Ten Stats and a Movie (Recommendation): World Championships Edition

If you love statistics as much as I do then this article should be a fun one. When I first thought of this idea, I thought 10 stats was just a good round number to work with and I wouldn’t have to stretch myself to find interesting stats. With the World Championships underway, I can’t resist doing a “Ten Stats” article when there are 10 teams at the World Championships. Each team is going to get one stat I found interesting and of course, we’ll finish on a movie recommendation. Hope you enjoyed the first “Ten Stats and a Movie” article and this one will be even more fun.

1. First in combined World Championship games and first in average age, Canada is bringing a heavy veteran roster to attempt to win back Gold. This isn’t out of the ordinary as Canada and the US have generally been the countries who have been able to allow their players a chance to play longer than most other nations. Typically Canada and the USA have been close on average age/WHC games. This tournament and last year’s tournament though have seen the two start to diverge noticeably with the USA sticking around the average age of ~24 and Canada the average age of ~27. With the 2026 Olympics approaching quickly Canada will have some decisions to make as it’s unlikely that the veterans such as Natalie Spooner and Marie-Philip Poulin will lose their roster spots by then.

2. The number of wins China had in their last top-level tournament (2022 Olympics)? Two. That’s how many wins they’ll need at this year’s tournament to avoid relegation. The twist to this year’s China team is no more dual nationals on the roster. The team that gave China two straight promotions in the WHC’s and their two wins at the 2022 Olympics no longer exists. China wants to stand on its own two feet with no support from their imports making them a team to watch.

3. Three straight Bronze Medal Game appearances, zero Bronze Medals for Switzerland in that time. It’s been 12 years since Switzerland has seen a World Championship Medal on their necks and it’s been 10 years since their last best-on-best medal when they won Bronze at the 2014 Olympics. As mentioned in the Switzerland preview article this is going to be the toughest group yet that the Swiss have played in since being promoted to the WHC’s. With Alina Müller, Lara Stalder, and Andrea Brändli they aren’t favourites to win a Medal, but teams better watch out, they have the elite talent to compete for one.

4. At the 2023 WHC Finland wanted to prove that Pool B was not for them and did they ever show it by winning all four Pool games. There wasn’t much of a question who the superior team was in Pool B as Finland not only went 4-0 but outscored their opponents 26-3. Their closest game was 4-2 vs Sweden with the score maybe not telling the whole story as the Fins outshot the Swedes 38-15. After finishing fifth in the placement games Finland punched their ticket back to Pool A and after two straight tournaments of quarterfinal losses to the Czechs they’re raring to get back to the Medal Games.

5. Coming into the 2024 WHC, Sweden is looking for their fifth Medal of any kind at a best-on-best tournament (WHC/Olympics) with two WHC Medals and two Olympic Medals already in their history. They came a single goal away in the 2023 WHC quarterfinal vs Canada where they took Canada to overtime only to lose on a Sarah Nurse goal. They sent a message with that game though and will be looking for a better result this time around. With Finland back in Pool A, Sweden will have the inside track on first place in Pool B.

6. At the 2023 WHC Division 1A tournament Josefine Jakobsen put up six points in five games to lead Denmark back to the 2024 WHC. She’s been a very consistent point leader for Denmark and everywhere else she’s been whether that’s the NCAA or the SDHL. Unfortunately for Denmark Jakobsen was injured two games into the 2023/24 SDHL season and has retired from the national team program to better rehab her injury. She’ll be back in a Brynäs jersey but the 2023 WHC D1A championship was her last time in a Danish jersey. The Danes will be looking for someone else to step up in her place and I’d put my money on Nicoline Söndergaard Jensen.

7. Seven. That’s the number of players on Team Japan that have played outside of Japan in notable hockey leagues this season: Ayaka Hitosato, Kanami Seki, Haruka Toko, Yoshino Enomoto, Mei Miura, Hiraku Yamashita, Akane Shiga. Japan has never had more than four players who played hockey outside of Japan which happened in 2015 when they were promoted to the World Championships. After years of rebuilding Japan is hoping this signifies that they’re about to take a big step.

8. This will be Czechia’s eighth WHC appearance and they have two Bronze Medals already to show for it with both having been won in the previous two tournaments. The Czech hockey program is on a roll and with Klara Peslarova back in net we haven’t seen a team better positioned to knock one of Canada/US out of the Gold Medal Game since Noora Räty was on Finland. Go check out The Ice Garden preview on Czechia as there are not enough words to describe how good this team is. Wouldn’t be surprised one bit to see them follow in the footsteps of their U18 team.

9. Germany has always been a bit of a weird team when it comes to the WHC. They’ve been to the Medal Games once in their ~20-year existence at the senior level but just stick around at the WHC scraping by enough to not get relegated or get promoted quickly after being relegated. In a tournament they’re capable of suddenly stealing a game away from a team such as the run they went on in 2017 where they made it to the Bronze Medal Game. There’s also the 2023 WHC where they blew out Sweden 6-2 then gave the USA a scare in a 3-0 loss. They’re able to do this because they can play defensive hockey with the best of them and they fit their system to their goalie. What Germany will be dealing with this year is Sandra Abstreiter only having nine starts (two in the PWHL, seven in the DFEL) this season. It’s never ideal to have a goalie who is going from having started a few games to suddenly starting a lot in a short period of time. The silver lining here is if Abstreiter sticks to her playstyle she’ll fit in with the play in front of her.

10. The USA is currently sitting on 10 WHC Gold Medals and is looking to add an 11^th at home in Utica, New York. They sit two Gold Medals behind Canada for most at the WHC’s. In the 1990’s the WHC was Canada’s tournament as they won all five WHC Gold Medals available. In the 2000’s it took until 2005 for the USA to win their first ever WHC Gold but they’d end up with two more Gold’s before 2010. The next 10 years was pretty much all USA as they’d win six WHC Gold Medals from 2011-2019 out of a possible seven. Canada started the post-COVID era strong with two WHC Golds, but the USA won the most recent WHC in 2023 and hungry for another one.

Movie Recommendation: If you watched the last movie recommendation I hope you enjoyed it as it’s a movie I quite enjoy myself. The movie I’m suggesting this time around is a bit trickier in that everyone who knows of it has seen it and loves it. Everyone else has no idea it exists. If you’ve never heard of Treasure Planet or never watched it, it’s an absolute blast. The reimagining of Treasure Island but in space is very well done and quite underrated.