matt donders
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mattdonders.com
matt donders
@mattdonders.com
NJ ➡️ AZ
nerd things, hockey, GIFs
maker of @gamebot.njdevils.social

It's kind of fun to do the impossible.

& the game bot went live on Threads yesterday if that's of any interest to you!

www.threads.com/@njdevilsgam...
November 7, 2025 at 1:56 PM
We're so back now though.
October 31, 2025 at 3:23 AM
My new dashboard crashed the bot immediately as the game started. It's so hard to test this thing without a game going on.
October 31, 2025 at 3:03 AM
@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.
October 23, 2025 at 3:30 PM
TIL that Chandler Stephenson also breaks @hockeyviz.com charts, but just in the OPPOSITE direction. My goodness.
January 24, 2025 at 4:34 AM
& 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.
December 29, 2024 at 3:39 AM
Orlov was definitely in a slightly vulnerable position here, but the hit only looks bad because he was already falling to the ice.
December 29, 2024 at 3:35 AM
Drinking outside with my neighbors on Christmas is the best part of being in AZ.
December 26, 2024 at 3:55 AM
That Kaprizov goal being called back for goalie interference REALLY sucks now. 🤮
December 19, 2024 at 5:33 AM
Yup, sure did - slotted right into my existing class.
December 6, 2024 at 5:07 AM
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).
December 6, 2024 at 4:56 AM
Persona Analysis: The Chill Nerdy Sports Dad with 85% authenticity!

blueskyroast.com
December 2, 2024 at 6:35 AM
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).
November 23, 2024 at 8:04 PM
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.
November 23, 2024 at 7:59 PM
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.
November 22, 2024 at 3:45 AM
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).
November 22, 2024 at 1:27 AM
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.
November 21, 2024 at 4:59 AM
Me, debugging the game bot during the Preds game. 😵‍💫
November 21, 2024 at 4:40 AM
Long Beach Airport may now be one of my favorite airports to use - 11 gates, no jetways and an open air courtyard makes for a wonderful spot to travel.
November 19, 2024 at 5:35 AM
Drink #1 of the day!
November 17, 2024 at 7:50 PM
Is a trip to Disney ever complete with a ride on Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters?
November 16, 2024 at 9:21 PM
Can you believe they let a mouse run this entire place?!
November 16, 2024 at 6:59 PM
That reminds me of a tweet I saw once.
November 15, 2024 at 10:22 PM
This peanut butter / marshmallow churro was outstanding!
November 15, 2024 at 8:41 PM
Even Mickey Mouse already put up his Christmas decorations. 🎄
November 15, 2024 at 8:10 PM