[Report] NHL planning to test new info-gathering technology

[-Vintage Canuck-]

New system could be in place by 2015-16:

Technology and advanced analytics are changing many pro sports – but hockey has been slow to fully embrace the camera and the computer. While a small number of teams, including the Chicago Blackhawks and Vancouver Canucks, have sought out new ways to assess the game, the sport as a whole has remained a bastion of puck-heads stubbornly frozen in a low-tech age.

Until now: As the NHL playoffs move toward the Stanley Cup finals, change is coming off the ice. The National Hockey League plans next fall to test new technology to track players in action and produce a vast new array of information – a boon to teams seeking competitive advantage and astute fans placing bar bets.

A league-wide system could be in place for the start of the 2015-16 season, according to John Collins, NHL chief operating officer.

Mr. Collins sees more than raw numbers. The figures can paint detailed pictures of the game and its players that can help the NHL market its product, complementing efforts such as the league’s reality show this season, NHL Revealed. “It’s about telling stories,” Mr. Collins said in an interview.

Hockey has slid gradually into the age of advanced analysis. About half of NHL teams gather and analyze a range of more sophisticated information on their players and opponents, such as a particular skater’s favourite scoring spot on the ice.

Such efforts are soon to become the norm. The NHL first has to decide which technologies to test, with Sportvision and SportVU, both Chicago-based, the leading contenders. The league aims to test one or more systems, starting this fall, with five to eight teams. One goal would be to integrate all the information with the league’s broadcasters.

“Hockey is next. The sport is ripe and ready for analysis,” said Brian Kopp, a senior vice-president at SportVU provider Stats LLC, which is owned by 21st Century Fox and Associated Press.

SportVU began to work with a small number of NBA teams four years ago, and the league as a whole signed on for the start of this season. The system, installed in every NBA arena, involves six cameras far above the court that track the players and the ball. This data is then combined with NBA play-by-play information and fed through algorithms to produce reams of useful insights. The data give fans a richer understanding – and give coaches and managers information to better assess the game and its players.

Take Kyle Lowry of the Toronto Raptors. During the regular season and the playoffs, the point guard was a particularly strong shooter from the left side of the key beyond the three-point arc, according to a detailed breakdown on NBA.com.

But his shot selection changed somewhat during the playoffs against the Brooklyn Nets, when he drove to the basket much more often, trying to carry his team to victory – right until his final, thwarted effort in Game 7. That information is of interest to the Raptors’ coaches – and their opponents.

Hockey lags. Basic stats show that Vancouver’s Daniel Sedin scored on only 7.1 per cent of his shots in 2013-14, the worst of his career, but how it happened is unclear, at least to the general public.

It’s the same for the success of Toronto’s Phil Kessel, with his third-straight season converting more than 12 per cent of his shots into goals. The Leafs have expressed a coolness to analytics, while the Canucks and others are believers and track such information internally.

The adoption of SportVU or Sportvision could bring higher-tech insights to the league and its followers. Right now, keen fans use such websites as extraskater.com to glean insights from the real-time data the NHL does supply.

Puck possession, for instance, is measured by all shots taken, at various points in a game – a reasonable proxy. New technology would add considerable precision.

SportVU recorded eight games in Washington before the Winter Olympics as an initial trial. Cleanly tracking the puck remains a challenge.

The company also added two cameras to the set of six it uses for the NBA to track players moving on and off the bench. As in the NBA, the cameras identify players by the number on their jersey.

Sportvision is best known for the first-and-10 line digitally drawn across football fields for television viewers. The company was also responsible for the short-lived glowing puck on Fox in the 1990s. Sportvision has recently refined the idea and the NHL is looking at the new prototype chip-installed puck.

Smaller companies are also in the game. Ottawa’s PowerScout Hockey tested its portable camera system – borrowed from Prozone Sports in England, which focuses on soccer and rugby – in a total of 50 games in about half of the NHL’s arenas this season.

“The teams,” said PowerScout president Marc Appleby, “are blown away by the information.”

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/hockey/stubborn-nhl-takes-tech-step-forward/article18595761/?cmpid=rss1

How SportVU works:

SportVU is a software system that uses cameras to track the motion of play by recording the X, Y and Z co-ordinates of specific objects 25 times per second.

The System

NBA teams use six strategically placed cameras, installed in arena catwalks, to track the movements of the basketball and every player on the court.

The Data

The data collected provide an innovative breakdown of speed, distance, player separation and ball possession. The resulting information goes far beyond the basic numbers of points, rebounds and assists.

SportVU and the Raptors

In one of the more interesting uses of the technology, the Raptors’ analytics team uses complex code that turns all of the co-ordinates into animations, recognizes all sorts of gameplay dynamics (e.g. pick and rolls), and factors in the skill set of each player. From there, the team is able to create ‘ghost players’ that show what players should have done on any given play.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/how-sportvu-works/article18540599/#dashboard/follows/

[MJDDawg]

Sounds cool.

[Rick Grimes]

The NHL really IS behind the times technologically speaking.

As of late-2012 there were still 2 NHL teams that were not using digital scouting software to store/analyze data.

[hsedin33]

There are too many variable in Hockey, this will never, never, ever work, especially with the way refs manage games these days. Everything is just too inconsistent. You can compile and get as much information as you want, the bottom line is players will have bad days, good days, tired days, off days, major injuries, nagging injuries, coaches switching line up, matching lines, are his line mates compatible, good calls, bad calls, missed calls, different coaching strategies, bad bounces, good bounces, reduced ice time, increased ice time, maybe they will be pissed off at the coach or they have a bad travel schedule. To even attempt to break the game down into simple numbers is a massive undertaking and a huge waste of money. I guarantee the teams who delve into this will scrap it 5 years down the road when they realize it won't get them any closer to a Stanley cup. All they will have is a bunch of useless information that doesn't actually help them that much.

[TheAntar]

Ya moneyball says hi

[CB007]

There are too many variable in Hockey, this will never, never, ever work, especially with the way refs manage games these days. Everything is just too inconsistent. You can compile and get as much information as you want, the bottom line is players will have bad days, good days, tired days, off days, major injuries, nagging injuries, coaches switching line up, matching lines, are his line mates compatible, good calls, bad calls, missed calls, different coaching strategies, bad bounces, good bounces, reduced ice time, increased ice time, maybe they will be pissed off at the coach or they have a bad travel schedule. To even attempt to break the game down into simple numbers is a massive undertaking and a huge waste of money. I guarantee the teams who delve into this will scrap it 5 years down the road when they realize it won't get them any closer to a Stanley cup. All they will have is a bunch of useless information that doesn't actually help them that much.

The point of advanced stats / analytics is to eliminate the bias caused by most of the variables you have listed here and find the real performance levels of individual players and teams.

I think this new stuff sounds great. The popular set of analytics we currently use are inadequate IMO.

[Papayas]

no new technology and stuff can fix the league if the staff continues to make micro game management that gives the result they want. If they can look at a video replay and make some of the most ridiciulous calls ever, what makes you guys think the new "technology" would change anything?

This is a strict PR stuffs and nothing more. Favouritism will continue, so will phantom calls that would change the outcome of the game.

[elvis15]

I'm a fan of this kind of thing. I actually use a miCoach unit that I can sync to my computer after a run, cycling, playing rugby, tennis, etc. and it gives me a breakdown of the distance travelled, speed, calories, etc just based on my GPS position. Rugby teams have pockets built into the back of the jerseys between the shoulder blades specifically for GPS units so teams can track player movement and equate it to real actions in a game.

This is from back in 2010:

And another piece from the RFU, England's governing rugby body, in 2011 on some of the results they've found:

http://www.rfu.com/news/2011/april/news%20articles/140411_gps_premiership

The first results from the three-year study are highlighted by Dr Paul Worsfold, Senior Lecturer in Sports and Exercise Sciences, and PhD student Nicola Cahill at today's Annual Professional Rugby Conference at Twickenham Stadium.

They show significant differences between six positional groups (based on rugby positions on the pitch) in terms of time on pitch, total distance covered, distance covered at low speed run and high speed run, maximum speed and average speed.

• Average time on pitch ranges from 75.63mins for front row to 91.63mins for inside backs
• Average distance covered ranges from 4.45km (front row) to 6.84km (scrum half)
• Average distance at Low Speed Run1 ranges from 3.15km (front row) to 4.53km (scrum half)
• Average distance at High Speed Run2 ranges from 0.15km (front row) to 0.61km (outside backs)
• Maximum speed for the positional groups varies from an average of 23.7kmh (front row) to 30.7kmh (outside backs)

The top individual speed recorded in the 54 matches was 36.7kmh (22.8mph) and the greatest distance covered in one match was 8.2km (5 miles).

Dr Worsfold said: "In the past five years GPS technology has had a significant impact on performance analysis in elite sport. We can now accurately evaluate the training loads and activity profiles of players in competitive situations on the field.

Aim to optimise performance and improve safety

"The aims of the study are to focus on the use of GPS in training and game performance to establish positional demands, to identify potential injury risk, and to monitor relationships between training, competition and fatigue.

"We will have collected over 450 sets of GPS match data from players by the end of the season. The results of the study will enable individual players to gain information on the physical demands of their specific positions during a match situation, and allow them to compare their own performances with the averages across Aviva Premiership rugby.

"The findings will help coaches, sport scientists and players gain an understanding of what elite rugby union players, in different playing positions, do within a competitive season. This will enable specific training and monitoring programs to be developed for each position to optimise performance and player safety."

Accelerometers in the 5Hz GPS units produce data relating to impacts and body loads on players which will be investigated in the next stage of the study.

Roy Headey, the RFU’s Head of Sports Science, said: "Coaches, medical and conditioning staff rely on analysts and sports scientists being able to simplify and combine a variety of sources of data to inform their decision making.

"A critical piece of information relates to the external loads – visible but virtually impossible to estimate – that players experience during games, These include distances run at various speeds, muscular effort in accelerating, decelerating, changing direction and G-forces in collisions, and GPS is currently the best available vehicle for capturing such data."