The Little Things Matter

The image to the left is of the UBC Thunderbirds after winning their third consecutive Canada West title. There's a lot of things that go into winning at the Canada West level, and UBC seemingly has a hold on knowing how to win. Frankly, there's every reason to believe they'll make it a four-peat this year as they have skilled players, some unfinished business at Nationals, and a knack for winning big games. When we talk about that "knack", though, we might not be giving their most important team enough credit. It's time to talk about UBC's analytics team because they may have the deepest roster when it comes to advanced stats.

UBC has shown they're human with the rare losses posted at Nationals, but most games at the final tournament of the year are toss-ups when the best play the best from across the nation. Over the last three seasons, though, the Thunderbirds have dominated Canada West play, posting a 56-9-6-5 record over those 76 regular-season games. Putting a points percentage of .811 is no small feat considering the talent in Canada West, so what separates the Thunderbirds from the other eight teams?

Well, it could be the 20+ volunteers they have doing analytics.

Whether you love them or hate them when mentioned on broadcasts, advanced stats are now part of the conversation for every hockey team that plays at some high level. You can dislike them for every reason under the sun, but hockey teams are using them more and more to find competitive advantages at every point in the game. NHL teams pay big money for data scientists who can find those advantages by studying over numbers and situations, but university teams don't have those kinds of budgets for statistics.

There are math and statistics departments at every university that have kids attending classes who are looking for an opportunity to show their skills. I don't know if UBC has some sort of agreement with their math department to have students attend games and track stats for credit, but it would be a very easy win to give credit for applying statistical formulae learned in class to hockey statistics. Of course, this would require the athletics department and the math department working together, and I know from my own experiences with university hockey that very few departments want to work together when it comes to giving credit hours to students.

Whatever the case may be, it would seem that UBC women's hockey has figured out the system as they now have more than twenty volunteers tracking stats, looking for advantages, and building databases of information about their team and their opponents. If they have this large collection of data from which they can reference, finding weaknesses in their opponents' games while maximizing their strengths becomes that much easier.

The weirdest part in finding out about UBC's extensive analytics team is that one program had an opportunity to build their own program 6-7 years ago after a former NHL data scientist offered to share wisdom and the NHL system with the team. At the time, the cost to acquire said wisdom and system was astronomically low considering the potential return, yet the program decided against it, stating that "no one would ever want to do analytics for fun". That last might have been true, but how about if they did it for credit?

With the 2024-25 season approaching, it would appear that one team will have more than enough data on itself and its opponents to take a run at a fourth-straight Canada West banner. While the personnel has changed from year to year, the fact that UBC continues to win games shouldn't surprise anyone as they have the deepest roster of analysts. No one is going to credit the analytics department entirely for UBC's success, but it seems pretty clear that they keep finding ways to beat their opponents even when things seem pretty even.

Every advantage gives them a chance to win, and UBC has more than enough people searching for those advantages in every game. No one else will jum in and say it so let me be the first to say it: well done, UBC, on building an elite advanced stats team!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!