It’s playoff season. The NHL’s New York Rangers and Tampa Bay Lightning are vying for a spot in the Stanley Cup Finals to face off against the Colorado Avalanche. The Boston Celtics are taking on the Golden State Warriors for the NBA title. These NHL games have reflected the growth of the data analytics field in the hockey world. We’ve seen shot speed radar animations above the net with each shot on goal, faceoff win probabilities, and more. When highlights with these statistics are posted to NHL’s Instagram, comments about them are plenty—an illustration of the increased consumer engagement that can result from sports analytics (see blog one!).
I recently saw a graphic that detailed each team’s odds to win the Stanley Cup. It looked like this:
It made me wonder how this type of thing could be calculated using data analysis. Although it is a relatively new field in the hockey world, these charts have been around for a few years. It would be interesting to see the algorithm that processes this, and what factors are taken into consideration. At the time, these odds actually made sense to me on paper: the Avalanche were the “best” team remaining, while the Lightning and Oilers were somewhat strong, and the Rangers seemed to bring up the rear in terms of likelihood to win. However, the first two games of the Lightning-Rangers series saw the Rangers go up 2-0 (granted, it’s now 2-2 but still closer than I was expecting, and the pie chart made it seem). This brings up the question: how can we improve the algorithms? What type of factors aren’t included that have an impact on team success?
I also wanted to touch on the shot speed radar. Although I couldn’t find a picture of it, it looks like a little circle that appears above the net on certain shots. While this isn’t the most complicated piece of data, it’s likely something that will accomplish the task of increasing viewership and consumer enjoyment of watching hockey. Those little tidbits of understandable data might go volumes for someone who isn’t necessarily well-versed in the sport.
Overall, I’m really excited to see the direction data analysis in hockey is trending, as progress has already been made since the last time I covered a similar topic.
Image Link:
https://www.sportingnews.com/us/nhl/news/nhl-playoff-bracket-2022-full-schedule-tv-channels-scores/uunmnezlz3igrezu8djwymck
