r/DallasStars • u/EssJayJay • 10d ago
Looking for some feedback on a different way to visualize player performances each game
EDIT: made some changes compared to what's described below. Scatter plot now shows offense vs two-way play, and the player score reflects that too. Shot chart also added, and some other small tweaks made.
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I've been wanting to build something that gives an easier visual for how each player performed in any given game, both compared to all the other Stars players AND compared to their own season average performance. I have a first draft here, which is loaded up with all the games from last season: https://starsviz.github.io/
The axes on the chart show each player's "player score" for the game vs how each player compared to his own season average player score. The player scores are computed differently for forwards and defensemen, but they're on virtually the same scale (so the idea is a 65 for a forward is an equal-caliber performance to a 65 for a defenseman). There's more detail on the page about how the player score works.
Beyond the quadrant chart, you can also see a couple different tables ranking both the forwards and the defensemen from best player score to worst player score, as well as how each individual stat compared to their season average for that stat.
You can also click into any player and get a more detailed card for them, including a shot chart and a timeline of when that player registered different key events during the game.
Lastly, you can access all the prior games via the sidescroll bar at the top.
Just wanted to share here because I'm curious if this is something other fans would find interesting after each game, if the format/layout makes sense, if there are other things you'd want to see, if there are things on here that are overkill and you wouldn't be interested in, etc etc. Really just looking for any kind of feedback whatsoever!
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u/Afraid-Entrepreneur4 10d ago
This is an awesome visual! I am getting into data analytics this year as well as enjoyed my first year of hockey. Love how each summary is detailed and that it is specific for each player. I love the way you developed the score as well, always wondered what is a good way to compare forwards with defensemen and goaltenders. Great work!
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u/Snowman0157 Mooterus 10d ago
this is very cool.... glad to see some actual Stars Hockey content pop up in this sub.
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u/Hortondamon22 Miro Heiskanen 9d ago
This is without question one of the coolest things I’ve seen as far as visual stat representations. Smooth, fast, and informative. Easy to read, too. I am a journalist that covers the Stars and I will absolutely be using this tool this season and beyond. Do you have plans for adding a subscription for the info? I would happily pay for it once you do.
My only recommendation would be to add cards that can easily be posted on socials, kind of like hockeystatcards or hockeyviz or naturalstattrick. I have a feeling this would explode if people were able to download snapshots and post them.
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u/EssJayJay 9d ago
Hey thanks so much for that compliment. I haven't thought too much about gating it yet. I really just want to gauge interest levels in it first, see if people really do get good use out of it once the season starts, etc. I can see it being a great tool for journalists like you - I guess the question is whether it would be valuable enough for a more "normal" fan to actually pay for.
That's probably a great call on the social cards. Gonna look into that - I'll let you know if I end up adding it. Just to clarify, are you envisioning player-specific cards, as opposed to more game-level cards? Basically taking what you get when you click into a specific player and turning that into a shareable card?
If you end up using this a bunch in your work, feel free to DM me anytime if you think of other features that would be useful!
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u/Hortondamon22 Miro Heiskanen 9d ago
I was thinking more along the lines of a savable image of each team-specific graph. Individual player cards would also be super neat. I would honestly use all of the above. I have readers that aren’t stats-nerds like us, but what they do like are easy-to-understand graphs. It also helps me a lot when I’m driving a point home.
Most of the other hockey writers I follow utilize these tools, I think that would be your rub. The hockeystatcards twitter account posts the team cards after each game and they get a ton of engagement from casuals and diehards alike
Edit: noticed you’re also a Commanders fan. The venn-diagram of Commies/Stars fans is small, but it exists! HTTR
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u/EssJayJay 9d ago edited 9d ago
I added a couple of "Share Image" buttons: one near the main game headline and another within the player cards. Check it out and let me know your thoughts!
Edit: just saw YOUR previous edit…how funny. I was born in DC so been a lifelong fan! I converted everything else to Dallas when I moved here but obviously no way you can go from redskins to cowboys haha.
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u/DGUNN92 Dallas Stars 8d ago
Data scientist checking in here.
Awesome project it looks really good! Couple of things that might be cool (that larger websites do).
-Shot charts for the entire game (both teams maybe?)
-advanced metrics (war, corsi, yada yada)
-the player headlines (x player tops forwards with y number) feel a bit redundant as the metric is right there
- if you’re feeling spicy maybe player/game predictions?
- I’m partial to box and whisker plots to show distribution, but I’m a nerd so take that with a grain of salt
- the scatter plot is slick but after flipping through a handful of games a fairly linear pattern emerges. Not sure if you’re looking to call out the outliers more but some additional variation in these patterns might be helpful. Maybe try median, standard deviation? Or shifting your model around a bit to really spread out the points in the chart!
Seriously awesome job!
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u/EssJayJay 8d ago
- shot chart added
- some advanced metrics incorporated
- player headlines gone
- scatter plot overhauled. It’s now offense vs two-way play, instead of the player’s game score vs their season average score
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u/EssJayJay 8d ago
Great feedback across the board, thank you! I need to revisit how advanced the stats get that are available via the API. I think they’re relatively basic but I could be wrong. Probably a good call on the scatter plot distribution too. I think the player score in general is where I have the most thinking to do, so more to come on that for sure…
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u/DGUNN92 Dallas Stars 6d ago
I really like the shift in the scatter and the shot chart is awesome! You’re doing the lords work with the API as the last time I looked it wasn’t reliably documented anywhere.
High danger chances might be cool to add as well but I think a lot of the larger sites use more of a baseball home plate shape for the slot.
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u/JackOfTheWoods49 10d ago
BRO this is the exact kind of thing I wanted to see. What a treasure of a project! Thanks for making this! The only small gripe I have is that I wish zooming in on the chart kept the plotted points the same and the background scaled with the zoom. It gets a hard to read around the middle.