[FIXED] Download excel file from NHL site in Python

Issue

I want to download excel file from NHL.com. If you visit this link you can see the excel file, which can be downloaded. But when I try to scrap this website with BeautifulSoup, there is no link for this file. How can I find it and download?)

Solution

The export button executes JavaScript function that reads the datatable and creates Excel file on-the-fly. beautifulsoup cannot execute JavaScript.

But you can use their Ajax api to download the data in Json format, parse it and save it to CSV for example:

import requests
import pandas as pd

api_url = "https://api.nhle.com/stats/rest/en/team/summary"

params = {
    "isAggregate": "true",
    "isGame": "true",
    "sort": '[{"property":"points","direction":"DESC"},{"property":"wins","direction":"DESC"},{"property":"franchiseId","direction":"ASC"}]',
    "start": "0",
    "limit": "50",
    "factCayenneExp": "gamesPlayed>=1",
    "cayenneExp": 'gameDate<="2022-10-23 23:59:59" and gameDate>="2022-10-23" and gameTypeId=2',
}

data = requests.get(api_url, params=params).json()
df = pd.DataFrame(data["data"])
print(df.to_markdown(index=False))

df.to_csv("data.csv", index=False)

Prints:

faceoffWinPct	franchiseId	franchiseName	gamesPlayed	goalsAgainst	goalsAgainstPerGame	goalsFor	goalsForPerGame	losses	otLosses	penaltyKillNetPct	penaltyKillPct	pointPct	points	powerPlayNetPct	powerPlayPct	regulationAndOtWins	shotsAgainstPerGame	shotsForPerGame	ties	wins	winsInRegulation	winsInShootout
0.694915	11	Chicago Blackhawks	1	4	4	5	5	0	0	1.25	1	1	2	0.666666	0.666666	1	34	27		1	1	0
0.491803	12	Detroit Red Wings	1	1	1	5	5	0	0	1	1	1	2	0.6	0.6	1	33	41		1	1	0
0.432835	29	San Jose Sharks	1	0	0	3	3	0	0	1	1	1	2	0	0	1	30	25		1	1	0
0.509803	33	Florida Panthers	1	2	2	3	3	0	0	0.666666	0.666667	1	2	0	0	1	26	32		1	1	0
0.333333	36	Columbus Blue Jackets	1	1	1	5	5	0	0	0.666666	0.666667	1	2	0	0	1	31	21		1	1	0
0.666666	10	New York Rangers	1	5	5	1	1	1	0	1	1	0	0	0.333333	0.333333	0	21	31		0	0	0
0.567164	16	Philadelphia Flyers	1	3	3	0	0	1	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	25	30		0	0	0
0.490196	22	New York Islanders	1	3	3	2	2	1	0	1	1	0	0	0.333333	0.333333	0	32	26		0	0	0
0.508196	32	Anaheim Ducks	1	5	5	1	1	1	0	0.4	0.4	0	0	0	0	0	41	33		0	0	0
0.305084	39	Seattle Kraken	1	5	5	4	4	1	0	0.333333	0.333334	0	0	-0.25	0	0	27	34		0	0	0

and saves data.csv (screenshot from LibreOffice):

Answered By - Andrej Kesely