FiveThirtyEight
Posted March 21st, 2014 @ 01:03pm by Erik J. Barzeski
But Burke said something on the hockey analytics panel at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference last month that I took issue with. He expressed concern that statistics couldn't measure a hockey player's perseverance. For instance, he asked, would one of his forwards retain control of the puck when Zdeno Chara, the Boston Bruins' intimidating 6'9" defenseman, was bearing down on him?
The thing is, this is something you could measure. You could watch video of all Bruins games and record how often different forwards kept control of the puck. Soon, the NHL may install motion-tracking cameras in its arenas, as other sports leagues have done, creating a record of each player's x- and y-coordinates throughout the game and making this data collection process much easier.
Oh, and FiveThirtyEight launched recently. I don't visit news sites, but I may visit that one.