The National Hockey League (NHL) is embracing animation following the successful launch of a half-hour weekly show, The NHL Hockeyverse Matchup of the Week, last month. The League has announced a slate of new animated programming that will run for the rest of the regular 2024-25 hockey season, featuring a range of formats, content types and distribution partners.
Like Hockeyverse, the new animated shows will leverage NHL EDGE Positional Data (the NHL Puck & Player Tracking) to visualize NHL on-ice action in animated environments. Powered by Sony’s Beyond Sports’ technology, real-time data from NHL EDGE Positional Data is merged with Sony’s Hawk-Eye Innovations’ optical tracking and then animated to bring all the action to life.
Looking at the schedule, the real-time presentation of the new animated shows will be available on-demand on @NHL on YouTube and NHL.com after the initial airing. The Best Snow Day Ever, a collaboration between the NHL, the Boston Bruins and NESN (New England Sports Network), will air March 11 at 7 p.m. ET on NESN+ and the NESN 360 app, alongside the main local broadcast of the Bruins-Panthers game on NESN.
From March 15 to April 16, the NHL and San Jose Sharks will collaborate on short-form animated content clips featuring goals and other notable game moments from Sharks games between March 15 and April 16. The content will be distributed across Sharks’ digital and social platforms.
NHL Showcase presented by sponsor Dr Simi+ will be broadcast in Spanish on March 16 in the U.S. and Mexico. It will feature a real-time animated data visualization of the Colorado Avalanche-Dallas Stars game on TNT and truTV. Also in March, Hockey Paradise, a collaboration between the NHL and Tampa Bay Lightning, airs March 29 at 2 pm ET on the Tampa Bay Lightning app and website.
On April 1, Music City Hockey in Smashville, a collaboration between the NHL and Nashville Predators, will air on local channels at 7 pm ET alongside the main Nashville Predators-Columbus Blue Jackets local broadcast on FanDuel Sports Network.
Finally, in Canada on April 13 Harvey’s Mountain Classic, a collaboration between the NHL, Calgary Flames and Sportsnet, will air nationally at 8 pm ET on Sportsnet 360 and stream on Sportsnet+ alongside the main Calgary Flames-San Jose Sharks national broadcast on Sportsnet. The story features Calgary Flames mascot Harvey the Hound leading the team up to the Rocky Mountains of Alberta to a beautiful outdoor rink on a frozen lake where the conditions will be perfect to watch the Flames and explore the great outdoors. It will be the first real-time, full-length NHL animated data visualization to be carried in Canada.
The weekly animated show, NHL Hockeyverse Matchup of the Week, recaps an NHL regular-season matchup from the prior week and airs on Sportsnet in Canada, NHL Network in the United States, and on the NHL YouTube channel.
