Impact Performance Sports Platform

Impact Performance is a data analytics platform built to measure the moments in hockey that matter most. Traditional statistics focus on totals—goals, assists, points—but they overlook the context of when those moments occur. Impact Performance fills that gap by weighting production based on game state and providing tools to break down player performance across situations, matchups, and time. 

Hockey fans, analysts, and bettors all face the same challenge: traditional box score stats do not capture the full story of player impact. A goal scored in a tie game with five minutes remaining has a completely different weight than the sixth goal in a blowout.

Key Issues Identified:

• Standard metrics ignore the context or pressure of the game moment

• Existing advanced models are either paywalled or unclear to everyday fans

• Insights are fragmented across multiple sources, requiring users to cross-reference platforms manually

To build a public-facing, intuitive analytics platform that surfaces context-driven performance insights, enabling:

• Fans to learn and understand more about the game

• Analysts to detect patterns and evaluate situational performance

• Bettors to access matchup-relevant information

The first phase focused on identifying how game state affects the value of scoring events. By reviewing historical scoring impact and game outcomes, a model was developed to weight points according to:

• Score differential at the time of the event

• Point type (goal, primary assist, or secondary assist)

• Team strength (even strength, power play, shorthanded, or empty net)

The result is the Impact Score: a metric that reflects when players deliver when it matters.

Game State Context

The platform introduced visual breakdowns that separate production by game state (tied, trailing, leading). This revealed trends in player performance that raw totals could not.

The model evolved to allow users to toggle between point types (goals/primary assists/secondary assists) and scoring situations (even strength, power play, shorthanded, empty net). This provided a more complete understanding of how players create value.

A major addition enabled filtering player performance by opponent. This surfaced meaningful patterns, rivalry performance, and situational advantages.

Example Case: Matthew Knies vs. Tampa Bay Lightning

Knies has produced significantly above his baseline when facing Tampa Bay, particularly in high-leverage game situations. This suggests psychological, competitive, or stylistic factors that standard stats cannot reveal.

Opponent filtering makes these patterns visible and actionable.

Impact Performance combines real-time data ingestion, a context-based scoring model, and a responsive interface designed for clarity.

• Data Pipeline: Stats, play-by-play sequences, player info, and team branding are pulled directly from the NHL API to ensure accuracy and up-to-date visuals.

• Scoring Model: Each goal or assist is evaluated against game state and other situational factors to generate an Impact Score that reflects when production matters.

• Front-End & Interaction Design: Built with JavaScript and CSS to surface insights through intuitive charts and filters.

• Infrastructure: Python and Flask power the back end, handling data processing, caching, and efficient distribution to the UI.

This unified approach ensures accuracy, usability, and meaningful depth in the insights the platform provides.

• Fan Engagement: Makes advanced analytics accessible and meaningful

• Sports Media: Supports storytelling and analysis with contextual data

• Player Evaluation: Helps teams and analysts evaluate performance under pressure

• Betting Insights: Highlights matchup reliability and scoring tendencies

• Expand into additional forms of contextual evaluation (transition play, defensive disruption, possession impact)

• Introduce game-level dashboards and matchup forecasting

• Explore application to additional sports

Impact Performance bridges the gap between analytics and the lived experience of the game. By capturing context, it highlights the moments that shape outcomes and surfaces insights that matter to fans, analysts, and bettors alike.