Ice hockey is a sport with high velocities and a large number of impacts to the head. The high occurrence of concussions is being recognized, and both short and long term consequences have been found. As body checking is the main situation inducing concussions, often in the form of shoulder-to-face impacts, there is thought to be a potential to lowering the rates of concussions with equipment that covers the jaw and chin area. In this study, in-game videos from the Swedish Hockey League were analyzed regarding impact situations and impact locations. The most occurring impact situations were simulated with finite element simulation on a Hybrid-III 50th percentile head and neck model wearing a standard ice hockey helmet. Three jawguard designs were developed and tested with the model, and seven different attachments were tested on two of the designs. The results showed varying effect of the jawguard, depending on the impact situation. In impacts to the side of the chin, all three designs reduced the strains in the brain, by successfully reducing the axial rotation. In impacts to the side of the face/head and to the front of the chin, the jawguard designs produced higher strains in the brain than without any protection. The helmet in this study was attached to the head model with a chin cup, and this may have had a significant effect on the strains of the brain. Other limitations to the simulation set up indicates that the jawguards should be tested on a more realistic model to properly evaluate the jawguard.

Title: Czechs and Slovaks in the first season of the second century of NHL Abstract The theme od the thesis are Czechs and Slovaks in the first season of the second century of NHL. The main aim of my work is to analyze the course of the season 2017-2018. In my work I will focus on the Czech and Slovak players and their comparison with players from the other European countries and with USA and Canada ice hockey superpowers. The comparison will be focused on the number of players, Canadian points, players' productivity in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft, their average age, and the players' age versus productivity. I will also focus on the team statistics (representation of Czechs, Slovaks and Europeans in each team). Key words Ice hockey, NHL, ice hockey players, Czechs, Slovaks, Europeans, goals, points

The goal of this thesis is compare loading of selected professional ice hockey players from HC Sparta Praha team, in the all season, basic part and the play off as well. Teoretical part is focused to the general specification of this topic. This teoretical part is about analysis of training ice hockey players, system of the training including psychic of professional player and his temperament. In the practical part is described resarch including average pulse frequency measurement by sporttester, results of Eysenck temperament test and personal interview with players and trainer separately. We found all about comparison player loading in the basic part of season and play off by evaluation of all these objective and subjective resarch. This resarch can offer interesting knowledges about temperament of professional ice hockey players. KEYWORDS ice-hockey, ice-hockey player, physical load, heart rate, psyche, temperament

The thesis "Media image of nine ice hockey world championships in the Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic in the contemporary press" focuses on reporting on nine ice hockey world championships hosted by the Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic in media. This is done by qualitative analysis of articles in the contemporary press in both specialized sports daily or weekly papers and general papers. The goal of this thesis is to prove how the style of reporting changed since the first championship in 1933 through seven decades to the last one in 2004. Apart from analyzing the degree and target of critique and style of reporting, it also focuses on the influence of current political climate and propaganda in the period between world wars, after the World War II, 1968 Russian occupation and shortly after the Velvet revolution. The reporting period was set at one month before the start of each tournament and two weeks after it's end. In case of 1933 and 1938 championships, the thesis analyzes the following papers: Rudé právo, České slovo, Národní politika. In later years: Československý sport, Mladá fronta, Rudé právo, Svobodné slovo (all daily), Stadión and Gól (both weekly). After the Velvet revolution: Sport, Právo, MF Dnes (all daily). The analysis focuses mostly on the content of the reporting.

Title: Comparison of performance in test of skating with and without the puck among the Extraleague U16 competition defensemen and forwards Objectives: The aim of this diploma thesis is to compare basic ice hockey skills of defensemen and forwards in a skating test carried out with and without the puck. We would like to analyze the data we receive, draw conclusions about the skills of players and come up with practice recommendations for defensemen and forwards. Methods: The diploma thesis was written from a methodological point of view based on experiment, which resulted in a comparative analysis by using different statistical methods. The testing was done on ice hockey stadiums of HC Hvězda Praha, HC Slavia Praha and HC Letci Letňany. The tested group of ice hockey players came from HC Hvězda Praha, HC Slavia Praha and HC Letci Letňany who play in the Extraleague U16 competition. Results: From the results and comparison of average performances of the U16 players we can conclude that the defensemen did not dominate over the forwards in backward skating, tests carried out with the puck. The difference performances of backward skating without the puck was 0,12sec (in favor of the forwards) and in backward skating with the puck 0,69sec (in favor of the forwards). And not even when comparing deficient...

Title: Process of motional abilities for under 16 ice hockey players in preliminary term Author: Bc. Branislav Lobotka Supervisor: doc. PhDr. Jiří Suchý, Ph.D. Objective: The aim of this thesis was to design and implement a training program for development of motor skills of junior ice hockey players and it's subsequent verification in practice during preparation period 2011/2012. This thesis is based and builds on author's Bachelor thesis, in which the author analysed fitness preparation of juniors in preparation period 2010/2011. In the thesis are both fitness programs compared and analysed. As for scientific research, the author worked with hockey team HK Dukla Trencin. Conclusions and hypothesis are listed in the conclusion of the thesis. Methods: In thesis was used method of research, the method of observation, methods of literary sources, method of interview and method of measurement and testing. Results: The obtained results should form a basis for further development of fitness plans for junior ice hockey players' preparation periods. Key words: ice-hockey, athletic phase, motional abilities, U16 ice-hockey players, training, tests.

I ishockey krävs det snabba beslut och lyckade aktioner för att kunna vinna matcher. Därför är det viktigt att kunna genomföra skanningar för att kunna genomföra aktioner på ett effektivt sätt. Att skanna innebär att man vrider på huvudet eller kroppen från pucken för att få en uppfattning om var mot- och medspelare befinner sig. Syftet med studien var att undersöka hur skanningsbeteendet predicerar prestationen samt hur skanningsfrekvensen skiljer sig åt mellan olika aktioner bland spelare i Svenska Damhockeyligan (SDHL). Genom att analysera verkliga matcher i SDHL så undersöks elitspelare i sin naturliga prestationsmiljö. Analysen har gjorts med hjälp av analysprogrammet Dartfish där 10 matcher med tre olika lag valdes ut för analys, 3393 sekvenser analyserades varav 1747 användes för att nå fram till ett resultat. Resultatet tyder på att skanning ger förbättrat odds att lyckas med nästkommande aktion. Samt att skanningsfrekvensen var högre vid aktionerna fri yta, passning direkt till spelare och passning fri yta jämfört med aktionerna skott och styrning. Dock visade det sig att skott hade högre skanningsfrekvens än styrning. Föreliggande studie vill förmedla hur viktigt skanning kan vara i ishockey och hur skanning kan ge en fördel till det puckförande laget. / Ice hockey demands quick calls and successful actions to be able to win games. It is therefore important to scan the environment to make effective actions. To scan means that you turn your head or your body away from the puck to get an idea of where the opponents and your team-mates are located. The purpose of this study is to examine how visual scanning behavior can prejudice performance and how the frequency of scanning differs between different actions amongst players in the Swedish women hockey league (SDHL). By analyzing real games in SDHL we get to see the elite players in their natural performance environment. The analysis was conducted in the program dartfish where we gathered 10 games with three different teams. 3393 sequences were analyzed which led to that 1747 was used to get our result. The result shows that scanning creates improved odds in making the next performance successful. The study shows that an action gives improved odds in creating a successful performance for the participants in this study. It also showed that the scanning frequency was higher when the players actions was free space, passing straight to teammate and passning on free space than shooting and deflecting. Shooting showed higher scanning frequency than deflecting. This study wants to mediate how important scanning behavior is in ice hockey and how scanning can give the puck carrying team an advantage / <p>Föreliggande studie har framställts i sammarbete med Linus Sjösten. Insamlad data, analys av data och andra delar av studien har framtagits gemensamt. </p>

För en stad är det viktigt att sticka ut, att göra sig hörd bland andra städer som konkurrerar om besöksnäring och nya invånare. Hur kan en medelstor stad sticka ut från mängden? Kanske genom att marknadsföra sig tillsammans med en idrottsförening. Studien undersöker hur en stad tillsammans med det lokala elitishockeylaget och destinationsbolaget arbetar för att skapa en positiv bild av staden. Tidigare forskning har fokuserat på hur städer arbetat med stora mästerskap, såsom Olympiska spelen och världsmästerskap. Ingen relevant forskning som vi har tagit del av har behandlat samarbetet mellan ett lokalt elitlag i ishockey, destinationsbolag samt kommun. De teorier som använts är place branding och co-branding. Dessa teorier består av flera aspekter som kan appliceras på en studie, place branding har ”the five Rs of place branding” och co-branding har ”5C co-branding strategy”. Den metod som använts är kvalitativa intervjuer. Dessa intervjuer var strukturerade med öppna frågor för att få så informationsrika svar som möjligt. Orsaken till att kvalitativa intervjuer genomfördes var att få reda på om det fanns något samarbete mellan organisationerna. Resultatet visar att det inte finns något utbrett samarbete mellan dessa tre organisationer. Samtliga organisationer var positiva till ett framtida samarbete men i dagsläget finns inga planer från någon av organisationerna att inleda ett samarbete med någon av de andra. / It is important for a city to stand out, to make itself heard among other cities that are competing for the same tourism income<img src="https://cdncache-a.akamaihd.net/items/it/img/arrow-10x10.png" /> and new citizens. How can an medium-sized city stand out from the crowd? Perhaps by marketing itself together with a sports club. This study investigates how a city together with the local elite ice hockey team and the visitors bureau work to create a positive image of the city. Previous research has focused on how cities work with big events, such as the Olympic games and world championships. No relevant research that we have come across has looked at the cooperation between a local elite ice hockey team, the visitors bureau and the local government. The theories that have been used are place branding and co-branding. These theories are composed of multiple aspects that can be applied to a study, place branding has ”the five Rs of place branding” and co-branding has the ”5C co-branding strategy”. The method that has been used is qualitative interviews. The interviews that have been carried out were structured with open question to get as much information from the answers as possible. The reason that qualitative interviews were carried out was to find out if there was any cooperation between these organizations. The results show that there is no widespread cooperation between these organizations. All of the organizations were positive to the idea of future cooperation, but as of now there are no plans from any of the organizations to commence a cooperation initiative with any of the others.

The sports in Sweden has previously been self-regulated with its own rules and provisions. As the commercialisation and professionalization have increased the common legal system has a greater impact on sports. The purpose of this study is to investigate the professional ice hockey adjustments to the labour law regulation. Furthermore the purpose is to illuminate possible advantage and disadvantage with the professional ice hockey player’s conditions of employment. To answer the purpose and the research questions of this study the legal dogmatic method, the legal sociology method and qualitative method with interviews has been used. The study shows how the professional ice hockey has adapted the labour law regulations with collective agreement due to the semi-dispositive provisions found in Swedish labour law. In Swedish professional ice hockey only the fixed-term contract is applied and most of the provisions about employment security are not available for the ice hockey players. In return the players has a stronger protection during the employment. As an employee and a parent the right to have a parental leave is statutory. The study shows a complex of problems with ice hockey player’s opportunity to have a parental leave, which is a right as an employee. This raises questions about equality between men and women in the labour market of ice hockey.

Social media, even though a new phenomenon, has gained much interest in the last decade and has been a frequent topic of researchers. Sport marketing has also been a popular topic in academia, especially in North America. This thesis will address the use of social media in Nordic ice hockey clubs, including the exploration of their social media strategies and effectiveness. Previous research has not concentrated on ice hockey in Europe, nor has it examined their social media strategies. The study is seen to be necessary, especially given the large differences in the European and North American sport cultures and business models. The research was conducted through a qualitative multiple-case study by gathering data from both secondary sources as well as through semi-structured face-to-face interviews carried out with ten ice hockey clubs from both Sweden and Finland. The questions of the interviews were formed by the concepts derived from previous literature and the authors’ own experience. The results indicate that Nordic ice hockey clubs are still partly struggling with their social media strategies and that with the implementation of a clear strategy, including segmentation, the clubs would be able to take advantage of the relationship marketing and branding possibilities offered by social media. In line with this, the authors argue that the social media strategies of ice hockey clubs are not as effective as they could be and suggest further actions for managers to achieve higher social media effectiveness.