Emil Ingemar Karlsson · The Hockey Analytics
Data craft and the game — not one without the other.
I build hockey intelligence systems: NHL and SHL analysis, sports data pipelines, and the publishing platform at thehockeyanalytics.com. The edge is pairing platform engineering with hockey-specific judgment — so insights stay reproducible, current, and worth acting on.
The edge
Pure data engineers often miss tactical context. Pure hockey people often lack durable pipelines. I sit in the overlap: data platforms that survive production and analysis grounded in how hockey actually works — from NHL tracking questions to Swedish league and player paths.
Pipelines you can rerun. Models you can audit. Dashboards tied to sources — not screenshots of someone else's API.
League structures, roster rules, special teams, and Swedish player paths — the domain knowledge that keeps analysis honest.
From raw feeds to readable reports on thehockeyanalytics.com — automated where it should be, reviewed where it matters.
Live platform
A dedicated hockey analytics and sports intelligence site — sibling brand to The Unnamed Roads. Built with Astro, wired into automated content and reporting pipelines documented in the Hockey Analytics case study.
See the pattern
Advanced hockey analysis, told the Gapminder way: start with the question, show how to read the chart, then the one insight that flips intuition. Full methods live in each linked piece.
The question
Insight. Across 30 Stanley Cup seasons, a 12-metric “Championship DNA” index lined up with winners about 89% of the time in backtesting — far above media consensus picks.
The Stanley Cup patternThe question
Insight. In a study of 50,000+ NHL penalty calls, visiting teams drew about 23% more penalties in the final five minutes when the home team trailed by one.
Referee bias under pressureThe question
Insight. Computer-vision work on 25,000+ goals found four scoring archetypes; taller players using a stick near 80% of height scored substantially more snap-shot goals in the modeled sample.
The scoring map (equipment × body)The question
Insight. LINHAC 2026’s through-line: analytics is becoming core infrastructure. Clubs that own data, models, and process outpace those stuck buying another dashboard.
LINHAC 2026 — from edge to infrastructureThe question
Insight. Across 1,303 timeouts in 1,854 SHL games (2020/21–2024/25), Färjestad used it in 47.3% of games while Växjö used it in 22.9%. HV71 led on rate at 50.2%. Same league, same one-timeout rule — very different club ledgers.
SHL timeouts by clubThe question
Insight. In 52 SHL team-seasons (2021/22–2024/25), returning-core share correlated with points% (r = 0.32); mean age did not (r = −0.05). Coaching changes barely moved Δ pts%. The club’s level mostly stays.
SHL cores beat coachesFrom this site
Writing on NHL and SHL analysis, methodology, and sports data.
Pipelines, DuckDB/MotherDuck, and automated publishing on thehockeyanalytics.com.
Published analyses, charts, and league coverage.
Färjestad hammers the button; Växjö barely touches it — club ledger over five seasons.
Returning cores correlate with points%; coaching changes barely move the club level.
Analytics as club infrastructure — notes from the conference.
FAQ
Most sports analytics work stops at charts or one-off exports. I combine data platform engineering — pipelines, warehouses, automation, and reproducible methodology — with hockey-specific context across NHL and SHL. The goal is analysis you can trust, refresh, and act on, not a static view that ages in a week. See the Hockey Analytics case study for how publishing and pipelines fit together.
Primary focus is NHL and Swedish hockey (SHL, HockeyAllsvenskan, and Swedish NHL players). Work draws on official league APIs, public tracking data, computer-vision workflows where relevant, and modern data stacks (Python, SQL, MotherDuck, Mage, and Astro-powered publishing). Live platform work lives at thehockeyanalytics.com.
Yes. The Hockey Analytics (thehockeyanalytics.com) is the public platform and content brand. This page is my personal positioning as the engineer and analyst behind that work — sibling to The Unnamed Roads venture studio and this portfolio site.
Both. I design sports data pipelines, automated reporting, and publishing systems — documented in the Hockey Analytics case study and on thehockeyanalytics.com.
Use the contact form on this site. Share the league, question, or article you are curious about — I reply by email.
Questions about NHL or SHL analysis, the publishing platform, or anything on this site — use the contact form. Same engineer behind The Unnamed Roads and The Hockey Analytics.
