iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

matt donders @mattdonders.com · 29/09/2026

A new @hockeygamebot.com weekly feature: the preseason's 10 biggest win-probability swings, rebuilt in retro pixel style from NHL tracking data. #2: McAvoy, when the model had Boston at 1%. #1: you'll have to watch 👇 Check out the full episode on YouTube! www.youtube.com/watch?v=za8Q...

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matt donders @mattdonders.com · 01/08/2026

Turn any NHL game you've been to into a shareable ticket stub - final score, arena, the badges you earned that night. The QR code at the bottom opens directly to your public passport page! Check it out! 👇 hockeygamebot.com/puck-passpor...

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matt donders @mattdonders.com · 28/07/2026

New in Puck Passport! Add games straight from your camera roll. Pick photos from games you went to and it reads the date (and location if available) to figure out which game you were at. All in your browser - nothing gets uploaded. hockeygamebot.com/puck-passpor...

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matt donders @mattdonders.com · 26/07/2026

When you choose to share your passport you get a dedicated passport image which shows your stats for points/goals/assists seen and a summary of your milestone ranks & badges. Check it out & let me know what you think!

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matt donders @mattdonders.com · 12/07/2026

As stupid as it sounds one of the hardest things about building all these new "cards" for @hockeygamebot.com has been information density and the legibility on social media but I'm really happy with how these have turned out.

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matt donders @mattdonders.com · 17/06/2026

As per Kevin Weekes more trade rumors are starting to circulate about Mason McTavish. Offensive upside, but real defensive concerns. At 23 on a $7M deal, the price won't be cheap, but maybe a team is willing to take a chance.

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matt donders @mattdonders.com · 13/06/2026

Each player also gets a rating card - their overall talent profile broken down by component, ranked against players at the same position. Includes current season WAR and HGB Impact (my game-by-game performance model).

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matt donders @mattdonders.com · 12/06/2026

Anyway here are my single season player cards which include component breakdowns isolated to a single season, box score data and NHL EDGE data.

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matt donders @mattdonders.com · 11/06/2026

Not much separating Carolina and Vegas through four games. Series tied 2-2 - we’ve basically got a best-of-3 now. Does Carolina make home ice count tonight, or does Vegas head into Game 6 with a chance to win the Cup in its own building?

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matt donders @mattdonders.com · 11/06/2026

Here are some in-depth numbers as to how good that Blake-Hall-Stankoven line as been in the playoffs.

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matt donders @mattdonders.com · 21/05/2026

Curious to see if Montreal changes line deployment this series. The Carrier/Matheson (44% xGF) pairing and Caufield/Slaf/Suzuki (42.5% xGF) line have been underwater all playoffs. Trying to match up against Blake/Hall/Stankoven (61% xGF) will be a tough task.

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matt donders @mattdonders.com · 21/05/2026

Carolina is 8-0. Montreal won back-to-back Game 7s to get here. They meet Thursday with the Eastern Conference on the line, and the model has a clear favorite. Some thoughts ahead of Game 1. #NHLPlayoffs

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matt donders @mattdonders.com · 20/05/2026

The last two Western Conference champions, head to head. Colorado vs Vegas. Presidents' Trophy winner vs the team nobody can put away. Some thoughts ahead of Game 1 tonight. #NHLPlayoffs

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matt donders @mattdonders.com · 19/05/2026

Buffalo made the wrong goalie call. Playoffs GSAx: Luukkonen -2.59 & Lyon +4.97 Game 7: Luukkonen -0.2 & Dobes +2.73 for Montreal. The pattern held. Series over.

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matt donders @mattdonders.com · 05/05/2026

The National Day of Mourning occurs each year on May 5th and is known, of course, as Sinko de Mayo.

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matt donders @mattdonders.com · 21/04/2026

The Hurricanes and Flyers take a 2-0 series lead, the Stars grab one at home to even up their series & the Oilers get Draisaitl back and take Game 1 at home! Carolina gets a 2.4% bump to win the cup. Follow along here for full up to date numbers. 👇 hockeygamebot.com/playoffs/2026/

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matt donders @mattdonders.com · 20/04/2026

Avalanche, Sabres, Canadiens & Golden Knights all take Game 1 in their respective series. An absolutely incredible day of hockey. Follow along here for full up to date numbers. 👇 hockeygamebot.com/playoffs/2026/

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matt donders @mattdonders.com · 19/04/2026

Hurricanes, Wild & Flyers take Game 1 in their series and cause some big model movement. There's nothing better than playoff hockey! Follow along with @hockeygamebot.com for up to date numbers. 👇 hockeygamebot.com/playoffs/2026/

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matt donders @mattdonders.com · 18/04/2026

2026 Stanley Cup playoffs - the most wonderful time of the year.

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matt donders @mattdonders.com · 02/04/2026

Thanks to everyone who checked out the new @hockeygamebot.com site or tuned into one of the streams! Back at it fixing some bugs and adding some new features like exportable game cards, which include better (& smoother) WP values and added 5v5 xG numbers & flows. Big 14-game slate tonight!

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matt donders @mattdonders.com · 01/04/2026

The site runs in 2 modes: - Recap mode once all games go FINAL. - Flips to LIVE ~1 hour before puck drop Both include win probability + expected goals (xG) at a glance. Click into any game for full WP charts, xG flow, and goal-by-goal recap.

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matt donders @mattdonders.com · 01/04/2026

Time for a relaunch of hockeygamebot.com 🎉 A @hockeygamebot.com powered near real-time NHL scoreboard built for people who want every game in one view. Dynamic layout adjusts to the slate + auto-sorts by “excitement score” so the best games are always on top.

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matt donders @mattdonders.com · 24/03/2026

generating absolutely hilarious stuff.

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matt donders @mattdonders.com · 21/01/2026

We've come quite a long way since I launched @njd.hockeygamebot.com 7 years ago & I have a TON more things planned to launch soon! 😏

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matt donders @mattdonders.com · 20/01/2026

Testing in progress 👀📱 No more relying on social notifications - customizable game notifications, right in the app. Will provide launch updates as we get closer!

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matt donders @mattdonders.com · 13/01/2026

The Hockey Game Bot website now has custom date URLs which will show each reel uploaded for that day & a direct link to it (along with the NHL recap headline) - check it out!

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matt donders @mattdonders.com · 31/12/2025

My 20s x 6 retries has worked for my bots tonight (except went the game went final - but I'll just increase me retries there). Thanks again for making all the data available. I love seeing the breakdown by period in chart form.

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matt donders @mattdonders.com · 30/12/2025

@sammich-blt.bsky.social do you know *approximately* how long after a PeriodEnd event happens in the play-by-play data that you mark your game as Period End as well? Obviously want to play nice since I am running 32 bots now so don't want to hammer the site (I figure a 10s delay is plenty).

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matt donders @mattdonders.com · 19/12/2025

& people wonder why it's so hard to get into the Christmas spirit out here.

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matt donders @mattdonders.com · 14/12/2025

Does anyone have a contact at Bluesky moderation? This is the second game bot account that has gotten marked as spam. I waited 10-days to use the account so it didn't look brand new and it got shut down last night.

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matt donders @mattdonders.com · 11/12/2025

Almost done scaling up @hockeygamebot.com -- hoping to launch all the game bots over here soon as well. Just trying to avoid them being banned for spam (like the Penguins one was - still trying to get that back). #hockeygamebot

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matt donders @mattdonders.com · 02/12/2025

And @pit.hockeygamebot.com already got taken down by Bluesky - what the fuck. It's never been a problem for the Devils game bot. I sent in appeal but I don't want to deal with this for all 32 teams. 😥

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matt donders @mattdonders.com · 07/11/2025

& the game bot went live on Threads yesterday if that's of any interest to you! www.threads.com/@njdevilsgam...

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matt donders @mattdonders.com · 31/10/2025

We're so back now though.

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matt donders @mattdonders.com · 31/10/2025

My new dashboard crashed the bot immediately as the game started. It's so hard to test this thing without a game going on.

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matt donders @mattdonders.com · 23/10/2025

@sammich-blt.bsky.social someone mentioned to me that they noticed NST xG data was off (vs other sites) for the first bit of the season. Is this just a sample size issue or have you heard other reports of this? Here is the chart they put together of NST vs EH vs MP.

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matt donders @mattdonders.com · 24/01/2025

TIL that Chandler Stephenson also breaks @hockeyviz.com charts, but just in the OPPOSITE direction. My goodness.

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matt donders @mattdonders.com · 29/12/2024

& while Orlov doesn't get back ON the bench he is escorted to the bench by a linesman, grabs a towel and proceeds to jump a defenseless Haula. The Canes & their fans hate him for all the wrong reasons & it's really embarrassing.

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matt donders @mattdonders.com · 29/12/2024

Orlov was definitely in a slightly vulnerable position here, but the hit only looks bad because he was already falling to the ice.

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matt donders @mattdonders.com · 26/12/2024

Drinking outside with my neighbors on Christmas is the best part of being in AZ.

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matt donders @mattdonders.com · 19/12/2024

That Kaprizov goal being called back for goalie interference REALLY sucks now. 🤮

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matt donders @mattdonders.com · 06/12/2024

Yup, sure did - slotted right into my existing class.

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matt donders @mattdonders.com · 06/12/2024

Yeah I am trying to figure out how to handle "retry logic" before failing when data attributes don't show up in some events. Also, some of these are funny (& some leftovers from the old API).

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matt donders @mattdonders.com · 02/12/2024

Persona Analysis: The Chill Nerdy Sports Dad with 85% authenticity! blueskyroast.com

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matt donders @mattdonders.com · 23/11/2024

Last thing on the game bot (for now) - I would really love some design feedback on some of the old images that it used to post. For example, this is the old Intermission Report (contains team stats & current score) vs a much more simplified version (stolen from my old NST code).

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matt donders @mattdonders.com · 23/11/2024

Alright finally got around to fixing this issue. The NHL creates events before all data is available so I can now "force fail" an event creation & wait for the important parts of the data to be available before posting.

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matt donders @mattdonders.com · 22/11/2024

Another interesting bug - sometimes they convert a Shot on Goal event into the corresponding Goal Event. I need to migrate some old V1 parsing code over to the V2 game bot to handle the cache & lookup of events and re-parse them if their type key changes.

A screenshot of code showing NHL API migrating events within the same endpoint.

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matt donders @mattdonders.com · 22/11/2024

TV Timeout notifications are so nice to have now - just need to sort out the duplicate event posts. Wish there was a way to replay the live-feed second by second (should store data and replay it myself one day).

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matt donders @mattdonders.com · 21/11/2024

Ugh the new NHL play by play API assigns a new sort order ID when assists and / or goal highlight links are added instead of just updating the event in place. That's very frustrating to try to deal with - probably need to build a unique goal ID to avoid re-parsing each goal event.

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