2024 NHL Stadium Series: ESPN’s Front Bench Paints Compelling Picture of Outdoor Hockey in the Garden State

“Best Seat in the House” concept, fan activities around the venue played a key factor

A short drive on the New Jersey Turnpike away from New York City, MetLife Stadium turned into a prominent NHL venue this past weekend with the two-day NHL Stadium Series. Aside from capturing two regular-season matchups featuring four Metropolitan Division rivals on the ice, ESPN’s production team was tasked with highlighting the activity and fanfare surrounding the rink constructed at the home of the NFL’s New York Giants and New York Jets.

A camera with a fish-eye lens captured the vastness of MetLife Stadium.

“We focused on how to create energy [in the broadcast] and show the energy that took place [at the venue] to our fans who watched at home,” says Linda Schulz, coordinating producer, ESPN. “We went with the approach of really embracing the fact that we were in New Jersey and at an NFL stadium.”

A Larger Broadcast Canvas: NFL Venue Brings Football-Style Tailgating, Grandiose Entertainment

Despite the pregame festivities at NHL arenas being quite impressive, it doesn’t match to the vibes that go into a traditional NFL tailgate. With massive parking lots that surround MetLife Stadium and the passion that these four respective fanbases — the New York Rangers, New Jersey Devils, New York Islanders, and Philadelphia Flyers — carry with them, the tailgating experience for the contest on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning didn’t disappoint. From the perspective of the NHL on ESPN, they aren’t as used to capturing this party-like atmosphere at a sports venue with a bigger footprint. For example, two of the four teams — the New York Rangers and the New Jersey Devils — play at arenas in heavily populated areas — Madison Square Garden in Midtown Manhattan and Prudential Center in Newark, NJ. For this weekend, they were prepared to traverse the crowds that gathered before puck drop via a TVU-powered camera.

SkateCam was on the ice with Kevin Weekes during a studio segment on Saturday afternoon.

Then, there was the weather that was appropriate for the locale. Northern New Jersey in February can present a bit of a challenge for a normally indoor sport being played in the elements. Temperatures dipped for the nightcap between the Flyers and Devils on Saturday evening, but earlier in the day, the city of East Rutherford, NJ anticipated two to three inches of snow on Friday night. The total hit in the middle at 2.6 inches, and while it didn’t have a major effect on the production of both games, the weather could have thrown their plans off kilter if the snow fell later in the day.

Levy, Messier, and Subban interviewed the Edmonton Oilers’ Connor McDavid before their game against the Dallas Stars.

“Last year in Raleigh, NC gave us a chance to learn the aspect about playing this game outdoors,” says Schulz. “In addition, when you look at sporting venues, they’re all not created equal. [Carter-Finley Stadium] was small to others but huge to us, and while the weather was a lot more comfortable, being in the massive structure that is MetLife Stadium was pretty cool.”

The larger nature of the building allowed the introduction of more technological firepower at the front bench’s disposal. Along with Schulz, the trio of director Doug Holmes, producer Jeff Dufine, and technical director Craig Short intertwined the use of a four-point aerial Skycam and a camera with a fish-eye lens mounted at the top of the venue to show the full breadth of the stadium and its sold-out crowds. This was paired with the typical bells and whistles seen at other tentpole NHL events and standard regular-season games, including an on-ice SkateCam and a package of virtual graphics. This technology was also used to highlight the multiple points of in-venue entertainment happening around the playing surface. This included the presentation of The Jonas Brothers’ pregame and second intermission concerts on Saturday and AJR’s performance on Sunday, the NHL Street activation that had kids playing pick-up street hockey on rinks decorated by local artists, and more.

A four-point Skycam flew over the ice and the fans on both Saturday and Sunday.

Setting the Scene: “Best Seat in the House,” NJ-Centric Talent Headline New Creative Ideas

Although new technologies gave way to enhanced viewing angles for the viewing audience, Schulz and her production colleagues worked on creative pieces and concepts for the two-day affair. For the live games, the team wanted to create an opportunity to bring certain individuals closer to the action in the stadium. Tapping the interview skills of reporters Emily Kaplan and Kevin Weekes, the duo interviewed a handful of NFL players like the Giants’ running back Saquon Barkley and quarterback Tommy DeVito, local legends like drummer Max Weinberg of the E Street Band, and NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman. After the conclusion of the interviews, a POV camera showed the select guests in a two box in hopes of a reaction to a goal or major play.

“Best Seat in the House” placed guests right up against the glass.

As for content that brought the broadcasts back from commercial breaks, the team tapped into celebrities that are associated with New Jersey. A staple at Madison Square Garden for New York Rangers games and a character on the 21-time Emmy Award-winning show, The Sopranos, the appropriate choice was actor Steve Schirripa to voice videos about the state. For the games’ opening teaser, the network leveraged the personality of DeVito as well as cameos of Messier and Bettman.

Additionally, to show how important these two games were to the league’s 16 total games played during the weekend, ESPN decided to have all of their studio programming come from the Meadowlands. Leaning on a Bristol, CT-based REMI for the production, the on-air team of host Steve Levy and analysts Mark Messier and P.K. Subban began their Saturday at 12 p.m. ET to lead into two other games — Los Angeles Kings vs. Boston Bruins at 12:30 p.m. ET and Edmonton Oilers vs. Dallas Stars at 3 p.m. ET — on the network’s NHL tripleheader. Without a roof on their set, the production was able to implement a jib camera at their dedicated space in front of the NHL Street rink.

Weekes interviews Max Weinberg in the “Best Seat in the House.”

“The idea was to continually work in what was going on in New Jersey and drive fans to the NHL Stadium Series game,” continues Schulz. “It was also to take advantage of the many resources that we had at the stadium.”

From Toronto to New Jersey: Network Produces NHL All-Star, NHL Stadium Series in Three-Week Span

Dedicating a ton of time for NHL All-Star on Feb. 2-3 and NHL Stadium Series on Feb. 17-18, stellar coordination between operations and production was needed for two successful events. Working closely with key members of the operations team like Senior Specialist Jeff Werner, Senior Operations Manager Erin Orr, Operations Specialists Brock Wetherbee and Jon Winders, Operations Coordinators Carson Kenny and Adam Moossman, and more, the broadcasts received the necessary care and attention. Due to the nature of the schedule, and the fact that this event was added to ESPN’s plate after being in existence since 2014, it’s still an event that takes getting used to.

Virtual graphics were placed over the spectacular setting.

“I’ve been working at ESPN for more than 25 years, and this is the only time where there’s two major moments in the schedule that are two weeks apart,” adds Schulz. “Between production and operations, this team is very close knit and works incredibly well together to keep our energy up and motivation going.”

As for making sure that each event had their own unique flavor, Schulz and her team had to balance the two events during the lead up.

A jib camera was used for studio programming near the rink.

“Our core team worked on both projects simultaneously over the last two months,” she says. “We would get on a two-hour Zoom call, spend an hour talking about All-Star, and then switch to Stadium Series for the last hour since we covered each completely different.”

Actor Steve Schirripa lended his voice to vignettes about the host state.

Two Go Arounds: Back-to-Back Games Give Crew Multiple Chances for Execution

Other than the postseason, national broadcasters like ESPN rarely get a chance to get consecutive days at an NHL production during the regular season. The NHL Stadium Series, being one of the unique exceptions, gave the production crew a chance to refine Saturday’s execution on Sunday. Unlike last year, they didn’t have this second opportunity, which made this year’s event extra special.

“When we were done with North Carolina [in 2023], I wanted another go at it right away because we learned so much,” says Schulz. “After seeing that there was going to be two NHL Stadium Series games on one weekend, we realized that one of the positives is that we could take something [from Saturday] and immediately use it on Sunday.”

For a look at the network’s operations at MetLife Stadium, CLICK HERE.