The next statistical frontier in hockey if you accept that counting shot attempts doesn't qualify as volatile, high-level nerdery is player-tracking technology; the NHL is testing systems in the coming season, and a league-wide plan could be in place by 2015-16, la SportsVU and the NBA.:Such efforts are soon to become the norm. The NHL first has to decide which technologies to test, with Sportvision and SportVU, both Marcus Morris Jersey Chicago-based, the leading contenders. The league aims to test one or more systems, starting this fall, with five to eight teams. One goal would be to integrate all the information with the leagues broadcasters.SportsVU, specifically, just finished its first season as the official tracking system of the NBA. Six cameras installed Andre Drummond Jersey above every court record player movements and, among many other things, the location of their shot attempts. The end result: valuable data for teams, who use it to make scouting reports, and analysts and fans, who use it to better explain and understand the game. on the league's website, and writers like Grantland's Kirk Goldsberry .Back to hockey: Two potential outcomes of an automated system that tracks both players and the puck would be standardizing what constitutes a scoring chance and and exit the offensive and defensive zones. It'd also add context to individual shot-attempt data, which is a proxy for puck po se sion.To that end, the Joint Ish Smith Jersey Statistical Meeting conference in Boston on Monday held a seminar called "Eye in the Sky: The Player Tracking Revolution in Sports Analytics." Statistician Michael Lopez was there , if this is indeed your thing, is worth a look. Also present was Marc Appleby, the CEO of PowerScout Hockey, a company that has provided tracking data for individual NHL teams.When teams look at tracked movement, this is what they see. It's a depiction of a Sharks-Penguins game from last season. Isiah Thomas Jersey Here's a screenshot of what real time tracking in the NHL looks like. 87 is highlighted Michael Lopez (@StatsbyLopez) Goldsberry was a speaker at the seminar, too."Kirk, that's some unique sh*t man"- to on LeBron's shot selection by spot Michael Lopez (@StatsbyLopez) "My job is to write about sports through lens of spatial and visual analytics" - Goldsberry, on how tracking data has changed his life Michael Lopez (@StatsbyLopez) "To communicate to someone interested in sports, that's different than communicating to someone at a stats talk"- Michael Lopez (@StatsbyLopez) Whether the league goes full-NBA in 2015-16 remains to be seen stuff like this had previously been proprietary but taking the stepisundeniably cool. The NHL is three Terry Mills Jersey years behind the NBA with regards to tracking data, according to Appleby."We spent a lot of time trying to get the data," Appleby said. "Now it's time to get the people to analyze it."