'I don’t think Oliver Kapanen Will Finish The Season In Mont...

'I don’t think Oliver Kapanen Will Finish The Season In Montreal,' says Jack Han

To understand more about where Han is coming from, it should be noted that the majority of the work that he has done as a hockey coach has revolved around analytics and video work. With that being said, Han brought up the data that shows while Kapanen has been producing well, it is mainly due to an unsustainable individual shooting percentage. As much as I originally thought of criticizing Han at first, his arguments make a lot of sense. To start, not only does Kapanen have a high individual shooting percentage of 23% after 11 games, but the Habs only have 39.79% of shots when he is on the ice at 5-on-5, which is the 2nd lowest on the team besides the injured Patrik Laine. According to Han, Kapanen is the player who is holding his line of Alex Newhook and Ivan Demidov back the most with his play. He reasons that Kapanen capitalizes on playing with a skilled player like Ivan Demidov, who nobody can deny is the line’s offensive catalyst. Han mentions that for a rookie to make the NHL, the player needs to have both luck and be good. In Kapanen’s case, he has more of the former, as his linemates and usage are very favourable for him to be able to produce his 7 points in 11 games. It’s also true that the mix of Demidov’s skills and Newhook’s speed has been something that has helped Kapanen get prime chances for him to bury, but nobody can continue to score on 26.7% of their shots on goal.

According to Han, Kapanen is the player who is holding his line of Alex Newhook and Ivan Demidov back the most with his play. He reasons that Kapanen capitalizes on playing with a skilled player like Ivan Demidov, who nobody can deny is the line’s offensive catalyst. Han mentions that for a rookie to make the NHL, the player needs to have both luck and be good.

In Kapanen’s case, he has more of the former, as his linemates and usage are very favourable for him to be able to produce his 7 points in 11 games. It’s also true that the mix of Demidov’s skills and Newhook’s speed has been something that has helped Kapanen get prime chances for him to bury, but nobody can continue to score on 26.7% of their shots on goal.