Not everything in hockey stats has to be serious business. The IIHF counted up some interesting things in the preliminary round of the 2018 World Championships and shared them today.
Like how far the puck travelled:
Or who passed the most (should Johnny Gaudreau shoot more?):
Not to accidentally take this too seriously, but Markus Nutivaara of the Columbus Blue Jackets has been spectacular playing as a top-pairing defender at this tournament. He was drafted in the seventh round a few places after Nikita Korostelev was taken by the Leafs in 2015. Not sure if he’s just another Andreas Johnsson or if he’s evidence no one can tell good 17-year-old defenceman from bad.
In going places stats:
There’s Kasperi Kapanen, always ready and willing to run down an icing or harry the other team’s power play deep into their own zone, and then turn and roar up the ice the other way. He played most of the first few games on a line with Mikael Granlund, and they ran other teams into the ground with their speed and simple willingness to always go for it.
Speaking of speed:
I think we all know Connor McDavid might be resting his legs for the games that count, but it’s interesting to see some sort of proof for what we’ve always suspected: Kapanen is one of the fasted players in the NHL.
One of the interesting things about Team Finland this year is that they have scored a lot of short-handed goals, and have a very aggressive penalty kill, but they have so many speedy players who do PK, Kapanen usually plays the second PK unit.
Finland should speed to victory today over the Swiss today, and Kapanen will likely log a lot of kilometres on the ice.
