R for Hockey Analytics: Part 2

Generating charts to analyze player consistency

One of the biggest misconceptions about utilizing analytics in sports is that data is only for making game-changing decisions. For example, whether or not to go for it on the fourth down in the NFL. Analytics are so much more useful than that. One way I use analytics is by putting a player’s games into segments to get a look at how the given player performed within certain periods of time. Basically, what I do is I take an entire season of data or if in season, the data up until that point, and split the games up into segments. These kinds of visuals can give us an inside look into tailoring game management, game prep, practice planning, player development, and video sessions.

Problems with Analytics

One of the main components that analytics do not account for is the human aspect. Players are going to have down games or even down weeks. You may never know what’s going on. Maybe that person had a challenging work day, they could be sick, or maybe they have family troubles. Not only that but everyone knows that more often than not a player will play through injury. That’s the culture. You can never know.

Insights

So how do we utilize this visual? Well, initially we can look at this from the development perspective. If a player or multiple players for that matter are having their stats decrease towards the end of the season, that may be an indication of conditioning levels or workload management. This could result in refined practice plans or possibly even doing more off-ice work in comparison to on-ice work. The second analysis we can identify is analyzing trends in a player’s game, for example, we can see this player plays generally bottom-six minutes in which he’s thriving from an offensive and defensive standpoint. For a different player maybe he is having trouble entering the zone with control so we can generate a presentation to show optimal entry locations and options he may have that he never noticed in-game.

Concluding Thoughts

Being able to provide context to a player’s game is always the goal of my analyses. Having the ability to say this is why you’re struggling to score goals or this is how you can position yourself to generate more high-danger chances is ultimately what my role is. By using different types of visuals we can get down to the nitty-gritty version of a player, both the strengths and weaknesses.