Flames' Vladar gets burned in Czechia's win over Canada at World Juniors

In case you missed it yesterday, team Czechia upset team Canada during the opening day of the World Junior Championship, earning their first regulation victory over Canada in the history of the tournament.

Canada entered the game, and the tournament, as huge favourites to win so suffice it to say that a 5-2 loss to Czechia is a massive upset. Czech players around the NHL were no doubt letting their Canadian teammates hear about it, but for Calgary Flames netminder Dan Vladar Czechia's win was bittersweet. That's because the Czech goaltender has traditionally put some money on the board for Czechia, but he always comes up short. Yesterday, the first time he refused to place a bet, of course Czechia came through with a big victory.

Nice to see Murphy's Law in full effect.

Vladar is one of two players from Czechia on Calgary’s roster, along with the recently recalled Radim Zohorna. The pair of Czechs have exactly 11 Canadian-born teammates with whom they can now boast there newfound sense of superiority.

And Vladar is no stranger to Canada at the World Juniors. The 25 year old goalie represented Czechia, then known as the Czech Republic, at the World Juniors in 2015, 2016 and 2017. He served mostly as a 2nd and 3rd string goaltender in his first two tournaments, but took over as the nation's starting goaltender in 2017. Vladar and the Czechs finished outside the medal round in each year.