Just like many others in data analytics, I’ve made it no secret that I’m not too fond of the official IIHF game sheets. They might have made sense back when we still thought that hockey was about the survival of the toughest, but in this day and age, we need more. More data, more information about the players and the general flow of the game. Unfortunately, the IIHF doesn’t seem too eager to track these numbers, so we have to do it ourselves.

Earlier this year, me and my amazing team of volunteers had done just that for the IIHF Worlds, and since Hlinka Memorial Cup is one of the most important international tournaments for many draft prospects (U18), we decided to once again spend the better part of a week watching and re-watching the matches and gathering data.

What kind of stats will you find here?

• Corsi For and Against 5v5
• Scoring Chances For and Against 5v5
• Goal For and Against 5v5
• Individual Corsi Contribution (both in absolutes and %)
• SV%/Sh%-on-ice, PDO-on-ice (counted with Corsi events)
• data available for all players and teams

General disclaimer:

1. All the data is unofficial, obviously.
2. As always, short tournaments have the usual “small sample” issues. Still, it’s better to have some reliable information than outcome bias based just on the end results.

[Insert Juiciest Facts to Lure the Nerds in]

• Despite finishing 5th, Canada showed strong possession games with CF% 64.2. The numbers suggest that they’ve got some trouble getting the shots from most dangerous areas, though.
• Best 5v5 possession teams: Canada (64.2%), USA (58.0 %),
• Most fun team (most Corsi events): CZE (98.6 events per game)
• Most effective team: USA (44.4 % of all 5v5 shots from home-plate area)

Numbers for Some Hot Prospects of 2017 & 2018 Draft Classes

Filip Zadina (2018, CZE): 43.4 CF% (+0.1 over team average), 42% ICP (he took 42% of all the CZ shots when he was on ice), 12 of his 22 shots were from homeplate area

Timothy Liljegren (2017, SWE): 50.3 CF% (+1.0), 15 shot attempts, 2 from homeplate Unfortunately, we didn’t have the time to track stats covering the defensemen’s job (zone exits etc.) too closely.

Michael Pastujov (2017, USA): strong performance based on possession numbers, 68.6 CF% (+10.6), scoring chance differential +55/-19 (74.3%)

Maxime Comtois (2017, CAN): 55.7 CF% (-8.5), 8 of 16 his shots were from homeplate area

Andrei Svechnikov (2018, RUS): 55.4 CF% (+6.2), 41 % of RUS shots (19 in total) were by him when he was on ice

But those are just individual numbers. Take a closer look at the charts to find the proper context with regards to the team performance. All stats are in embedded Tableau charts and you can feel free to use them (appropriately crediting the source). If you need more information, please contact me.

CHARTS (open in new window)

Credits:

I’d like to give a big shout out all the volunteers who make this project possible!

Namely: Tomáš Ptáček, Matěj Votrubec, Stanislav Pokorný, Michaela Kovářová, Petr Ciesarik, Martin Lukovics, Jaroslav Vondrák, Tomáš Horák, Jakub Špirk, Lukáš Joppa. Díky!

Cover photo: Juniorský hokej

Thanks to: Micah Blake McCurdy, who think up dull/fun categories for the charts (if I remember correctly)