Stats are kept on all the players, including how much time each spends on the ice. The time is measured in minutes and seconds. This says to me that there must be one person assigned to track every single player’s’ minutes. Hugely inefficient use of time and money, presumably. But how else can they come up with those numbers? Are they gross estimates? Including seconds? And who would make those estimates? How?
This question seems to come up on SMDB an awful lot. NHL teams all use a system called HITS – Hockey Information and Tracking System – which uses a touch screen interface. Each team works it differently, but the typical arrangement is to use a four-person crew. One official scorer, one to track face offs and shots on goal, and two to track time on ice. Some teams have an additional spotter.
They use a similarly sized screw to score NFL games, 2-3 for basketball, and one for baseball. Different games, different paces, different stuff to track.