In his Olympic debut, Dalibor Dvorsky started off his international career with a bang. With a goal and an assist against one of the stronger teams in the Tournament, Finland, he just put himself on the map for the next two weeks. 

The 20-year-old was projected to make a strong emergence in these games, and he did in the first 60 minutes of play. There is a feeling that this is just the tip of the iceberg. 

Fast start 

Right from the jump, Slovakia was flying around the ice with aggression and purpose. They found success with a lot of time in the offensive zone to start the game, pushing Finland on their heels early. But, Finland powered back and at the end of it all, outshot Slovakia 39-24. 

But, the Bronze Medal winners from the 2022 Olympics won in the most important stat, goals, 4-1. And that was thanks to rising star Dvorsky. Seeing him out there with veteran talent like Liba Hudacek and Adam Liska, as well as Montreal Canadiens star forward Juraj Slafkovský on the power play, was a real treat. The Blues should have taken notice of seeing Dvorsky with a little more freedom, and might need to make an adjustment to his career path when the regular season begins again.

Rest of tournament expectations

This was just the first game of the Slovakia round-robin play, and they have games against Italy and Sweden over the next couple of days. Dvorsky’s expectations after a multi-point showing have skyrocketed, and now it is up to him to live up to them.

The rest of the Blues representatives were expected to make a much bigger splash than Dvorsky, but after one game, it seems like everyone else is playing catch-up. These next two games, and further beyond that, if Slovakia is lucky, will have a huge impact on the growth and development of one of the Blues’ most precious prospects.