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The Top 4 Sports Tech Storylines From The 2016-17 NHL Season

The 2016-17 NHL season came to an end Sunday with the Pittsburgh Penguins hoisting the Stanley Cup for a second-straight season. Along with a new champion, the season also brought plenty of sports technology storylines.

Here are the ones SportTechie found most interesting:

1. Use Of Snapchat Ramping Up Across League

From customized filters to the Spectacles that teams and players are using across most professional leagues, Snapchat has become a key tool for the NHL. Teams have a variety of social media at their disposal to connect with fans, but none (arguably) does it better than Snapchat.

Back in November, the Minnesota Wild became the first team to make use of the Snapchat Spectacles. The Spectacles bring fans closer to the action giving a behind-the-scenes look into players’ pregame/postgame activities. The Wild showed fans pregame skate as well as the process of a player getting his skates sharpened.

Phil Ervin, Digital Managing Editor and Content Strategist for the Minnesota Wild, said the following in a statement, “We’re always looking for new ways to bring our fans closer to the team and the game. The Spectacles certainly delivered, providing a cool, new point-of-view that was really simple to execute.”

Teams also made use of Snapchat lenses and filters throughout the season. Washington Capitals star Alex Ovechkin scored his 1,000th point and the team promptly created a filter to celebrate the occasion.

Similarly, come playoff time, NBC Sports came up with its first Snapchat lens allowing fans to grow their very own “Playoffs Beard.”

2. NHL’s Presence In eSports Space Increasing

It’s no longer breaking news to say that esports is catching fire. NBA owners have bought in, as have some players. Now it seems the NHL is beginning its foray into the eSports sphere. Conversations of involvement began in December and commissioner Gary Bettman even went as far as saying he could envision there one day being a league-wide esports hockey competition.

At the Leaders’ Sport Business Summit, Bettman had the following to say, “We envision something that would augment a fan’s affinity to his team because ultimately I could envision a league-wide competition where each club runs a competition to see who will be represented in the equivalent of our championship but for our esport game.”

Ties between esports and those around the league are growing stronger as just a few days ago it was announced that Tampa Bay Lightning owner, Jeff Vinik, is buying into aXiomatic, an esports ownership group.

Boston Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs also is bought into eSports after purchasing a piece of Splyce.

Owners aren’t the only ones getting involved; Lightning winger J.T. Brown began live-streaming recently on Twitch.

Brown consistently engages with fans through Twitch and has even become the first NHL player to become an official partner.

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3. iPad Pros Used Behind Benches During Playoffs

For the past few seasons (to the dismay of some coaches) the NFL has been using Microsoft Surface tablets on the sidelines. Coaches and players use them to quickly and easily sort through game film.

Starting at the beginning of the recently-concluded playoffs, the NHL went a similar, while at the same time different route. The league installed a video coaching system in all 16 playoff venues equipped with three Apple iPad Pros.

The iPads are each equipped with an app that has game film readily available (one minute after the action takes place) so that players can review action on the bench immediately. They’re also used by officials for video review.

Plans are in place to have all 31 NHL arenas equipped with the software at the beginning of the 2017-18 season. This will be a big, positive change for coaches & players as they will no longer have to wait until intermission to make adjustments to their game plan.

Ottawa Senators head coach Guy Boucher told the Associated Press that his team makes great use of the iPads since they can’t always see everything that’s going on on the ice. For coaches it minimizes their load and allows them to focus on more important areas of the game.

4. League Deploying Use of Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality Across The Board

From watching live games in 360-degree VR to viewing a retirement ceremony using AR, 2017 represented an uptick in immersive 3D experiences offered to fans.

The two teams who just finished battling for the Stanley Cup, the Penguins and Nashville Predators, were a few of the pioneers in offering new experiences to fans.

Throughout the final month of the regular season digital media agency startup VHERE captured Predators content from practices and games. Then with the help of partner Actuality VR they created “A Day In The Life” VR experience for fans.

The above clip, meant to be viewed with a VR headset, is a teaser for the actual experience which was originally offered at a season ticket holder renewal party.

To the dismay of Nashville fans, their team was eliminated from the playoffs just two wins shy of hoisting the Stanley Cup. For Penguins fans, the story was different as the team will take home the coveted trophy for the second-consecutive year.

Prior to winning on Sunday, however, a select group of fans had an opportunity to “view” the Cup in VR. Thinking that they were touching a virtual trophy, fans were surprised to learn that they were in the presence of the real thing.

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