The NHL is reportedly set to test tracking technology at the All-Star Game in the form of chips inserted in player jerseys as well as game pucks.
After years of rumors surrounding the technology, it appears the NHL is finally ready to take the plunge on tracking player and puck movement during a game. They’ll test it on the least relevant game of the season when they take said technology to the All Star Game in Columbus, Ohio this January.
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Sportsnet reports that the NHL will insert tracking chips in each All-Star’s sweater as well as the pucks for both the Skills Competition and the NHL All-Star Game on January 24th and 25th, respectively, via the Sportvision system. This will be the first time such technology has been used in the NHL, and the possibilities seem endless from here.
As teams and the media members who cover them continue to use more and more data beyond simple game-day stat sheets, the desire for deeper information has grown louder. Measuring shots attempted and how well one plays with and without certain teammates is all well and good, but it hardly paints the whole picture. With the ability to track player movement, we would get another tool to measure the previously immeasurable.
If all goes well at All-Star weekend, the NHL could opt to implement tracking technology in every game next season. It would require permission from the NHLPA, which hasn’t happened yet. Testing things out in an exhibition would be a big step for the players to get a feel for how this might work though and if the league can find a way to make a buck off Sportvision at no detriment to a player’s on-ice movement, you can expect the union to hop on board.
The benefits for everyone involved are inestimable both on the high and low end of things. As great as it will be to have this technology available, if all goes well, it will likely to take some time and a great deal of trend analysis to find where and how we can gain a greater understanding of the game.
For instance, alternate statistics like Corsi and Fenwick show us how well a team plays when a player is and isn’t on the ice relative to his teammates, but how can we use those numbers to explain what we see via tracking? If a player has a high Relative Corsi, what will his on-ice movements look like and what will we learn from that?
These are questions we’re eager to answer, which is why we’re hoping that this technology goes off without a hitch at the All-Star game. If it does, we could be analyzing hockey in an entirely different way a year from now.
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