Latvian forward Ronalds Kenins (left, with goalie Elvis Merzlikins) was the fastest skater of the preliminary round at the 2018 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship.
photo: Matt Zambonin / HHOF-IIHF Images
People have followed statistics in hockey almost since the game’s existence.
First it was limited to goals scored. Then came assists, penalty minutes. At some points shots, +/- ratings, face-offs or ice time leading to what is called advanced stats.
We won’t bother you with these stats since you can find them easily by clicking STATS in the menu and using the IIHF mobile app on Android or iPhone/iPad. Below you can see statistics you have never seen before and that are not part of the regular statistics report yet and are based on the preliminary round where each of the 16 teams played seven games.
While you may have noticed last year the puck speed measurement at the Worlds in Cologne and Paris, the IIHF goes even further this year with player and puck tracking. Who is the fastest player? Who skates a marathon on ice during the Worlds? Who is the best passer?
First it was limited to goals scored. Then came assists, penalty minutes. At some points shots, +/- ratings, face-offs or ice time leading to what is called advanced stats.
We won’t bother you with these stats since you can find them easily by clicking STATS in the menu and using the IIHF mobile app on Android or iPhone/iPad. Below you can see statistics you have never seen before and that are not part of the regular statistics report yet and are based on the preliminary round where each of the 16 teams played seven games.
While you may have noticed last year the puck speed measurement at the Worlds in Cologne and Paris, the IIHF goes even further this year with player and puck tracking. Who is the fastest player? Who skates a marathon on ice during the Worlds? Who is the best passer?
Team USA forward Johnny Gaudreau had the most passes completed. That’s 300 passes in seven games. He’s followed by nine defencemen completing the top-10. Is he the best passer in the world?
Gaudreau could be challenged with the argument of the relative success in passing. How many passes did actually arrive? In this statistic a teammate of his takes over first place. Youngster Quinn Hughes had a passing success rate of 74.29 per cent and all others in this ranking are defencemen too.
Let’s go to the next discipline. Who’s the fastest skater here? For this many sprints were measured and analysed to find a winner: Latvian forward Ronalds Kenins was 41.32 km/h (25.68 mph) fast during a sprint in the game against the United States and leaves Germany’s Leon Draisaitl and Frederik Tiffels behind. And while passing was a discipline for the defencemen, it’s the forwards for the sprints.
So Kenins sprints the fastest but who’s the marathon man of the Worlds? It’s Oliver Ekman Larsson, who skated the biggest distance during the seven games. His 41.52 kilometres (25.8 miles) are basically a full marathon distance. Denmark’s Jesper Jensen and Sweden’s John Klingberg follow while Finland’s Kasperi Kapanen is the forward who skated most.
Let’s now move from the players to the puck. Also the puck moved a lot, more than any player. During the entire preliminary round in Copenhagen and Herning, pucks moved for a total distance of 829 kilometres (515 miles). That’s approximately the distance from Copenhagen to Luxembourg to the south or Vilnius to the east. The most puck movement was in the game between the Czechs and the Slovaks while the Switzerland-Sweden match accumulated the smallest puck distance.
Last but not least, we measured the puck possession. Team USA (57.54%) had most of it tightly followed by the Czechs. Outside of the top-10: BLR 48.15%, GER 48.15%, LAT 44.96%, AUT 44.62%, FRA 42.96%, KOR 40.47%.