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Washington Capitals hire analytics company

By Dave Stevenson

Jan 11, 2017; Washington, DC, USA; Washington Capitals head coach Barry Trotz (L) yells from behind the bench against the Pittsburgh Penguins in the third period at Verizon Center. The Capitals won 5-2. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports
Jan 11, 2017; Washington, DC, USA; Washington Capitals head coach Barry Trotz (L) yells from behind the bench against the Pittsburgh Penguins in the third period at Verizon Center. The Capitals won 5-2. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Washington Capitals have hired a hockey analytics company to do statistical analysis for them. 

Washington Capitals majority owner Ted Leonsis has always been an advocate of analytics. He’s a man who made his money around business and embraces analytical data. It should come as no surprise Leonsis’ teams do as well.

The Capitals already employ some data analysts, but they’re taking their game to the next level. They have reportedly hired Hockey Data Inc., a hockey analytics company, to do statistical analysis for them.

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“We’re a data tracking and analysis company,” Garret Hohl, chief technical officer of HockeyData, said, via DailyHive. “Depending on who we’re working with, we can do a lot. We’ll watch games, using our apps, and track events. We can also analyze the data and give suggestions to the team based off of that data.”

Analytics is a growing field in sports. The human brain isn’t built to process and remember every little event in each game. This is where analytics comes in to help ensure proper evaluation of things. Data analysis can help in a variety of ways even past the scraping of data. It can also help predict future success, evaluate performance and optimize your roster.

According to the article, the Capitals are most interested in using analytics to improve AHL performance. Hohl is more commonly known as the creator of Hockey Graphs, a data analysis site. He’s also the former managing editor of Jets Nation of The Nation Network.

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In sports, you have to pursue any and all possible advantages. The best teams tend to be the ones who exploit these advantages most efficiently. This move can only help them moving forward.

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