NHL players don't need an excuse to chirp each other and can now deliver their best barbs from the comfort of their homes.
The NHL Player Gaming Challenge presented by Honda begins this week with the first three matchups between players in a series of best-of-3 EA Sports NHL 20 contests. They will run for four weeks and stream on Thursdays and Saturdays. All 31 NHL teams are represented by one or two players; Seattle, which will be the League's 32nd team, is being represented by NFL tight end Luke Willson of the Seattle Seahawks.
Matches featuring Matthew Tkachuk and Noah Hanifin of the Calgary Flames, Brady Tkachuk of the Ottawa Senators, Jamie Oleksiak and Stephen Johns of the Dallas Stars, and Bryan Rust and Zach Aston-Reese of the Pittsburgh Penguins will stream at 5 p.m. ET on Thursday, April 30 on Twitch, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook Premiere and NHL.com. The match between Nashville Predators forward Filip Forsberg and Colorado Avalanche forward J.T. Compher will stream at 3 p.m. ET on Saturday, May 2.
NBCSN will air Calgary vs. Ottawa and Columbus vs. Winnipeg beginning at 5 p.m. ET on Thursday as part of its Hockey Happy Hour programming. Sportsnet will air select episodes on Sportsnet ONE over four consecutive weeks, beginning Friday, May 1 at 4 p.m. ET with all matches made available on Sportsnet.ca and Sportsnet NOW.
Rather than a tournament, the NHL Player Gaming Challenge will be a series of standalone matchups where fans will get a snapshot of players hanging out in casual environments, though they've proven thus far to be as passionate in the home settings.
"The competitiveness is there," said Chris Golier, NHL Vice President of Business Development and Innovation. "These guys are pros. They don't like losing."
Los Angeles Kings play-by-play announcer Alex Faust will serve as host during the streams to keep players engaged in dialogue and not get too swept up in their efforts to come out as the winners.
"We have a host who's there and is ready, willing and able to keep conversation flowing because some of these matchups, you could watch them for an hour and nothing is said," Golier said.
The process of selecting the players for the Challenge involved people from the League, its teams and the NHLPA. There was much consideration given to the players' relationships to each other, rather than their NHL 20 prowess.
Because several of the participants didn't already have streaming setups, the NHL mailed necessary equipment like tripods and cameras to those who were without. Even with the right tools, some don't have or live in areas with gamer-level high-speed internet. Players are quarantining in a variety of places during the pause, including homes of relatives.
But organizers have been invoking on-the-fly workarounds to make sure the events are still as entertaining to the audience as possible.
"We know from our NHL Gaming World Championship that we try to highlight these gamers and show a different side of them and their personalities and their backgrounds because people are curious, and they're interested in that kind of thing. It's the same thing with our players taking part in this," Golier said. "They're the kings. They're the show. The game play itself is somewhat secondary. It keeps your eyes going. There's some dynamic stuff happening on the screen, but it's the storytelling that's going to win out in all of this."
Toronto Maple Leafs forward Zach Hyman, who launched his own esports company called E11 (or Eleven Gaming) in 2018, is one of the players participating in the Challenge. He's an avid gamer and has been playing against his teammates during the pause.
Hyman is one of many NHL players who livestream his gaming on Twitch, whether for fun or to raise money for charity. For the Challenge, the National Hockey League Foundation and Electronic Arts will donate a combined $100,000 in support of the CDC Foundation's COVID-19 relief efforts.
Forsberg recently livestreamed on the NHL's Twitch channel with NFL tight end George Kittle of the San Francisco 49ers. Washington Capitals center Evgeny Kuznetsov livestreamed his warmup for the Challenge on the Caps Gaming Twitch on Sunday.
"Sometimes I'm playing video games with (Mitchell Marner) and Freddie (Gauthier), and fans are watching and commenting on our dialogue and seeing how we talk to each other and seeing how we talk away from the rink, so that's kind of cool," Hyman said.
The natural banter between players is not only welcomed but encouraged during the Challenge.
"They kind of show up and they start chirping each other right from the beginning," Golier said of the matches that have been taped so far. "And that's the feel that we wanted for all of this. It's supposed to be sitting back on your couch with your buddies, playing video games and just having a fun little hockey chat."
SCHEDULED PARTICIPANTS IN NHL PLAYER GAMING CHALLENGE PRESENTED BY HONDA:
