How was the 1st Rangers pandemic telecast?

The arena

The NHL has done a nice job making the lack of fans fairly obscure.  They’ve covered up the empty seats and there are huge lighted screens that almost extend to rinkside.

One noticeable element is the lack of netting since there are no fans to get hit by errant pucks.   While it makes the lack of fans more obvious, it will prevent any of those wacky calls when the puck ricochets off the netting.

One fascinating element within the arena itself was the advertising on the boards. It appears that they are changing the boards for each game and adding local advertisers. During the Hurricanes-Capitals game there were ads for Fox Sports Carolinas and UNC Rex on one end of the rink along with Washington based businesses on the other.

It was the same for this game with ads for Optimum, MSG GO and Ridgewood Savings Bank.  Add in the virtual ads on the glass and there was definitely a local feel to the Scotiabank Arena.

One aspect that was definitely different were the national anthems.  Because they are in Canada, both the Star Spangled Banner and O Canada have to be played and it was a canned instrumental version.   We renew our plea for the MSG telecasts to feature a recording of John Amirante for designated home games.

What’s missing

It was only one game and how they produce the meaningful games remains to be seen, but from the one effort, it appears that the viewing experience will not be very different from what we are used to.  There was nothing annoying or obviously “fake” about the telecasts and that is a good thing.

In fact, it was almost too familiar and for this game at least, they didn’t take advantage of new opportunities.

The camera angles were mostly standard with some slight variations.  The production teams have the ability to put cameras in places that they have never been.  It would be interesting to put a camera right behind each bench so we can get the perspective of the players and coaches.

We’ve discussed the idea of the sounds of the game somehow being available.  The English Premier League used crowd noise in telecasts and streamed a non-augmented feed online.

It was an excellent first effort and bodes well for the future.  There’s no doubt that we will see even more innovation as the Playoffs continue.