Interesting stats that are probably difficult or impossible to track

TheOtherOne

Registered User
Jan 2, 2010
8,265
5,257
For example, I'd like to look at top goalscorers and compare how many goals are scored against opposing top players versus how many exploit line changes or icings to score against worse players. To see overall the ratio, as well as which players, if any, are more exploitative than others.

Which difficult-to-track stats would you be interested in seeing? Be creative!
 

KingBilly

Registered User
Oct 18, 2008
206
39
I've always wanted to track team and individual player turnovers between the faceoff dot in their zone and the red line. The game is usually won and lost in how teams transition, and it's lost on a lot of people. If you are not successfully advancing the puck between your team's faceoff dot and the red line you're probably gonna lose.

I'd like to see some stat which tracks that. As team success or even individual player success. Passes connected within that space. Whether a team successfully advanced the puck beyond the red line, with control, once gaining possession in their own zone. It's probably not realistic, but I'd like better metrics to study that aspect of the game.
 

Pookie

Wear a mask
Oct 23, 2013
16,172
6,684
Player health metrics such as when a player is more susceptible to an injury. Or when their skills start to decline.

Health metrics are the most important to team and personal success. And none of us will or should ever have access to them.
 

TheOtherOne

Registered User
Jan 2, 2010
8,265
5,257
I wanna strap an accelerometer to every player and measure speed/accleration/etc.
That's a good one, I'd be interested to see who is moving more on average per minute of ice time. For goalies too.

Another one that'd be impossible, but really illuminating, is the percentage of net that a goalie is covering anytime the puck is in a scoring position. Would really show which goalies are better personally versus reactionary. Also could provide evidence for pad size reduction arguments.
 

These Are The Days

Oh no! We suck again!!
May 17, 2014
34,124
19,688
Tampa Bay
While not a rare stat, is there any way to track power play goals against for specific players? There's a particular year Sakic played back in the 90's on the Nords where he had 100 points or so but I think he might have actually been a minus player. Meanwhile his teammate Sundin (without looking) was also a 100 point player and I think was something like +20. I know there was a time Sakic was killing penalties for the Nords. I have to imagine he suffered his share of goals against when killing penalties and thus had a poorer plus/minus.

Is there a site that keeps track of power play goals against certain players? I mean we can look up all day how many PPG's the Nords gave up but I can't for the life of me find out who was on the ice for the PPG's against.

I recently tried to do this for Filppula and came up empty handed.
 

decma

Registered User
Feb 6, 2013
743
375
While not a rare stat, is there any way to track power play goals against for specific players? There's a particular year Sakic played back in the 90's on the Nords where he had 100 points or so but I think he might have actually been a minus player. Meanwhile his teammate Sundin (without looking) was also a 100 point player and I think was something like +20. I know there was a time Sakic was killing penalties for the Nords. I have to imagine he suffered his share of goals against when killing penalties and thus had a poorer plus/minus.

Is there a site that keeps track of power play goals against certain players? I mean we can look up all day how many PPG's the Nords gave up but I can't for the life of me find out who was on the ice for the PPG's against.

I recently tried to do this for Filppula and came up empty handed.

Goals against when killing penalties do not count in plus/minus. And goals for when on power play do not count either.

The breakdown of goals for and against is available on hockey reference.

For example, in 1992-93, Sakic was on the ice for 150 goals for. 76 of those were PP, so for plus/minus purposes, 74 goals for. That is, Que scored 74 goals when Sakic was on the ice at ES or SH.

He was on the ice for 104 goals against. 27 of those were while killing penalties, so for plus/minus purposes, 77 goals against. That is, Que allowed 77 goals against when Sakic was on the ice at ES or PP.

Therefore he was minus 3 (74 - 77)

Sundin was on the ice for 154 goals for and 70 of those were PP. So for plus/minus purposes, 84 goals for.
Sundin was on the ice for 89 goals against, and 26 of those were while killing penalties. So for plus/minus, 63 goals against.
Therefore he was plus 21 (89-26).

Data are not available (at least I have not seen them) to isolate ES goals only. That is, the GF I have seen only distinguish between PP vs. (ES+SH). That allows you to calculate the + component of +/-, but not to isolate ES goals only.

Similarly, on the minus side, GA is only disaggregated between (ES and PP) vs. SH. Again, enough to caclulate - component of +/-, but not to isolate ES GA from goals against while on PP.

Still, the data available show why Sundin had a better +/-.

They were both on the ice for roughly the same goals for (154 for Sundin vs. 150 for Sakic), but more of Sakic's were on the PP (76 vs. 70).
Sundin was on the ice for 84 goals when Que was ES or killing penalties, whereas Sakic was on the ice for 74 goals for in such situations. Advantage of 10 for Sundin on the offensive side.

On the defensive side, Sakic was on the ice for 104 total goals against vs. 89 for Sundin. When goals allowed while killing penalties are removed, it is 77 gainst for Sakic vs. 63 against for Sundin. So a 14-goal for Sundin on the defensive side.

Not sure if this is what you were looking for, but hope it helps.

From 1998 on, when ice time data are available, can extend the analysis further by looking at GF and GA per minute.
 

morehockeystats

Unusual hockey stats
Dec 13, 2016
617
296
Columbus
morehockeystats.com
While not a rare stat, is there any way to track power play goals against for specific players? There's a particular year Sakic played back in the 90's on the Nords where he had 100 points or so but I think he might have actually been a minus player. Meanwhile his teammate Sundin (without looking) was also a 100 point player and I think was something like +20. I know there was a time Sakic was killing penalties for the Nords. I have to imagine he suffered his share of goals against when killing penalties and thus had a poorer plus/minus.

Is there a site that keeps track of power play goals against certain players? I mean we can look up all day how many PPG's the Nords gave up but I can't for the life of me find out who was on the ice for the PPG's against.

I recently tried to do this for Filppula and came up empty handed.
I have some PK tracking on my site:
MoreHockeyStats.com: Penalty Killers
Now why does this interface not support middle-button paste?!
 

RageQuit77

Registered User
Jan 5, 2016
5,200
3,724
Finland, Kotka
"Gun cam" to hockey sticks and/or to a puck so that goals, shots and passes could be then watched in slomo afterwards.

More seriously. Average number of uninterrupted (by other team) chain of passes leading to a goal. I think that could be quite different kind number from line to line, and from team to team. Could be sort of measurement of line chemistry and possession too.

EDIT: if length of passing chains would be tracked, it would be relatively easy to collect stats also for 3rd, 4th, 5th... assists (doesn't mean that they should be considered as score).

It's easy to imagine (and probably easy to give examples too) how for example 4th pass was crucial playmaking move for an oncoming goal.

A team/line that can consistently keep up relatively long passing chains (regardless of do they lead a goal or not) compared to teams/lines with shorter average chains when holding puck, can be considered objectively having better, concrete 'possession' in a game. Such stats would also make possible to create further statistics based on a passing chains, for example "passing chain efficiency" in plays immediately leading to a scored goal etc.
 
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torniojaws

Registered User
Jan 10, 2017
1,724
1,010
Finland
Save percentage for shots that the goalie sees, and save percentage for shots that are obstructed.
Save percentages per opposing line against a given team, eg. Save % vs. 1st line, Save % vs. 2nd line, etc.
Average time from faceoff to a goal for the scorer (only if there is a goal following that faceoff).
Amount of pucks stolen by a player (I think there is a team statistic for this?).
The effect of home attendance on the chance to win % for the home team? :) If you have 100% attendance, do you have a higher chance to win than with eg. 60% attendance?
 

hatterson

Registered User
Apr 12, 2010
34,953
12,226
North Tonawanda, NY
I realize you weren't serious about this, but I figured "hey, I have the data."

So I did it.

Tableau Public

Enjoy.

So to the shock of basically no one, the opening faceoff has no discernible impact on who wins the game.

Might be interesting to see it for OT games and the first faceoff of OT. See if winning that first faceoff, and getting puck control, has a meaningful impact on the ability to win the game in OT.
 

hatterson

Registered User
Apr 12, 2010
34,953
12,226
North Tonawanda, NY
Amount of pucks stolen by a player (I think there is a team statistic for this?).

There's the takeaway stat, but it's heavily influenced by arena bias and, at least from what I've seen, player bias (ie, players who have a reputation of producing a lot of takeaways seem to be more likely to get credit for a takeaway in a give situation versus a player who doesn't have that reputation)
 

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