Using Time on Ice

Vic Ferrari has a great site, timeonice.com, with which you can find all sorts of information. It goes beyond the simple shift charts. While longtime readers of Irrevent Oilers Fans (Ferrari's hockey blog) know what he's made available to us, newbies like me have it a bit tougher.

I know I had no idea what was available to me initially, nor exactly how to use it, so here I've outlined some of the basics of Timeonice so that you don't have the same problems I had. I hope this helps.

First thing is to find the relevant game ID(s). To do this, find the NHL.com or [team].nhl.com recap/preview/boxscore (just something). You'll see that the page url near the end has a ten digit number. The first five digits are the season--2007, 2010, etc--followed by a zero. The game ID is the five following digits.

For example, the first game of this season is ID 20001. Game IDs always start in 2, and the rest is the game number out of the 1230 games played in a full season. (The second game is 20002, third 20003, and so on.) This matches the game order on the NHL.com "schedule" page.

In the playoffs, the game IDs start with a 3, not with a 2. In each series, Game 1 is 3 _ _ _ 1, Game 2 3 _ _ _ 2, etc.

Do note that the scripts don't all work for every season. I've listed which seasons they do work for under each heading. (Note: they have not yet been updated for 2013-14. Don't hold your breath.)

If there's anything I missed, let me know (and tell me how to use it!).

Shift Charts

These charts are a good way to visualize when players were on the ice.

If you're looking for shift charts for the 2012-13 season, just go to timeonice.com and enter the game ID. You'll get a URL that looks like this:

http://timeonice.com/default.html?GameNumber=[game ID]&submit=Go

If you want to look through shift charts from previous seasons, use this:

http://timeonice.com/SC[season].html?GameNumber=[game ID]&submit=Go

For example, the Capitals' opener in 2009-2010 against Boston (Game 20001):

http://timeonice.com/SC0910.html?GameNumber=20001&submit=Go

You can refer as far back as the 0708 season for shift charts.

Zonestart report

This table shows how many even-strength faceoffs each player was on-ice for, and in which zones they were. Do note that in the bold column, a positive number means the player got "tough" zonestarts (more D zone starts than O zone starts), and a negative number indicates "easier" zonestarts.

http://www.timeonice.com/faceoffs[season].php?gamenumber=[number]

For example, the Capitals' 2nd regular season game of 2010-2011, versus New Jersey, ID 20017:

http://www.timeonice.com/faceoffs1011.php?gamenumber=20017

You can access zonestart reports as far back as the 0708 season.

Head to Head Ice Time

Just go here and enter the game ID

http://timeonice.com/H2H[season].html

For the first game of the 2012-13 season, you'll get this URL:

http://timeonice.com/H2H1213.html?GameNumber=20001&submit=Go

You can go back to the 0607 season for H2H TOI charts. The numbers in columns are even strength time-on-ice data.

Corsi and Fenwick Report

Corsi is like plus-minus, but instead of just goals, it uses goals, other shots on goal, missed shots, and shots that end up getting blocked by the other team. (Fenwick is goals, shots on goal, and missed shots.) It's also ES only: a shot on goal by a PKing team will not give a minus-1 Corsi to players on the ice for the power play, for example.

As with the other single-game functionality, just use

http://timeonice.com/shots[season].php?gamenumber=[game ID]

You can only go back to the 0708 season for this report. 

WOWY

WOWY is with-you-without-you, a study in which you look at how one player performed playing with certain players compared to how he performed without those players.

The easiest way to do this is from Hockey Analysis. Go to stats.hockeyanalysis.com, click on "players" and choose the player you want, and then choose the season(s) you want.

If you want to use Timeonice, you can use Ferrari's player scripts for the 0910 season only. (He's outlined them here and here, and the pages are also linked on the right sidebar.)

Here's the basic format:

http://timeonice.com/playershots0910[game state].php?team=[team]&first=[start game ID]&last=[end game ID][player information]&skip=[games to skip]&hv=[location]
  1. Season must be 0910--it's the only season for which this script works.
  2. Game state can be left blank. You can also write "lead", "trail", "tied", or "close". ("Close" is within a goal in the first two periods, or tied in the 3rd or OT).
  3. Player information can take one of a few forms:
    1. If you're looking for information on only one player, use "&shawn=[player number]"
    2. If you're looking for WOWYs for a duo--say, how other players do when both Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom are on the ice--use "&daniel=[first player number]&henrik=[second player number]"
    3. If you're looking for WOWYs for a trio, use the same thing as for a duo, but add "&kesler=[third player number]" at the end.
  4. If you want to skip games, list them here, separated by spaces.
  5. Location can be "0" for all games, "1" for only road games, or "-1" for only home games.
For example:

http://timeonice.com/playershots0910.php?team=WSH&first=20001&last=20100&&daniel=19&henrik=8&kesler=28&skip=20015&hv=-1

is how various Capitals did when on the ice with all three of Backstrom (#19), Ovechkin (#8), and Semin (#28) in the first few home games of the 0910 season, excluding Game 20015 (Toronto at Washington).

Corsi list

To quickly get a list of every player's Corsi on the season, use

http://timeonice.com/mplayershots[season][game state].php?team=[team]&first=20001&last=21230&hv=0 (or 1 for away games, or -1 for home games)

You can use mplayershots for 0708 and beyond. However, for the 1213 season, it will only work if you use "close" for the game state. For 1011 and 1112, you can only use tied or close (or leave "game state" blank).

As far as I know, it does not work for playoff games.

Zone starts and finishes (multiple games)

For zonestart over several games, use this:

http://timeonice.com/teamfaceoffs[season].php?team=[team]&first=[first game]&last=[last game]

For example, here's the full-season zonestart numbers for the Edmonton Oilers in 2008-2009:

http://timeonice.com/teamfaceoffs0809.php?team=EDM&first=20001&last=21230

Here's the breakdown for the Caps before and after Thanksgiving (when Boudreau coached his first Caps game)

http://timeonice.com/teamfaceoffs0708.php?team=WSH&first=20001&last=20136
http://timeonice.com/teamfaceoffs0708.php?team=WSH&first=20316&last=21230

Add an "x" between "team" and "faceoffs" to get zone finish.

Both teamfaceoffs and teamxfaceoffs work for every season since 0708.

Scoring Chances

For 2010-2011, Start here:

http://timeonice.com/xsc20.php

For 2011-2012, here

http://timeonice.com/xsc30.php

Just follow the instructions and you'll get a nice chart outlining the times of scoring chances and how the players on your chosen team performed with regards to scoring chances. You'll have to record scoring chances on your own, though (I suggest using a notebook, and during intermissions fill in the timeonice page).

Once you're done, you'll have a nice page, but the url can exceed 4000 characters. I highly suggest using bit.ly, tinyurl, or another url-shortening tool that provides a permanent link to your chart and saving it somewhere. Preferably, you save the page as an HTML and then allow others to access it off the internet, but I don't know how to do that yet.