Pavel Novak is patrolling the point — Manhattan Point.
It’s the restaurant high above Prospera Place’s ice surface.
Below, the Kelowna Rockets are taking on the Victoria Royals.
On this night, the Rockets’ foreign import rookie sensation isn’t serving up goals. Instead, he’s serving part of an eight-game suspension.
For the Rockets, Novak’s suspension couldn’t come at a worse time, not that there’s ever a good time for a team to lose one of its top scorers.
For Novak, though, it’s also bad timing because he’s being forced to sit while his parent visit.
Novak’s family has travelled from the Czech Republic to watch their son play hockey in Canada.
Novak received the suspension for a checking-from-behind penalty in Kamloops on Nov. 11. His suspension started Nov. 16; his next eligible game will be Dec. 10 at Brandon.
Global Okanagan sat down with them to get their first impressions of the WHL and Canada’s game.
None of them speak fluent English, so we asked Pavel to translate.
“Canadian Hockey is more physical,” Novak said quoting his father, Pavel Novak Sr.
“It’s a good experience for my parents, our rink is full for our game, he’s likes it,” Novak said about his father.
It’s easy to forget that at only 17 years-old, Pavel Novak is still a kid.
A kid who is a long way from home, living in a different country and forced to speak a different language.
And naturally for his parents it wasn’t easy to let him go.
“For my parents it was so hard.” Novak said translating for his mother Pavlina Novakova.
Of course young Pavel Novak is having to deal with disappointment that his family can’t watch him play hockey.
But it may be slightly tempered but fact they’ll be back next May, to see their son compete for junior hockey’s biggest prize, the Memorial Cup.
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