The growth of hockey players: we analyze the data of all the world championships in the current century. Why is the Russian hockey team almost entirely made up of players from the same club Hockey players of the Russian national team

One of these days the next world championship on hockey has come to the end.

An idea was born while watching matches. When the TV camera shows the players walking into the dressing room during breaks, it's hard not to notice how huge they are. Against the background of coaches, team functionaries, ice arena employees, journalists or just fans, they usually look very impressive.

And I asked questions. Are hockey players really taller than ordinary people? How does the height of hockey players change over time in comparison with ordinary people? Are there persistent cross-country differences?

Data

The IIHF, the organization that hosts the Ice Hockey World Championships, publishes the line-ups of the participating teams each year, with information on each player's height and weight. Archive this data.

I have put together data from all the world championships from 2001 to 2016. From year to year, the format of the data provided varies slightly, which requires some effort to clean it up. Not realizing how to properly automate the process, I copied all the data manually, which took a little more than 3 hours. The merged dataset has been released to the public.

# load required packages require(dplyr) # data manipulation require(lubridate) # easy manipulations with dates require(ggplot2) # visualization require(ggthemes) # themes for ggplot2 require(cowplot) # nice alignment of the ggplots require(RColorBrewer) # generate color palettes require(texreg) # easy export of regression tables require(xtable) # export a data frame into an html table # download the IIHF data set; if there are some problems, you can download manually # using the stable URL (https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3394735.v2) df<- read.csv("https://ndownloader.figshare.com/files/5303173") # color palette brbg11 <- brewer.pal(11,"BrBG")

Are hockey players growing? Rough (periodic) comparison

To begin with, let's compare the average height of players in all 16 world championships.

R code. Figure 1. Change in the average height of hockey players at the world championships, 2001-2016

# mean height by championship df_per<- df %>% group_by(year) %>% summarise(height=mean(height)) gg_period_mean<- ggplot(df_per, aes(x=year,y=height))+ geom_point(size=3,color=brbg11)+ stat_smooth(method="lm",size=1,color=brbg11)+ ylab("height, cm")+ xlab("year of competition")+ scale_x_continuous(breaks=seq(2005,2015,5),labels=seq(2005,2015,5))+ theme_few(base_size = 15)+ theme(panel.grid=element_line(colour = "grey75",size=.25)) gg_period_jitter <- ggplot(df, aes(x=year,y=height))+ geom_jitter(size=2,color=brbg11,alpha=.25,width = .75)+ stat_smooth(method="lm",size=1,se=F,color=brbg11)+ ylab("height, cm")+ xlab("year of competition")+ scale_x_continuous(breaks=seq(2005,2015,5),labels=seq(2005,2015,5))+ theme_few(base_size = 15)+ theme(panel.grid=element_line(colour = "grey75",size=.25)) gg_period <- plot_grid(gg_period_mean,gg_period_jitter)

The positive trend is obvious. Over a decade and a half, the average height of a hockey player at the World Championships has increased by almost 2 centimeters (left panel). Seems like a slight increase against a fairly large variation (right panel). Is it a lot or a little? To answer the question, it is necessary to correctly compare with the population (but more on that closer to the end of the article).

Cohort analysis

A more accurate way to study change in height is to compare by birth cohort. Here we are faced with a curious nuance - some hockey players participated in more than one world championship. Q: Should I clean up duplicate entries for the same people? If we are interested in the average height of a hockey player in the championship (as in the picture above), perhaps it does not make sense to clear. But if we want to track the change in the growth of hockey players as such, in my opinion it would be wrong to assign more weight to those players who regularly got to the world championships. Therefore, for further analysis, I cleared the data from repeated entries of the same players.

R code. Data preparation for cohort analysis

# remove double counts dfu_h<- df %>% select(year,name,country,position,birth,cohort,height) %>% spread(year,height) dfu_h$av.height<- apply(dfu_h[,6:21],1,mean,na.rm=T) dfu_h$times_participated <- apply(!is.na(dfu_h[,6:21]),1,sum) dfu_w <- df %>% select(year,name,country,position,birth,cohort,weight) %>% spread(year,weight) dfu_w$av.weight<- apply(dfu_w[,6:21],1,mean,na.rm=T) dfu <- left_join(dfu_h %>% select(name,country,position,birth,cohort,av.height,times_participated), dfu_w %>% select(name,country,position,birth,cohort,av.weight), by = c("name"," country","position","birth","cohort")) %>% mutate(bmi = av.weight/(av.height/100)^2)

The total number of observations was reduced from 6292 to 3333. If a hockey player participated in more than one world championship, I averaged the height and weight data, since the height and (especially) weight of an individual hockey player could change over time. How many times are hockey players honored to play for national teams at the world championships? A little less than 2 times on average.

R code. Figure 2. Histogram of the distribution of hockey players by the number of participations in the World Cup

# frequencies of participation in world championships mean(dfu$times_participated) df_part<- as.data.frame(table(dfu$times_participated)) gg_times_part <- ggplot(df_part,aes(y=Freq,x=Var1))+ geom_bar(stat="identity",fill=brbg11)+ ylab("# of players")+ xlab("times participated (out of 16 possible)")+ theme_few(base_size = 15)

But there are also unique ones. Let's see which of the players took part in at least 10 world championships. There were 14 such players.

R code. Table 1. Leaders of participation in the world championships

# the leaders of participation in world championships # save the table to html leaders<- dfu %>% filter(times_participated > 9) View(leaders) print(xtable(leaders), type="html", file="table_leaders.html")

	name	country	position	birth	cohort	av.height	times_participated	av.weight	bmi
1	ovechkin alexander	ENG	F	1985-09-17	1985	188.45	11	98.36	27.70
2	nielsen daniel	DEN	D	1980-10-31	1980	182.27	11	79.73	24.00
3	staal kim	DEN	F	1978-03-10	1978	182.00	10	87.80	26.51
4	green morten	DEN	F	1981-03-19	1981	183.00	12	85.83	25.63
5	masalskis edgars	lat	G	1980-03-31	1980	176.00	12	79.17	25.56
6	ambuhl andres	SUI	F	1983-09-14	1983	176.80	10	83.70	26.78
7	granak dominik	SVK	D	1983-06-11	1983	182.00	10	79.50	24.00
8	madsen morten	DEN	F	1987-01-16	1987	189.82	11	86.00	23.87
9	redlihs mikelis	lat	F	1984-07-01	1984	180.00	10	80.40	24.81
10	cipulis martins	lat	F	1980-11-29	1980	180.70	10	82.10	25.14
11	holos jonas	NOR	D	1987-08-27	1987	180.18	11	91.36	28.14
12	bastiansen anders	NOR	F	1980-10-31	1980	190.00	11	93.64	25.94
13	ask morten	NOR	F	1980-05-14	1980	185.00	10	88.30	25.80
14	forsberg christian	NOR	F	1986-05-05	1986	184.50	10	87.50	25.70

Alexander Ovechkin, 11 times! But here it should be noted that it was not possible in principle for all hockey players to participate in all 16 championships: it depends on the birth cohort (how much the playing career intersected precisely with this period of observation), on whether the player’s team participated in all world championships (see figure 3) and whether the player consistently got into the national team; Finally, there is the NHL, which steadily diverts the best of the best from participating in the world championships.

R code. Figure 3. Participation of national teams in the Ice Hockey World Championships in 2001-2016

# times countries participated df_cnt_part<- df %>% select(year,country,no) %>% mutate(country=factor(paste(country))) %>% group_by(country,year) %>% summarise(value=sum(as.numeric(no))) %>% mutate(value=1) %>% ungroup() %>% mutate(country=factor(country, levels = rev(levels(country))), year=factor(year)) d_cnt_n<- df_cnt_part %>% group_by(country) %>% summarise(n=sum(value)) gg_cnt_part<- ggplot(data = df_cnt_part, aes(x=year,y=country))+ geom_point(color=brbg11,size=7)+ geom_text(data=d_cnt_n,aes(y=country,x=17.5,label=n,color=n),size=7,fontface=2)+ geom_text(data=d_cnt_n,aes(y=country,x=18.5,label=" "),size=7)+ scale_color_gradientn(colours = brbg11)+ xlab(NULL)+ ylab(NULL)+ theme_bw(base_size = 25)+ theme(legend.position="none", axis.text.x = element_text(angle = 90, hjust = 1,vjust=0.5))

Are hockey players growing? Regression analysis

Regression analysis allows you to more correctly answer the question about the change in the height of the players. In this case, using multinomial linear regression, the growth of a hockey player is predicted depending on the birth cohort. Including various additional (control) variables in the specification of the regression model, we obtain the value of the most interesting coefficient "ceteris paribus". For example, adding the position of the player on the field to the explanatory variables in addition to the birth cohort, we get the relationship of height and cohort, cleaned of the effect of differences depending on the position; adding countries to the control variables, we get the result, cleared of inter-country differences. Of course, if the control variables themselves turn out to be significant, this is also worth paying attention to.
Regression models (especially linear regressions) are very sensitive to outliers (see, for example, ). Without going deep into this vast topic, I have only removed from the analysis the cohorts for which we have too few representatives.

R code. Removing small cohorts

# remove small cohorts table(dfu$cohort) dfuc<- dfu %>% filter(cohort<1997,cohort>1963)

Not wanting to cut the data too much, I only removed the 1963, 1997, and 1998 cohorts, for which we have less than 10 players.

So, the results of the regression analysis. In each following model I add one variable.
Dependent variable: the growth of a hockey player.
Explanatory variables: 1) birth cohort; 2) + position on the field (comparison with defenders); 3) + country (comparison with Russia).

R code. Table 2. Results of regression analysis

# relevel counrty variable to compare with Russia dfuc$country<- relevel(dfuc$country,ref = "RUS") # regression models m1 <- lm(data = dfuc,av.height~cohort) m2 <- lm(data = dfuc,av.height~cohort+position) m3 <- lm(data = dfuc,av.height~cohort+position+country) # export the models to html htmlreg(list(m1,m2,m3),file = "models_height.html",single.row = T)

Statistical models

	Model 1	Model 2	Model 3
(Intercept)	-10.17 (27.67)	-18.64 (27.01)	32.59 (27.00)
cohort	0.10 (0.01) ***	0.10 (0.01) ***	0.08 (0.01) ***
positionF		-2.59 (0.20) ***	-2.59 (0.20) ***
positionG		-1.96 (0.31) ***	-1.93 (0.30) ***
countryAUT			-0.94 (0.55)
countryBLR			-0.95 (0.53)
country CAN			1.13 (0.46) *
countryCZE			0.56 (0.49)
countryDEN			-0.10 (0.56)
countryFIN			0.20 (0.50)
countryFRA			-2.19 (0.69) **
countryGER			-0.61 (0.51)
countryHUN			-0.61 (0.86)
countryITA			-3.58 (0.61) ***
countryJPN			-5.24 (0.71) ***
countryKAZ			-1.16 (0.57) *
countryLAT			-1.38 (0.55) *
countryNOR			-1.61 (0.62) **
countryPOL			0.06 (1.12)
countrySLO			-1.55 (0.58) **
countrySUI			-1.80 (0.53) ***
countrySVK			1.44 (0.50) **
countrySWE			1.18 (0.48) *
countryUKR			-1.82 (0.59) **
countryUSA			0.54 (0.45)
R2	0.01	0.06	0.13
Adj. R2	0.01	0.06	0.12
Num. obs.	3319	3319	3319
RMSE	5.40	5.27	5.10
***p< 0.001, ** p < 0.01, * p < 0.05

Model interpretation

Model 1. An increase in the cohort by one year corresponds to an increase in the height of hockey players by 0.1 cm. The coefficient is statistically significant, but the model explains only 1% of the variation in the dependent variable. In principle, this is not a problem, since modeling is of an explanatory nature, the problem of prediction is not posed. However, the low coefficient of determination indicates that there must be other variables that better explain differences between hockey players in height.

Model 2. Defenders are the tallest players in hockey. Goalkeepers are 2 cm lower, forwards are 2.6 cm lower. All coefficients are statistically significant. The explained variation of the dependent variable rises to 6%. In this case, the coefficient at the variable birth cohort does not change.

Model 3. The addition of control variables for countries is interesting for two reasons. First, some differences are statistically significant and interesting in their own right. So, for example, the Swedes, Slovaks and Canadians are statistically significantly higher than our players. Most nations are much shorter than us, the Japanese are as much as 5.2 cm, the Italians - 3.6 cm, the French - 2.2 cm (see also Figure 4). Secondly, the introduction of control variables for countries significantly reduces the coefficient on the variable birth cohort- up to 0.08. This means that cross-country differences explain part of the differences in birth cohorts. The coefficient of determination of the model increases to 13%.

R code. Figure 4. Growth of hockey players by country

# players" height by country gg_av.h_country<- ggplot(dfuc ,aes(x=factor(cohort),y=av.height))+ geom_point(color="grey50",alpha=.25)+ stat_summary(aes(group=country),geom="line",fun.y = mean,size=.5,color="grey50")+ stat_smooth(aes(group=country,color=country),geom="line",size=1)+ #geom_hline(yintercept = mean(height),color="red",size=.5)+ facet_wrap(~country,ncol=4)+ coord_cartesian(ylim = c(170,195))+ scale_x_discrete(labels=paste(seq(1965,1995,10)),breaks=paste(seq(1965,1995,10)))+ theme_few(base_size = 15)+ theme(legend.position="none", panel.grid=element_line(colour = "grey75",size=.25))

The most complete model shows that the increase in the height of hockey players occurs at a rate of 0.08 cm per year. This means an increase of 0.8 cm per decade, or 2.56 cm over 32 years from 1964 to 1996. Note that when control variables are taken into account, the rate of increase in the growth of hockey players turns out to be about one and a half times lower than with a more rough analysis of the average values ​​(Figure 1): 0.8 cm per decade versus about 1.2 cm.

Before we finally try to understand how significant the increase in growth is, I want to draw attention to one more interesting point. The introduction of control variables implies fixing the differences between categories with a single slope of the regression line (a single coefficient for the main explanatory variable). This is not always good and may mask significant differences in the closeness of association between the variables under study in the subsamples. So, for example, separate modeling of the dependence of the height of players on the role (Figure 5) shows that the relationship is most pronounced for goalkeepers and least noticeable for defenders.

R code. Figure 5. Correlation between height and cohort separately for defensemen, forwards and goalkeepers

dfuc_pos<- dfuc levels(dfuc_pos$position) <- c("Defenders","Forwards","Goalkeeprs") gg_pos <- ggplot(dfuc_pos ,aes(x=cohort,y=av.height))+ geom_jitter(aes(color=position),alpha=.5)+ stat_smooth(method = "lm", se = T,color=brbg11,size=1)+ scale_x_continuous(labels=seq(1965,1995,5),breaks=seq(1965,1995,5))+ scale_color_manual(values = brbg11)+ facet_wrap(~position,ncol=3)+ xlab("birth cohort")+ ylab("height, cm")+ theme_few(base_size = 20)+ theme(legend.position="none", panel.grid=element_line(colour = "grey75",size=.25))

R code. Table 3. Model 3 separately for subsamples of defenders, forwards and goalkeepers

# separate models for positions m3d<- lm(data = dfuc %>% filter(position=="D"),av.height~cohort+country) m3f<- lm(data = dfuc %>% filter(position=="F"),av.height~cohort+country) m3g<- lm(data = dfuc %>% filter(position=="G"),av.height~cohort+country) htmlreg(list(m3d,m3f,m3g),file = "2016/160500 Hockey players/models_height_pos.html",single.row = T, custom.model.names = c("Model 3 D","Model 3 F","Model 3 G"))

Statistical models

	Model 3D	Model 3F	Model 3G
(Intercept)	108.45 (46.46) *	49.32 (36.73)	-295.76 (74.61) ***
cohort	0.04 (0.02)	0.07 (0.02) ***	0.24 (0.04) ***
countryAUT	0.14 (0.96)	-2.01 (0.75) **	0.47 (1.47)
countryBLR	0.30 (0.87)	-1.53 (0.73) *	-2.73 (1.55)
country CAN	1.55 (0.78) *	0.39 (0.62)	3.45 (1.26) **
countryCZE	0.87 (0.84)	0.30 (0.67)	0.63 (1.36)
countryDEN	-0.60 (0.95)	0.10 (0.75)	-0.19 (1.62)
countryFIN	-0.55 (0.89)	-0.04 (0.67)	2.40 (1.32)
countryFRA	-3.34 (1.15) **	-2.06 (0.93) *	1.39 (2.07)
countryGER	0.48 (0.85)	-1.40 (0.72)	-0.65 (1.33)
countryHUN	-1.32 (1.47)	-0.70 (1.16)	0.65 (2.39)
countryITA	-2.08 (1.08)	-4.78 (0.82) ***	-2.02 (1.62)
countryJPN	-4.13 (1.26) **	-6.52 (0.94) ***	-2.27 (1.98)
countryKAZ	-1.23 (0.95)	-1.82 (0.79) *	1.79 (1.58)
countryLAT	-0.73 (0.95)	-1.39 (0.75)	-3.42 (1.49) *
countryNOR	-3.25 (1.07) **	-1.06 (0.85)	-0.10 (1.66)
countryPOL	0.82 (1.89)	-0.58 (1.55)	0.37 (2.97)
countrySLO	-1.57 (0.99)	-1.54 (0.79)	-2.25 (1.66)
countrySUI	-1.98 (0.91) *	-2.36 (0.71) ***	1.12 (1.47)
countrySVK	2.94 (0.87) ***	0.81 (0.67)	-0.70 (1.50)
countrySWE	0.75 (0.81)	1.24 (0.65)	1.37 (1.33)
countryUKR	-1.37 (1.01)	-1.77 (0.80) *	-3.71 (1.66) *
countryUSA	0.76 (0.78)	-0.08 (0.62)	2.58 (1.26) *
R2	0.09	0.10	0.24
Adj. R2	0.07	0.09	0.20
Num. obs.	1094	1824	401
RMSE	5.08	5.08	4.87
***p< 0.001, ** p < 0.01, * p < 0.05

Separate modeling shows that in the cohorts born in 1964-1996, the average height of hockey players who participated in the world championships in 2001-2016 increased at a rate of 0.4 cm per decade for defenders, 0.7 cm for forwards and (!) 2.4 cm for goalkeepers. For three decades, the average height of goalkeepers has increased by 7 cm!

It's time to compare these changes with population averages.

Population comparison

The results of the regression analysis record significant cross-country differences. Therefore, it makes sense to compare by country: hockey players of a certain country with the male population of the same country.

To compare the growth of hockey players with the average male population, I used data from a relevant scientific article (PDF). I copied the data from the article (using the wonderful tabula program) and also posted it in the public domain.

R code. Hatton, T. J., & Bray, B. E. (2010) data loading and preparation for analysis

# download the data from Hatton, T. J., & Bray, B. E. (2010). # Long run trends in the heights of European men, 19th–20th centuries. # Economics & Human Biology, 8(3), 405–413. # http://doi.org/10.1016/j.ehb.2010.03.001 # stable URL, copied data (https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3394795.v1) df_hb<- read.csv("https://ndownloader.figshare.com/files/5303878") df_hb <- df_hb %>% gather("country","h_pop",2:16) %>% mutate(period=paste(period)) %>% separate(period,c("t1","t2"),sep = "/" )%>% transmute(cohort=(as.numeric(t1)+as.numeric(t2))/2,country,h_pop) # calculate hockey players" cohort height averages for each country df_hoc<- dfu %>% group_by(country,cohort) %>% summarise(h_hp=mean(av.height)) %>% ungroup()

Unfortunately, the data on population growth dynamics overlap with only 8 countries from my hockey dataset: Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Sweden.

R code. Overlapping Data

# countries in both data sets both_cnt<- levels(factor(df_hb$country)) both_cnt

R code. Figure 6. Comparison of the growth dynamics of the male population and hockey players. Note: green color - male population; brown color - hockey players.

gg_hoc_vs_pop<- ggplot()+ geom_path(data = df_hb %>% filter(country %in% both_cnt), aes(x=cohort,y=h_pop), color=brbg11,size=1)+ geom_point(data = df_hb %>% filter(country %in% both_cnt), aes(x =cohort,y=h_pop), color=brbg11,size=2)+ geom_point(data = df_hb %>% filter(country %in% both_cnt), aes(x=cohort,y=h_pop), color="white" ,size=1.5)+ geom_point(data = df_hoc %>% filter(country %in% both_cnt), aes(x=cohort,y=h_hp), color=brbg11,size=2,pch=18)+ stat_smooth(data = df_hoc %>% filter(country %in% both_cnt), aes(x=cohort,y=h_hp), method="lm",se=F,color=brbg11,size=1)+ facet_wrap(~country,ncol =2)+ ylab("height, cm")+ xlab("birth cohort")+ theme_few(base_size = 15)+ theme(panel.grid=element_line(colour = "grey75",size=.25))

In all analyzed countries, hockey players are 2-5 cm taller than statistical men. But this is not surprising - there is a significant selection in sports.
Something else is noteworthy. In the developed countries of the world, a particularly rapid increase in the growth of the male population occurred in the first middle of the 20th century. In cohorts born around the 1960s, the growth of men approached a plateau and ceased to increase rapidly. The trend of the average height of hockey players in all countries (except for some reason Denmark) seemed to continue the suspended long-term trend of the entire male population.
For cohorts of Europeans born in the first half of the 20th century, the rate of increase in average height ranged from 1.18 to 1.74 cm per decade, depending on the country (Figure 7). Since the 1960s, this figure has dropped to the level of 0.15-0.80 in 10 years.

R code. Figure 7. Average growth dynamics of the male population

# growth in population df_hb_w<- df_hb %>% spread(cohort,h_pop) names(df_hb_w)<- paste("y",names(df_hb_w)) diffs <- df_hb_w[,3:26]-df_hb_w[,2:25] df_hb_gr<- df_hb_w %>% transmute(country, gr_1961_1980 = unname(apply(diffs[,22:24],1,mean,na.rm=T))*2, gr_1901_1960 = unname(apply(diffs[,9:21],1,mean ,na.rm=T))*2, gr_1856_1900 = unname(apply(diffs[,1:8],1,mean,na.rm=T))*2) %>% gather("period","average_growth ",2:4) %>% filter(country %in% both_cnt) %>% mutate(country=factor(country,levels = rev(levels(factor(country)))), period=factor(period,labels = c("1856-1900","1901-1960","1961-1980"))) gg_hb_growth<- ggplot(df_hb_gr, aes(x=average_growth,y=country))+ geom_point(aes(color=period),size=3)+ scale_color_manual(values = brbg11)+ scale_x_continuous(limits=c(0,2))+ facet_wrap(~period)+ theme_few()+ xlab("average growth in men"s height over 10 years, cm")+ ylab(NULL)+ theme_few(base_size = 20)+ theme(legend.position="none", panel.grid=element_line(colour = "grey75",size=.25))

Against the backdrop of a stagnating trend in the population, the increase in the growth of hockey players looks very impressive. And acceleration among goalkeepers is generally unprecedented.
Do not forget about the selection. The divergence of trends in the population and among hockey players probably indicates increasing selection - hockey requires more and more growth for a successful career.

Selection in sports

Looking through the scientific literature on the topic, I came across a remarkable result. It turns out that professional sports are dominated by people born in the first half of the year. This is explained by the fact that sports sections, as a rule, form children's teams according to birth cohorts. Thus, those born at the beginning of the year always have a little more time behind them, which is often directly expressed in physical superiority over their peers born at the end of the year. It is easy to check this result on our dataset.

R code. Figure 8. Distribution of hockey players by months of birth

# check if there are more players born in earlier months df_month<- df %>% mutate(month=month(birth)) %>% mutate(month=factor(month,levels = rev(levels(factor(month))))) gg_month<- ggplot(df_month,aes(x=factor(month)))+ geom_bar(stat="count",fill=brbg11)+ scale_x_discrete(breaks=1:12,labels=month.name)+ xlab("month of birth")+ coord_flip()+ theme_few(base_size = 20)+ theme(legend.position="none", panel.grid=element_line(colour = "grey75",size=.25))

Indeed, the distribution is rather strongly biased towards the early months. If the data is broken down by decades of birth, it can be seen with the naked eye that the effect increases with time (Figure 9). Indirectly, this indicates that selection in hockey is becoming tougher.

R code. Figure 9. Distribution of hockey players by months of birth, separately by decades of birth

# facet by decades df_month_dec<- df_month %>% mutate(dec=factor(substr(paste(cohort),3,3),labels = paste("born in",c("1960s","1970s","1980s","1990s")))) gg_month_dec<- ggplot(df_month_dec,aes(x=factor(month)))+ geom_bar(stat="count",fill=brbg11)+ scale_x_discrete(breaks=1:12,labels=month.abb)+ xlab("month of birth")+ facet_wrap(~dec,ncol=2,scales = "free")+ theme_few(base_size = 20)+ theme(legend.position="none", panel.grid=element_line(colour = "grey75",size=.25))

For the future

It will be interesting to see if physical data affects the game statistics of hockey players. I came across an interesting article published in a very decent scientific journal in which the authors found a correlation between the ratio of the proportions of a hockey player's face and the average number of penalty minutes per game.

reproduction

A complete R script reproducing the results of my article, .
Version R-3.2.4 used
All packages as of 2016-03-14. In the event of package incompatibilities, this code is guaranteed to be reproducible when using the checkpoint package with an appropriate date.

The Russian national ice hockey team will play the first match at the Olympic tournament against the Slovakian team on Wednesday, February 14. In the absence of NHL players, for the first time in a long time, Russia has a serious chance to win the Olympics for the first time in 26 years. It is interesting that then, in 1992, immediately after the collapse of the USSR, the national team also performed under the Olympic flag.

Russian hockey fans finally waited - the Russian team on Wednesday, February 14, will play its first match at the Olympic tournament in Pyeongchang. The rival of our hockey players will be the team of Slovakia.

In group B, in addition to Russia and Slovakia, the teams of the USA and Slovenia will also play, and it is possible that it is Craig Ramsey's wards who will finish the group stage in second place. Still, the Americans were not particularly impressed with the recent German Cup, and the Slovaks are quite capable of beating the overseas team.

As a result of the refusal of the National Hockey League to let its players go to the Olympic Games in Korea, the hockey tournament looks very unpredictable on the one hand, and less spectacular on the other.

On paper, the composition of the Russian team seems to be the strongest in the tournament,

And if you ask the fans, the vast majority will expect only gold from the Russians. The last time our country won the Olympic Games was 26 years ago - in 1992. By the way, also under the Olympic flag. True, then at the awards ceremony, Mikhail Glinka's "Patriotic Song" sounded, which remained the anthem of Russia until 2000.

In French Albertville, the situation was just the opposite. Then the Russians were not considered as favorites, and many experts predicted the overthrow of the kings of Olympic hockey in recent decades. This was explained by the fact that many of our stars had already left for the NHL, and, as you know, the North American League began to let its players go to the Olympic Games only in 1998.

The composition of the national team was recruited with difficulty and from those who remained in the country. But, in spite of everything, the Russians celebrated their victory at the Olympic tournament.

26 years later, Russia comes to the Olympics in the status of the unconditional favorite of the Games. For the first time since 1994, the Olympic tournament will be held without active NHL players, and in this scenario, the composition of the national team is far superior to all others. By the way, former NHL stars, who are still remembered overseas, will play in the Russian team.

First of all, we are talking about Pavel Datsyuk and Ilya Kovalchuk, who spent many years in the strongest league on the planet. In the US and Canada, our superstars are really well remembered, and the American media giant ESPN released a number of compliments towards hockey players.

“A player with a great shot and a dream of Olympic gold, Kovalchuk should be the leader of the Russian team. He is ready to play consistently at the top line and can be a strength for this team. He has excellent statistics in the KHL and is considering a return to the NHL.

If you missed Pavel Datsyuk's game, this is your last chance to see the wizard on North American TV.

The 39-year-old forward, a potential member of the Hall of Fame, will be the captain of the Russian national team. He still has some skill left," ESPN's hockey posting says.

The opening match at the tournament with the Slovaks still cannot be called a cakewalk, as this will be the first official game of the Russians in this squad. Prior to this, Oleg Znark's wards held a number of friendly matches with Belarus, Spartak Moscow and South Korea. Moreover, the game with the hosts of the Olympics took place after the opening ceremony of the Games, and the Russians defeated the Koreans with a score of 8:1.

It is clear that with the upcoming opponent there will most likely not be such a removal of the body, however, the current Slovakia can hardly be called a leading hockey power. Many people remember the Slovaks reaching the semi-finals of the Olympic Games in Vancouver, but that was already eight years ago. Since then, the level of hockey has been declining in this country, although it still remains the popular and most popular game.

The general manager of the Slovak national team Miroslav Shatan, a former NHL star, also said this.

He noted that the national team at the present time could hardly pose a great danger to Russia in its current composition, but expressed the hope that the Slovak players would be able to surprise.

Hockey players of the Russian national team are not going to underestimate the importance of the opening match and try not to pay attention to the status of the favorites.

Forward Ivan Telegin shared his expectations from the Olympic tournament.

“On paper, anyone can be the favorite. The most important thing is what will happen on the ice. Then we’ll talk about the favorites.

All the guys in the team are comfortable playing with each other, everyone knows each other. We play together in clubs, played in the national team at different tournaments, so mutual understanding is good," the glory of the Olympic Channel hockey player quotes.

The head coach of the Slovakian national team, Craig Ramsey, said that his wards would definitely not be afraid of the Russians.

The composition of the Russian national ice hockey team at the 2018 Olympic Games in Pyeochang

№	Player	Role	Age	Growth	The weight
83	Vasily Vladimirovich Koshechkin	goalkeeper	27.03.1983	200	110
31	Ilya Igorevich Sorokin	goalkeeper	04.08.1995	188	80
30	Igor Olegovich Shesterkin	goalkeeper	30.12.1995	185	83
26	Vyacheslav Leonidovich Voinov	defender	15.01.1990	182	84
4	Vladislav Andreevich Gavrikov	defender	21.11.1995	190	97
2	Artyom Valerievich Zub	defender	03.10.1995	188	90
28	Andrey Sergeevich Zubarev	defender	03.03.1987	185	101
55	Bogdan Alexandrovich Kiselevich	defender	14.02.1990	184	94
53	Alexey Igorevich Marchenko	defender	02.01.1992	189	93
89	Nikita Danilovich Nesterov	defender	28.03.1993	181	90
44	Egor Konstantinovich Yakovlev	defender	17.09.1991	182	87
11	Sergei Vladimirovich Andronov	forward	19.07.1989	189	96
94	Alexander Dmitrievich Barabanov	forward	17.06.1994	179	89
25	Mikhail Olegovich Grigorenko	forward	16.05.1994	190	83
97	Nikita Andreevich Gusev	forward	08.07.1992	180	82
13	Pavel Valerievich Datsyuk	forward	20.07.1978	182	86
29	Ilya Andreevich Kablukov	forward	18.01.1988	189	88
21	Sergei Pavlovich Kalinin	forward	17.03.1991	190	100
77	Kirill Olegovich Kaprizov	forward	26.04.1997	178	87
71	Ilya Valerievich Kovalchuk	forward	15.04.1983	190	103
10	Sergey Valerievich Mozyakin	forward	30.03.1981	180	86
74	Nikolai Nikolaevich Prokhorkin	forward	17.09.1993	189	91
7	Ivan Alekseevich Telegin	forward	28.02.1992	193	90
87	Vadim Alexandrovich Shipachev	forward	12.03.1987	185	86
52	Sergei Sergeevich Shirokov	forward	10.03.1986	179	89

Key tags:

Fans were waiting for the publication of the application of the Russian team for the Olympic Games with great interest, but Oleg Znarok kept the coveted list secret until the last moment and only on January 25 - two weeks before the opening of the Games. On the other hand, the coaching staff probably had to make some changes to it after it became known that the IOC did not issue invitations to the Olympics: Anton Belov, Alexei Bereglazov, Mikhail Naumenkov, Valery Nichushkin, Sergey Plotnikov. However, only the last of these five seemed an obvious candidate for a trip to South Korea.

As a result, the final list of Znarka included hockey players from only three KHL clubs, and 15 of them represent St. Petersburg SKA, which the Russian national team coach heads part-time. The full application of 25 people is as follows:

Goalkeepers: Vasily Koshechkin (Metallurg Mg), Ilya Sorokin (CSKA), Igor Shesterkin (SKA);

Defenders: Vyacheslav Voinov, Vladislav Gavrikov, Artyom Zub, Andrey Zubarev, Dinar Khafizullin (all - SKA), Bogdan Kiselevich, Alexei Marchenko, Nikita Nesterov (all - CSKA);

Forwards: Sergey Andronov, Mikhail Grigorenko, Kirill Kaprizov, Ivan Telegin (all - CSKA), Alexander Barabanov, Nikita Gusev, Pavel Datsyuk, Ilya Kablukov, Sergey Kalinin, Ilya Kovalchuk, Nikolai Prokhorkin, Vadim Shipachev, Sergey Shirokov (all - SKA), Sergey Mozyakin ("Metallurg" Mg).

At the same time, three hockey players remain in the nearest reserve of the national team and will prepare for the Games together with the team. We are talking about defenders Nikita Tryamkin (Avtomobilist) and Yegor Yakovlev (SKA), as well as forward Vladimir Tkachev (Ak Bars).

“They will be with us at the training camp until the last day. Three matches, everything can happen, ”explained the head of the scouting service of the Russian national team, Alexei Zhamnov, on the air of the Russia 24 TV channel.

As already mentioned, there are hockey players from only three clubs in the national team: SKA (15 players), CSKA (eight) and Metallurg Magnitogorsk (two). There was no place in the application for any representative of the two best clubs in the Eastern Conference - Ak Bars and Salavat Yulaev. Even Tkachev from Kazan, who takes third place in the KHL sniper race, was only in the reserve three. But SKA striker Alexander Barabanov received an invitation to the Games, having scored only ten goals in the regular league championship.

Until the end, it remained unclear whether the 36-year-old forward of Magnitogorsk Metallurg Sergey Mozyakin would get into the application. As a result, Znarok decided that the experience of the two-time world champion of the team in Pyeongchang would not hurt, especially since only three people in the current team had previously competed at the Olympic Games: Pavel Datsyuk, Ilya Kovalchuk and Vyacheslav Voynov. Moreover, for Datsyuk and Kovalchuk, the Games in Pyeongchang will be the fifth in their careers. Both debuted in 2002 in Salt Lake City, where the Russians won bronze.

“We are all very happy for Mozyakin, who will go to his first Olympics. He deserved this right and was absolutely worthy of a call to the Russian team. All of Sergei's injuries were left behind, now Mozyakin is super-training, ”the Championship cites the vice-president of Metallurg Magnitogorsk Gennady Velichkin.

"We have a good team"

President of the Russian Ice Hockey Federation (FHR) Vladislav Tretiak called the presented Olympic squad strong.

“We want to win. We really want to, especially since we haven't done it for a long time. We have a good staff, headquarters, it is also important that God help. Luck is also very important, although, of course, the strongest are lucky, ”the functionary emphasized.

The head of the FHR also told how the Russian team could become the champion in South Korea.

“From personal experience I can say that the main conditions for victory will be discipline and team play. Today, success consists of playing in the majority and in the minority, now the main thing for coaches is to arrange these schemes, then there will be success. Well, the heart ... "Russia in my heart" is a very good slogan that the guys liked. We have a single team, God forbid that we have success, we really want to win, ”added Tretiak.

As for the goalkeeper position, the functionary suggested that Vasily Koshechkin would start the tournament at the base.

“He showed a very strong game at the First Channel Cup, which gives him a chance to start the Olympic tournament at the base. But all goalkeepers have a chance, and everything is decided at the last moment, everything will depend on the state of health. We have a good goalkeeper line, and a lot depends on the goalkeeper. His game is 50-60% of success, ”TASS quotes Tretiak.

“Znarok is the head coach, and he is responsible for everything”

For comments on the composition, RT turned to the former coach of the Russian national team Vladimir Plushev. , which at one time called under the banner of the national team of hockey players from more than a dozen clubs and was surprised at the absence of Tkachev in the Olympic composition.

- Is it fair that 15 players out of 25 represent SKA at once?

- There is nothing surprising. At the Eurotour, the coaching staff built the team in exactly the same way. There were also enough hockey players from the St. Petersburg club.

Also on topic

“Disappointed in the Olympic Movement”: how the world reacted to the new suspensions of Russian athletes

The International Olympic Committee denied admission to the Olympic Games in Pyeongchang to 34 Russian athletes at once. In this list...

- Only three clubs are represented in the application of the national team, and Metallurg Magnitogorsk - only two hockey players. Really in other clubs there were no people worthy of a trip to the Olympic Games? Eastern Conference leaders Ak Bars and Salavat Yulaev are not represented at all.

- The principle of the formation of the national team is entirely determined by Oleg Znarok, and it is difficult to comment on anything here. He considered that this option would be optimal for the Olympic Games. Znarok is the head coach, and he is responsible for everything together with his staff. I can only say that when I was in charge of the national team, I called people from 12 clubs at once.

- How logical is the presence of Sergei Mozyakin on the list? This season in the KHL, he scored only 19 goals.

- Seryozha is a master with a capital letter. If he's brought in for more than just entourage, he can really help, given the lack of NHL guys. There are no secrets for Mozyakin in hockey, and he knows how to score like no one else.

- Why do you think Oleg Znark's list includes SKA striker Alexander Barabanov, who scored 10 goals, but Vladimir Tkachev, who takes third place in the KHL sniper race, was left behind?

- Only Znarok should answer this question. Apparently, Tkachev does not fit into his concept. But already at the last stage of the Eurotour, everything was clear. Although, of course, Vladimir could be preferred.

25 hockey players against the lawlessness of the IOC. They will go to Korea to fight for Russia

Oleg Znarok announced the squad for the Olympics.

Live "Russia 24" Vladislav Tretyak and Alexei Zhamnov the composition of the Russian national hockey team for the Olympics in Pyeongchang. 25 hockey players included in the application, as well as three reservists will go to Korea - Egor Yakovlev, Nikita Tryamkin and Vladimir Tkachev.

Znarok named the composition of the Russian national team at the 2018 Olympics. Mozyakin is coming! LIVE

25 hockey players who will go for Olympic gold in Pyeongchang.

Goalkeepers

(CSKA)
Statistics in the KHL: 36 games, KN ​​- 1.58, OB - 93%
Statistics on the Eurotour: 2 games, KN ​​- 2, OB - 93.4%

The strongest young goalkeeper of the country, who has not yet gone overseas. Ilya Sorokin is called to the Islanders, but so far, instead of conquering the NHL, he has chosen the Olympics and the fight for the Gagarin Cup. Behind the shoulders of the 22-year-old goalkeeper are two world championships and two playoffs as the first number of CSKA. Until recently, he was considered as the first number of the national team at the Games, but the return of Koshechkin to the national team intensified the competition.

("Metallurgist")
Statistics in the KHL: 38 games, KN ​​- 2.26, OB - 93.1%
Statistics on the Eurotour: 2 games, KN ​​- 0.5, OB - 93.1%

Two Gagarin Cups, world championship medals of all merits, vast experience - all this, of course, inspires, but a place at the Olympics does not guarantee. and remained just a well-deserved goalkeeper, if not added this season. When it was hard for Magnitogorsk, it was the two-meter gate guard who supported her on his mighty shoulders. Koshechkin first pushed Samsonov in the club, and then, having gone to the First Channel Cup, did the same with Sorokin. Znark needed an experienced goalkeeper for the Olympics, he got it.

(SKA)
Statistics in the KHL: 27 games, KN ​​- 1.77, OB - 93%
Statistics on the Eurotour: 1 game, KN - 3.07, OB - 82.4%

No one questions the prospects of Igor Shesterkin, but he just can't get out of the shadows. In SKA, the main goalkeeper is still Mikko Koskinen, and in the national team, the St. Petersburg “soldier” every time turns out to be the third number. So it was at two consecutive world championships, and it is unlikely that something will change at the Olympics.

Defenders

(CSKA)
Statistics in the KHL: 44 games, 0+16, "+21"
Eurotour stats: 5 games, 0+1

Stronghold of CSKA defense. Assistant captain in his club, and at the last World Cup - the best defender of the Russian team along with Gavrikov. It is noteworthy that he is the only CSKA player who spends an average of more than 20 minutes on the ice per game. So far, he has not scored this season either for the national team or for the club, but with his attacking potential, he can correct this misunderstanding already in Korea.

(CSKA)
Statistics in the KHL: 42 games, 3+16, "+9"
Eurotour stats: 5 games, 2+2

The most productive defender of CSKA with a Russian passport. Almost the only one in the entire defensive line of the Moscow club, which is allowed to take risks. However, if Igor Nikitin had given Nikita Nesterov more freedom, his statistics would have looked much more impressive. It was not in vain that the Chelyabinsk player returned from the NHL in the summer: he is not just going to the Olympics, but will be a key player in the national team in Korea, without whom it is impossible to imagine the majority.

(SKA)
Statistics in the KHL: 39 games, 9+14, "+4"
Eurotour stats: 5 games, 0+3

If Nesterov among the defenders of CSKA is second only to the Canadian Matt Robinson, then in SKA - the Swede Patrick Hersley. At the same time, the Russian plays more diversely than the representative of Tre Kronur. Voynov is capable of both starting the attack with the first pass and sharply connecting, and since this season he has been scoring more and more in the style of ... Hursley. Someone will remember the Sochi Olympics and Granlund's run in the quarterfinals, which made an anti-hero out of Voinov. However, in Pyeongchang there will be a completely different level, at which Vyacheslav is practically irreplaceable. Especially considering his right grip.

(SKA)
Statistics in the KHL: 49 games, 5+9, "+20"
Eurotour stats: 4 games, 0+1

For the first time, Znarok called Vladislav Gavrikov to the first team when he, in the status of captain of the youth team, returned from the World Cup in Canada. A reliable and physically strong defender is ideal for the model of Oleg Valerievich. The transition to SKA was only a matter of time. Both in Yaroslavl, in St. Petersburg, and in the national team, Gavrikov plays discreetly, not very productively, but almost unmistakably. At the Olympics, he will pair up with either Kiselevich or Voinov.

(SKA)
Statistics in the KHL: 27 games, 0+6, "+12"
Eurotour stats: 3 games, 0+0

The fact that he missed the Cup of Channel One could confuse someone, but knowledgeable people already assured then that he would most likely go to the Olympics. His statistics are not outstanding even against the background of SKA partners. Health also sometimes fails. However, there are few defensive power defenders in our country. Could push Zubarev Ilya Lyubushkin- a player of a similar texture, but in one of the last games for Lokomotiv he was injured.

Dinar Khafizullin (SKA)
Statistics in the KHL: 43 games, 4+12, "+17"
Eurotour statistics: 5 games, 1+1

This native of Kazan spends the fifth year in the form of SKA, but before this season he had only one match for the Russian national team, and even then at the Eurotour. Khafizullin progressed, but could not reserve a place in the national team. It is even strange that Znarok, working with Dinar on a daily basis, did not seem to notice him. The defender goes to Korea in the status of one of the leaders of the defense of his club. Khafizullin is a light, mobile defender who can help the attack, but does not suffer from excessive adventurism.

(SKA)
Statistics in the KHL: 35 games, 0+5, "+10"
Eurotour stats: 1 game, 0+0

We might not have known about this defender if in 2013 Igor Kravchuk, at that time the head coach of the Russian junior team, had not taken the Khabarovsk resident to the World Championship in Sochi. Four years later, Zub played at the adult world championship, where he struck with his composure. In his native Amur, he was trusted by the majority, but in SKA and the national team, Artyom is aimed primarily at fulfilling his direct duties. At 22, he secures his partners and almost does not panic.

(CSKA)
Statistics in the KHL: 40 games, 2+12, "+8"
Eurotour stats: 2, 0+0

According to his status, Alexei Marchenko should have been guaranteed a place in the Olympic composition of the Russian team. Not only was he an NHL player in the recent past, he was also not in the last roles at the World Cup. Moreover, at the World Championships in Moscow, Marchenko was the best couple of the tournament along with Zaitsev. Yes, only after returning from overseas, he could not get in shape for a long time. Noticeably heavy, Alexei did not always even get into CSKA. Recently, he has been receiving more than 20 minutes from Igor Nikitin, which is quite significant, given that the mentor of the "soldiers" in the national team is responsible for the defenders. Marchenko is more like a "homebody", but for some reason they decided to play him in the majority at the First Channel Cup.

The composition of the Russian team at the Olympics. Erykalov's version vs Panyshev's version

A month later, Oleg Znarok will announce the composition for the Olympics. Our observers staged a battle, naming their versions of the composition of the Russian team.

forwards

(SKA)
Statistics in the KHL: 37 games, 8+27, "+7"
Eurotour stats: -

Like four years ago, Pavd Datsyuk's participation in the Olympics was in doubt. Back in Sochi, he literally rode on one leg, but even in not the best condition he became one of those who cannot be thrown a stone at. In order for the Wizard to play in Pyeongchang, he was given sick leave and was generally used sparingly. It is significant that Datsyuk did not play a single match at the Eurotour. But whether he will be able to lead the national team in the same way as in Sochi is a big question. After a shock start to the season for SKA, Pavel went into the shadows.

Thank you for not squeezing Datsyuk. What composition will Znarok scrape together for the Olympics

Despite the lawlessness of the IOC.

(SKA)
Statistics in the KHL: 53 games, 31+32, "+12"
Eurotour stats: 2 games, 0+0

Together with Datsyuk, Kovalchuk, the best scorer in the KHL at the moment, will also go to Pyeongchang. Four years ago, they were not teammates yet, but they already played enough in one link. The third in this combination was Alexander Radulov, now making a noise in the NHL. Who will take his place at the upcoming Olympics is still unclear. In order for the link with Datsyuk and Kovalchuk to be truly shocking, an equal partner must play with them. There is simply no such thing in the Znarka deck. As there is no Plotnikov, who played for a long time with Pavel and Ilya in the club.

(CSKA)
Statistics in the KHL: 41 games, 3+5, "+5"
Eurotour stats: 5 games, 0+0

The captain of CSKA is not even included in the top twenty of the most productive defenders of his team. Perhaps - the player who is revealed in the national team? But here, too, his statistics are depressing: not a single point in five games at the Eurotour. However, don't look at the numbers. Andronov is a fighter, what to look for. Perhaps this is the best power center forward in the country. Moreover, he is able not only to restrain shock links, but also to dictate the pace.

(CSKA)
Statistics in the KHL: 44 games, 7+7, "+12"
Eurotour stats: 4 games, 0+1

Power pair forwards Andronov-Telegin - do not spill water. They keep both CSKA and the Russian team. Ivan is a little more productive than Sergei, but globally their functions on the ice are the same. Telegin also stood out at the World Cup with his punching speed, resembling a crazy electric train, and at the Olympics he will certainly not be able to keep up with him.

Nikita Gusev (SKA)
Statistics in the KHL: 53 games, 22+40, "+25"
Eurotour stats: 5 games, 1+6

The second scorer not only of SKA, but of the entire KHL championship, as well as the Russian team in the current Eurotour draw. But in terms of creativity and entertainment, there are no equals to Gusev. He was already accustomed to the leadership burden at the club, and at the World Championships in Cologne he tried himself at the international level. And he passed this test successfully. Nikita is one of those from whom we will expect goals, assists, and, if possible, a simple buzz from the game in Pyeongchang.

Sergey Kalinin (SKA)
Statistics in the KHL: 49 games, 15+16, "+26"
Eurotour stats: 5 games, 3+1

Omich won gold at the World Championship back in 2014. We all know Sergei Kalinin as Znark's man. However, after returning from the NHL, he appeared as a more versatile hockey player. Kalinin can play both in the center and on the edge. He is equally comfortable both among the destroyers and surrounded by stars. Sergey is one of the candidates for a place next to Datsyuk and Kovalchuk. His performance is truly amazing. 15 goals for SKA and three for the national team - these are the statistics of a real sniper, and not just a hard worker.

Vadim Shipachyov (SKA)
Statistics in the KHL: 21 games, 9+16 points, "+11"
Eurotour stats: 2 games, 0+1

At the First Channel Cup, Shipachev let Znark and his partners down with a stupid removal until the end of the game. On the eve of the Olympics, he played for SKA not as brightly as, say, in early December or before leaving for the NHL. However, the reality is that even in not ideal form, Shipachev is the second, and even the first center of the Russian team in Korea. When he was just leaving Vegas, there was talk that Vadim had already closed his way to the Olympics. In reality, no one dared to refuse a dispatcher of this level.

Kirill Kaprizov (CSKA)
Statistics in the KHL: 46 games, 15+25, "+22"
Eurotour stats: 5 games, 2+0

In nine consecutive matches for CSKA, Kirill Kaprizov cannot score. In the last 16 games, he has only one puck to his credit. He could have interrupted the black series in Kazan, but his goal against Ak Bars was cancelled. As it turned out, by mistake. All this called into question the participation of Kaprizov at the Olympics. However, even without scoring, he continues to score points and benefit the team. After all, Kirill is still CSKA's top scorer. In the national team, despite his age, he should make up the second strike link along with Gusev.

(CSKA)
Statistics in the KHL: 45 games, 10+13, "+15"
Eurotour stats: 5 games, 4+3

Like Shalunov, he is a station wagon. Only he came to his current role from a different angle. All his life, the Khabarovsk resident played in the center of attack, but already in the course of this season he was transferred to the flank. And for the first time it worked just in the national team. Being in the role of an extreme forward, he scored a hat-trick! In order to center at the highest level, Grigorenko lacks toughness and defensive skills. But the striker, who traded the NHL for CSKA in the offseason, has no problems with the technical equipment. He is good both in the underplay and at the end of moments.

("Metallurgist")
Statistics in the KHL: 42 games, 19+23, "-1"
Eurotour statistics: 3 games, 0+3

The main intrigue of the composition is revealed! still going to the Olympics. Four years ago, when the captain of Magnitogorsk was at the peak of his career, he heard the verdict from Zinetula Bilyaletdinov. "Yes, he will not reach the gate!" - blurted out the head coach of that team. Znarok did not become like his predecessor, although it must be understood that the Olympics with NHLers and without them are completely different tournaments. Against the backdrop of the Swedes, Finns and Czechs, with whom Mozyakin regularly plays in the KHL, he is still a formidable force. The 36-year-old debutant of the Olympic Games has no health problems, he healed his injury. The only question is the role that Znarok has prepared for him.

(SKA)
Statistics in the KHL: 45 games, 10+12, "+17"
Eurotour stats: 3, 0+0

If Lyubushkin's injury closed his way to Korea, then Barabanov, who had not played for SKA since January 9, got into the final application. Apparently, his recovery came to the finish line. This season, the motor forward spends a little less brightly than the last, but the 23-year-old forward already has a world championship under his belt. In Cologne, he played in a link with the destroyers, but he is able not to spoil the weather next to the masters. In many respects, the right winger Barabanov got to the Olympics due to the fact that the IOC did not allow Nichushkin and Plotnikov, his direct competitors.

The signer already knew everything. Four hockey players were not invited to the Olympics

We got to the hockey players. Does something threaten Znark himself?

(SKA)
Statistics in the KHL: 48 games, 19+22, "+25"
Eurotour statistics: 3 games, 0+1

It seemed that the head coach would have a choice between Sergei Shirokov and Sergei Mozyakin. However, both go to Korea. Apparently, Znarok plans to use his SKA ward not on the left, but on the right flank. Fortunately, Shirokov's universalism allows. The two-time world champion spends a chic club season, but when he comes to the national team, he dissolves. How will it be at the first Olympics for him?

(SKA)
Statistics in the KHL: 46 games, 16+17, "+25"
Eurotour stats: -

Along with Datsyuk, he is a rare Olympian who went to Korea without playing a single match at the Eurotour this season. But if the SKA veteran missed the stages for health reasons, then his young colleague did not play more than for the Olympic team. However, it is he who goes to the Olympics, and not Vladimir Tkachev or Maxim Shalunova. Prokhorkin has never played in the world championships, and his club statistics are worse than those of Kazan or Chelyabinsk, but registration predetermined this choice. In fairness, Nikolai is a talented guy, and his connection with Gusev at the start of the season looked quite promising.

He named the names of the players called up under the banner of the team for the Olympics. 15 hockey players represent St. Petersburg SKA, eight - Moscow CSKA, two more - Metallurg Magnitogorsk. Znarok was forced to assemble a line-up from a limited set of performers: not only would the players of the National Hockey League (NHL) not come to Pyeongchang, but also the pool representing the Continental Hockey League (KHL) was reduced due to the sanctions of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). In what form the Russian team will take to the ice in Pyeongchang - understood.

It could be worse

Russian hockey fans have spent the last few days in anxious anticipation of whether the leading players from Oleg Znarka's cage will repeat the fate of Oleg Znarka and the stars of domestic sports who were not invited to the Olympics without explanation. And even the list of criteria for the admission of Russians to Pyeongchang, published by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) a couple of days after the second wave of suspensions, the situation.

Russian team:

Goalkeepers: Vasily Koshechkin (Metallurg Magnitogorsk), Ilya Sorokin (CSKA), Igor Shesterkin (SKA).

Defenders: Vyacheslav Voinov, Vladislav Gavrikov, Artem Zub, Andrey Zubarev, Dinar Khafizullin (all - SKA), Bogdan Kiselevich, Alexei Marchenko, Nikita Nesterov (all - CSKA).

Forwards: Alexander Barabanov, Nikita Gusev, Pavel Datsyuk, Ilya Kablukov, Sergey Kalinin, Ilya Kovalchuk, Nikolai Prokhorkin, Vadim Shipachev, Sergey Shirokov (all - SKA), Sergey Andronov, Mikhail Grigorenko, Kirill Kaprizov, Ivan Telegin (all - CSKA) , Sergey Mozyakin (Metallurg Magnitogorsk).

Fortunately, the IOC commission, led by Valerie Fourneuron, was not too fierce with regard to hockey players. Only five players were left without an invitation: the defenders (SKA), (Metallurg Magnitogorsk), (CSKA), the forward of the Moscow army and his colleague in the role (SKA). Of these five, only three had a good chance to go to Pyeongchang - Belov, Plotnikov and Nichushkin. Belov was the captain of the national team at the last World Cup, Plotnikov fit perfectly into Znark's schemes and quickly became an important cog in the Red Machine mechanism, and Nichushkin, although he is not a backbone player of the national team, would definitely not spoil the overall picture.

Photo: Alexey Malgavko / RIA Novosti

Where's Ovechkin and the others?

A reasonable question from those who recall the existence of Russian hockey during the World Championships and the Olympics. This is not a stone in their garden (this is the reality), but only a clarification: where are the main stars of the team? Whatever one may say, the names of Alexander Ovechkin and other Russian Enkhaelites regularly appear in the news reports, and, judging by them, our overseas business is going well.

It is not the IOC that is to blame for their absence from the national team - that is, the committee did not remove any of them, but the share of responsibility for the fact that Ovechkin and his comrades do not see Pyeongchang is still on his conscience. The reason is simple: the leadership of the NHL and officials from the IOC could not agree on the amount of compensation for the participation of league players in the Olympic hockey tournament.

What kind of compensation are we talking about? Leading players of not only Russian, but also other top teams play in the NHL. If Europeans are allowed to go to the Olympics, then, firstly, most league clubs will lose not one or two key performers, and secondly, North American hockey players will also want to go to the Games. With such a development of events, the NHL would either have to allow teams to play part of the season with second lineups, or even suspend the regular season for almost a month. Both scenarios will entail a significant blow to the pocket of the league bosses, and sports (overseas, for sure) are primarily a business, and very profitable.

The NHL absentee problem has been a problem every four years since 1998. Overseas stars arrived at the Olympics in Nagano, as it was at each subsequent Games, although each time the negotiations were difficult and lengthy. The fans hoped that this time everything would be resolved amicably. It didn’t work out - in April 2017, the NHL leadership published a calendar for the Olympic season, which did not imply a break for the Games.

Ovechkin was the first to comment on this. Alexander, who had long expressed his intention to compete at the Olympics, promised to come to Pyeongchang at all costs, but in the end gave up: the fact that a professional hockey player violates the contract is unlikely to increase his chances of a successful career. Kovalchuk acted wisely: in the summer of 2017, when it became clear that NHL players would not go to Korea, Ilya decided not to rush across the ocean and remained in the KHL.

SKA is the base club of the national team. Good or bad?

Znark and his assistants had to form the composition, adjusting to the circumstances. But the average fan probably does not understand why the national team consists of 60 percent of the St. Petersburg SKA players.

So, SKA finally became the base club of the national team. Is this a surprise? Hardly. Znarok led the army back in 2016, and the leaders of domestic hockey probably understood why the national team coach agreed to combine. Despite the generous sponsor - traditionally supporting clubs from St. Petersburg - SKA did not follow the path of its football counterpart, refusing to buy all promising Russians in the domestic championship. During the work of Znarka, only five players came to the team who were part of the 2018 Olympic team: Pavel Datsyuk and.

Back in the summer, the prospects for the latter were very vague, but after an unsuccessful trip to the NHL, Shipachev returned to his homeland and managed to convince Znark to take him to Korea. The forward didn't score much (9 goals in 21 games), but he played well in the lead (17 assists). Under the circumstances, this was enough to get a place in the squad.

The solid representation of the capital's army team in the national team can hardly be called a surprise either. CSKA shows a stable game - over the past three seasons, the team has only failed to reach the conference finals once, and there are performers of the caliber and. The sponsor of CSKA corresponds to a high status -.

The qualifications of the two Magnitogorsk players, diluting the army majority, are hardly in doubt: this is a striker (for a 36-year-old athlete, the Games in Pyeongchang will be the debut) and a goalkeeper

Experts do not see anything wrong with the abundance of players in the national team who are well known to Znark - after all, the formation of the squad has always been the prerogative of the coach. Yes, and the teamwork of hockey players will certainly give a result.

“The coach went the easy way. He has more confidence in the players of his club, in their ability and ability to participate in the tournament. If the team performs successfully, fulfills the plan, then this will only be a plus. After all, winners are not judged. He fights for the result, does not look to the future. Znarok understands that there will be criticism, misunderstanding. The only thing that interests me is how the composition was determined. If the decision is individual, then Znark will have to bear the responsibility alone, ”the Olympic champion said in an interview.

One can agree with the choice of Znark or not, one thing is clear: in Pyeongchang, the Russian team must at least win a medal (and ideally, of course, win). For myself and for that guy. For the guy who was suspended by the IOC, and for the guy who remained across the ocean. Americans and Canadians go to the Games as the second, if not the third squad. The European teams were in a similar position to the Russians. The best chance to get even for previous Olympic failures may not come soon.