We’ve done a couple of times during the Champions Hockey League season already and, with the tournament now finished, it’s about time to sum it all up. Of course I’m talking about our League vs League comparisons.
by Efraim Larsson
Teams from the Finnish Liiga and the Swedish Hockey League were the most successful and protruding ones, especially as we saw 11 out of 16 playoff teams come from either Sweden or Finland. In the quarter-finals there were just teams from those two Nordic countries left in the tournament, which of course put fuel on the fire that tells us why those leagues have been the most successful ones.
The SHL and Liiga both carried eight teams into the CHL – no other league had more than six – which automatically gives them a higher chance of advancing one of their teams to the final, but there are more variables to compare to give it a wider perspective.
When putting the results and statistics from all the teams from same league into one, we can compare all the different leagues – and by comparing the averages of the different values it gives us a more reliable comparison, whether a league has one team or eight.
The value I like the most – and the one I find mostly reliable – is the point percentage (P%). The P% indicates how many of the possible points a league has taken. If, for example, the SHL takes 5 points in 7 games (3 points per win * 7 games = 21 possible points) they would have a P% of 23.81 percent (5 / 21).
Below you can see the final standings between the leagues when comparing the P% and as like it has been through the whole tournament, SHL and Liiga edges out the other leagues.
| # | LEAGUE | CT | GP | GF | GA | GD | GFA | GAA | SO | GSO | W | OTW | SOW | T | OTL | SOL | L | P | P/TEAM | W% | P% |
| 1 | SHL | SWE | 72 | 249 | 157 | 92 | 3.46 | 2.18 | 6 | 2 | 41 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 20 | 139 | 17.38 | 63.89% | 64.35% |
| 2 | Liiga | FIN | 72 | 213 | 163 | 50 | 2.96 | 2.26 | 9 | 4 | 37 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 20 | 130 | 16.25 | 61.11% | 60.19% |
| 3 | EBEL | AUT | 28 | 74 | 77 | -3 | 2.64 | 2.75 | 2 | 3 | 15 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 11 | 48 | 12.00 | 57.14% | 57.14% |
| 4 | NLA | SUI | 40 | 103 | 113 | -10 | 2.58 | 2.83 | 3 | 7 | 15 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 15 | 59 | 9.83 | 47.50% | 49.17% |
| 5 | Czech Extraliga | CZE | 38 | 108 | 112 | -4 | 2.84 | 2.95 | 2 | 1 | 12 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 17 | 48 | 8.00 | 39.47% | 42.11% |
| 6 | Slovak Extraliga | SVK | 6 | 14 | 16 | -2 | 2.33 | 2.67 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 7.00 | 33.33% | 38.89% |
| 7 | Get Ligaen | NOR | 12 | 26 | 34 | -8 | 2.17 | 2.83 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 12 | 6.00 | 33.33% | 33.33% |
| 8 | DEL | GER | 36 | 74 | 123 | -49 | 2.06 | 3.42 | 1 | 6 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 24 | 27 | 4.50 | 25.00% | 25.00% |
| 9 | Metal Ligaen | DEN | 6 | 15 | 31 | -16 | 2.50 | 5.17 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 4.00 | 16.67% | 22.22% |
| 10 | EIHL | GBR | 6 | 9 | 36 | -27 | 1.50 | 6.00 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 3 | 3.00 | 16.67% | 16.67% |
| 11 | Ligue Magnus | FRA | 6 | 8 | 31 | -23 | 1.33 | 5.17 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0.00 | 0.00% | 0.00% |
CT = Country, GP = Games Played, GF = Goals For, GA = Goals Against, GD = Goal Difference, GFA = Goals-For Average, GAA = Goals-Against Average, SO = Shutouts, GSO = Games Shut Out, W = Wins, OTW = Overtime Wins, SOW = Shootout Wins, OTL = Overtime Losses, T = Ties (Playoffs only) SOL = Shootout Losses, P = Points, P/TEAM = Points-per-Team Average, W% = Winning Percentage, P% = Point Percentage
Some of the SHL and Liiga teams faced other teams from their own league in the playoffs, so when eliminating these games the stats for those two leagues look like this (note that the stats for the rest of the leagues would stay the same).
| # | LEAGUE | CT | GP | GF | GA | GD | GFA | GAA | SO | GSO | W | OTW | SOW | T | OTL | SOL | L | P | P/TEAM | W% | P% |
| 1 | SHL | SWE | 62 | 224 | 132 | 92 | 3.61 | 2.13 | 6 | 2 | 37 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 16 | 125 | 15.63 | 67.74% | 67.20% |
| 2 | Liiga | FIN | 64 | 194 | 144 | 50 | 3.03 | 2.25 | 8 | 1 | 34 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 18 | 121 | 15.13 | 64.06% | 63.02% |
After the Group Stage, the point percentage of the top three leagues (Liiga, SHL and EBEL) were 68.75, 67.36 and 62.50 percent.
With that said we can declare two things:
- all three leagues decreased their point percentage in the playoffs, and
- the SHL edged out Liiga in the end.
The SHL was slightly better than Liiga not only in the total standings, but also in head-to-head games between SHL and Liiga clubs, the Swedish teams were slightly better. In 20 games where the leagues faced each other, 12 were won by SHL clubs, taking 36 of 60 possible points (60%). Not only that, but in the Playoff Stage there were five head-to-head series between the two leagues and all five were won by the Swedish clubs (Frölunda three times against Tappara, IFK Helsinki and Kärpät, Skellefteå against JYP and Luleå against Lukko).
The German DEL was definitely the most disappointing league in the tournament, with none of its six teams finishing higher than third place in its group. How about a point percentage of 25.00%, 27 losses (which is more than both Liiga and SHL despite half as many games played) and the fact that German teams combined to get shut out six times in 18 games?
Taking a look at the teams individually, we can see that Kölner Haie was the most successful German club with just 7 points – which puts them in 29th place in the final ranking. None of the teams managed to win more than two games and, with no team making it to the playoffs, we’ll have higher expectations of the Germans in next year’s CHL!
The story of the Norwegian Get Ligaen is rather interesting. With 12 out of 36 possible points taken (33.33%) the league is ranked 7th, but if we take a closer look of the two teams (Stavanger Oilers and Vålerenga Oslo), it is clear which one lifted Norway up in the point percentage column.
| TEAM | GP | W | OTW | SOW | OTL | SOL | L | GF | GA | GD | P |
| Stavanger Oilers | 6 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 19 | 17 | 2 | 11 |
| Vålerenga Oslo | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 17 | -10 | 1 |
Stavanger took 11 out of the 12 points, which results in a percentage of 91.67% of the league’s taken points. That mark is of course by far the biggest percentage of any team from a league with more than one team. The second-best team in that department is Austrian side Red Bull Salzburg, which took 18 out of the 48 points taken by EBEL teams (37.50%). Notable about EBEL, though, is that Salzburg and the Vienna Capitals took 33 of those 48 points and together held a percentage of 68.75% of the league’s taken points.
Speaking of Norway, Vålerenga was actually the second-lowest-scoring team in the CHL with 7 goals scored, “beaten” only by the Kloten Flyers of Switzerland (5 goals).
Scoring efficiency and goaltending
Another column that the Norwegian teams were impressive in is the scoring efficiency and goaltending. Take a look at this:
| # | LEAGUE | CT | SG% | SAVE% | PDO | |||
| 1 | Liiga | FIN | 10.51% | 91.50% | 102.01% | |||
| 2 | EBEL | AUT | 10.25% | 91.65% | 101.90% | |||
| 3 | SHL | SWE | 10.65% | 91.00% | 101.65% | |||
| 4 | Get Ligaen | NOR | 9.52% | 91.08% | 100.60% | |||
| 5 | Czech Extraliga | CZE | 9.71% | 89.94% | 99.65% | |||
| 6 | NLA | SUI | 9.07% | 90.49% | 99.56% | |||
| 7 | Slovak Extraliga | SVK | 9.79% | 89.40% | 99.19% | |||
| 8 | DEL | GER | 6.88% | 88.95% | 95.83% | |||
| 9 | Metal Ligaen | DEN | 10.34% | 84.10% | 94.45% | |||
| 10 | Ligue Magnus | FRA | 6.11% | 86.75% | 92.86% | |||
| 11 | EIHL | GBR | 7.20% | 85.25% | 92.45% | |||
| AVERAGE: | 98.19% | |||||||
CT = Country, SG% = Scoring efficiency percentage, SAVE% = Save percentage, PDO = Scoring-efficiency % + Save %
Some statistical notes
- DEL teams only took 7.58% of the possible points in games where opponents scored the first goal (5 points on 22 games; 66 potential points). Only the French Ligue Magnus and British EIHL were worse with 0%.
- The most goals scored by one team in a single game was 10: IFK Helsinki beat Sønderjyske 10– 1 at home and Luleå Hockey beat the Nottingham Panthers by the same score on the road. Add to that TPS Turku's 9–0 rout of HC Bolzano and you have the three teams with the biggest margin of victory in the 2014–15 CHL.
- Three teams got shut out in three of their six games: Kloten, SC Bern – both Swiss – and the German Hamburg Freezers.
- A total of 898 goals were scored in the tournament, with finalists Luleå and Frölunda Gothenburg combining for 114 goals – 12.69% of all goals scored by the 44 teams in the tournament.
- The shots on goal in the first period between SaiPa Lappeenranta and Kärpät Oulu in the first game of their quarter-final series were recorded as 3–0.
- SaiPa Lappeenranta had the lowest scoring efficiency in a game with at least one goal scored (1 goal on 51 shots at ERC Ingolstadt).
- HC Bolzano was recorded with the two lowest shot totals for a full game by one team, both against Linköping HC (first 9 shots when the teams met in Linköping, then 10 shots in their return meeting in Bolzano).
- Bolzano is also credited for the highest scoring efficiency in a single game with just one goal scored (1 goal on the 10 shots against Linköping).
- The highest number of shots on goal recorded in a single game without any goals scored is 35 (both SC Bern and JYP Jyväskylä).
- The highest total number of shots on goal by both teams combined occurred in the incredible eighth-final game between Red Bull Salzburg and Luleå Hockey: 83 shots (45–38 in favour of Luleå).