Thanks to our Game Score model, we offered you predictions of all teams before the season. During it, the prediction of individual matches and subsequently a series of playoffs. However, how the predictions of the model turned out, we will gradually analyze these for each team separately.

At the beginning of the year, Sparta was traditionally a big favorite to win the title. During the season, however, it did not fulfill these preconditions for a long time, and the wire did not start among the best teams until the second half. In the end, Sparta finished the basic part with a gain of 99 points in third place, in fourth place České Budějovice had top points.

In third place, she secured a direct advance to the quarterfinals, in which she shot with Liberec in the replay of last year’s semifinals. This time, however, Sparta was more successful and rejoiced in advancing after five matches. In the semifinals, the same result followed, ie 4: 1 in matches, she also eliminated České Budějovice and in the final she faced Třinec. However, she was not enough for it in six matches and took silver medals.

Pre-season prediction

At the start of the season, our model was a bit more pessimistic towards Sparta than, for example, bookmakers. He ranked Sparta in fourth place with an average score of 92.1 points. With third place and a gain of 99 points, Sparta easily surpassed this prediction. It achieved the fourth most frequent result, around 100 points in 14% of simulations.

At the same time, however, Sparta had a very solid chance of being among the best. Our model ranked it among the top four from almost 50%, and in the quarterfinals it reached in more than three quarters of simulations. Sparta had a 45% chance of advancing among the top four in the playoffs to play a quarter of the final.

In terms of statistics, Sparta was one of the best teams throughout the season. However, the first half was at odds with the worse performance of the goalkeepers, which rose quickly after the departure of Alexander Salák, when Matěj Machovský was one of the best goalkeepers of the extra league in the second half of the basic part and Sparta started to climb the table.

In the 5 to 5 game, however, Sparta lowered its game dominance for almost the entire year. Especially in the quality of the opportunities created. If we look at the shooting attempts, Sparta was only in tenth place: on average, it created only less than 51 attempts in 60 minutes, two more than its opponents.

From the slot area, however, Sparta had almost 20 of its attempts, in this respect it was quite the most active. On the contrary, the opponents got only less than 16 shots from this area and Sparta had the third best difference.

The great choice of location and the creation of very good opportunities to shoot was also reflected in the fact that Sparta had the second best chance with 2.7 expected goals in 60 minutes. Opponents then created opportunities for 2.2 expected goals and Sparta had the fifth best difference with plus 0.53 expected goals per hour of play 5 on 5.

Sparta then clearly had the best goal production: it turned its chances into 2.94 goals scored, only Hradec and Pardubice have already exceeded the 2.5 goal mark. The opponents then scored two goals in the same time and with a difference of nine tenths of a goal per hour of play, Sparta had the second best goal difference after Mountfield in Hradec Králové.

Sparta also confirmed its offensive power in overpowering games. In those, she clearly created the best opportunity, specifically for 9.1 expected goals, one more than the second best Comet, and turned it into 8.3 goals scored in 60 minutes. This placed Sparta in second place behind Třinec. In weakening, however, Sparta lagged behind the best when it collected 7.1 goals and ranked tenth.

Player performances

You can’t start with Sparta other than Filip Chlapík, who offensive conquered the extra league. He was both the most productive player and the top scorer: he scored 70 points and 31 goals. He was the only player to beat 60 points and 30 goals. In the 5 on 5 game, Guy on the Ice had 47 goals scored, the most of any player in the area, and only 23 collected. He was also clearly the best player in the Game Score, with a value of 7.8 wins.

In the first five best shooters of Chlapík, Michal Řepík added. He scored 24 goals and a total of 42 points, which put him in 14th place. In the Game Score, Captain Sparta was 5.7 wins. Erik Thorell also had over five wins, who had an excellent performance especially in the first half of the season, and even though he slowed down in the second half, he was still among the top fifteen extra-league players overall.

But Sparta could also rely on Vladimír Sobotka or Roman Horák. Michal Moravčík and Tomáš Pavelka, who were the best-rated defenders in the model, both had excellent performances, both with 3.5 wins. Both also scored 26 points and were Sparta’s most productive backs.

Conclusion

After a weak start, Sparta managed to reach the rungs that were expected of her and that her strength suited her. In addition, she was well deserved, especially as she was one of the best teams of this season.

In the end, she confirmed her position in the playoffs, where she reached the finals. However, he had to bow before Třinec, which was, of course, at least from the point of view of our model, a favorite, and the season can therefore be considered successful from this point of view. For Sparta, however, anything but the title is a disappointment.

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