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In 2021, the NHL made its grand return to ESPN, and while the coverage has left a bit to be desired at times, it was still a welcome change for a league that had routinely found itself banished to the Outdoor Life Network thanks to its deal with NBC. Now, the channel is taking a page out of the NFL RedZone playbook to test out a new innovation that seems to have plenty of promise.
Prior to the start of the season, ESPN and the NHL got plenty of hockey fans to circle October 24th on their calendars thanks to an ambitious scheduling decision that will see all 32 teams in the league take to the ice on the same night.
The Maple Leafs and Capitals are slated to get underway at 6 P.M. that evening, and when the puck drops, a new game will kick off every 15 minutes until 9:15 (and there will still be three more contests on the slate after that point).
While most fans will have a specific tilt they’ll want to tune into, the format has also presented ESPN with a unique opportunity it plans to take full advantage of with a format it’s dubbed “Frozen Frenzy,” which has been positioned as the NHL equivalent of NFL RedZone with longtime commentator John Buccigross shouldering Scott Hanson’s role as the host.
Frozen Frenzy will officially kick off at 7 P.M. on ESPN+ before it pops up on ESPN2 an hour later. We’ll have to wait until the 24th to see exactly how the network plans to tackle things, but on Tuesday, ESPN coordinating producer Linda Schulz pledged “you will see every goal, you will see every power play, you will see every hit” while teasing what’s in store.
As things currently stand, ESPN has framed “Frozen Frenzy” as a one-and-done experiment, but it doesn’t take a genius to realize it could become A Thing moving forward based on how it’s initially received. You have to think the fast-paced nature of hockey will make it a slightly taller task to pull off compared to football, but it certainly sounds like it has potential.