Puck and player tracking gets TV test at All-Star Weekend

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Puck and player tracking gets TV test at All-Star Weekend

2019-01-23 15:34 Last Updated At：15:40

Twenty-three years after Fox's glowing puck made its debut, the NHL's next big technological advancement will be on display this weekend during All-Star festivities.

NBC will showcase puck and player tracking as part of its broadcast of the skills competition Friday night and then as the centerpiece of a digital-only broadcast of the All-Star 3-on-3 tournament Saturday night. It'll be the first chance for American hockey fans to get an up-close look at the system that could be in place as soon as next season.

With each player and puck fitted with a microchip, the amount of available information could be overwhelming. Look for everything from NASCAR-like bubbles over players' heads to skating and shot speed to ice time and even a small trail behind the puck as NBC takes tracking technology in hockey for a test drive.

"Eventually it'll go to possession time and more advanced (data), but right now it's mainly focused on speed, shift time, distance traveled, mph on the shot and virtually connecting players on a goal," NBC Sports producer Steve Greenberg said. "We're scratching the surface here, and what we're able to display this weekend is not what we're going to be able to display next year and in the future, but it's going to be able to be a really good first look at what these chips are going to be able to give us."

The NHL privately tested puck and player tracking in two regular-season games in Las Vegas earlier this month, but this will be the first time the data is available for public consumption. While other types of tracking technology were tested at previous All-Star Games and the 2016 World Cup of Hockey, this is something of a dry run for the radio frequency system the NHL has been working with developers to perfect.

Much like the glowing puck was criticized by purists, there's the danger of overloading fans with too much, too fast. So this is as big a test for NBC as anyone to experiment with how much puck and player tracking data can and should fit onto a TV broadcast.

"It's a balancing act," NBC Sports executive producer Sam Flood said. "Think about years ago when the yellow line came in for the first down in football. It's now universal. There are going to be elements that'll become universal in hockey telecasts based on what we learn over the next period of time."

Kenny Albert, who will call the puck and player tracking-heavy telecast available on NBC Sports' app and online, likens this to the kind of ball-tracking technology that has become ubiquitous in golf coverage. He was with Fox in the 1990s when the glowing puck was perhaps ahead of its time but thinks fans are ready for puck and player tracking on TV.

"We live in an age of information overload and people want stuff like ice time and the mph on a shot for example or how fast a player's skating," Albert said. "I have two teenage daughters and I don't think anybody in that generation now just sits there and watches TV. They want information, whether it's looking at their phone, their iPad, their computer, and there's so much information out there."

Eventually, once the NHL implements player and puck tracking, fans will be able to take a deep dive into all the numbers and there will be an element of real-time sports gambling. But Commissioner Gary Bettman and other league executives have pointed out that the first goal was always to make it TV-ready.

Puck and player tracking is ready for its close-up this weekend with a focus on showing how fast hockey is.

"The most obvious thing that (viewers will) probably notice is just sort of the correlations tied to speed," NHL senior vice president of business development David Lehanski said. "It's kind of the thing everybody talks about: how fast the game is, how fast the players are, how fast the puck moves."

KARLSSON CONUNDRUM

Sharks defenseman Erik Karlsson missed the final three games before the break with a lower-body injury, but there's somehow still a chance he takes part in All-Star Weekend in San Jose. Obviously, coach Peter DeBoer said, the organization would love to have Karlsson on the ice in its home arena, but not at the risk of making it worse.

"If there's more damage to be done, no one in their right mind would play," DeBoer said. "So I think it's pretty simple."

Karlsson returned to California for tests, and defenseman Brenden Dillon said it's a positive for the team to play it safe with the two-time Norris Trophy winner. Karlsson has fit in well with San Jose after an offseason trade from San Jose and gives the Sharks the look of a Stanley Cup contender with the deepest blue line in the league.

"He's an unbelievable talent and a guy that's fit in our locker room great too," Dillon said. "It's something where collectively as a group we realized that it was going to be a little bit less whether that's in minutes or situations ... I think for everybody it's kind of been a little bit less is more and understanding the kind of common goal. So far, so good."

GAME OF THE WEEK

The Buffalo Sabres get an early test in the second half of the season when they visit the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday in each team's first game after the All-Star break.

LEADERS (THROUGH MONDAY)

Goals: Alex Ovechkin (Washington), 33; Assists: Nikita Kucherov (Tampa Bay), 56; Points: Kucherov, 78; Ice Time: Drew Doughty (Los Angeles), 26:41; Wins: Marc-Andre Fleury (Vegas), 27; Goals-Against Average: Robin Lehner (N.Y. Islanders), 2.02; Save Percentage: Jack Campbell (Los Angeles), .931.

Follow AP Hockey Writer Stephen Whyno on Twitter at https://twitter.com/SWhyno

More AP NHL: https://apnews.com/NHL and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

Rodgers and Steelers win AFC North, beating Ravens 26-24 after Loop misses kick at buzzer

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Aaron Rodgers threw a go-ahead touchdown pass to Calvin Austin III with 55 seconds left, and the Steelers beat the Ravens 26-24 on Sunday night when Baltimore's Tyler Loop missed a 44-yard field goal as time expired, giving Pittsburgh the AFC North title.

Pittsburgh (10-7) will host Houston (12-5) in the opening round of the playoffs on Monday, Jan. 12, following an electric fourth quarter that saw four lead changes, including three in the final four minutes.

The Ravens were poised to swing the lead back their way one last time after Lamar Jackson connected with Isaiah Likely for a 28-yard gain that put the Ravens within Loop's range.

The rookie's kick never had a chance, sailing well to the right of the goalposts as the Steelers poured onto the field to celebrate their first division title in five years.

Rodgers passed for a season-high 294 yards and his 26-yard toss to Austin made it 26-24. Chris Boswell missed the extra point, giving the Ravens a chance to win with a field goal.

Jackson, dealing with a painful back contusion, passed for 238 yards and three scores, including a pair to Zay Flowers in the fourth quarter. Each of Flowers' TDs — from 50 and 64 yards — put Baltimore in front.

Pittsburgh responded each time, and will now welcome the Texans while looking to end a playoff victory drought that stretches to the 2016 AFC championship game.

Pittsburgh’s running back duo of Kenneth Gainwell and Jaylen Warren combined for 173 total yards as the Steelers bounced back from a loss last week in Cleveland and ended a wildly uneven season for Jackson and the Ravens.

The Steelers trailed by 10 early, and a repeat of the bludgeoning they took at the hands of Baltimore in the first round of the playoffs last season seemed possible.

The defense, pushed around repeatedly by Derrick Henry since he joined the Ravens last season, finally responded and the offense — playing without suspended wide receiver DK Metcalf — slowly found its footing.

Henry ran for 126 yards for the Ravens and became the ninth player in NFL history to reach 13,000 career yards rushing but was held mostly in check during a second half that morphed into an improbable shootout.

Jackson's first touchdown pass to Flowers was a thing of beauty. The two-time MVP ducked out of the reach of two would-be tacklers before floating a pass to a streaking Flowers to put the Ravens up 17-13.

Gainwell sprinted in from 2 yards out with 3:49 remaining to put Pittsburgh back in front. The Ravens, looking to become the first team since the creation of the AFC North in 2003 to win the division three consecutive years, needed all of three plays to reclaim the lead when Jackson lofted a pass to a wide-open Flowers for a 64-yard score.

Rodgers, in what may be the final stretch of his 21-year career, responded by taking the Steelers 65 yards in six plays, the last a rainbow down the left sideline to Austin, who was alone after a Ravens defender fell down.

Boswell then missed his first extra point of the season after 40 straight makes, opening the door for the Ravens. Baltimore appeared poised to end its longtime rival's season for the second time in 12 months before Loop's kick started right and stayed there.

The win was the 193rd regular-season victory of Steelers coach Mike Tomlin's career, tying him with Hall of Famer Chuck Noll for the franchise record and for ninth on the NFL's career list.

The 40th meeting between Tomlin and Ravens coach John Harbaugh — only Hall of Famers George Halas and Curly Lambeau faced each other more — was among the most memorable.

Whether it's also the last remains to be seen. Harbaugh faces questions about his future after a rocky 18th season.

Tomlin, the longest-tenured head coach in major North American professional sports, heads into the postseason with a club that has only occasionally looked like a contender.

The real test awaits next week.

Ravens: S Kyle Hamilton left with a concussion in the third quarter after colliding with S Alohi Gilman. Rodgers and Pittsburgh's passing game took off in the three-time Pro Bowler's absence.

Steelers: LB TJ Watt returned from a three-game absence while recovering from surgery to repair a collapsed lung. He picked off a pass by Jackson in the third quarter, setting up Boswell's field goal that gave the Steelers their first lead.

Ravens: Face a long offseason after a bitter end to a season that began with Super Bowl aspirations.

Steelers: Prepare to host the Texans with a chance to end the franchise's longest playoff win drought since Franco Harris' Immaculate Reception more than 50 years ago.

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl