🚨 Hockey Game Bot

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The Hockey Game Bot is a Python application that leverages the NHL API and other hockey related statistics sites to send (near) real-time messages to social media platforms. The game bot allows fans of NHL teams to view the events & stats of a game all in one convenient place.

The game bot currently supports 3 social media platforms – Twitter, Discord & Slack. If you would like to add your own, feel free to submit your code via a Pull Request.

Game Bot Messages / Events

The messages are broken down into four sections for each part of a game day (and one extra section of the day after a game day). I am currently adding more events and features as they are requested or they are found to be useful in the context of following the game via social media. This list will be kept up to date as more types of messages and / or customizations to these are added.

Each message is linked to a sample tweet from the NJ Devils game bot Twitter account.

Pre-Game Messages

• Morning Gameday Image (w/ time, broadcast channel & hashtag)
• Season Series (w/ Points Leaders & TOI Leaders)
  • This becomes last season series if this is the first meeting.
• Confirmed goalie for each team (with season & career stats).
• Confirmed lines for each team (with lineup change checks)
  • If the lineup / lines for a game change, an updated message will be sent.
• Referees and Linesman
• Preferred team starters (~5 minutes before game time)

Live Game Messages

• Start of Period
  • Players on-ice to start the period
  • Actual start of period (puck drop)
  • Period’s opening faceoff winner and loser
• Penalties & Power Plays
  • Team stats & NHL rank
  • Strength Status (PP, PK, etc)
  • Coming Soon: End of penalty detection
• Goals
  • Near real time goal alerts (includes season totals and goal distance)
  • First Goal & Career Milestone Alerts (every 100 goals, points or assists)
  • Scoring & Assist Changes
  • NHL Linked Highlights
• Shots that hit the cross-bar or post
• Notification of 1-minute remaining per period
• Intermission Reports
  • Stat Charts w/ Scoring Summary
  • Stat Leaders for Box Score Categories
  • Team Overview Stat Splits
  • Individual, on-ice, forward lines & defensive pair charts

End of Game Messages

• Final game report including next game, basic stats and scoring summary
• Three Stars
• Advanced Stats Charts (via Natural Stat Trick)
  • Team Overview stat percentage splits
  • Individual, on-ice, forward lines & defensive pair stats for both teams
• Game Score charts for both teams (via Hockey Stat Cards)

Day After Game Messages

On the day after a game, the game bot will generate two charts that provide context to how the team is performing for the entire season and in their last 10 games compared to the league average. The chart includes the following categories –

• Team Point Percentage
• Expected Goals & Actual Goals
• Shooting Percentage & Save Percentage
• High Danger Shooting Percentage & Save Percentage
• PDO (SPSV% – the sum of a team’s shooting percentage and its save percentage)

Now What?

Want to run your own game bot? Check out the Github Repository for more detailed information on Getting Started. Feel free to reach out to me on Twitter for any help!

Currently Operating Game Bots

As of January 2020 there is currently game bot coverage for 9 of 31 teams. The table below contains information about the accounts, their respective owners and any notes. More than one person can run one for the same team without issue, but there will be overlap in the Twitter feed.

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to all who have helped test along the way and provide data and stats to help improve the game bot and allow it to be a one-stop shop for most in-game events.

• Natural Stat Trick – http://www.naturalstattrick.com/
• Hockey Stat Cards – https://www.hockeystatcards.com/
• Daily Faceoff – https://www.dailyfaceoff.com/
• Hockey Reference – https://www.hockey-reference.com/
• Scouting the Refs – https://scoutingtherefs.com/
• An up to date list of all NHL API endpoints.