In an overtime game against the Philadelphia Flyers recently, Edmonton Oilers star Connor McDavid flew into the zone on a breakaway, shot the puck off the post, recovered it and passed to a streaking Leon Draisaitl for the winning goal.

Fans could watch a video clip of that goal, but the NHL’s official website offers another way to digest the play: a “goal simulation” animation.

McDavid is a small dark circle with 97 on it, defended by orange circles with corresponding jersey numbers for the Flyers. The puck is a black dot. You can follow Draisaitl’s journey from his own zone to the winning goal – and Travis Sanheim’s inability to pass him – including what happened outside the view of the television cameras.

Finally, in the most brutal part of the simulation, a series of rapidly multiplying Oilers “dots” appear on the ice as Edmonton players jump the boards to celebrate the victory and storm Draisaitl.

“People have kind of discovered it organically,” said Russ Levine, group vice president of statistics and information for the NHL. “They find unique things or little viral moments, and that’s rewarding. That’s what we hoped fans would discover.”

The “goal simulations” are created through the NHL’s puck and player tracking technology, which collects data and tracks the movements of each player on the ice and the puck itself.

“We think it allows you to see a play in a different way. You can see the spacing, the positioning of the players, gaps or lack thereof in a way that is very stark and different from a broadcast because it is two-dimensional and right over the top.” Levine said. “We think it’s a very unique, quick way to review a play and see it in a different light.”

HOCKEY IS A SPORT of constant movement. Levine said this presentation of scoring plays allows fans to see how each part of that offensive opportunity develops.

“I think we’re always looking for things that will help fans better understand what’s happening on the ice,” he said. “Tracking the puck and the players is a way to approach this very chaotic game – with live substitutions, players jumping on and off the ice and the best players playing a third of the game – and find new ways to to quantify performance or evaluate what happens on a play.”

But the target simulations also have an old-fashioned charm. Seeing plays develop into digitized shots and passes also brings back memories of early hockey video games.

“There seems to be no end to the nostalgia for that era of video games,” says Levine. “And I think you’re right: it’s simple and it’s a bit like those early games.”

The NHL first began developing puck and player tracking technology in 2013, using different variations of infrared and optical tracking systems. In 2019, the NHL and NHLPA announced that players would wear sensors in their uniforms that, when combined with a chip in the puck, would capture real-time data ranging from speed to distance to mapping locations on the ice. There’s also an optical tracking component that validates that data “within a few milliseconds,” according to the league, which has rebranded the tracking technology as NHL Edge.

Over the years, the league has learned how to handle some challenges to ensure NHL Edge’s accuracy. Sometimes arenas move things around to hide the cameras’ sightlines, which is part of the league’s game-night checklist for system calibration. Sometimes a chip goes out or is knocked out of a player’s equipment, so the league works with equipment managers to make sure they are aware.

“There are some technical challenges, maintenance, and then there are some real-life events that happen in games where things need to be corrected quickly to make sure we’re capturing everything accurately,” Levine explains.

Once captured, one of the uses for that data was through the SAP NHL Coaching Insights app, which is available to coaches and players on the bench via tablets during games. Levine said the goal simulations first appeared there in 2022, as a way for teams to film and analyze how game situations were developing. Known as “Virtual Replay” on the app, where full games are available, the NHL says its coaches have responded positively to it.

“They have appreciated the amount of tactical focus the view provides, along with the ability to see an accurate representation of width and depth on the playing surface that the traditional red line camera can skew,” said Brant Berglund, senior director of coaching and GM applications for the NHL. “They have also used it in video rooms and on the bench for various game reviews and coaching purposes.”

But the league believed that NHL Edge data could also be used to entertain and educate fans. It began working with a company called Beyond Sports to develop real-time digital recreations of NHL games in virtual reality and platforms like Roblox.

In 2023, things took a big leap forward when the NHL and Disney teamed up to create the Big City Greens Classic, which combined the NHL Edge location maps with live, real-time volumetric animations of players and teams modeled after characters on the Emmy Award. winning show “Big City Greens.” As the Washington Capitals and New York Rangers played a game at Madison Square Garden, animated players mimicked their moves — under the watchful eye of a chicken in a referee shirt.

Incremental improvements were made last season for the Big City Greens Classic 2, which featured the Boston Bruins playing the Pittsburgh Penguins:

THE NHL EDGE Goal simulation animations are decidedly more low-tech than the Big City Greens Classic, and that’s by design: while there’s inherent entertainment value in watching small circles race across the ice, the goal is more educational and analytical.

“It’s the same underlying data: multiple position points per second that can be translated, whether it’s a virtual broadcast with Disney characters or O’s on a ring plot,” Levine said. “There are many different applications we can imagine in the future.”

The league decided to add “goal simulations” this season as part of a larger overhaul of NHL.com’s game presentations. After the NHL sold its stake in MLB Advanced Media to Disney in 2021, the league eventually began managing its official website in-house. The league wanted to integrate more content into the box scores, including from the tracking data. Levine said it made the most sense to start with an everyday event, like a goal.

“The thought was, ‘What can we add that will immediately improve the fan experience?’ Those six-plus goals per game are the most important pieces of data we have,” he said. “The idea is to give people a clear picture of what’s happening at a target.”

The NHLPA signed off on player tracking years ago. Despite goal simulations occasionally shining a spotlight on players who negatively impact a play, Levine said he has never heard of nor anticipates any pushback from the players.

“I don’t think there is any risk of exposing a problem with player performance in moving points that would not be exposed by television,” he said.

The next evolution for the target simulations is that fans will be able to share the clips on social media.

“That’s something we’re working on. I think the responses we’ve seen on social media from people responding to them on the site indicate that there is interest in it,” Levine said. “It’s a completely different way to look at a goal. Some of these goals can have viral aspects. We’re excited to see what fans will do with them if we can make them fully shareable.”