NHL Faceoff 2025: Entering Its Fifth Year as League Partner, ESPN Captures the Sport's Speed, Subtlety

NHL Faceoff 2025: Entering Its Fifth Year as League Partner, ESPN Captures the Sport's Speed, SubtletyNew tools, refined workflows bring hockey's breakneck pace closer to the fanBy Brandon Costa, Director of Digital

Tuesday, October 7, 2025 - 4:00 pm

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Few sports move as fast - or demand as much precision - as ice hockey. For ESPN's production and operations teams, the challenge is not only to keep up with the puck but also to help fans see what their eyes can't always catch in real time.

Enter a new season of NHL on ESPN, where slow-motion replays, low-angle cameras, on-ice rigs, and dynamic audio mixes converge to bring the sport's speed and skill into sharper focus than ever before.

Our athletes are some of the fastest, strongest, most impressive athletes in the world, says Linda Schulz, VP, production, NHL, ESPN. We're always looking for ways to help people who didn't grow up strapping on skates understand that - and to make it feel as close to being in the arena as possible.

This year, ESPN's NHL coverage - which begins with a tripleheader tonight, starting with the Florida Panthers' Stanley Cup banner-raising at 5 p.m. ET - takes another stride toward that immersive experience. From new behind-the-net camera angles to skate-mounted shots and enhanced sound design, the production team is emphasizing intimacy, clarity, and analysis - all in the pursuit of showing the speed of the game in a way that's both beautiful and intelligible.

New Perspectives: The Camera Behind the GoalAt the heart of ESPN's visual upgrade is a new low camera position, just behind the goal and slightly above the glass, a spot developed in collaboration with the NHL over the past year. Outfitted with a small-format POV camera from PROTON Camera Innovations, the position captures the chaos and creativity behind the net like never before: wraparounds, quick passes, and goalie scrambles that often decide games but can be difficult to follow from traditional broadcast angles.

That position speaks to how to bring the fan closer and make them feel like they're in the arena, Schulz explains. It's similar to a handheld on the corner but, with the goal centered in the frame, gives you a new spatial context. Whether you're taking it live or using it in replay, it feels like the view from the seats; it instantly connects you to the game.

The behind-the-net camera also aligns with ESPN's broader push toward high-frame-rate imaging. Through a new exclusive partnership with Game Creek Video, the broadcaster has outfitted its NHL trucks with PROTON's HFR small-form cameras, providing crisp, super-slow-motion detail on shots, deflections, and saves - those blink-and-you'll-miss-it moments that fans and analysts crave.

We've replaced all our POV cameras with a new PROTON series, says Brock Wetherbee, senior remote operations technical specialist, ESPN. We're also experimenting with a high-frame-rate model that lets us see plays develop in a more cinematic way. When you pair that with our new goal-line position, you're not just covering the game; you're explaining it visually.

Skate Cam, MindFly, and On-Ice AccessIf the goal-line camera puts viewers at ice level, the Skate Cam takes them directly onto it. The rig returns this season with expanded access, including post-goal celebrations and bench interactions. The result is a perspective that feels personal and spontaneous, offering flashes of joy, frustration, and energy that typically only players experience.

ESPN is working with NHL to expand the access of Skate Cam. Here, the camera was used by ESPN at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, FL, during the 2024 Stanley Cup Final. (Photos: Phil Ellsworth/ESPN Images)

During the Four Nations Face-Off tournament earlier this year, ESPN and the NHL tested new parameters for Skate Cam deployment. The results were electric.

After a goal, getting that Skate Cam onto the ice gave us a view of the celebration that was really special, Schulz recalls. It was one of those moments when everyone in the truck went, Ooh, what's that?' You don't get many of those anymore, that surprise. We're bringing that back for Opening Night and for our major tentpole events.

The broadcaster is also working closely with the NHL to integrate MindFly, a body-mounted camera system that records stabilized, first-person video and audio. It has been used in the past during pregame moments at the Stanley Cup Final.

MindFly's best use might actually be hockey, Schulz points out. Because players are on skates, the movement is so smooth. During Four Nations, we put it on referees, and the experience was outstanding. It's something we're aiming to expand into regular-season and special-event coverage.

Audio as AtmosphereHockey's energy is not only seen but heard: the slicing of skates, the rattle of boards, the smack of a slapshot. ESPN's audio team has worked to elevate that sensory experience into a storytelling tool.

Our sound design is about the experiential part of hockey, says Wetherbee. The puck moves so fast and the cuts are so quick that the sound has to follow the action dynamically.

Each broadcast now features multiple-layered audio mixes, crafted in real time by the A1 inside the truck. Every rinkside-glass microphone - three to six per goal for major events - feeds into a custom 5.1 submix that can pan and fade in sync with the camera cut. The result: a soundscape that tracks with the visuals, bringing the home viewer's ears right to the ice.

For Opening Night, that immersion will go a step further, with limited referee mics and new ambient configurations designed to highlight in-game communication: whistles, line calls, even snippets of player chatt

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