Q&A | Ales Kotalik talks love for Buffalo, '05-'06 and more

PRAGUE, Czechia – Ales Kotalik left Buffalo in 2011, but his love for the city never left him.

Kotalik, the hard-shooting forward who played for the Sabres for six-plus seasons and was a popular member of the beloved Eastern Conference finalist teams in 2005-06 and 2006-07, still follows his former team from his home in Prague.

“Once I got traded back then to Edmonton, I still was a Sabres fan, and that was always my second home,” Kotalik said by phone Monday.

“That’s the place where I grew up and I became a hockey player, a real NHL hockey player, and I never forget those years. Those were the most successful and fun years I ever had in my career. So, I am a big fan of the Sabres, of course.”

Kotalik will be attending the Sabres’ NHL Global Series in Prague this weekend along with fellow Czech and Sabres alum Jaroslav Spacek. In the meantime, Sabres.com caught up with the former forward to discuss his love for Buffalo, his admiration for Lindy Ruff, his prolific shootout career and more.

What are you up to these days?

I'm still in the hockey business. I am actually the co-owner of the team České Budějovic, who plays in the first division (the top league in Czechia) along with some of my other friends. But I'm not involved in the management because I'm not there 100 percent of the time.

Actually, the sports director is Jiri Novotny – remember him like the Sabres days, right? So, he's the director of hockey operations there. So, for me from the ownership standpoint, I'm talking more to him about the things around the team and about the players and all the things going on sports-wise. All the management stuff like budgeting and stuff like that, that's what my co-owners and managers do.

How did you get into ownership? Is that something you always dreamed of doing?

Just a coincidence with an unfortunate thing that happened here. The former ownership of the club relocated the team to another city. So, in our city where so many great players grew up, NHL players, we all of a sudden didn't have a men’s hockey team. So, we kind of didn't want to let that happen, and we gathered together, and we bought the license from another team playing in the second division.

So, we bought the team in the second division and started playing, and we've been building the team from scratch, and it took a little longer than we expected. But, after seven years, we were promoted to the first division. That's what we wanted. That was our ultimate goal, and now we play in it.

Do you still follow the Sabres?

Of course I do. I never stopped following the Sabres – like, ever. Once I got traded back then to Edmonton, I still was a Sabres fan, and that was always my second home. That’s the place where I grew up, and I became a hockey player, a real NHL hockey player, and I never forget those years. Those were the most successful and fun years I ever had in my career. So, I am a big fan of the Sabres, of course.

What what was your reaction to learning that Lindy was returning to the team?

I was kind of expecting that, but I thought that Lindy might have been [someone] in a hockey operations department – kind of like, I don't know, president of hockey operations or something. I was surprised that he still wanted to be a coach, so I've been following his return from the start. I saw all the press conferences, and I have to say that Lindy is still the same. He's got a great message for players, and I think it's going to be great for the organization now.

I heard that he mentioned our team and ’05-06, ’06-07, that's been mentioned during the press releases, and I'm proud that I was a part of those teams. I think that Lindy becoming the coach again is a great thing for the Sabres organization. I'm going to cheer for the best, and I’m hoping because it’s been a while since the Sabres got to the playoffs, and I'm hoping that he's going to bring the culture and the accountability from when I was a player. So, I'm looking forward to that.

What did you admire about him when he was your coach?

He was hard. Back then, it was a little different. Right now, all the coaches are trying to find all the positive things. They don't want to confront the players. I think he made me the player I was, and I will never forget that. He was a great coach, and off the ice, he was a great man, so I'm always a big fan of him. I was following his career after he left Buffalo, and I'm looking forward to seeing him in Prague. Hopefully, I'm going to have a chance to have a little chat with him, and wish him the best of luck in the future.

He was a great mentor. I met a bunch of coaches afterward in my career, and I just couldn't say enough about how he allowed me to become an NHL player. Playing for him was a challenge. I got stronger off the ice because of how he handled the players and how he communicated with me. So, I'm going to never forget that.

Has that helped you in life, even outside of hockey?

Yeah. A lot of things in sports and personal stuff are connected, and he was always helpful. There were ups and downs in those relationships like it always is. But, in the end, he was probably the best coach I ever had.

I want to add one thing. He's the right person for Buffalo because he's from Buffalo, right? He knows what the city is about and what the community is about and how Buffalo people work hard and cheer for their hockey club and the Bills, the football club. They have those two clubs, and they cheer for them no matter what, and that was a big thing for us not to disappoint those people and it always drove us a little more.

You're drafted in 1998 in the sixth round. What did you know about Buffalo at that time? What did you know about the city, and how did you kind of fall in love with it to the point where, like you said, it became your second home?

It's a long time ago, but, like, Dominik [Hasek] being there, it kind of put Buffalo on our map here in the Czech Republic, right? So, everybody was following that, and when I was drafted late, and even a year after my age, not much was expected from me. Being a sixth-round player, to make a team or make something happen in the league, you have to overcome all those like early draft picks, right? It goes year by year, and always new players are coming in, and I'm grateful I got the opportunity.

I played in a great system back in Rochester for a season. For whatever reason, they saw something in me, and I was able to jump over some guys they drafted way ahead of me. And finally, I made a mark for myself in the team, and I made it to the second season, and I went from there. So, it was a great school of life in Buffalo.

I didn't know much, but once I got there and spent some time in the community and around the people, I saw how great of a city it is, and even though it didn’t have the greatest [reputation] among the players in the NHL, that's those players’ opinions. They don't play for the Sabres, and they don't live in the area. I'm pretty sure that driving from the airport to the 33 highway to downtown is not quite fun from the bus. But once you live there, once you connect with the people around the team and in the community, you just start to love it. I don’t think it's a coincidence that a lot of guys who came to Buffalo and played there, that we acquired through free agency, they lived there after their careers – and that's not one player, that's a number of players. So it's a great place to be, and I wish I could be there. I wish I didn't get traded at that time so I could be there longer, you know.

Is there anything in particular about living in Buffalo that you really enjoyed?

I'm pretty sure that Buffalo looks a little different now than it used to look when I was playing there many years ago. There were some great places. What stands out for me was kind of the familiarity, right? Like any place you come in, it felt like home. And people know the players, but they don't bother you. They appreciate talking to you and players appreciate the people. They work in Buffalo, and it didn’t matter where it was, like in the stores, the restaurants, coffee shops – anywhere. After a while, you start to love the place, and that's what happened. Buffalo was my second home for a long time and hopefully I can find the time to come there and see the people and be around the city for a little bit.

People in Buffalo remember your career fondly and specifically bring up your shootout ability. I'm curious, do you know your shootout record?

I think it's 50 percent.

It's exactly 50 percent, 22 out of 44 (tied for 16th in league history among players with at least 10 attempts).

It’s not bad. I don't think that too many people have 50 percent. Every other attempt is a goal. So, that was the thing. The coaching staff, they saw something in me. At that time, the present Winnipeg Jets coach, Scott Arniel, was the assistant there. He was running the special teams. So, he saw something in me and he saw I was working on my shot a lot over the summer. He saw that I could shoot the puck, so he got me the opportunity on a power play to shoot the puck, and it worked for me.

The shootout was another thing. Maybe they saw something in practice and then they started to put me in those situations. And I was successful. So those are the situations and moments that I could build a role on the team, and I started to be a little more important guy for the team and basically tried to work hard on anything they asked of me.

So I'm really grateful. And then the funny thing is people know about it, that I was kind of like a shootout specialist, but I don't think I was. It was just like a couple of moves that I’d been working on, and they worked. And I always decided, like which one I'm going to use, depending on the goalie I'm facing. That's why (former Sabres goalie coach) Jimmy Corsi was doing such a great job of showing me the tendencies of the goalies and what they do in certain situations. I had a couple of moves that I was using and it worked for the team, and I was so happy I was able to contribute to the point department. Sometimes that extra point was really meaningful in the end.

When they introduced the shootout, it was 2005, a few years into your career. Was it something you’d already worked on?

There was nothing really special about it. I was always trying to go to backhand after I had a quick shot on the other side. It depends on the goalies, and what their stance was. You have to sell something to keep the goalie guessing. I remember I spent some time with Ryan Miller, talking about shootouts, like what he sees and how he sees the shooters and what he doesn't like from the shooter? I kind of went from there. At one point in time, I was going to every shootout we played. So, I was trying to work on it to be able to help the team when the situation came up.

You mentioned the shot that you had, which got you the opportunity on the power play. How much of that is natural talent and how much was that repetition?

I always had a good shot. When I started to work on certain mechanics and being able to one-time the pucks, I was always trying to hit the net and I was strong. I was working out a lot and I was always one of the best conditioned guys and I took a lot of pride in the preparation. I think that was one of the things they liked about me, how I presented myself and how prepared I came to the training camp year in and year out and I think I deserved that opportunity. In the start, some good things happened, I was able to score some goals on the power play and since then I had been kind of part of the unit and that was great. That's what I was hoping for and I was trying to maintain the position day in and day out.

Marty Biron said you spent a lot of time on your sticks. What was that process like?

I always thought that the hockey stick is like an instrument that you play and once it doesn’t do whatever you want to do it shows on the ice, and once you have it in your hands it feels comfortable, like when you have the puck on the stick, when the puck goes off the stick, that could make a difference. I don't think it was anything crazy, but like I spent a lot of time like to prepare my sticks and having a right stiffness of the stick and right curve and everything. So, that was kind of my thing.

Do you have a favorite memory from your career with the Sabres?

There was a lot of memories, it’s tough to pick one. Obviously, I would say the Winter Classic in ‘08. That was one of the greatest experiences I ever had and to actually be part of the shoot out like when the Zamboni doesn't work with the inch of snow and the ice, and it was in front of 70,000 people.

Was it nerve wracking?

Yeah, of course because you just don't want to make a fool of yourself like you forgot the puck behind you or something because of the snow on the ice. But, I scored in that shoot out, but unfortunately, Sidney Crosby scored the winner and we lost, but that experience was great.

I will never forget our trips to the Stanley Cup conference finals. All the team, stuck together and along with the coaches and that was just, especially that 05-06 year where we lost so many great defensemen over the span of the playoffs, and we almost still got to the finals. Those are the memories I will never forget. There's so many things. My first game in Florida when I got the call that the Sabres wanted me to go on the trip to Florida. I could never believe it. I was watching the NHL on TV during the night, I was waking up, to see the games because over here, it's at the night time. So, I was waking up to see the games with my best friend and never imagined that I would one day could be a part of it. I'm actually coming to Florida pretty often now. I have a place there and every time I come to see the Panthers games, I always remember the time that on this rink I played my first NHL game. It's pretty cool.

What made that 2005-06 team special?

People built, like in a great way. A lot of that was after the lockout and a lot of things changed in the rules and everything was favoring the speed and the skill, and Lindy and the coaching staff, they read it. They read what would make us successful in that new kind of hockey. There was a speed that was like a north-and-south game, up and down, conditioning, being strong, being able to hold onto pucks in the offensive zone. They built a team like that. It was a great mix of older and young guys.

I wasn't that young at the time. I was a little more experienced than the guys who came up like Roysie (Derek Roy) and Thomas (Vanek) and Pommer (Jason Pominville) and Goose (Paul Gaustad) and some other ones. These guys just came from the development in Rochester and they came ready, and they had been there for a while already and they just built a great mix. Dru (Chris Drury) as a leader, Danny (Briere). I think that's no surprise to me that they both are general managers in the NHL now and it was obvious at that time, especially with Chris and those guys, along with some other ones. I could go on, any guy on the team because I still know that from my head, they were special. Jay McKee at the time and those defensemen there and obviously Ryan (Miller) in the net, that was special. We had a great season and we felt like we were unstoppable at that time and we kind of were.

We played great hockey, and I think we would have played the finals and we would beat Edmonton, only if we didn’t lose four or five defensemen from the top six during the playoffs. I truly believe that. We wanted to rebuild for the next year, which was also great, but we fell to Ottawa. They played great hockey and we kind of ran out of juice in that conference final. It was a little different than the year before, they were the better team. But I couldn't say that about the year before.

And even with that team, that was a great memory too, after the second period in Game 7 in Carolina. Like, we've been leading like 2-1 or 1-0, I can't remember. So I was going in the hallway, like back and forth, and telling myself that there’s 20 minutes to go to reach the Stanley Cup Finals. We have 20 minutes to do it. Even with the short-handed lineup we had, we’d been able to be up after two periods.

So again, it's a great team. I don't want to take anything from the Carolina team at the time, they had a great team. Then we got two rebounds, there was like two ugly goals, I would say it was 2-2, 3-2, and then [Carolina] got the empty netter for 4-2. So, there was a feeling I never experienced that you were like working so hard with a great group of friends, and people around the team, and all of a sudden it was not there. It was empty and that was one of probably my biggest disappointments of my career. We weren't able to finish it out in the third period in Carolina to be able to play for the Stanley Cup. Kind of a tough experience. Not only on the ice, but we were getting the guys together off the ice too and everybody kind of pulling on the same side of rope because we saw that we had something special and the coaches saw it too and there was a year of great experience. So, how the right team should go about their business and working towards the ultimate goal.