'Music City Hockey in Smashville' Animated Program Set to Present the Preds Like Never Before

You’ve never seen the Predators like this before.

On April 1, when the team faces the Blue Jackets in Columbus, fans back in Nashville will have the opportunity to watch their favorite club in a way that is, quite simply, incredibly cool.

In conjunction with the NHL and NewsChannel 5 (WTVF), the Predators will be part of a unique initiative with a broadcast of the data visualization entitled, “Music City Hockey in Smashville” presented by Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt at 6 p.m. CT on April 1.

Airing on NewsChannel 5, the CBS affiliate in Nashville, fans will be treated to an animated broadcast of not only the game between the Preds and Blue Jackets, but also an adventure with team mascot GNASH with his Music City friends to watch a Predators hockey game.

Predators broadcasters Max Herz and Chris Mason - who have also been animated - will call the game live as it happens on NewsChannel 5, and the broadcast will then be available on YouTube shortly after the contest.

All in all, this is something not only young Preds fans - but the entire family - won’t want to miss.

“I'm just happy everyone else gets to see it, because I've been describing it to people, and words can't do it justice,” Herz said. “The art, the animation, the renderings of Nashville, the different things they can do with the technology, are unbelievable… They’ve done such a great job making this a totally unique thing. I just want everyone to see it, because once people see it, they're going to get glued to it and want to keep watching.”

“We're very excited on a number of fronts,” NHL SVP of Marketing & Innovation Casey Hall said. “It's exciting to us to see the technology that we have so heavily invested in and developed over the last number of years begin to come to life, and to come to life in different ways. To see these animated data visualizations that we're doing with not just Nashville, but a few other clubs, finding ways to present the game in a different way to new audiences, and young audiences that we want to reach and connect with around the game is really exciting… It’s all really encouraging to us at the League level about the future potential for both animated content, as well as just the underlying EDGE technology in the puck and player technology and what else we’ll be able to ultimately develop off of it to better serve fans.”

The puck and player tracking elements the NHL has implemented in recent years is paramount in being able to take what’s happening in a live game and simultaneously turn it into an animated form.

According to Hall, the system, which includes a chip in the puck and a chip in each player’s jersey, records approximately 12 to 50 pings per second from each chip. That allows for the ingestion of positional data for each player and the puck on the ice.

Additionally, the optical data system now includes approximately 12 to 15 different cameras in each NHL arena, which allow for capturing of things like stick movements and skeletal movements of players, which in turn delivers more accurate movement in an animated form.

Put it all together, and the final product is simply something that must be seen to be believed.

“It's incredible how realistic it is,” Herz said. “It’s not supposed to look like it's a real game, sure, but it is a real game. And it's unbelievable how much it looks like a real hockey game going on in the animated world. I can't say enough about how cool it's going to be.”

While the broadcast is going on, the animated program will also feature appearances from Predators players answering questions about hockey, teamwork, music and other topics. Plus, Gnash will be all over an animated Lower Broadway in downtown Nashville with surprise appearances and local flavor that will showcase Music City like never before.

For example, a recent trailer released on social media of the event showed Gnash fishing items - like a scooter and goalposts - out of the Cumberland River.

“There's going to be funny stuff for adults in there, too,” Herz said. “The whole family's going to love it. Everybody's going to love it.”

The Preds are one of a handful of teams who have already participated in something similar, or will soon, including the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Calgary Flames. The NHL continues to lead in the animated programming space among other professional sports, and the investment in the product is only just beginning.

“We just see so much potential for the technology, whether that's animated content as full-length games or just highlights that are animated, or condensed games, or something that's not animated at all,” Hall said. “ What we're doing and what we're pushing is leading us into these new areas that’s similar to the animated content we're doing right now. Three years ago, we weren't even thinking about that, and then when we started to see things come together, all of a sudden, it became something that was a possibility. And so we're excited about the future possibilities of the technology.”

In the meantime, an animated Smashville is sure to delight, no matter how the real game that night turns out.

“I just hope the viewers can learn some of the elements of what it means to be on a hockey team,” Mason said. “We’re hopefully going to implement some of the rules and reasons why things are done in hockey, but I think a lot of it is these players are just like them… The NHL really committed and worked hard to show how much of a great sport and community hockey is. So, we're hoping to really try to sell that and have kids, especially those that are new to hockey and to the sport, maybe get interested in it and start following along, and maybe get some more hockey players because of it.”

So, mark your calendars for April 1, no fooling. Instead, just sit back and enjoy the hockey, become a bigger fan and perhaps engage in some tomfoolery along the way.

“Just having fun with it is the biggest thing,” Herz said. “And I think that'll be easy for ‘Mace’ and I to lead that charge and rope everybody in with us. But also, it's a big goal to help kids learn the game of hockey and learn about our players, and learn about the fact that our players have kids who are their age. They coach their kids in hockey, and these players come from all over the world to play in Smashville, and we get to see them play. That’s really cool, and we want them to know more about who they are.”