Accessibility Matters

The NHL has done many things in its past to try and grow its game globally, but one of the best things they've chosen to do might be the easiest of options to make the game more appealing. The Stanley Cup Final will be broadcast in both English and French in Canada which is part of the requirements for national broadcasts in this country, and the NHL will offer English broadcasts along with a Spanish broadcast on ESPN Deportes. There will likely be broadcasts in all sorts of European languages as Swedish, Finnish, Czech, Slovak, and other players speak those languages. Perhaps the most innovative thing the NHL is doing regarding a broadcast language this season, though, is partnering with P-X-P to deliver the first championship of any major sports league entirely in American Sign Language!

Three weeks ago, we spoke to Mark DeMontis on The Hockey Show about some of the challenges he faced being a visually-impaired or blind man when trying to play hockey, but it was clear that digital accessibility had a long way to go when it came to finding solutions for those have impairments. Obviously for those who have a hearing impairment, there's the option of closed captioning, but Jason Altmann, Chief Operating Officer of P-X-P, told NHL.com, "As a sports fan growing up, I couldn't relate with the broadcasters because some elements were not well captured with closed captioning."

This led to the NHL partnering with P-X-P to produce a first-of-its-kind, alternate telecast during the Stanley Cup Final dedicated completely to the Deaf community where the game on the ice will be broadcast in American Sign Language (ASL), and will be known as...

I don't know American Sign Language outside of a few words, so seeing this effort by the NHL to make the game more inclusionary for the hearing-impaired community is awesome. As it stands, NHL in ASL will feature Jason Altmann, mentioned above, and Noah Blankenship, an employee at the Office of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services in Denver, providing real-time coverage of play-by-play and color commentary in ASL during each game of the 2024 Stanley Cup Final beginning on Saturday on both ESPN+ and Sportsnet+ services.

"This initiative demonstrates a commitment to innovation and inclusivity that we value so deeply at the NHL," said Steve Mayer, NHL Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Content Officer. "This will not be your traditional play-by-play and color commentary, but rather something more conversational and relaxed in nature providing a deeper layer of additional storytelling. This first-of-its-kind production is something we hope and plan to expand on beyond the Stanley Cup Final and into our 2024-2025 season."

Overlooking the inclusivity comment with it being Pride Month and the NHL's general cowardice in that department, the fact that we're in June 2024 and this is the first major sports league to have an ASL broadcast for its championship is pretty ridiculous. However, better late than never in this case, and the NHL deserves some kudos for listening to Brice Christianson, the founder and CEO of P-X-P, who credited ESPN and the NHL for expanding closed captioning as "a great first step". Having an ASL stream of the Stanley Cup Final, he pointed out, is special for the deaf audience.

"With captions, you're forcing them to read in their second language. There's usually run-on sentences. There's incorrect phrases," Christianson told ESPN's Greg Wyshynski. "What the NHL has shown is that, with time and patience, commitment and follow-through, you can build an accessible and inclusive experience not only with closed captions but with American Sign Language."

There are certainly challenges to overcome, and Altmann and Blankenship have been working to solve those challenges. As Wyshynski writes in his article, "when mentioning a goalie's 'five-hole' between their legs, an ASL announcer would spell it out alphabetically and then use another interpretation of what a 5-hole looks like. Christianson said a lot of ASL consists of facial expressions and body language, which will also be used to describe the game".

There are also dialect issues when it comes to how certain phrases or words are signed, and Christianson stressed that while this is significant for this season, the seven games in the Stanley Cup Final "allows this to be a test of sorts with possible changes and improvements coming for the next time."

"I think it's very brave for the NHL to say, 'Hey we want to do this,'" Christianson told The Associated Press. "We're all going to go in with our best and we're going to try our best, and then we're going to come back and we're going to debrief and we're going to try to get better with every process."

That's exactly the right attitude for the entire NHL in ASL team to have because no one expects them to be perfect on their first broadcast, but it's a major step in being far more inclusive to a community that hasn't been represented in any sport before. Having ASL as one more language in which the NHL can be broadcast makes it far more accessible to fans the NHL otherwise may have trouble attracting, and that's a major step forward for both the NHL and for P-X-P when it comes to their ability to broadcast other sports as well.

For fans tuning into NHL in ASL, "[t]he broadcasters will provide ASL visual descriptions of major impact plays, like goals and hits, as well as referee calls and rule explanations to clarify decisions made on the ice. Graphic visualizations will include a large, metered, real-time bar that demonstrates crowd noise levels to viewers, specifically around certain events like goals and penalties. Also included will be custom visual emotes to depict goals, penalties, the intensity of a hit, and whether a puck hits the post/crossbar". The NHL has said that there will also be "something more conversational and relaxed in nature, providing a deeper layer of additional storytelling" for ASL fans.

This is a major step forward in digital accessibility for fans in the hearing-impaired community, and I, for one, commend the NHL, ESPN, Sportsnet, and P-X-P for coming together to make NHL in ASL a reality beginning on Saturday. My hope is that there is a set schedule for the 2024-25 season en route to future seasons where all 82 games in the regular season and all of the games in the playoffs have an ASL broadcast. It's not an impossibility any longer, and what was once just a dream will become reality on Saturday.

Make no mistake that accessibility matters to those who feel underserved and left behind by the NHL. Hopefully, this leads to the NHL becoming more progressive in other areas of inclusion and accessibility moving forward with other communities as well.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

The New Barclays Center?

The newest barn on the NHL circuit can be found in the northwestern area of Salt Lake City. The Delta Center nowhere near Barclays Center in New York City in terms of its location, but the two arenas share a common trait: they were not built for hockey. Just as Barclays Center was built for its primary tenant in the NBA's Brooklyn Nets, the NBA's Utah Jazz have had all the luxuries afforded to them in the Delta Center as Utah's lone major professional sports franchise. In building and renovating arenas for basketball, though, it has become apparent that adding a second tenant - the New York Islanders in Barclays Center and the Arizona franchise in the Delta Center - is something these facilities weren't ready to do. Allow me to explain.

Barclays Center was meant to accomodate the Nets in a way that made viewing a basketball game better. There was a scoreboard that hung over the midcourt line for basketball that allowed fans to see the action on the court, but it hung over one of the blue lines when the Islanders took the ice. The west side of the entire arena had what was described as a "limited view", but the truth was that an entire zone was missing for some seats as it was blocked by the balcony's overhang. In short, it wasn't great as described by Joe DeLessio in his New York Magazine's Intelligencer piece from September 23, 2013.

Many complaints from folks about Barclays Center's less-than-ideal views for hockey was one of the reasons the Islanders ended their arrangement with Barclays Center, but it seems that both sides weren't all that thrilled about having hockey at that arena when the end finally came. The good news is that the fans of the Islanders returned to cheer on their team when they returned to their old venue, Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, in 2020, and the team has since moved into the lavish UBS Arena in Elmont.

So why am I bringing up Barclays Center and its seating arrangement faults when this article is about the Delta Center?

The Utah NHL franchise released its seating chart today. Look closely.

Click to enlarge.

If you're reading the seating chart correctly, sections 107-107, 117-127, and 137-140 all have "partial ice view" on them in the upper bowl of the Delta Center while sections 1-3, 11-14, and 22 all have partial views in the lower bowl. In short, you may be paying NHL prices for tickets, but you're getting Barclays Center views of the ice in the NHL's newest home arena. That can't be ideal for anyone, and we'll have to see what the views are like once games get going inside the the Delta Center in both the preseason and regular season.

You might be thinking, "Ok, Teebz, but they'll just discount those seats for the less optimal view," right? Think again.

They may have identified the partial ice view seating, but they certainly didn't include it into the pricing matrix. If you're trying to match colours up on the seating chart to the price matrix, there's a better link here for that, but it appears that it will cost fans somewhere between $44 and $94 to sit in the upper deck's "partial ice view" seats. That's an expensive seat to watch two-thirds of a hockey game when you could have bought a ticket in section 109 and seen the whole game, not just part of it, for $66.

I know Utah is pushing for a new arena with the prospect of the 2034 Winter Olympics coming back to Salt Lake City, but having large swaths of seats with an obstructed view of the action is madness in this day and age. If hockey didn't work in Barclays Center with the same problem, why would anyone expect fans in Salt Lake City to have a more subtle approach to not being able to see part of the action on the ice? Fans use their hard-earned money to purchase tickets to see every inch of the ice surface. Anything less will certainly prompt outrage because no one pays to watch NHL hockey on two-thirds of the ice surface.

Keep your eyes on this one as we get closer to the season, folks. There may be more than 20,000 people in Utah who put down deposits for season tickets, but it appears that a large section of those fans haven't been told they'll miss parts of every game.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

Generic Placeholder Logos

It's hard to sell a product without a name or a brand that people recognize. While one can certainly push forward without a name for one's business, it's hard for fans to align themselves with a nameless, brand-less entity. I'll credit the PWHL for finding success while all six teams played without logos or names, but NHL teams use their names and branding for all sorts of marketing and events in order to build a fanbase and sell it's product. You're likely aware that the Utah franchise won't have a name this season, but it seems that the newly-relocated hockey team will be using a generic logo for the first season after trademark applications were filed for eight non-descript logos.

I'll go on record and say that I'm going to have a hard time supporting a Utah team that doesn't have a name. Part of the fun of watching the Kraken and the Golden Knights move from nameless franchise to branded entity is seeing how they used their brandings to promote the team. Whether it's the Kraken lurking in the depths of the ocean or the Golden Knights defending their castle, the marketing departments kick into high gear once a name is introduced. That's why it's fun - the promotional marketing is so creative!

What is Utah proposing for at least one season? Check out the logos.

Clearly, there's a lot left to be desired when it comes to these logos, but it seems that Utah will play their first season of existence in the NHL under one of these designs. I do like the state-backed "Utah" in the design on the left, but that circular logo to the right of it has a traditional hockey feel to it. None of them are great, but the first two would work better than the two logos on the right. In fact, if they used the logo on the left as a shoulder logo and the circular logo next to it as the chest logo, they'd look like a solid beer league team.

The circular logo, for what it's worth, has been spotted on NHL.com as per SportsLogos.net, so we know that the NHL is using the circular logo as the Utah placeholder for now. Whether that's the logo they use on their uniforms next season is still up for debate, but it seems the NHL will be using it whenever they post something Utah-related. Again, it's not a bad logo by any means, but it certainly doesn't evoke any Utah imagery or anything to do with the Beehive State.

If you do like the logos and/or colours chosen for the logos, I should warn you that the organization has made it clear any logo, uniform, and name used this season will be temporary. There's zero guarantee that the Utah team will wear any of these logos or colours beyond the first season, so don't get too attached to what you see above. The final product may be considerably different.

Let's not forget that owner Ryan Smith's appearance on ESPN's The Pat McAfee Show last week revealed that the franchise is close to narrowing its choices for a name once again. Consider me disappointed that there were no bee-related names revealed by Smith, but I guess being the Beehive State and having an arena called "The Hive" might be too easy. In any case, Smith told McAfee, "I think Mammoth is up there. I think Yeti is up there. I think a couple other ones are up there. It should be good."

You can make the blue and black work with Yeti as we see with the former Winnipeg Ice's logo, so I really hope they don't stray into that territory as it's been done already. Mammoth would be fun considering the size of the animal, but it should be noted that there is a Colorado Mammoth lacrosse team playing in the NLL so will we see the state to the north take that name? I'm not sure either should be used despite how good the names are if we're aiming for something unique. Time will tell, though.

In the end, the generic Utah logos seen above will be what NHL fans in Utah cheer next season. It's not pretty, but they get the job done on the jerseys assuming they're used. If the players can get the job done on the ice when it comes to making the playoffs and winning games, I'm not sure anyone will care which if these logos was worn.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

Cosmic Baseball?

I know the Florida Panthers beat the New York Rangers tonight, but there was something extremely cool happening in Colonial Heights, Virginia last night. The above image came from the game between visiting Greenbrier Knights and the host Tri-City Chili Peppers where they turned the second game of their double-header into "cosmic baseball". The glow-in-the-dark elements were illuminated by black lights set up around the stadium, and the entire game was played in the dark in what looked like one of the coolest experiences one could have at a baseball game for both teams and the fans in attendance!

According to reports, "[t]he Chili Peppers worked alongside local lighting company J.W. Electric and Federal Lighting manufacturer's rep Chad Lawson to make Cosmic Baseball happen. Eighteen 500-watt black lights were installed at the team's home stadium, Shepherd Stadium, and the total cost of the project exceeded $100,000." That's pricey for a team in the Coastal Plain League where average attendance is about 1000-1100 people per game, but this promotion seemed to sell itself as all 2000 tickets were bought within a 24-hour period of the game being announced on May 2.

Jason Foster of MLB.com spoke with Chris Martin, owner of the Tri-City Chili Peppers, about the conception of this game. Martin told Foster that it started with a glow sticks promotion in 2023 that got the wheels turning for Martin.

"I'm watching it, and I'm like, 'Hey, this is really cool, but it's also kinda not very cool because the lights are on," Martin said. "I was like, 'It would be really cool if we could turn the lights off, and then you would actually see everybody's sticks waving around and having a little bit of fun with it."

With the idea stuck in his head, Martin began looking into the idea of turning the lights off and found no instances of baseball having been played under black lights. In fact, there were no instances of any sport being played totally under black light, so Martin decided to really see if there was any way this could be done. His initial conversations with J.W. Electric and Federal Lighting were less fruitful, with the lighting experts telling Martin, "It's not possible."

Logistically, the number of lights and positioning was the main issue identified by the lighting company, but Chad Lawson, a manufacturer's rep with Federated Lighting of Virginia in Richmond, saw it differently. Lawson found a manufacturer to develop a single prototype black light, and he delivered it to Martin, though nobody involved had any idea what to expect. Lawson even warned Martin, "This really hasn't been done before, so I can't make any promises."

Instead, what they got was game-changing.

"The results were astounding," Lawson told Foster, noting that the one light was more than sufficient to cover an entire section of infield bleachers. After consulting with J.W. Electric and Federal Lighting who looked at angles and lighting coverage to eliminate shadows, the team "installed 18 500-watt black lights around the field, using brackets to attach them to the normal light poles".

You might be thinking that playing in the dark is a huge safety issue, but Martin told Foster, "It's actually a lighter atmosphere than what most people would think. You can see everything extremely well."

That sentiment was backed up by the players after their first practice under the new lighting scheme.

"It's darker, but it's not as dark as you think it would be, just because you have that kind of ambient light at all times," said catcher Jacob Lee. "And the ball actually glows a lot, so it's pretty easy to see it."

What about playing the game? It's gotta be harder playing under the black lights than playing in normal light, right?

"I thought it was going to be really hard," Lee said about adjusting to the darkness. "I thought there was going to be no way. You were just going to be guessing up there trying to hit the ball, and even catching it. But I was actually really surprised that it was easier than I thought it was going to be to get used to it."

The only major change that the players noticed was that the glow of the ball made it nearly impossible to pick up the spin of the ball once the pitcher released it. Judging fastballs versus curveballs versus sliders reportedly became that much more difficult, but the players weren't complaining about not seeing the spin when it came to the potential for this game.

You're probably asking what the game looked like, right? Well, the Chili Peppers streamed the game via YouTube for everyone to watch, and it looked absolutely incredible as players got into the action!

Say what you want about a minor-league baseball gimmick, but this might be one of the coolest promotions I've seen in a long time. If you didn't bother to watch the whole game above, the Chili Peppers scored the win with a 9-4 victory over the Knights, but this won't be the last time you'll see "cosmic baseball". The Chili Peppers will turn the lights off and fire up the black lights three more times this season - June 15, June 28 and July 20 - as they get their money's worth out of those black lights. Frankly, I think it already has paid off.

For me, I see all sorts of options in hockey that could work with black lights. White already shows up well under black light, and the only real struggle might be finding a way to make the puck glow without compromising how it slides on the ice. If an ECHL team did something like this, I have a feeling that team would sell out its building in a heartbeat just like the Chili Peppers sold out Shepherd Stadium. Are there any minor-pro hockey teams brave enough to try this?

Huge kudos to Chris Martin, Chad Lawson, and the Tri-City Chili Peppers for their innovative idea and seeing it through to reality. It may have cost Martin more money than most teams spend in the Coastal Plain League each season, but this is such a cool way to play and watch baseball. In saying that, congratulations to the Chili Peppers for inventing "cosmic baseball". It's literally out of this world!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

With A Little Help From My Friends

One of the things that many people do after transitioning into retirement is travelling. With the extra time retired folks have, hitting the road for some exploration and cultural experiences can be scheduled far easier since there are no work demands that eat up most of the week. Yes, there are still family commitments and friendships that need to be maintained, but retired folks often take the extravagant vacation they put off while working. For former Bisons men's hockey coach Mike Sirant, it seems that his retirement from U SPORTS hockey has led him to pursue all the coaching opportunities he couldn't while running the Bisons!

We mentioned Sirant's new opportunity on The Hockey Show a few days ago, but it might require a little more examination as the 65 year-old seemingly hasn't reduced his workload by taking retirement, but may have actually increased it while racking up a few travel miles as he jumps into these new opportunities!

Sirant hung up the clipboard for the Herd after 30 seasons at the University of Manitoba, and both Jason and myself wondered if that would be the last we had heard from Sirant when it came to coaching. After all, he was recruiting players, teaching classes, and coaching the team while being involved in a number of community-based initiatives and program-related efforts. We guessed he'd devote more time to those community-based programs in which he was involved, but Mike Sirant was far from done when it came to standing behind a bench and coaching a team.

Unbeknownst to us, Mike Sirant had accepted an associate coaching position with the AIHL's Brisbane Lightning, allowing Mike and his wife to move to Australia where he's coach through the Australian winter. Let me be clear that winter in Brisbane is nothing like winter in Winnipeg with temperatures checking around 20°C daily, so moving to Brisbane would be more like a vacation with those temperatures during a hockey season. Nonetheless, Sirant landed in Brisbane and began work with the Lightning!

You might be asking how Sirant even got his name into the mix, and it seems that a personal relationship he had forged in Winnipeg put him on a path to Brisbane. From Hockey Hype Australia,

Click to read the passage.

In the end, knowing that Kiliwnik worked in hockey in Australia and having a daughter in hockey who was playing for St. Mary's Academy in Winnipeg seemed to be the kindling needed to spark a friendship that crossed international borders for Sirant, and that relationship ended up bringing Sirant to Australia to work with Kiliwnik in Brisbane this summer as the two try to push the Lightning higher!

The Lightning are 5-9-1 with Sirant as one of the coaches, but they are somehow clinging to that second-place spot in the Rurak Division. Much like we saw with the Bisons, the Lightning give up far too many scoring chances and surrender too many goals to be a winning team, head coach Terry Kiliwnik and associate coach Mike Sirant have squeezed enough out of this team to keep them in a playoff spot despite them giving up an average of 4.7 goals-per-game.

Sirant wasn't going to solve all of Brisbane's problems overnight, though, so this effort with the Lightning is more of a work-in-progress right now. We'll see if he can help the Lightning make the AIHL Playoffs this season, but his time off between AIHL seasons won't be spent lounging on beaches near Brisbane or touring the outback looking for adventure. Instead, Sirant will need his passport again.

On May 28, it was announced that Mike Sirant had accepted an assistant coaching position with the EIHL's Glasgow Clan! The Clan finished in last place in the Elite Ice Hockey League across Great Britain this past season with a record of 10-24-9-11. They only missed the playoffs by two points, but the Clan are looking to climb back into the mix of perennial powerhouse with the help of the Bisons' former bench boss!

Again, you may be asking how a guy from Winnipeg is landing in Glasgow to coach hockey in the fall, but this one goes a little deeper into Sirant's career. Clan head coach Chris Neilson stated,

Click to read the passage.

The description given by Neilson may be inaccurate as Sirant had played back in the early-to-mid-1980s with the Bisons while Strachan came slightly afterwards, but there may have been some crossing of the paths between the two at the time. Sirant, though, would get an opportunity to run the Milton Keynes Kings in the British Division-II league where a young Rick Strachan landed as a defender after stints in Nottingham, Humberside, and Haringey. After being promoted to the British Division-I league with Strachan still on his blue line, Sirant left for an opportunity in 1992 with the University of Manitoba where he would coach for the next 30 years.

Strachan clearly formed a friendship with Sirant during his time at the University of Manitoba and during the two seasons they spent in Milton Keynes, and that hockey bond has remained strong over the years. With Sirant working down in the AIHL and having nothing planned for the winter, Strachan's recommendation to Neilson will see Sirant join the Clan for the 2024-25 season as they look to rise back to prominence in the EIHL!

I wrote the passage below back on March 31, 2021 when I had my integrity questioned. It's funny how I recognized the importance of personal relationships in the game as being vitally important, and now I'm talking about how Mike Sirant's friendships from 30 years ago are leading to opportunities today. Back in 2021, I wrote,

"If there's one thing I've learned from writing this blog and doing a radio show, it's that personal relationships matter. People who trust one another and respect one another because they have good personal realtionships are honest with one another, and that goes a long way in attracting future players to university programs when we're talking about words like 'family' and 'team'. Players will tell their friends. Teammates will tell teammates. The cycle is never-ending if these personal relationships are forged."

It would seem that also rings true for coaches who have left their playing days behind, but are still giving back to the game by passing on their knowledge. Personal relationships have turned into amazing coaching opportunities for Mike Sirant in both Australia and Scotland, and it really proves the point that personal relationships forged through hockey are a never-ending cycle when it comes to new, unique opportunities with chances to see the world.

With the title of this article being a famous song by The Beatles, it's kind of cool to see Mike Sirant ending up in Great Britain thanks to a little help from his friends. For a guy who was supposed to be retired from coaching, that must only mean at the university level because it seems like Mike Sirant is busier than ever in travelling to all these new destinations for work!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!