FACTS
ABOUT THE BRAIN
Aristotle
believed the main purpose of the human brain
was to cool the blood.
Beethoven
poured ice water over his head when he sat down
to create music, believing it stimulated his
brain.
The thumb
is so important to everyday human functioning
that it has its own "central control" area in
the brain.
Believe
it or not, Your Brain:
- is capable of recording
over 86 million bits of information daily
- is composed of more
than 30 billion working parts
- undergoes 100,000
chemical reactions every second
- generates more electrical
impulses than all the telephones in the world
combined
- its nerve impulses
can travel as fast as 170 miles per hour!
(that's 273.5885 Kilometers/hour)
OVERTIME
HOCKEY IS QUICK FIX
The IIHF has studied
all sudden-death overtimes in the NHL since
1950 and also the Swedish and Finnish top leagues,
which have used the unlimited overtime system
since 1975 and 1976 respectively.
Sweden and Finland
are the European leagues, which have used the
sudden-death overtime the longest. (Several
Euro leagues, like Czech Republic and Switzerland,
use a time limited OT-system, followed by a
penalty shoot-out.)
40
% END IN 5 MINUTES OF OT
The study showed that,
on an average, 40 percent of all overtimes end
within the first five minutes and 60 percent
of all overtime games are over before the ten-minute
mark. Only 10-15 percent of the prolonged games
make it to a second overtime period.
One interesting thing
is that the figures from NHL Stanley Cup playoffs
and the Finnish SM-Liiga playoffs are virtually
identical.
35 percent of the Stanley
Cup playoff games end within the five first
minutes, 38 percent in Finland.
60 percent of the Stanley
Cup playoff games are over before the 10-minute
mark, 63 percent in Finland.
82 percent of the Stanley
Cup playoff games never see a second overtime
period, 83 percent in Finland.
The corresponding figures
for Sweden’s Elitserien are 42, 59 and 91 percent.
FASTEST
OT GOAL
The fastest overtime
goal is from the 1986 Stanley Cup finals when
Montreal’s Brian Skrudland scored after nine
seconds at Calgary.
The longest overtime:
116:30, Detroit vs Montreal Maroons 1-0 in 1936.
Mud Bruneteau ended the pain at 2.20 AM, at
16.30 of the sixth overtime period.
The longest overtime
in Finland is from March 23, 2001 when Ilves
Tampere beat IFK Helsinki away after 64.41 of
overtime. Final score: 1-0.
The longest overtime
in Sweden occurred on March 21, 2002 when Troja
beat Bofors in a qualification game for promotion
to the top league. Troja’s Mika Valila scored
the 2-1-winner at 80.41.
The McGill
University in Montreal is widely regarded
as the place which introduced organized hockey
to the rest of the world. On March 3, 1875
a group of students from the university walked
to the Victoria Skating Rink in downtown Montreal
and played what is believed to be the first
ever organized hockey game. Later, McGill
also rewrote the rules of ice hockey, "McGill
Rules".
