So, how’s everyone enjoying the Four Nations Face-Off?
Welcome to a special edition of the Statsies, the usual CanucksArmy article focusing on the advanced stats side of the games. With the Canucks on a break, the only hockey going on are some kind of meaningless exhibition contests in place of the All-Star break, centred around 4 Nations. What could possibly happen – some actually exciting, very high-quality hockey?
Yeah, actually. In lieu of the All-Star week, this tournament has been a revelation. The quality and intensity of the games have been incredible, and one can only hope this sticks around more. This Statsies won’t have the format of the old, but it’ll still be focusing on all the advanced stat goodness from last night’s contests.
As always, you can find our glossary guide of advanced stats here.

Sweden-Finland

How neck and neck it can get: These two rival countries seriously cannot be separated. Across all situations, Sweden and Finland tallied up four high-danger chances apiece, a narrow 21-19 overall scoring chance advantage for the Swedes. What stood out was how Sweden couldn’t manage to capitalize on their momentum in the first period, the only one where they had a clear advantage over the Finns. Only managing to get one goal off a 67.62 xGF% in the first, they let the flow of the game slip away from them, probably contributing to Finland being able to get the momentum in their favour. The final xGF stood at 2.02-1.74 in favour of the Swedes, showing just how evenly matched these two teams were.
Where Henri Jokiharju carried the boats: This probably wasn’t the person the Finns expected to carry them on the back end, but Henri Jokiharju stepped up with some massive numbers to his name. Not only did he lead Finland in CF% with 75.00, but the defenceman racked up a huge 95.42 xGF%, ensuring that Sweden didn’t even get a single scoring chance and just had one shot attempt while he was on the ice. It wasn’t an insignificant contribution for a player who was iced for 16:01, even if the raw numbers were lacking. Having someone to just eat up Sweden’s offensive abilities is in and of itself valuable.
The Bratt Pack packed up: Jesper Bratt is one of the best wingers in the NHL. However, his performance against the Finns did not suggest that. On ice for a 0-5 scoring chance deficit, Bratt put up a measly 25.96 xGF% while generating a team-low 0.14 xGF on the night. Again, it’s not like he’s relied upon to be one of Sweden’s top offensive options, but for a player who’s been perennially underrated and consistently putting up solid performances for the New Jersey Devils, it would’ve been nice to see if he could’ve stepped up to help Sweden beat Finland.
Pettersson’s deployment: For Canucks fans, eyes are upon Elias Pettersson to see if he can use the 4 Nations tournament to rebound back to superstar form. Right now, the early results aren’t great. That being said, he and his linemates, Filip Forsberg and Adrian Kempe, aren’t getting much leash. They’re playing third-line minutes with only half of their shifts, and faceoff starts coming in the offensive zone. This is definitely interesting, especially so if you consider that Forsberg is supposed to be one of Sweden’s best forwards. Perhaps this changes with Sweden desperately needing a result against the USA after two overtime losses.

Canada-USA

And this is why it’s important to bury pucks: With the fireworks that started off the game, Canada came roaring out of the gates. Through the first two periods, they were making the most of the limited puck possession they got to heavily outchance the USA. All four of their 5v5 scoring chances in the first were high-danger, while 6/10 were grade-A opportunities in the second. During this two-period span, the States only had one high-danger chance at even strength. However, despite all of this, Canada only managed to find one goal. Granted, Connor Hellebuyck is the best goalie in the NHL and is probably going to win the Vezina, but it was especially frustrating to see these opportunities go to waste. It especially stings when considering that the third was all USA, who snuffed out any Canadian comeback hopes with excellent defensive play and held them to just two high-danger chances in the final frame. The heat map shows just what kind of offensive performance Canada was generating but unable to capitalize on.
A toothless power play: One of the most frustrating things to watch last night was the inability of the power play to get working. Yes, credit has to be given to the American defenders, who were excellent in disrupting anything Canada tried to get going. But, for a unit that features Connor McDavid, Sidney Crosby, and Nathan Mackinnon to only get two high-danger chances in four minutes of power play time is unacceptable. This is while the States were racking up four high-danger chances in just two minutes of power play time.
Bending but not breaking: One of the things that popped out when looking at the USA defencemen was just the sheer amount of xGA they faced. None more so than Brock Faber and Jaccob Slavin, who were on the ice for 1.61 and 1.63 xGA respectively. Now, with a 9-13 deficit in scoring chances and being in a 2-7 hole in high-danger chances, one might expect them to have been buried. But while they gave up these chances, they also held their own. Neither defencemen were on the ice for a single goal against and were on ice for two goals for. It’s a display of excellent shutdown defensive work, giving up a bad share metric against really good opposition without actually costing their team anything.
Harley stepping up: For a guy who was about to head to Cabo, Thomas Harley played a gutsy game in the place of the sick Cale Makar. The defenceman was thrust right into the deep end and thrived, putting up a team-best 91.01 xGF with 1.38 xGF and 0.1 xGA in 17:30 of 5v5 ice time. That’s not insignificant. And while he couldn’t manage to parlay that into any tangible goals, Harley was one of the only players to tangibly contribute any offensive pressure throughout the contest. Canada could’ve used a lot more of that from the likes of Mitch Marner, to say the least.
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