working out and going somewhere on vacation for 2 weeks.”
» On what he'd do if he didn't play hockey…
“I would probably be in school, going to college.”
» On how he would describe himself as a player…
“Someone else would have to say it. I don’t know what type of player I am. I just am trying to do lots of things. I’m trying to score goals; I’m trying to create offense. I can’t say I’m a playmaker because I am not just a playmaker. I can do that, I can be just a defensive player, and I can be a penalty killer.”
» On the one thing he can't live without…
“Family and friends of course.”
 » On the craziest thing that has happened on the road…
“I was actually one of the guys that didn’t get stuck in the elevator, so I don’t know.”
» On his funniest teammate…
“It was Vaclav.”
» On his dream goal…
“I want to score at the World Juniors a really important goal for the Slovakian country against someone else. I would like that goal.”
» On his dream vacation…
“Going somewhere with my girlfriend and my friends. It doesn’t have to be a warm place, just in the summer when it is nice.”
» On the rule changes in hockey…
“I am getting used to them so they are ok now.”
» On what other five players he would want on the ice with him…
“I want to play with (Marian) Hossa, (Pavol) Demitra, and defense would be Zdeno Chara and Andrej Meszaros. My goalie would be Peter Budaj, he plays for the Colorado Avalanche.”
-Natalie Shaver, March 31st, 2006-
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