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Within the NHL, Canadian Broadcasting Plans
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Within the NHL, Canadian Broadcasting Plans

The name of the highly anticipated new NHL docuseries has been revealed. And a new trailer delivers enough tidbits to keep hockey fans counting the minutes until “Faceoff: Inside the NHL” debuts globally on Prime Video on Friday, October 4.

We see William Nylander begging a Toronto Maple Leafs teammate to, “Stop crying, bro,” and Connor McDavid yelling, “It’s the Finals. Go for it. Right now!” in the Edmonton Oilers locker room.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg for the six-episode series, which is produced by NHL Productions and Box to Box, the production company behind the acclaimed sports documentary series ‘Formula 1: Drive to Survive,’ ‘Full Swing,’ ‘Break Point’ and more.

Since production on “Faceoff” began in February, film crews have had unprecedented access to the sport’s most charismatic stars: a group of mostly 20-somethings who grew up with the convenience of cameras in the social media age and are currently among the league’s best players.

And unlike NHL Productions’ long-running documentary series like “The Road to the NHL Winter Classic” or “Quest for the Stanley Cup,” the “Faceoff” series focuses less on teams and more on individual personalities.

Hockey players are notorious for keeping their individuality a secret within the confines of their team sport. But Box to Box founder Paul Martin was pleasantly surprised by the reception he received when he started talking to players during the 2024 All-Star weekend in Toronto.

“You never know how those conversations are going to go,” Martin said. “But I think we were really encouraged right away by the investment that we got from these players who said, ‘Yeah, that sounds cool. Yeah, we’d love to be a part of it.’ It was a little bit counter to what people had told us about hockey players.”

Nylander was one of the first players to embrace the concept. Episode 1 focuses on his long friendship — and rivalry — with David Pastrnak.

Other players on the roster include Colorado Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog, who spent the past two seasons on the injured list, New York Rangers captain Jacob Trouba, Vancouver Canucks captain Quinn Hughes and newly crowned Stanley Cup champion Matthew Tkachuk. Also featured are three Edmonton players who led his Florida Panthers to Game 7 of the Finals: McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Zach Hyman.

The fifth and sixth episodes are called ‘Cup or Bust: Parts I and II.’

“When Florida is up 3-0, you think it’s the end,” Martin said of the production. “And it’s just the most amazing kind of comeback. When you see those episodes, they’re extraordinary. I think you see a little bit of it in the trailer, but I think everyone is blown away by the image of Connor in the thick of it.”

“Faceoff: Inside the NHL” is just one pillar in an extensive partnership between the NHL and Amazon. Since 2021, the league has relied on Amazon Web Services’ cloud-based content delivery system to power some of its video content and analytics tools, including NHL Edge. The first NHL/Prime Video collaboration, “All or Nothing: Toronto Maple Leafs,” also premiered in 2021, with other productions to follow.

This fall, Prime Video will air live games, taking over Canada’s national Monday Night Hockey coverage from rights holder Rogers Sportsnet. The broadcast team will be led by play-by-play announcer John Forslund and headlined by Hall of Famer Mark Messier.

On Thursday nights, Andi Petrillo will also host a rotating cast of analysts on a program called “NHL Coast to Coast.” Each week, it will highlight more than 10 games from the first puck drop to the final whistle in a format similar to “NFL RedZone.”

‘NHL Coast to Coast’ debuts on Thursday, Oct. 10 — two days after the regular season officially begins in North America. ‘Monday Night Hockey’ kicks off on Oct. 14 at the Bell Centre when the Montreal Canadiens host Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins.