At the Rink: Washington Capitals Approach Regular Season With Virtual Gameday Digital Experience, Traditional In-Venue Flair Fans are returning on April 27 vs. the New York Islanders By Kristian Hernandez, Associate Editor
Wednesday, April 21, 2021 - 11:47 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
The National Hockey League was the last of the four major American sports to host a non-bubble regular season. As fans gradually make their return to the seats, how is that affecting in-venue productions and digital content? Similar to At the Ballpark, On the Gridiron, and On the Hardwood, At the Rink will look at the operations of NHL organizations to see how their coping with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and adapting back to a sense of normalcy.
The talisman of the Washington Capitals, Alexander Ovechkin, is continuing to rewrite the history books with each passing game. Throughout his NHL career in the nation's capital, the franchise's in-venue production team has been their every step of the way to convey the importance of these accomplishments to fans in attendance. This year, while they're away from the stands, the crew is tapping into new forms of entertainment outside of Capital One Arena and traditions inside of the building to capture the play of The Great Eight and the entire team.
I'm extremely proud of our game presentation team and what they've been able to accomplish, says Cassidy Lien, VP, game presentation, Washington Capitals. It's sometimes hard to stay motivated, but they've been able to maintain that motivation and determination throughout the entire regular season.
MORE AT THE RINK INTERVIEWS:
Tampa Bay Lightning's Stanley Cup Banner Ceremony Serves as Reminder of Normalcy During Unusual Year
Toronto Maple Leafs Follow Production Blueprint From 2020 NHL Bubble at Scotiabank Arena
Los Angeles Kings' Wanton Davis Adjusts to His First NHL Season During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Top-Ranked Colorado Avalanche Revel in the Return of Fans
Philadelphia Flyers Flex Potential of 4K Kinetic Centerhung as Fans Return to Wells Fargo Center
Nearly 20 Years in Manitoba, Winnipeg Jets' Kyle Balharry Reflects on Productions at Bell MTS Place
In NHL's North Division, Calgary Flames Keep Battle of Alberta Alive in Empty Scotiabank Saddledome
Detroit Red Wings Cover Motor City Storylines With Three Digital Shows, Hockeytown Home Ice
During First Two Months on the Road, San Jose Sharks Develop Engaging Content in Different Ways
Inside the Dallas Stars' Wild Month of March
Carolina Hurricanes Sidestep Water Leak To Welcome Fans Back to PNC Arena
Vegas Golden Knights Offer Fortress At Home, Debut Studio for 2020-21 NHL Season
Nashville Predators Harness the Passion of Smashville' at Bridgestone Arena
Preseason Planning: Team Devises a Strategy Before the Start of the Regular Season A look inside the Capitals control room.
As Vice President of Game Presentation for Monumental Sports, the entity that oversees the Capitals and the NBA's Washington Wizards, Lien had his hands full at the beginning of 2021. Due to the persistence of the COVID-19 pandemic, the organization made the decision to play the new season behind closed doors at Capital One Arena. Prior to the team's first contest on Friday, January 22 vs. the Buffalo Sabres, Lien and his team brainstormed a production plan for a season unlike any other.
I don't think any of us knew exactly what we were doing, what was going to happen, or how it was going to work, he says. No one's been through this before, so we got together with the league and shared all of our resources and ideas. As we were planning and getting everyone together, we all said, Well, why don't we just produce the show in the arena as if fans were there?'
Throughout franchise history, the Capitals have been known to have one of the loudest and most passionate fanbases in the National Hockey League. Despite the emptiness that was to accompany the team's home opener, the production crew still wanted to harness the fans' love for the team and energy that they bring every night. After contemplation and thought, the club concluded that they would continue their normal show to supply an intriguing canvas for the television broadcast on NBC Sports Washington.
We're dressing up our LED boards and some of the tarps [near the ice] to make the arena look less empty on television and get the logos of our sponsors seen [by fans at home], continues Lien. We're also showing our opening video sequence and on-ice 3D projection.
Boots on the Ground: Control Room Staff Handles Productions in an Empty Venue With a thorough plan in place, the individuals running the show inside of the venue are diving headfirst with a clear goal in mind. Manager, Game Presentation Alexa Tanzi has taken charge of some of the most important production elements this season, but from her point of view, it's been a unique challenge to overcome the abnormal silence that fills the building prior to puck drop.
It's one of the strangest feelings I've ever encountered in my life, she says. It's almost a culture shock when you walk in and see something completely different.
On the production side, they're combating the silence with different in-venue elements including fabricated crowd noise, but when it comes to the typical fan interactions, those have been unfortunately altered.
It's been a shift in my planning procedures, she adds. In my normal rundown of scripting out a game, I would usually play something towards the crowd and integrate something as small as a t-shirt toss or as large as our pre-show open sequence to connect the fans. Now, I'm doing that for people who are watching on television or on their laptops at home.
At-Home Entertainm
Most recent headlines
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
06/12/2025
In a live broadcast from the Reagan National Defense Forum, L3Harris Chair and CEO Christopher Kubasik joined Morgan Brennan on CNBCs Closing Bell: Overtime. Ku...
06/12/2025
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. A new survey from Pixitmedia by Datacore revealed a major shift in the Media & Entertainment industry in media archiving, with 85% of resp...
06/12/2025
HACKENSACK, N.J. LiveU has announced that the national public broadcaster Czech Television has completed one of the largest LiveU live production deployments fo...
06/12/2025
NEW YORK The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) presented the Excellence in Production Technology Emmy Award to NASA+ and Dr. Tom Leight...
05/12/2025
2025 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame: Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nati...
05/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Veritone's Sean King on the Power of Mining Video, Audio DataThe company's Data Refinery offers users total control and governance over da...
05/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: Inside the Nashville Predators' Unified, Flexible, Sca...
05/12/2025
Netflix Reaches Agreement To Acquire Warner Bros. Following Planned WBD SplitThe deal does not include WBDs sports assets like TNT Sports (US, UK, LatAm), Euros...
05/12/2025
FOX Sports Returns to Indianapolis for Primetime Broadcast of Big Ten Championsh...
05/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Digital Engagement & Monetization Workshop Tackles the ...
05/12/2025
Atlanta United Lights Up New Emory Healthcare Studio With First Live Broadcast f...
05/12/2025
As Messi Takes the Pitch, MLS, Apple, NEP Roll Out Largest MLS Cup Production Ev...
05/12/2025
ESPN Enters College Football's Most Intense Month With Elevated Workflows fo...
05/12/2025
It's about that time! Awards season is in full swing, and the Film Independe...
05/12/2025
Every year, Spotify Wrapped offers a personalized look back at the audio that defined your year. It's a snapshot of your listening habits, designed to tell ...
05/12/2025
In 2025, Spotify's EQUAL, GLOW, and RADAR programs celebrated women, LGBTQIA , and emerging artists who turned moments into milestones. From breaking record...
05/12/2025
In our latest blog, we explain how Wi-Fi 7 rollouts can drive consumer loyalty with value-add services such as consumer cybersecurity. We also explore how this ...
05/12/2025
LOS ANGELES Netflix announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Nielsens Gracenote has launched Gracenote Content Connect, a new ad platform that provides agencies, brands, supply-side platforms (SSPs) and demand-si...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK In an most important update to the workings of deal-based programmatic advertising, IAB Tech Lab has released version 1.0 of its Deals API for public c...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Pass the turkey. Pass the stuffing. Pass the cranberry sauce. All are common requests of Americans celebrating Thanksgiving Day with family and f...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. Netflix announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has approved AT&T's $1.02 billion acquisition of spectrum from UScellular in a decision that was issued sho...
05/12/2025
The Best Coldplay Songs: 21 Tracks That Shoot for the Stars From Yellow to Viva La Vida, Fix You to Paradise, this playlist goes back to the start.
December ...
05/12/2025
Zafris Lecture Series Brings Nabil Ayers to Berklee The 32nd annual James G. Zafris Distinguished Lecture series was held on Thursday, November 13, with guest...
05/12/2025
Introducing New Perks to Help You Get Even More from LinkedIn Premium Published on Dec 5, 2025 Categories: Company News, Product News
LinkedIn Corporate Co...
05/12/2025
Friday 5 December 2025
A new Game of Thrones Tale: Official trailer for Sky Exc...
05/12/2025
Back to All News
Don Lee, Lee Jin-uk, and Lalisa Manobal to Star in Netflix Act...
05/12/2025
Tis the season of giving once again and this year we've taken our Give Back Fridays' concept and turned it on its head.
In the autumn we were approach...
05/12/2025
Brayden Gogis doesn't remember a time when he wasn't completely fixated on games in all forms. In preschool, when they asked us to dress up as what we ...
05/12/2025
The Grinch steals the spotlight as the theme for The Late Late Toy Show 2025
Tune in tonight at 9:35pm on RT One and worldwide on RT Player
#LateLateToyShow...
05/12/2025
RT Announces New Presenters of Flagship News Programmes
New RT Six One News co-presenter Tommy Meskill
Sarah McInerney & Justin McCarthy join Morning Ir...
04/12/2025
ToolsOnAir Blackmagic Design HyperDeck Event Presets for just:in mac pro 2025 & ...
04/12/2025
ToolsOnAir AJA Ki Pro Event Presets for just:in mac pro 2025 & just:in linux
More Details:Starting with version 5.5, both just:in mac pro and just:in linux sol...
04/12/2025
Wangu Kanuri from Kenya and Godwin Asediba from Ghana are two of this years finalists for Thomsons Young Journalist of the Year Award. The pair are runners-up i...
04/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: ProximaVision's Claudio Lisman on Why Tethered Drones Could Be...
04/12/2025
SVG Campus Shot Callers: Imry Halevi, Senior Associate Director of Athletics, Co...
04/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: LiveU Lightweight Sports Production: A Step Change in Spor...
04/12/2025
London to Riyadh: DAZN brings the boxing glamour to new production levels for Be...
04/12/2025
Analysis: Paramount bets on the battering ram' with Champions League play By Callum McCarthy, Editor-at-Large
Tuesday, December 2, 2025 - 10:12
Print ...
04/12/2025
Space City Home Network Launches SCHN DTC App for Astros and RocketsThe Rockets and Astros were previously the lone NBA and MLB teams without a DTC appBy Jason...
04/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Content Workflows Workshop Spotlights Evolution of Spor...
04/12/2025
New Sponsor Spotlight: Geotech's Patrick Wambold On the Unreal Engine Revolu...
04/12/2025
Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nationally and RegionallyBy Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S.
Thursday, December 4, 2025 - 1:52 pm
Print This Sto...
04/12/2025
(L-R) Rebecca Lichtenfeld, Mohammadreza Eyni, Sara Khaki, and Judith Helfand att...
04/12/2025
SBS launches Future Frames initiative to support emerging First Nations video ed...
At the Rink: Washington Capitals Approach Regular Season With Virtual Gameday Digital Experience, Traditional In-Venue Flair Fans are returning on April 27 vs. the New York Islanders By Kristian Hernandez, Associate Editor 
