Puck and player tracking for playoffs

[TheDawnOfANewTage]

Data points for the location of the puck and each individual player. Which can then tell us a number of things. Exactly how much time does that line spend with the puck, per minute? Which player has the hardest shot from the circle? How good is this player's backward skating? Exactly how aggressive is this goalie's positioning? And all those things could be averaged over hundreds of events, instead of just being brought up anecdotally when a broadcaster wants to tell us how fast McDavid was on that rush.

Many of these are things can be assessed qualitatively, but are hard to quantify. There's a lot of interesting stuff that could be done if this data is made public. Of course, it also depends on how well that tracking works, what the resolution is, etc.

This. And I’ll add.. I’m not an advanced stat nerd, but I do like data I can easily comprehend. Once again, I don’t want networks overdoing it, but I’d love to see some of this stuff during intermissions. Hitting force, G forces, distance travelled- I don’t need to do anything with that info, I’m just curious. Tracking has all sorts of practical benefits, but I also just want some nonsense “sports science” stuff.

 

[Deebs]

I absolutely don't want the screen cluttered with tracking numbers and nonsense. Have the information available online or on an app in real time but not on the live broadcast. I want to watch the game not flickering numbers.

 

[Whoshattenkirkshoes]

This is so gross I would quit hockey if the game goes in this direction

 

[Ginormousthumbs]

If I want to watch NHL 20, I’ll turn on my gaming device. I’m not digging this.

 

[Atas2000]

The same people who abuse the use of advanced stats are going to abuse the crap out of this stuff.

Yeah, like starting threads with the title:"Ovechkin's average speed in his last three games was down by 0,00001mph.IS HE DONE?"

 

[GoBluz24]

Although not preferred, I would not mind the puck tracker for reviewing plays, goals, etc. but not live. The circles and names are too much like video games. ditch them.

 

[Pucker Factor 10]

.....seeing that trash be used for the playoffs would’ve ruined watching hockey for me, personally. That **** is just unbearable and catering far too much to new fans who don’t know what is going on.

There have obviously been some technological innovations that have enhanced watching games quite a lot. That being said, one of the down sides to it, and frankly to modern technology in general, is this pervasive expectation among many of its users that everything is going to be spoon-fed to you on a silver platter and you really don't have to do much other than just be a zombie and watch it without any utilization of that amazing computer that sits between and above your shoulders.

 

[Dont Toews Me Bro]

How am I going to see the damn game with a dozen labels over every player’s head?

 

[Brownies]

How am I going to see the damn game with a dozen labels over every player’s head?

Na you don’t get it, what they say is that you will no longer have to go through that hard process of watching a game to say something about it. You’ll know all the whereabouts of that Crosby fellow in 2 min.

kidding, kidding... or am I ?

 

[Dekes For Days]

More information is always valuable.

I really hope they don't go overboard with the graphics in-game though. I liked when they put the names over the relevant player's heads after goals, but during play it was really distracting. Also, that trail they had for the puck was horrible.

 

[Kamiccolo]

Can someone explain what this will even give us? A more accurate way of tracking stats we already have? I don't think it will track take aways or whatever more accurately. So what is gained here?

 

[Satire]

What’s this data going to give us? I see that we’re getting a whole bunch of data points per second, but for what?

I think they'll be some useful data from it... particularly on breakouts. I'm just not sure how you can apply that in real time in such a fast game at the player level.

 

[romba]

Tell her to buy a 60 inch HDR tv. It cant be that hard to see a black puck on white ice in high def can it?

Have you ever watched a NHL game with someone who was not familiar aka a potential new fan? They're universally turned off immediately by 1) the size of goalies relative to the net (mostly just an illusion of the camera angle which newbies don't buy) and also following the puck. It's a fast game with lots going on on-screen. Once you lose the puck as a noob it's hard to find again with players getting hit losing balance, referees swinging through, sticks flying around. Sometimes the cameramen have trouble on quick back and forths and the screen jumps around as they play catchup to the play- it's not such a foreign concept. Then if/when the puck is behind the nearside boards and disappears from view they're done and changing the channel. For you and I it's second nature but the NHL cares less about us than finding new fans without completely blowing off the old ones.

 

[shello]

I'm sorry but this form of tracking is awful. It looks clean, like the graphics are really nice looking but they just take up the whole screen. I'm fine with helping new fans learn how to track the puck better, but there's gotta be a middle ground.

Just sucks for those who have been watching hockey for 20+ years to have all these distractions on the screen

 

[Rich Nixon]

I'm sorry but this form of tracking is awful. It looks clean, like the graphics are really nice looking but they just take up the whole screen. I'm fine with helping new fans learn how to track the puck better, but there's gotta be a middle ground.

Just sucks for those who have been watching hockey for 20+ years to have all these distractions on the screen

that's not at all what it's for, that's just the broadcast's ham-handed way of showing you that it exists. the commercial isn't the product itself.

Can someone explain what this will even give us? A more accurate way of tracking stats we already have? I don't think it will track take aways or whatever more accurately. So what is gained here?

Um...endless possibilities. The ability to model hockey in real time. The ability to analyze thousands of hockey games to create realistic situations. A foundation for building, for lack of a better term, "best practices" in any given game situation (a defenseman facing a 2-in-1, a goalie facing an umbrella PP, whatever).

This is basically hockey quantified. All player and puck movements, related to one another. I hate existing advanced stats, I think they're laughably incomplete and built on a very poor foundation. This allows you to remake all of it, correctly. You can create a model of a "high danger scoring chance" that isn't just "was a shot taken from this area of the ice." You can directly correlate when turnovers turn into goals, without depending on some person's definition of a turnover.

Set some parameters, say, a 2-on-1 featuring two left-hand shots and a righthanded defenseman against a lefthanded goalie. Instantly find all examples, over the period of years. Track what the players each did: the goalie, the forwards, the defender. Compare outcomes. Should the defender be sliding? How far out was the goalie? How much space did the defenseman give the puck carrier, on average, in situations that prevented a shot on net altogether? Actual physical distances.

Now apply to any scenario. Pinch or don't pinch at the blueline. Ideal time to dump, if you're planning to chase. You can basically study this stuff now. It'll take a bit to develop, because teams are basically going to need to be developing basic AI models to digest all this information. But it's pretty cool.

 

[shello]

that's not at all what it's for, that's just the broadcast's ham-handed way of showing you that it exists. the commercial isn't the product itself.

My bad, I honestly have no idea what the player/puck tracking will look, I only saw what was posted in this thread. I haven't watch an all star game in years

 

[Rich Nixon]

My bad, I honestly have no idea what the player/puck tracking will look, I only saw what was posted in this thread. I haven't watch an all star game in years

It's like if someone showed you the first computer you had ever seen and went "hey, look, it can play SOLITAIRE!" like, it can also be used to access limitless information from the world wide web, it can edit and generate original audio sounds, it can be used to alter photographs and videos, it can do mathematical equations with millions of decimal points...and yeah, I mean, I guess you can play solitaire on it if you want.

 

[LeafsNation75]

Is this going to be on all broadcasts next season or select broadcasts depending on the channel?

In Canada if you watched the All Star Game on CBC or any of the regular Sportsnet channels (Ontario, East, West & Pacific) they didn't have it. However on Sportsnet One and 360 they had the player and puck tracking and honestly all of those stats took up a lot of the screen and was very distracting.

 

[Kamiccolo]

Is this going to be on all broadcasts next season or select broadcasts depending on the channel?

In Canada if you watched the All Star Game on CBC or any of the regular Sportsnet channels (Ontario, East, West & Pacific) they didn't have it. However on Sportsnet One and 360 they had the player and puck tracking and honestly all of those stats took up a lot of the screen and was very distracting.

I saw it too but I think it was them just flexing they can do it now and it won't be like that during play.. Maybe like when they are lining up to take faceoffs so casual fans know who is out there.

 

[Filthy Dangles]

Bumping this.

Denny Gurianov apparently eliminated Vegas on a 110 MPH Rocket 1T.



Is there public access to all of the puck tracking info or just the stuff the broadcasts release on air? I am curious how this shot stacks up against the hardest shots recorded so far.