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chickenstats

Welcome to the technical documentation & reference materials for chickenstats, an open-source Python package for scraping & analyzing sports data.

Hero image of a scatter plot with drumsticks inter-mixed

With just a few lines of code:

  • Scrape & manipulate data from various NHL endpoints, leveraging chicken_nhl, which includes a proprietary xG model for shot quality metrics
  • Augment play-by-play data & generate custom aggregations from raw csv files downloaded from Evolving-Hockey (subscription required) with evolving_hockey

Here you can find detailed guides & explanations for most features. The package is under active development - download the latest version (1.8.0) for the most up-to-date features & be sure to consult the correct documentation .

Installation

chickenstats can be installed via PyPi:

pip install chickenstats

You can ensure the installation was successful by checking that you have the latest version (1.8.0):

pip show chickenstats
Help

If you need help with any aspect of chickenstats, from installation to usage, please don't hesitate to reach out. You can find me on Twitter at @chickenandstats or email me at chicken@chickenandstats.com.

For more information on known issues or the longer-term development roadmap, see Contribute

Tip

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  • Usage & installation

    Download & install chickenstats with pip to get up & running in just a few minutes.

    Getting Started

  • Tutorials & examples

    Discover the package using hands-on tutorials & examples from the User Guide.

    User Guide

  • Reference materials

    Consult the Reference section for in-depth explanations & debugging assistance.

    Reference

  • xG model

    Learn about the open-source expected goals (xG) model included with chickenstats.

    xG model

  • Blog

    Read the latest analyses leveraging the library, as well as about the newest features & releases

    Blog

  • Contribute

    Read about known issues, future development roadmap, and/or how to contribute.

    Contribute

Help

If you need help with any aspect of chickenstats, from installation to usage, please don't hesitate to reach out! You can find me on Twitter at @chickenandstats or email me at chicken@chickenandstats.com.

Please report any bugs or issues via the chickenstats issues page, where you can also post feature requests. Before doing so, please check the roadmap, there might already be plans to include your request.

Acknowledgements

chickenstats wouldn't be possible without the support & efforts of countless others. I am obviously extremely grateful, even if there are too many of you to thank individually. However, this chicken will do his best.

First & foremost is my wife - the lovely Mrs. Chicken has been patient, understanding, & supportive throughout the countless hours of development, sometimes to her detriment.

Sincere apologies to the friends & family that have put up with me since my entry into Python, programming, & data analysis in January 2021. Thank you for being excited for me & with me throughout all of this, especially when you've had to fake it...

Thank you to the hockey analytics community on (the artist formerly known as) Twitter. You're producing & reacting to cutting-edge statistical analyses, while providing a supportive, welcoming environment for newcomers. Thank y'all for everything that you do. This is by no means exhaustive, but there are a few people worth calling out specifically:

I'm also grateful to the thriving community of Python educators & open-source contributors on Twitter. Thank y'all for your knowledge & practical advice. Matt Harrison (@mharrison) deserves a special mention for his books on Pandas and XGBoost, both of which are available at his online store. Again, not exhaustive, but others worth thanking individually:

Finally, this library depends on a host of other open-source packages. chickenstats is possible because of the efforts of thousands of individuals, represented below: