1974-1975
All-Star Team (42 voters)
:
This time,
Gól listed only first place players with number of votes, and with reasoning that this season there was almost no competition in voting. Consensus on the best player at each position was nearly complete among voters, with one exception – LD position, where Miroslav Dvorak´s voting result is listed too, on the virtue of being the only non-all-star player receiving decent amount of votes.
Goaltenders:
1. Jiří Holeček – 41 votes
- 1 vote left
Right Defensemen:
1. Oldřich Machač – 38
- 4 votes left
Left Defensemen:
1. František Pospíšil – 28
2. Miroslav Dvořák – 12
- 0 votes left
Right Wingers:
1. Vladimír Martinec – 42
- 0 votes left
Centers:
1. Milan Nový – 35
- 7 votes left
Left Wingers:
1. Jiří Holík – 36
- 6 votes left
Save percentage:
1. Jiří Holeček (Sparta): 40 games / 98 goals allowed / 1193 saves / 0.9241 %
2. Pavel Bakus (Jihlava): 21 games / 46 goals allowed / 510 saves / 0.9173 %
3. Miroslav Krása (Kladno): 27 games / 61 goals allowed / 659 saves / 0.9153 %
4. Jiří Crha (Pardubice): 42 games / 104 goals allowed / 1123 saves / 0.9152 %
5. B. Pavlík (Vítkovice): 31 games / 115 goals allowed / 1185 saves / 0.9115 %
6. Miroslav Termer (Kladno): 18 games / 45 goals allowed / 458 saves / 0.9105 %
7. Marcel Sakáč (Slovan): 43 games / 151 goals allowed / 1431 saves / 0.9046 %
8. Vladimír Dzurilla (Brno): 38 games / 111 goals allowed / 1047 saves / 0.9041 %
9. Miroslav Kapoun (Litvínov): 44 games / 149 goals allowed / 1375 saves / 0.9022 %
10. Jaroslav Jágr (Č. Budějovice): 42 games / 132 goals allowed / 1193 saves / 0.9004 %
11. Jiří Svoboda (Jihlava): 23 games / 63 goals allowed / 569 saves / 0.9003 %
12. Josef Hovora (Plzeň): 37 games / 130 goals allowed / 1092 saves / 0.8936 %
13. Pavol Svitana (Košice): 37 games / 129 goals allowed / 1055 saves / 0.8910 %
14. Jiří Králík (Gottwaldov): 35 games / 135 goals allowed / 1051 saves / 0.8862 %
15. Luděk Brož (Vítkovice): 13 games / 47 goals allowed / 365 saves / 0.8859 %
___________________
Vladimír Plánička (Č. Budějovice): 3 games / 6 goals allowed / 73 saves / 0.9241 %
Jaroslav Radvanovský (Sparta): 5 games / 16 goals allowed / 166 saves / 0.9121 %
Michal Orenič (Košice): 8 games / 21 goals allowed / 204 saves / 0.9067 %
Čechura (Plzeň): 3 games / 12 goals allowed / 107 saves / 0.8992 %
Jan Ráca (Pardubice): 2 games / 8 goals allowed / 64 saves / 0.8889 %
Petr Ševela (Brno): 6 games / 21 goals allowed / 159 saves / 0.8833 %
Šott (Plzeň): 4 games / 17 goals allowed / 121 saves / 0.8768 %
Horst Valášek (Gottwaldov): 9 games / 54 goals allowed / 290 saves / 0.8430 %
Melíško (Slovan): 1 game / 4 goals allowed / 21 saves / 0.8400 %
Petr Brokeš (Plzeň): 1 game / 8 goals allowed / 37 saves / 0.8222 %
Jaroslav Rozsypal (Jihlava): 1 game / 6 goals allowed / 26 saves / 0.8125 %
Vlastimil Březina (Litvínov): 1 game / 7 goals allowed / 23 saves / 0.7667 %
Vladimír Nadrchal (Brno): 1 game / 6 goals allowed / 15 saves / 0.7143 %
WHC 1975 All-Star Team (determined by 92 journalists)
:
Vladislav Tretiak (42 votes) – Valeri Vasiliev (69), Pekka Marjamäki (40) – Vladimír Martinec (38), Vladimir Petrov (60), Alexander Yakushev (73)
WHC 1975 Save percentage (Czech goalies)
:
Jiří Holeček: 9 games / 526 min. / 14 goals allowed / 200 saves / 0.9346 %
Jiří Crha: 2 games / 75 min. / 5 goals allowed / 20 saves / 0.8000 %
Other:
1) Golden Stick Award
Hold your hats because this is going to be a bit complicated. As I have mentioned briefly in one of my previous posts, this season sparked a one-off change in the voting for a best Czechoslovak player in the season. This time, there were 3 rounds or phases: 1. Point evaluation of all 29 players participating at the Izvestia Cup and the World Championship 1975. 2. Point evaluation of these 29 players based on their League performances. 3. Voting from 40 experts (coaches + journalists) – again from limited group of 29 players. Point evaluation happened to be derived mechanically by Karel Gut´s “Canadian scoring”. “Canadian scoring” formula for this season was following: goal = 5 points, assist = 3 points, on ice when goal is scored = 1 point, on ice at ES or PP when goal is allowed = -2 points, player at the penalty box whose penalty led to a goal = -4 points, penalty killer for each PK minute without goal allowed = 1 point. “Canadian scoring” for goalies remains a mystery but apparently Gut thought he has a formula for reasonably fair point evaluation and comparison across all positions.
´75 Izvestia Cup point evaluation according to Gut:
1. Holecek – 137, 2. Pospisil – 97, 3. Martinec – 96, 4. J. Holik – 95, 5. Machac – 91, 6. Crha – 82, 7. Nový – 77, 8. Kochta – 59, 9. Augusta – 50, 10. Hlinka – 49, 11. Dvorak – 47, 12. Ebermann – 43, 13. M. Stastny – 40, 14. E. Novak – 37, 15. Bubla – 36, 16. B. Stastny – 33, 17. Pouzar – 31, 18. J. Novak – 24, 19. Kaberle – 22, 20. Kostka – 8, 21. Kajkl – 3, 22. Veith – 2, 23. Horacek – 0, 24. Neubauer, Sterbak – -1, 26. Haas, Chalupa, Kuzela – -2, 29. Sykora – -4.
´75 World Championship point evaluation according to Gut:
1. Holecek – 110, 2. E. Novak, B. Stastny – 57, 4. Martinec – 55, 5. Machac – 51, 6. Pospisil – 48, 7. J. Holik – 47, 8. Kochta – 44, 9. Novy – 42, 10. Dvorak – 39, 11. Augusta – 33, 12. Kaberle, J. Novak – 32, 14. Bubla – 31, 15. Ebermann – 24, 16. M. Stastny – 21, 17. Hlinka – 18, 18. Kajkl – 5, 19. Kostka – 4, 20. Crha – 3.
Raw point evaluations combined:
1. Holecek – 247, 2. Martinec – 151, 3. Pospisil – 145, 4. J. Holik, Machac – 142, 6. Novy – 119, 7. Kochta – 103, 8. E. Novak – 94, 9. B. Stastny – 90, 10. Dvorak – 86, 11. Crha – 85, 12. Augusta – 83, 13. Bubla, Ebermann, Hlinka – 67, 16. M. Stastny – 61, 17. J. Novak – 56, 18. Kaberle – 54, 19. Pouzar – 31, 20. Kostka – 12, 21. Kajkl – 8, 22. Veith – 2, 23. Horacek – 0, 24. Neubauer, Sterbak – -1, 26. Haas, Chalupa, Kuzela – -2, 29. Sykora – -4.
Gut then comments the difficulty or unfairness to take these points at face value and proceeds to adjust these evaluations to more balanced representation of the quality of one player´s international performances.
Adjusted point evaluations and the final results of the first phase of the Golden Stick voting:
1. Holecek – 90 points, 2. Pospisil – 87, 3. Machac – 84, 4. Martinec – 81, 5. J. Holik 78, 6. Novy – 75, 7. Dvorak – 72, 8. Kochta – 69, 9. E. Novak – 66, 10. B. Stastny – 63, 11. Augusta – 60. 12. Bubla – 57, 13. Ebermann, Hlinka – 52.5, 15. Kaberle – 48, 16. M. Stastny – 45, 17. Crha – 42, 18. J. Novak – 39, 19. Pouzar – 36, 20. Kostka – 33, 21. Kajkl – 30, 22. Veith – 27, 23. Horacek – 24, 24. Neubauer – 21, 25. Sterbak – 18, 26. Sykora – 15, 27. Kuzela – 12, 28. Haas – 9, 29. Chalupa – 6.
Gut writes that he notices high placements of Holecek and defending players in general. He adds information into the bracket (perhaps as to explain his logic when doing this mathematics?) that his team allowed the least amount of goals at the championship despite not winning gold. I have to assume that same thing happened at the Izvestia Cup given the fact that CSSR won the tournament over Soviets this year. So comparatively lower placements of forwards in this phase of voting do not look too unreasonably.
Unfortunately, I don´t have results of the 2nd and 3rd voting phases. I do remember that Martinec had won the coaches/journalist voting part which promoted him to victory. Final results of GS 1975 are known. You can compare it with the 1st phase:
1. Martinec – 229, 2. Holeček – 225, 3. Jiří Holík – 208, 4. Nový – 205, 5. Pospíšil – 203, 6. Machač – 200, 7. Dvořák – 186, 8. Hlinka – 166½, 9. Eduard Novák – 165, 10. Jiří Novák – 141, 11. Ebermann – 139½, 12. Bohuslav Šťastný – 138, 13. Marián Šťastný – 131, 14. Crha – 125, 15. Kochta – 123, 16. Bubla – 117, 17. Augusta – 114, 18. Kaberle – 109, 19. Kajkl – 98, 20. Pouzar – 92, 21. Kostka – 33, 22. Veith – 27, 23. Horáček – 24, 24. Neubauer – 21, 25. Šterbák – 18, 26. Sýkora – 15, 27. Kužela – 12, 28. Haas – 9, 29. Chalupa – 6.
Kostka, Veith, Horacek, Neubauer, Sterbak, Sykora, Kuzela, Haas and Chalupa received their points only thanks to their international performances at Izvestia Cup and/or World Championship which were given in the 1st phase of the voting. Rest of only 20 players gathered their points also thanks to their domestic performance and thanks to the coaches and/or journalists who voted for them in their top 10 ballots.
2) Hlinka
I think I more or less figured out why Ivan Hlinka finished so low in the GS voting this season despite him winning the League scoring with significant margin:
1974-1975 (6.48 GPG;
Source: Official game records)
1. Ivan Hlinka - 79 points (36+43) / 44 games
2. Milan Nový - 67 points (45+22) / 44 games
3. Marián Šťastný - 61 points (36+25) / 41 games
4. Josef Ulrych - 60 points (34+26) / 44 games
5. Jiří Novák - 51 points (24+27) / 44 games
6. Bedřich Brunclík - 44 points (24+20) / 42 games
7. Vladimír Martinec - 42 points (29+13) / 40 games
8. Eduard Novák - 41 points (29+12) / 44 games
9. Václav Mařík - 40 points (19+21) / 44 games
10. Jan Hrbatý - 40 points (17+23) / 44 games
1974-1975 (6.48 GPG; Source:
Gól magazine scoring tables)
1. Ivan Hlinka - 78 points (36+42)
2. Milan Nový - 68 points (46+22)
3. Marián Šťastný - 63 points (36+27)
4. Josef Ulrych - 55 points (33+22)
5. Jiří Novák - 53 points (24+29)
6. Vladimír Martinec - 45 points (27+18)
7. Eduard Novák - 44 points (28+16)
8. Bedřich Brunclík - 43 points (24+19)
9. Miroslav Klapáč - 42 points (23+19)
10. Petr Vrabec - 39 points (22+17)
Hlinka seems to underperform internationally this season and this year´s voting system didn´t help him either. That´s the first thing.
Second thing, As far as his domestic record goes, there wasn´t a “vibe” that Hlinka is having a special season because those
Gól scoring tables produced rankings based on points and +/- together. Novy was 1st and right above Hlinka sitting on the 2nd most of the season. After the end of the season, Novy was +78, Hlinka was +47. Here is the list of 12 best +/- forwards for 1974-75:
1. B. Stastny (Pardubice) +91
2. Martinec (Pardubice) +83
3. E. Novak (Kladno) +80
4. Novy (Kladno) +78
5. J. Holik (Jihlava) +69
6. Ulrych (Litvinov) +59
7. Prazak (C. Budejovice) +54
Pouzar (C. Budejovice) +54
9. J. Novak (Pardubice) +53
10. Palecek (Pardubice) +51
11. Honc (Sparta) +48
12. Hlinka (Litvinov) +47
Third thing, of course Novy had dominant season when looking strictly at goal-scoring: 45 or 46 goals scored in 44 games played in this League season! Hlinka had 10-12 more points, but 9-10 goals scored less than Novy. It is also important to keep in mind that Kladno (Novy´s team) won the League title for the 1st time in this decade and jumped from the previous season´ 5th place. Although it should be noted that Hlinka´s Litvinov made a progress too, finishing 4th while in ´74 they ended the season at 8th place.
Fourth thing and perhaps the most important factor when discovering the perceived value of Hlinka´s 74-75: Hlinka probably wasn´t even the League leader in points throughout the majority of the season (Novy was). I found out that the League this time wasn´t finished before the WHC 1975. When the Championship ended, 7 rounds of League season remained to be played (38th – 44th round). In his regular league reviews, Gut wrote after 42th round that Hlinka has been
“without question the best League forward since the return from the World Championship.” Concretely, Hlinka has accumulated 12 points (8g + 4a) during 5 games (38th – 42th round)! Conversely, while I don´t have precise number of points that Novy has scored at this time frame, Gut writes after the end of the season (i.e. after 44th round) that it is
“a shame that in the last quarter [of the League season]
Nový dropped from his ‘shooting spree’ (5 goals scored). Otherwise he could have created new goal-scoring record of the League. As of now, he only equaled the record.”
So that´s it. I have to say that usually, if you look deeper into a season, you´ll find more and more that the “MVP votings” make a lot of sense. More often than not.
3) Karel Gut and his interest in statistics
Gól magazine publications 1975 and 1974 published in the summer during off-season Gut´s more thorough stats and his own thoughts and comments about the matter (that´s why this time I listed above the SV% of every goalie that played at least a period of one game, not just the Top 10 or so…).
Goalies:
Here, Gut lists goalies based on their save percentage and compares it to his goalie ranking based on his own secret formula.
“Everybody can make their own judgement, but it seems that the objectivity of ranking this constructed is ultimately hindered by the number of games played. Yet three years ago, it was still a routine for us to value performance and to determine the ranking according to so called save percentage. [See the Top 10 in the image, 3rd column is the save percentage]
You can reproach this way of evaluation even still a certain lack of objectivity and that is the correct judgement of a save. From experience, we can still see that opinion of what constitutes a save is different. At least from the comparison of number of saves publishing by Československý sport [daily 8 pages sports newspaper]
with the records sending by the clubs. Until we reach completely accurate data, then perhaps the most objective evaluation of goaltenders will remain today´s, quite laborious scoring.”
Another information: 9 empty net goals have been scored this season.
Defensemen:
“Today´s League review is dedicated exclusively to defensemen whose role in modern hockey is becoming more and more prominent. It is now also a foregone conclusion that today, the defensive lines are involved in productivity of its teams. More than 40 % of goals scored in the League have been a result of participation of defensemen. 256 were scored on their own [by defensemen]
and 458 were assisted to [by defensemen]
. This table serves us for better overview:
| Goals | Assists | Points scored by d-men |
1. Kladno | 22 | 65 | 87 |
2. Sparta Praha | 34 | 42 | 76 |
3. Plzeň | 23 | 47 | 70 |
4. Č. Budějovice | 26 | 38 | 64 |
5. Brno | 20 | 44 | 64 |
6. Jihlava | 24 | 34 | 58 |
7. Slovan Brat. | 18 | 40 | 58 |
8. Košice | 19 | 37 | 56 |
9. Litvínov | 17 | 32 | 49 |
10. Pardubice | 11 | 37 | 48 |
11. Gottwaldov | 26 | 16 | 42 |
12. VŽKG Ostrava | 16 | 26 | 42 |
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To this overview, we can reveal yet that in this season defensemen scored 4 goals more than in previous season. Relatively, they have been even more successful because this time overall, there have been 104 goals scored less. Sparta defensemen rules in this shooting competition with 34 goals (last year 31). On the other side, the failure of Pardubice defensemen strikes you, they shot down the right target only 11 times for the entire season (last year 13 goals). They were a bit more successful in the productivity as a whole, so with 48 points they exceeded d-men of Gottwaldov and VŽKG (42). In spite of that, their productivity is definitely not in line with placement of the team. And so just the comparison between Spartan and Pardubician defensemen for instance is worthy to think about. 93 defensemen have played this year´s League. Seven more compared to last year.”
Power plays and penalty kills:
League finish: | PP goals scored | PP goals allowed | PK goals scored | PK goals allowed |
1. Kladno | 36 | 1 | 4 | 16 |
2. Pardubice | 26 | 4 | 0 | 28 |
3. Jihlava | 28 | 2 | 1 | 20 |
4. Litvínov | 28 | 2 | 3 | 20 |
5. Slovan Brat. | 13 | 3 | 1 | 18 |
6. Sparta Praha | 20 | 1 | 2 | 17 |
7. Č. Budějovice | 26 | 0 | 4 | 24 |
8. Brno | 15 | 0 | 2 | 22 |
9. Plzeň | 28 | 3 | 6 | 30 |
10. Košice | 15 | 2 | 2 | 23 |
11. VŽKG Ostrava | 12 | 2 | 3 | 27 |
12. Gottwaldov | 17 | 8 | 0 | 19 |
| 264 | 28 | 28 | 264 |
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Gut only nods that the League champion Kladno indeed had both special teams situations managed the best from all teams. Also mentions that 7 teams have negative ratios (more PK GA than PP GS).
Just as the defensemen table showed us disappointing weak offensive contributions by Pardubice´s blueliners, again by looking at this table, it indicates that Tesla Pardubice (though finishing as a 2nd best team in the League!) had surprisingly weak both PP and PK: negative PP/PK ratio and also one of only two teams who did not score a single shorthanded goal.
The League this season consisted of 264 games and 1711 goals (6.48 gpg). 264 power play goals means precisely one PP goal per one game and 15.43 % of all goals scored have been scored during a power play.
Penalties:
This table is a list of the most penalized players of this season. You can see that Jaroslav Holik is a clear “leader” with 87 penalty minutes (62 PIMs two-minutes + 15 PIMs five-minutes, 10 PIMs ten-minutes) in 1974-75. Of the well-known players, Marian Stastny at 4th place with 57 penalty minutes was somewhat surprise to me.