Playing Fast Not Loose: Evaluating team-level pace of play in ice hockey\n using spatio-temporal possession data

Pace of play is an important characteristic in hockey as well as other team\nsports. We provide the first comprehensive study of pace within the sport of\nhockey, focusing on how teams and players impact pace in different regions of\nthe ice, and the resultant effect on other aspects of the game.\n First we examined how pace of play varies across the surface of the rink,\nacross different periods, at different manpower situations, between different\nprofessional leagues, and through time between seasons. Our analysis of pace by\nzone helps to explain some of the counter-intuitive results reported in prior\nstudies. For instance, we show that the negative correlation between attacking\nspeed and shots/goals is likely due to a large decline in attacking speed in\nthe OZ.\n We also studied how pace impacts the outcomes of various events. We found\nthat pace is positively-correlated with both high-danger zone entries (e.g.\nodd-man rushes) and higher shot quality. However, we find that passes with\nfailed receptions occur at higher speeds than successful receptions. These\nfindings suggest that increased pace is beneficial, but perhaps only up to a\ncertain extent. Higher pace can create breakdowns in defensive structure and\nlead to better scoring chances but can also lead to more turnovers.\n Finally, we analyzed team and player-level pace in the NHL, highlighting the\nconsiderable variability in how teams and players attack and defend against\npace. Taken together, our results demonstrate that measures of team-level pace\nderived from spatio-temporal data are informative metrics in hockey and should\nprove useful in other team sports.\n