Payer, Puck Tracking in NHL

The National Hockey League (NHL) commissioner Gary Bettman has announced that the 2019/20 season will see puck and player tracking technology being installed in all the 31 NHL arenas. The adoption of this technology will ensure accurate player tracking, to measure time on ice, the movement and speed during a match. As a way of supplementing the accuracy of the information received by partners and broadcasters in real time, the player and puck monitoring technology was first introduced back in 2015 during the All-Star game, at the 2016 World Cup and the 2017 All-Star game.

Earlier this month the technology was also tested during two Vegas Golden Knights games and it was interesting to check data related to players – pass precision, players’ speed and intensity of the shots in real time. For those who can’t wait till the start of the season to experience this new development, the commissioner says that viewers will be able to get a glimpse during the broadcast of this year’s All-Star game.

NHL All-Star Skill Competition 2019

This year’s skill competition that will feature the top NHL talent facing off has been moved a day earlier to Friday from the usual Saturday, with the main All-Star game also moved to Saturday from Sunday as it has been the norm in previous years.

The skill event will consist of six different skill competitions with players being judged based on their individual performance and a winner crowned from each of the six competitions.

Some of the skill competitions include; the fastest skater which is a timed event where the winner is determined by the fastest player to skate along the entire length of the rink, accuracy shooting where eight players will compete on who will shoot five lit targets within the shortest time possible standing 25 feet out of the goal line.