Best Snow Day Ever: NESN, Bruins Roll Out NHL's Latest Animated-Data-Visualization Altcast With a STEM Twist On-ice data will be used to produce science-, tech-, engineering-, and math-focused segments By Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S.
Tuesday, March 11, 2025 - 3:30 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
Waking up on a cold winter morning and hearing the words snow day are music to any New England kid's ears. Tonight, the Boston Bruins, NESN, and the NHL are looking to bring that excitement to the Best Snow Day Ever, the latest animated data visualization in the NHL HOCKEYVERSE world. The Bruins-Panthers animated altcast, which airs tonight at 7 p.m. locally on NESN+ and the NESN 360 app, will take kids on an imaginary snow day off from school, following Blades, the Bruins' mascot, on an adventure as he's transported into a snow globe of an imaginary Boston.
All photos courtesy of NHL
We know that, in the ever-changing marketplace of sports-media content, especially within regional sports networks, there is a need to solidify the engagement and the expand our reach for younger fans, says Josh Jun, VP, content, NESN. Rarely do you have an opportunity like this: both the league and the team partner are fully committed to an innovative and fresh [concept] that also allows you to flex some of the creative muscles that you don't necessarily get to use very often within the traditional broadcast landscape. We couldn't be more excited.
Best Snow Day Ever is the first of four regional animated altcasts that the league has planned for the remainder of the season (along with a variety of other NHL HOCKEYVERSE activations), but NESN is looking to differentiate its coverage by mixing in STEM-focused lessons that use hockey as a vehicle to teach math, physics, and science concepts.
A big priority for the Bruins right from the start was to make it educational and STEM-focused so we jumped on board with that right away, says Jun. The thought was, even though you're missing school and watching the game, you still need to do your homework for the next day when you're back at school. In terms of that overall concept, we hit the mark very well.
From NYC to Watertown: NHL, NESN Team Up on Split Production Workflow As has been the case in the league's previous animated-data visualization efforts, the NESN altcast will be driven by Sony's Beyond Sports technology platform, NHL EDGE Positional Data (provided by SMT), and Sony's Hawk-Eye Innovations optical tracking.
The animated game feed will be produced by the NHL out of the league's studios in New York City. NESN reporter Adam Pellerin will call play-by-play and former Bruin Andrew Ference provide analysis via Apple Vision Pro headsets. NHL Studios VP/Coordinating Director Matt Celli and his team produce the show using nearly 60 virtual cameras available in the Beyond Sports platform.
Intermission content is being produced by the NESN original-content team and will emanate from the RSN's Watertown, MA, studios. NESN's original-content team collaborated closely with the Bruins marketing and comms teams and with league partner GameDay Creative to develop the Best Snow Day Ever on-air product.
We are providing our [on-air] talent and our creative to the league for the game action, says Jun. That will all be done in New York City by Matt Celli and his team, who are phenomenal and have a lot of experience in creating these [altcasts]. The intermissions are essentially our sandbox to play around in.
Building a STEMcast: Creating a Broadcast That Is Both Fun and Educational Justine Pouravelis, director, original content, NESN (and the network's lead on the project), and Fred Nutter, manager, long-form content, spearheaded development of the Best Snow Day Ever concept and led production of the variety of elements that fans will see during intermissions.
The genesis of the idea came from a member of our original-content team, notes Jun, but it was truly a team effort with the Bruins and the league. We knew we had to operate within the NHL's HOCKEYVERSE theme, but we also wanted to bring some wild and crazy ideas into this environment because the possibilities that animation provides you are endless.
In addition to the STEM lessons, the animated data visualization will feature intermission content in which Bruins players will participate in interactive segments designed to make learning fun. For example, one segment will focus on the freezing temperature of the ice and what the playing surface is actually made of (hint: it's a lot more than just water).
Viewers will also experience a Boston-centric narrative showcasing local landmarks, history, and culture and highlighting STEM lessons that tie back to the on-ice action between the Bruins and Panthers.
I'm excited about the fact that we're the first to add an educational element to this [animated-altcast] format, says Jun. Since this is an animated-data-visualization project, there is so much data that we can utilize for those elements, such as the speed of the player or the speed of the puck. We have all this information, so it's up to us to translate that data into compelling STEM lessons in the broadcast.
Jun adds that NESN is targeting a slightly older demographic compared with the NHL's previous animated altcasts, such as the Big City Green Classics in 2023 and 2024.
Where Big City Greens was targeting a very younger audience, he explains, we are targeting more of the late-grammar-school and early-middle-school crowd. We also wanted to make it so that, whether you're a parent or a child, you take something interesting away from it.
Serving younger audiences is nothing new for the Bruins and NESN, both of whom have ongoing commitments to engage with and educat
Most recent headlines
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
19/11/2025
Sphere Sound Kicks Up Its Heels at Radio City Music HallUltra-immersive system from the singular Las Vegas venue is also ready for sportsBy Dan Daley, Audio Edi...
19/11/2025
The Future of Stadium and Arena Video Control Rooms: Tech Leaders Talk 4K, IP, a...
19/11/2025
One Year at Intuit Dome: Walking Through the Stunning Arena's Advanced Video...
19/11/2025
SVG Sit-Down: IMG's Francois Westcombe Goes Inside IMG's Annual Digital ...
19/11/2025
Inside Brighton & Hove Albion's fan-first media machine By George Bevir
Tuesday, November 18, 2025 - 10:10
Print This Story
Brighton & Hove Albion'...
19/11/2025
Rock Chalk Rebuild, Part 1: Kansas Athletics Brings New Production Power to Rebu...
19/11/2025
Rock Chalk Rebuild, Part 2: A Pro's Guide to Kansas Athletics' New Video...
19/11/2025
MLB Media Rights Shakeup: NBC Inks Three-Year Deal for Sunday Night Baseball, Pe...
19/11/2025
Rohan Parashuram Kanawade attends the premiere of Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears) at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival at Egyptian Theatre on January 26, 2025, in Pa...
19/11/2025
Awards season is heating up, and the International Documentary Association just ...
19/11/2025
Aerojet Rocketdyne President Ken Bedingfield and Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders were joined by state and local officials to celebrate the groundbreaking o...
19/11/2025
L3Harris and PentenAmio formalise their teaming agreement at MilCIS 2025, streng...
19/11/2025
Calrec gives Phoenix Broadcast Solutions its full support in strategic multi-year enterprise partnership New Singapore OB company invests in Calrec technology f...
19/11/2025
October brings a larger audience in front of TV screens. The cooler autumn weather and the continuation of new programming schedules brought increases in both t...
19/11/2025
IRVING, Texas Nexstar Media Group and Tegna filed applications on Nov. 18 with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) seeking its consent to transfer broad...
19/11/2025
Vitec has acquired Datapath, a developer of real-time video processing for large-scale video walls, AVoIP content distribution and KVM control in mission-critic...
19/11/2025
NEVADA CITY, Calif. Telestream has introduced ARGUS Version 2.3, which introduces Live Look, a feature that lets operators inspect live and on-demand streams vi...
19/11/2025
STAMFORD, Conn. and NEW YORK Charter Communications, Inc. has announced a major deal with Amazon Web Services (AWS) that establishes AWS as one of Charters stra...
19/11/2025
TOKYO Atomos has announced a major firmware update that brings integrated camera control to the Ninja TX GO and Ninja TX its new CFexpress-based monitor-recor...
19/11/2025
Berklee's Signature Series Reimagines the Musical and Visual Artistry of Col...
19/11/2025
PlayBox Neo departed the NAB Show New York 2025 on a high note. The company's all-new PlayBox Neo Suite made a splash on the show floor, drawing strong inte...
19/11/2025
AAVBR (American Audio Visual Baton Rouge), a leading full-service event production company serving Louisiana and the Gulf Coast region, has enhanced its product...
19/11/2025
In its mission to deliver live event services combining advanced engineering with a creative approach to captivating live sports and entertainment experiences, ...
19/11/2025
NEW YORK Short-form vertical video has exploded across platforms like TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, but a new survey commissioned by Media.net, a provider of c...
19/11/2025
NEW YORK YES Network, the regional sports network home of the New York Yankees and Brooklyn Nets, and CAMB.AI have struck a partnership they said will leverage ...
19/11/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has issued detailed guidance on filings that were disrupted by the government shutdown. While many of those fil...
19/11/2025
NEW YORK The popularity of NFL games is largely responsible for continued seasonal momentum in TV viewership into October (measured Sept. 29-Oct. 26), according...
19/11/2025
DirecTV has announced that its MyFree DirecTV streaming service has added seven new channels. Those include four sports services, NBA FAST, Red Bull TV, DAZN Ri...
19/11/2025
SURREY, U.K. Mark Roberts Motion Control (MRMC) has launched Flair Bridge, a compact device that transforms how operators control the company's motion-contr...
19/11/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission, which is continuing to rapidly ramp up its operations after the end of the federal government shutdown, has se...
19/11/2025
IRVING, Texas Nexstar Media Group and Tegna filed applications on Nov. 18 with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) seeking its consent to transfer broad...
19/11/2025
Martin Freeman, Jessie Buckley, Wu-Tang Clan's Raekwon, Eddie the Eagle and ...
19/11/2025
Rohde & Schwarz collaborates with Broadcom to enable testing and validation of n...
19/11/2025
Back to All News
Innato, starring Imanol Arias and Elena Anaya, arrives on Netf...
19/11/2025
Back to All News
Guillermo del Toro Sits Down With Troll 2 Director Roar Uthaug...
19/11/2025
Some projects feel monumental from the moment the first phone call comes in. When BCE, the host broadcaster appointed to coordinate the national coverage, asked...
19/11/2025
November 19 2025, 08:00 (PST) BAY AREA HOST COMMITTEE AND DOLBY PARTNER TO DELIVER IMMERSIVE FAN EXPERIENCES
During the Week of Football's Biggest Game...
19/11/2025
Michael D. Higgins: Ireland's Ninth President features RT Archives footage and interviews across seven decades
Watch Wednesday 19 November at 9:35pm on RT...
19/11/2025
Scripps Research scientists receive $1.1 million to advance AI modeling for HIV vaccine development New AI system helps scientists rapidly pinpoint the most pro...
18/11/2025
Independent media across Central America are operating under intensifying financial pressure, yet there is a clear appetite for models that can sustain both ind...
18/11/2025
NBA Debuts New Comms Infrastructure and Systems for RefereesTwo-phase rollout is intended to improve game flow, enhance officiating accuracyBy Dan Daley, Audio ...
18/11/2025
Platinum White Paper: How Aggreko Delivers Certainty For Broadcasters On The Wor...
18/11/2025
Kiswe Extends DTC Products With Kiswe Core Cloud-Based Tool for Distributing Con...
18/11/2025
Spanish Basketball Federation partners with ScorePlay to power digital transform...
18/11/2025
HBS selects BBright encoders and decoders to connect ST 2110 live production wor...
18/11/2025
Ashes to Ashes: Inside TNT Sports' hybrid and maverick' production plan...
18/11/2025
SVG All-Stars: Mimi Fotopoulos, Director, Talent and Production Operations, Tenn...
18/11/2025
SVG LIVE! Conference Explores the Tech Side of Sports and Entertainment ConvergenceLive sports and music productions increasingly share gear and infrastructureB...
Best Snow Day Ever: NESN, Bruins Roll Out NHL's Latest Animated-Data-Visualization Altcast With a STEM Twist On-ice data will be used to produce science-, tech-, engineering-, and math-focused segments By Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S. 
