From the Philadelphia Daily News' Frank Seravalli today in a story about how the Philadelphia Flyers use analytics:

The truth is, the Flyers were already at the cutting edge of analytical technology last season. They paid a hefty sum to be the exclusive user of Catapult Sports' proprietary "biomechanical analysis," by attaching a chip to their players in practice to track movement, acceleration, heart rate and intensity. The Buffalo Sabres have since adopted Catapult. Even before that, years ago, the Flyers would post a sheet in the locker room the day after games that showed scoring chances for and against, broken down by each player. The stats were tracked by hand using video, under the instruction of coach Peter Laviolette.

The scoring chance stuff isn't new, and in fact, we've been doing the same work on a public level at Broad Street Hockey for years, be it somebody on our writing staff or a reader like Andrew D., who tracked chances most of last season.

But that Catapult Sports stuff ... that's interesting. It's Chip Kelly-esque, and in fact ... it might just be the exact same system the Eagles are using at the NovaCare Complex. Catapult Sports lists the Eagles, Flyers and Sixers as clients on their website, but like Seravalli said in his story, the only other NHL team using this technology are the Sabres.

Below are a few videos from Catapult, which is based in Australia, about their philosophy and their product. In a nutshell, they say their products help teams understand athlete fatigue during training, understand when an athlete is at peak performance in games and practices, and help teams know when an injured player is ready to return to action, all of which help prevent injury and re-injury.

I think we'd be naive to draw conclusions about this stuff after just one season. After all, everybody touted the Eagles last year for how healthy it made their team, and just a few weeks into this season they barely have an offensive line to speak of. But I'm glad the Flyers are using this sort of technology.