[sureLoss]

Another article on this technology:
http://www.dallasnews.com/sports/dal...-challenge.ece

Appleby is the president of PowerScout Hockey, one of a few companies bringing player tracking to hockey. (Two others, Stats Inc. — which owns the SportVU system that has become popular in basketball — and SportVision, declined comment for this story.)

PowerScout uses a three-camera system to track every player’s and the puck’s movement on the ice. With that data, PowerScout’s computer can deduce skating speed and distance skated, pass/shot speed and percentage, takeaways, shot attempts and a range of other analytics.

Corsi and Fenwick, now used as proxies for possession, are unnecessary, according to Appleby. A player tracking system could give exact possession data.

“This is kind of the holy grail,” Appleby said. “There’s nothing left to measure. This I think will fundamentally change the way that teams will look at (hockey).”

PowerScout analyzed over 50 games at the NHL and Canadian Hockey League level this season. One of those games was a Memorial Cup game between the Edmonton Oil Kings and the Guelph Storm.

In that game, Stars prospect Jason Dickinson, playing for Guelph, tied for the fastest top speed at 22.6 miles per hour. His average shot speed ranked 11th in the game at 51.05 mph. He had a 51-percent passing percentage, which also ranked 11th in the game, and connected on passes with fellow forward Scott Kosmachuk more than any other teammate.

Guelph’s heat map revealed that it relied on the right side of their goaltender to both break out of the defensive zone and bring the puck into the offensive zone.

It’s this type of information that will be available to NHL teams soon.