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In an overtime game against the Philadelphia Flyers recently, Edmonton Oilers star Connor McDavid flew into the zone on a breakaway, shot the puck off the post, recovered it and passed over to a streaking Leon Draisaitl for the winning goal.

Fans could watch a video clip of that goal, but the NHL’s official website offers a different way to process the play: a “goal simulation” animation.

McDavid is a small dark circle with 97 on it, being defended by orange circles with corresponding jersey numbers to the Flyers. The puck is a black speck. One can track Draisaitl’s journey from his own zone to the winning goal — and Travis Sanheim‘s inability to catch up to him — including what happened outside the frame of the television cameras.

Finally, in the cheekiest part of the simulation, a series of quickly multiplying Oilers “dots” appear on the ice, as Edmonton players hop over the boards to celebrate the win and mob Draisaitl.

“People kind of discovered it organically,” said Russ Levine, group vice president of statistics & information for the NHL. “They’re finding unique things or little viral moments, and that has been rewarding. That’s what we hoped fans would discover.”

The “goal simulations” are created through the NHL’s puck- and player-tracking technology, which collects data and tracks the movements of every player on the ice and the puck itself.

“We think it allows you to see a play in a different way. You can see the spacing, player positioning, gaps or lack thereof in a way that’s very stark and different from a broadcast view because it’s two dimensional and straight over the top,” Levine said. “We think it’s a really unique, quick way to review a play and see it in a different light.”


HOCKEY IS A SPORT of constant motion. Levine said this presentation of scoring plays allows fans to see how every part of that offensive chance develops.

“I think we’re always searching for things that will help fans better understand what’s happening on the ice,” he said. “Puck and player tracking is a way to take this very chaotic game — with live substitutions, players hopping on and off the ice and the best players playing a third of the game — and finding new ways to quantify performance or evaluate what happens on a play.”

But the goal simulations also have an old-school charm. Seeing plays develop into digitized shots and passes conjures memories of early hockey video games, too.

“The nostalgia for that era of video games seems to be never-ending,” Levine said. “And I do think you’re right: It’s simple, and it looks kind of like those early games.”

The NHL first started developing puck- and player-tracking technology in 2013, using several different variations of infrared and optical tracking systems. In 2019, the NHL and NHLPA announced that players would wear sensors inside their uniforms that, when combined with a chip located inside the puck, would capture real-time data ranging from speed to distance to mapping locations on the ice. There’s also an optical tracking component that validates that data “within a few milliseconds,” according to the league, which renamed its tracking technology NHL Edge.

Over the years, the league has learned how to handle some of the challenges to ensuring NHL Edge’s accuracy. Sometimes arenas move things around to obscure the sightlines of the cameras, which is part of the league’s game-night checklist for system calibration. Sometimes a chip goes out or gets knocked out of a player’s gear, so the league works with equipment managers to ensure they’re on the case.

“There’s some technical challenges, maintenance, and then there’s just some real life events that happen in games where things have to be corrected in a hurry to make sure we’re accurately capturing everything,” Levine explained.

Once captured, one of the uses for that data was through the SAP NHL Coaching Insights App, available to coaches and players on the bench during games via tablets. Levine said that’s where the goal simulations first showed up in 2022, as a way for teams to clip and analyze how plays developed. Known as “Virtual Replay” on the app, where full games are available, the NHL says its coaches have responded positively to it.

“They’ve appreciated the amount of tactical focus the view provides, along with the ability to see an accurate portrayal of width and depth on the playing surface that the traditional red line camera can skew,” said Brant Berglund, senior director of coaching and GM applications for the NHL. “They’ve also used it in video rooms and on the bench for various play reviews and coaching purposes.”

But the league believed that NHL Edge data could also be used to entertain and educate fans. It started working with a company called Beyond Sports to develop real-time digital recreations of NHL games in virtual reality and platforms such as Roblox.

Things took a giant leap forward in 2023 when the NHL and Disney worked together to create the Big City Greens Classic, which combined the NHL Edge location mapping with live, real-time volumetric animations of players and teams modeled after characters on the Emmy Award-winning show “Big City Greens.” As the Washington Capitals and New York Rangers played a game at Madison Square Garden, animated players mimicked their movements — under the watchful eye of a chicken in a referee shirt.

Incremental improvements were made last season for the Big City Greens Classic 2, with the Boston Bruins playing against the Pittsburgh Penguins:


THE NHL EDGE goal simulation animations are decidedly more low tech than the Big City Greens Classic, and that’s by design: While there’s inherent entertainment value in watching little circles race around the ice, the goal is more educational and analytical.

“It’s the same underlying data: multiple position points per second that can be translated, whether it’s in a virtual broadcast featuring Disney characters or O’s on a ring plot,” Levine said. “There’s a lot of different uses for it that we can imagine in the future.”

The league decided to add “goal simulations” this season as part of a larger overhaul of NHL.com’s game presentations. After the NHL sold its stake in MLB Advanced Media to Disney in 2021, the league eventually began running its official website in-house. The league wanted to integrate more content into its box scores, including from its tracking data. Levine said starting with a commonplace event, like a goal, made the most sense.

“The thought was, ‘What can we add that will immediately sort of benefit the fan experience?’ Those six-plus goal events a game are the most important bits of data we have,” he said. “The idea is to just show people a clear view of what’s happening on a goal.”

The NHLPA signed off on player tracking years ago. Despite goal simulations occasionally putting the spotlight on players who negatively impact a play, Levine said he hasn’t heard of any pushback from the players, and doesn’t anticipate any.

“I don’t think there’s any risk of an exposure of a player-performance issue in moving dots that wouldn’t be exposed by television,” he said.

The next evolution for the goal simulations is to allow fans to share the clips on social media.

“That’s something we’re working on. I think the response we’ve seen on social from people reacting to them on the site indicates there is an interest in it,” Levine said. “It’s kind of a different way to look at a goal. There can be sort of viral aspects of some of these goals. We’re excited to see what fans will do with it when we’re able to make them completely shareable.”

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‘Reason he’s here’: Crochet delivers for Red Sox

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'Reason he's here': Crochet delivers for Red Sox

BALTIMORE — Garrett Crochet gave the Boston Red Sox an immediate return on their investment.

In his first start since agreeing to a $170 million, six-year contract, the left-hander pitched a career-best eight innings as the Red Sox shut out the Baltimore Orioles 3-0 on Wednesday night. Crochet also threw 102 pitches, one shy of his career high.

“My first start in college I went eight, and I haven’t sniffed it since,” Crochet said.

Crochet (1-0) gave up four hits and a walk while striking out eight in his first victory since the offseason trade that sent him from the Chicago White Sox to Boston.

“That’s the reason he’s here,” manager Alex Cora said after the game. “That’s the reason we committed to him.”

Crochet went 6-12 with a 3.58 ERA last season, a bright spot on a Chicago team that lost 121 games. He threw 146 innings, which was double his previous career total since his debut in 2020.

Then Crochet was dealt to the Red Sox, and they made their long-term commitment to the 25-year-old earlier this week.

“Going back to when the trade went through, we knew Boston was a place where we would love to be long term,” Crochet said. “Credit to the front office for staying diligent, and my agency as well.”

Now the question is less about where he’ll pitch and more about how well. He’s off to a nice start in that regard.

“I can’t think of the last time I played baseball for pride. In college, you’re playing to get drafted, and once you’re in the big leagues, you’re playing to stay in the big leagues,” Crochet said. “So to have this security and feel like I’m playing to truly just win ballgames, it takes a lot of the riff-raff out of it.”

The news all around was good for Boston on Wednesday.

It reached a $60 million, eight-year deal with young infielder Kristian Campbell, and he went out and doubled twice against the Orioles.

And Rafael Devers ended a 21-at-bat hitless streak to start the season with an RBI double in the fifth inning. He finished with two hits and no strikeouts.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

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Ohtani’s walk-off pushes Dodgers to historic 8-0

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Ohtani's walk-off pushes Dodgers to historic 8-0

LOS ANGELES — Aside from his ability to pitch and hit and stretch the boundaries of imagination, Shohei Ohtani has displayed another singular trait in his time in the major leagues: an ability to meet the moment. Or, perhaps, for the moment to meet him.

And so on Wednesday night, with his Los Angeles Dodgers looking to stay unbeaten, the score tied in the bottom of the ninth, and more than 50,000 fans standing and clenching the Ohtani bobbleheads they lined up hours in advance for, Ohtani approached the batter’s box — and his teammates expected greatness.

“He’s going to end this right here,” Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy said he thought to himself.

“We knew,” starting pitcher Blake Snell said. “It’s just what he does.”

Validation came instantly. Ohtani stayed back on a first-pitch changeup from Raisel Iglesias near the outside corner and shot it toward straightaway center field, 399 feet away, for a walk-off home run, sending the Dodgers to a 6-5, come-from-behind victory over the reeling Atlanta Braves.

“I don’t think anybody didn’t expect him to hit a walk-off home run there,” Dodgers utility man Tommy Edman said. “It’s just a question of where he’d hit it.”

The Dodgers are now 8-0, topping the 1933 New York Yankees of Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth for the longest winning streak to begin a season for a reigning champion. The Braves, meanwhile, are 0-7, the type of record no team has ever recovered from to make the playoffs. And Ohtani, with three home runs and a 1.126 OPS this season, just keeps meeting moments.

“He’s pretty good, huh?” Dodgers outfielder Teoscar Hernandez said. “It’s Shohei. He’s going to do that. He’s going to do things better than that.”

On Aug. 23 last year, Ohtani reached the 40/40 club with a walk-off grand slam. Five days later, the Dodgers staged a second giveaway of his bobblehead — one that saw his now-famous dog, Decoy, handle the ceremonial first pitch — and Ohtani led off with a home run. On Sept. 19, Ohtani clinched his first postseason berth and ascended into the unprecedented 50/50 club with one of the greatest single-game performances in baseball history — six hits, three homers, two steals and 10 RBIs. Barely two weeks later, he homered in his first playoff game.

When Ohtani came up on Wednesday, he had what he described as a simple approach.

“I was looking for a really good pitch to hit,” Ohtani said through an interpreter. “If I didn’t get a good pitch to hit, I was willing to walk.”

Of course, though, he got a good pitch.

And, of course, he sent it out.

“You just feel that he’s going to do something special,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “And I just like the way he’s not pressing. He’s in the strike zone, and when he does that, there’s just no one better.”

The Dodgers began their much-anticipated season with a couple of breezy wins over the Chicago Cubs from Japan, even though Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman did not play in them. They returned home, brought iconic rapper Ice Cube out to present the World Series trophy on one afternoon, received their rings on another and swept a three-game series against the Detroit Tigers. Then came the Braves, and the Dodgers swept them, too — even though Freeman, nursing an ankle injury caused from slipping in the shower, didn’t participate.

The Dodgers already have two walk-offs and six comeback wins this season.

Wednesday’s effort left Roberts “a little dumbfounded.”

A nightmarish start defensively, highlighted by two errant throws from Muncy, spoiled Snell’s start and put them behind 5-0 after the first inning and a half. But the Dodgers kept inching closer. They trailed by just two in the eighth and put runners on second and third with two out. Muncy came to bat with his batting average at just .083. He had used the ballyhooed “Torpedo” bat for his first three plate appearances, didn’t like how it altered his swing plane, grabbed his usual bat for a showdown against Iglesias and laced a game-tying double into the right-center-field gap.

An inning later, Ohtani ended it.

“Overall, not just tonight, there is a really good vibe within the team,” Ohtani said after recording his fourth career walk-off hit. “I just think that’s allowing us to come back in these games to win.”

The Dodgers’ 8-0 start has allowed them to stay just ahead of the 7-0 San Diego Padres and the 5-1 San Francisco Giants in the National League West. Tack on the Arizona Diamondbacks (4-2) and the Colorado Rockies (1-4), and this marks the first time in the divisional era that an entire division has combined for at least 25 wins and no more than seven losses, according to ESPN Research. The Dodgers’ and Padres’ starts mark just the fifth season in major league history with multiple teams starting 7-0 or better, and the first time since 2003.

The Dodgers famously overcame a 2-1 series deficit to vanquish the Padres in the NL Division Series last year, then rode that fight to their first full-season championship since 1988.

That fight hasn’t let up.

“It feels like this clubhouse is carrying a little bit of the attitude we had last year that we’re never out of a game and we’re resilient, and we’ve been carrying it into this season,” Muncy said. “It’s been fun to watch. The guys don’t give up. Bad things have happened, and no one’s really been down or out on themselves. Everyone’s just, ‘All right, here we go, next inning, let’s get after it.’ The whole team, top to bottom, has been doing that. It’s been making it really, really fun to play.”

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Death of Gardner’s son pinned to carbon monoxide

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Death of Gardner's son pinned to carbon monoxide

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica — Carbon monoxide poisoning was the cause of death of the teenage son of former New York Yankees outfielder Brett Gardner, authorities in Costa Rica said Wednesday night.

Randall Zúñiga, director of the Judicial Investigation Agency, said 14-year-old Miller Gardner was tested for carboxyhemoglobin, a compound generated when carbon monoxide binds to hemoglobin in the blood.

When carboxyhemoglobin saturation exceeds 50%, it is considered lethal. In Gardner’s case, the test showed a saturation of 64%.

“It’s important to note that adjacent to this room is a dedicated machine room, where it’s believed there may be some type of contamination toward these rooms,” Zúñiga said.

The head of the Costa Rican judicial police added that, during the autopsy, a “layer” was detected on the boy’s organs, which forms when there is a high presence of the poisonous gas.

Gardner died March 21 while staying with his family at a hotel on the Manuel Antonio beach in Costa Rica’s Central Pacific.

Asphyxiation was initially thought to have caused his death. After an autopsy was performed by the Forensic Pathology Section, that theory was ruled out.

Another line of investigation centered around whether the family had suffered food poisoning. Family members had reported feeling ill after dining at a nearby restaurant on the night of March 20 and received treatment from the hotel doctor.

Brett Gardner, 41, was drafted by the Yankees in 2005 and spent his entire major league career with the organization. The speedy outfielder batted .256 with 139 homers, 578 RBIs, 274 steals and 73 triples in 14 seasons from 2008 to 2021.

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