Despite being one of the most exciting, fast-paced sports in the professional atmosphere, the NHL has long been known as the most boring. But it has nothing to do with the game on the ice.
The National Hockey League, and hockey in general, produce carbon copies of players with the same, pre-prescribed personalities. For years, post-game interviews with the same three phrases and stiff acting in TV commercials were not hard to come by. However, there may be hope for the dullest league in pro sports.
With the emergence of social media, fans have gotten a closer look at their favourite athletes. The more casual style of reporting that social media offers has created an opportunity for athletes to show viewers their true personalities.
This has been seen especially with TikTok’s growing popularity. Hockey clubs have realized it is worth putting their efforts into creating engaging content for TikTok, thus, giving users an inside look at their team’s players.
While teams have varying presences on TikTok and other social media platforms, the shift towards creating more casual content is league-wide. Players are no longer being trained to lose all their personality by the time they make it to the league, and social media managers everywhere are capitalizing on it.
The Boston Bruins have one of the most successful TikTok pages because their athletes follow trends like the rest of the people on the app. Brad Marchand‘s lip-singing to “Yummy” by Ayesha Erotica is going to get views no matter how you shake it.
Some of the most iconic moments from the season have come from off-ice content.
But what social media has really done for the NHL is open up its fan base. By following trends on social media, organizations are letting viewers everywhere become fans of their players instead of their team.
People who may not have been a fan of the sport otherwise are following the off-season moves to see if their favourite “besties” are getting split up.
In another case of the Bruins going viral, when “Swaymark” split up this offseason, “Hockey Twitter” and TikTok went crazy. People who know hockey and keep up with the statistical side of the game knew that the Bruins were splitting up one of the strongest tandems in the game, but because of the players’ personalities shining through, the entire hockey world knew that would be the last of the goalie hugs.
This easy accessibility to players and the sport through social media has also created another phenomenon. So many more hockey fans’ favourite team is not the one local to them.
Whether that is because their favourite player got traded to a team farther away or because a certain team’s TikTok’s started popping up on their “For You Page,” it has become easier to keep up with your favourite team no matter where they are.
This has brought a variety of new fans to the sport. From casuals who just like watching their favourite players to die-hard hockey fans, players showing off their personalities is beneficial for everyone involved.
As the years go by and more Gen Z players enter the league, more individual personalities are coming with them. There will always be players like Connor McDavid and Connor Bedard who may not have the most exciting post-game pressers, and crack a smile less often than you’d think, but even they have their moments.
But fans want to cheer for someone they can relate to or laugh with. We saw it in the recent NHL Draft with Beckett Sennecke. His viral “OMG” moment brought so many new fans to Sennecke and the Ducks. Some people don’t grasp just how impactful a viral moment can be; this kid has fan pages made for him and he hasn’t seen a professional minute yet.
That is the kind of power having a likeable personality can be.
So gone are the days of cardboard cut-out players and out-of-touch athletes. Social media has reminded us that these are real people, too, and they can do a TikTok dance just as poorly as the rest of us.
