Skepticism was sure to reign during the restart of the National Hockey League (NHL). After the NHL and the NHLPA reached an agreement, the league was able to continue their season after the COVID-19 pandemic had derailed what was turning out to be an exciting race to the playoffs. However, questions about the bubble’s viability as a safe haven would start to arise, athletes would question their own willingness to compete amid the pandemic, and players and fans alike found it hard to adjust to playing without the support of hometown fans. While all of these concerns are valid, playing in “the bubble” has allowed for the NHL to do things it wouldn’t have done under normal circumstances. It has seemingly granted the players an even larger stage to showcase their personalities, which is something the NHL has consistently lacked in. If the NHL is able to take what is great about the bubble and integrate it into a normal season, it will go a long way in bringing in a new, younger demographic.
As the years go on, and technology becomes more and more advanced, this has naturally led to fans wanting to take a deeper dive into the lives of the players they so look up to. Unfortunately, the NHL has been stuck in a sort of limbo, almost as if they are reluctant to move on from their earlier days where it was largely frowned upon to show any emotion or any personality outside the context of the game itself. Outside of the rare behind the scenes look into a certain player’s home life, the NHL isn’t doing anything to put genuine personality under a microscope, only the athlete’s manufactured, robotic version of a personality.
Now let’s take Esports into consideration. As distant as these two entities may seem, they stand to learn a lot from each other. Why many people have taken to Esports so much, especially during the pandemic, is because of its transparent nature between the professionals and the audience. Through things like streaming platforms and meet-up events, the professional video game players are constantly in the limelight, allowing for a close bond to build between all involved.
Now for the NHL, the bubble has allowed for a greater sense of transparency. Multiple teams are staying together in one hotel allowing for meet-ups and interactions that wouldn’t necessarily happen off the ice. Back in late July, Boston Bruins winger, David Pastrnak (Maurice Richard Trophy winner) was tweeting about a Washington Capitals enforcer named Tom Wilson. It read, “I think the best goal-scorer in the league is Tom Wilson”, and this, coming from a rival. Pastrnak explained that he had lost a bet with Wilson which forced him to make this statement, bringing up the idea of the types of exchanges that are occurring in the bubble. It can almost be likened to youth sports when dozens of teams congregate to one city and maybe even one hotel during a weekend tournament and compile their own fair share of cross-team interactions. It builds not only respect for your opponent, but suspense for the next time you get to play them. Simple things like this go a long way in making the prototypically blank-faced NHL player feel more down-to-earth and approachable.
Without fan noise impeding on-ice conversation, some players are nervous for what might be heard coming out of their mouths, others are expecting their ability to get into the opposing player’s heads to be more appreciated post-bubble. Something that’s great about sports like golf, or tennis, is that even in the midst of their competition, we get to hear the noises, grunts, swear words, and strategy-talk in real time. The implication from this is that they are putting in maximum effort, and expending all of their energy in order to excel in their sport; it makes the at-home-fan feel like they are swinging with Tiger Woods or serving with Serena Williams.
Boston Bruins’ defenseman John Moore mentioned in an interview with the Boston Globe, “I was not a big fan of the UFC, but I saw the first fight with no fans… you heard everything. It added an element of appreciation to the art of it all.” He goes on to relate this to how the NHL is currently operating by saying, “Obviously you think of a guy like Brad Marchand who might win an Emmy with some of the stuff they might pick up with him, I’m all for it.”
The games in the bubble up to this point have been some of the most personal I have ever witnessed. A great instance of this can be seen from the Tampa Bay vs. Columbus series in game one. Under normal circumstances, if a game goes to fifth overtime, a substantial amount of fans would already have gone home based on how late it would be. Many others would have lost their initial energy, bringing down the overall excitement of the game. Then, when the players inevitably started playing more and more lethargically and energy-conserving, this all would have made for some fairly lackluster viewing. However, when you take all of these variables away, a game that lasts for eight periods becomes must-watch television.
Seth Jones, a defenseman on the Blue Jackets, played an astonishing 65 minutes in this one game, a record for the most ice time ever in a single game. To be able to see and hear how physically exhausted he and his teammates were shows the viewers all they need to know about how seriously these athletes take the Stanley Cup Playoffs, whether in a bubble or not. Being able to hear the player’s breath, and their voices on the bench hyping each other up over simple plays that they would typically make with ease makes everything feel much more fatiguing, almost as if the viewer is in the same state of mind.
In the grand scheme of things, this major professional sports league will eventually need to return to its normal state of play with fans and sponsors being vastly prevalent. In the meantime, they should continue to lean into this newly found sense of individualism with their big name players. No player will ever say that they are bigger than the team, but to the audience, certain ones surely provide more intrigue, and with the personalities we’ve already seen emerge, it will be a huge benefit to all. If the NHL can take these lessons and successfully employ them in the midst of a normal season, get ready for a lot more behind the scenes looks at your favorite teams and players.
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