I spent a lot of hours watching hockey with a notepad at hand and are the results: Corsi stats for Czech Republic WJC team in 2015 tournament. Some numbers actually help to understand why the team did not succeed.
Update 01/09: Corsi data from CZE-DEN game included
Data for the tournament*
*Quick note: I didn’t include the game against Denmark because it skewed the data (Czechs outshot 48-14 in SOG and it was not their typical performance of the tournament).
Corsi and Fenwick data – some additional comments
- Czechs were one or more goals short most of the tournament. I didn’t adjust Corsi or use Corsi Close, but bear that in mind when you analyse the data. Still, they weren’t able to beat the opponent’s team in puck possession (except for their game with Russia)
- David Pastrnak (F, Boston Bruins/Providence) was the team’s best player in terms of points (1G 6A in 5G), but his Corsi and Fenwick stats are quite poor (Corsi – 43,33%; Fenwick – 40,35%). His line overshot opponent only in one game – against Russia.
- Czechs had quite a good first forward line in terms of Corsi and Fenwick, all were over 50 %. Jakub Vrana (Washington prospect/Linkoping-SWE), David Kampf (Chomutov – CZE) and Ondrej Kase (Anaheim prospect/Chomutov – CZE). Their Corsi and Fenwick are 50%+. Unfortunately their performance was dropping throughout the tournament (see the chart below).
- David Nemecek (TPS Turku – FIN) and Lukas Klok (Vitkovice – CZE) played as the first defensive line. I did some counting and 48 % Corsi events of David Nemecek were connected to Jakub Vrana, 45 % to Ondrej Kase.
- So that leaves us with just one other interesting case – Jan Kostalek (D, Winnipeg prospect/Rimouski QMJHL) who was in 3rd line the whole tournament, played most often with guys who got negative Corsi, but he still ended up in positive numbers. We might have a little unnoticed hero of the team here.
- Pavel Zacha (expected 1st rounder in 2015 draft) played in 3rd line, didn’t get much power play time and ended with 1G and 1A and 42,64 % Corsi and 43,88 % Fenwick.
Closer look at the defense
You can see that Kostalek is the most consistent defensive player on Czech roster. His performance looks even better when you take into account that he played the first two games with Dominik Masin (D, Tampa Bay/Peterborough-OHL) and the last two paired with Jan Scotka (D, Pardubice-CZE). When you look at Scotka’s performance, Kostalek’s influence looks very good. But we’re of course talking about really small samples and a very short tournament.
Still, here’s a comparison between Nemecek (best defenseman according to Czech coaches) and Kostalek. Turns out it wasn’t a bad tournament for Kostalek.
|
NEMECEK David (8)
|
KOSTALEK Jan (3)
|
|
|
GP
|
5
|
5
|
|
G
|
0
|
1
|
|
A
|
1
|
2
|
|
PTS
|
1
|
3
|
|
PIM
|
16*
|
34*
|
|
+/-
|
+2
|
+3
|
|
Shots
|
3
|
10
|
|
Corsi For
|
74
|
66
|
|
Corsi Against
|
72
|
58
|
|
Corsi %
|
50,68%
|
53,23%
|
|
Fenwick For
|
66
|
43
|
|
Fenwick Against
|
56
|
48
|
|
Fenwick %
|
54,10%
|
47,25%
|
|
Most on ice with
|
Klok (88,9%), Vrana (48,2 %), Kase O. (44,4 %)
|
Scotka (56,7 %), Zacha (42,1 %), Pastrnak (42,1 %)
|
*Both players get combined penalties. Kostalek had two minors (and personal 10+20 for one of them), Nemecek three (and personal 10 minutes for one of them).
Closer look at the offense
- Players are arranged by the lines (1st, 2nd etc.). There were obviously some lineup changes throughout the tournament.
- As you can see, the biggest problem of the Czech team was in their top 6/top 9 lineup. First line started with good numbers but their possession play had been declining. The team didn’t find the right tactic to get Pastrnak’s line working. In the last game against Slovakia they played Zacha with Pastrnak and the results were also terrible possession-wise.
- Players from bottom 3/6 were ok, but they get significantly less ice-time as well as Corsi and Fenwick events, as you can see in the first chart.
- Overall, we would need much more data (ice-time, matchups and much more) to evaluate players’ and team’s performance. But from what we have available, it seems obvious that the Czech team’s results are linked to their poor puck possession.
Czech Republic – Corsi 5v5 WJC 2015
|
Name
|
SWE
|
SUI
|
DEN
|
RUS
|
SVK
|
|
KLOK Lukas
|
42,11%
|
51,22%
|
65,63%
|
64,52%
|
54,84%
|
|
NEMECEK David
|
39,02%
|
53,85%
|
70,59%
|
58,82%
|
53,13%
|
|
STENCL Jan
|
43,59%
|
34,29%
|
71,05%
|
48,57%
|
28,95%
|
|
MASIN Dominik
|
62,86%
|
45,83%
|
65,22%
|
50,00%
|
29,73%
|
|
KOSTALEK Jan
|
55,17%
|
47,62%
|
76,92%
|
51,28%
|
57,14%
|
|
BARANEK Michal
|
84,38%
|
||||
|
SCOTKA Jan
|
33,33%
|
34,21%
|
54,29%
|
57,14%
|
|
|
KAMPF David
|
60,87%
|
56,76%
|
80,77%
|
46,43%
|
46,67%
|
|
VRANA Jakub
|
60,00%
|
53,66%
|
80,77%
|
51,72%
|
48,39%
|
|
KASE Ondrej
|
58,33%
|
56,76%
|
79,17%
|
48,28%
|
46,67%
|
|
KASE David
|
35,71%
|
35,29%
|
63,89%
|
53,57%
|
|
|
PASTRNAK David
|
37,93%
|
38,24%
|
63,16%
|
62,50%
|
34,04%
|
|
ZDRAHAL Patrik
|
41,38%
|
35,29%
|
65,85%
|
61,76%
|
34,78%
|
|
ZACHA Pavel
|
39,29%
|
37,50%
|
69,44%
|
56,76%
|
35,42%
|
|
KUBALIK Dominik
|
36,67%
|
40,00%
|
69,70%
|
52,94%
|
66,67%
|
|
MANDAT Jan
|
37,93%
|
14,29%
|
83,33%
|
44,44%
|
65,22%
|
|
RUZICKA Marek
|
56,52%
|
37,50%
|
70,59%
|
70,00%
|
50,00%
|
|
SPACEK Michael
|
52,17%
|
46,15%
|
83,33%
|
68,18%
|
|
|
GORCIK Sebastian
|
52,38%
|
38,46%
|
83,33%
|
66,67%
|
40,00%
|
|
Czech Rep All
|
45,71%
|
44,44%
|
69,01%
|
54,90%
|
46,15%
|
* Blue colour represents above-average performance in Corsi, red is below average.