When Should Coaches Pull Their Goalie in Ice Hockey by Daniel Renwick '21

When Should Coaches Pull Their Goalie in Ice Hockey by Daniel Renwick ’21, Mathematics Colloquium, Tuesday, November 24, 1:30 – 2:15 pm, talk can be accessed through the Mathematics Colloquium Glow Page

Abstract:  Pulling the goalie in ice hockey is a last-ditch effort to tie up the game. By replacing the goalie with another skater, the losing team generates more offense but also increases the chance that their opponent will score another goal. In this talk, I will discuss multiple papers concerned with finding the optimal time to pull the goalie in ice hockey. Using tools such as Poisson processes, Markov chains, and exponential distributions, we will see how current coaching decisions compare with the mathematical models.