Tampa Bay Lightning forward Vinny Prospal will share a daily diary while the team is in Europe, including his native Czech Republic. The team will play a season-opening series in Prague against the New York Rangers on Oct. 4 and 5.
After a good win against the Rangers Thursday night in New York, we bussed to Newark to fly to Prague. The NHL helped set us up on a 757 owned by Mark Cuban. Wow, what a plane. We took off after midnight Eastern Time and landed in Prague at about 2:30 p.m. in the Czech Republic. Almost eight hours of flying time and a six-hour time change. When it's 6 p.m. in Prague, it's noon in Tampa.
We checked into the Prague Marriott (great hotel, very Americanized) then went to have a short skate at Letnany Arena. Afterward, I went back to my hometown of Hluboka, which is about 75 minutes from Prague, to check on my home there to make sure everything is all right before coming back to Prague.
The team offered to have a practice in my hometown, but with it being a 75-minute bus ride away, I knew my teammates would be all over me. So we passed on that one.
Some people have been asking if I would be staying at my home, but I will stay with the team in the hotel. My wife and kids are not coming back from the U.S. to see the games. As nice as it would have been to bring them back, the kids have school and we didn't want them to miss that many days. They'll have to watch Dad on TV just like our other road games.
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