The National Hockey League (NHL) and its U.S. and Canadian broadcast partners are bringing fans closer to the intensity of playoff hockey with a first-of-its-kind approach for the league through a new collaborative marketing campaign ahead of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs.<\/p>\n
The NHL, ESPN, TNT Sports and Sportsnet are collectively creating a cohesive look and feel for fans through a high-energy campaign showcasing why the Stanley Cup Playoffs are must-watch.<\/p>\n
The campaign, \u201cYou Just Have to Watch,\u201d features a series of creative spots for the first three rounds of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, with each network having its own version of the creative. The first spot, which debuted today, is \u201cFired Up.\u201d<\/p>\n
The creative concept is meant to show how intense,\u00a0exciting\u00a0and adrenaline-filled postseason hockey is. NHL fans know what playoff hockey\u00a0is all\u00a0about, but as new patrons walk into packed hockey bars in the creative, they too learn that the Stanley Cup Playoffs deliver unmatched entertainment.<\/p>\n
Two other spots, \u201cOvertime\u201d and \u201cDo Anything,\u201d debut ahead of the Second Round and Conference Finals, respectively. Each network owns post-production of one spot, with ESPN editing \u201cFired Up,\u201d Sportsnet editing \u201cOvertime\u201d and TNT Sports editing \u201cDo Anything.\u201d All creative was developed by creative agency Arts & Letters Creative Co.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs begin April 18.<\/p>\n
Executive Quotes:\u00a0<\/p>\n
NHL:\u00a0Said Casey Hall, NHL Senior Vice President, Marketing & Innovation: \u201cThis joint campaign is due to the incredible partners we have at\u00a0ESPN,\u00a0TNT\u00a0and Sportsnet. Their collaborative spirit and shared vision have been instrumental in expanding our reach, aligning our\u00a0message\u00a0and bringing the excitement of the Stanley Cup Playoffs to more fans than ever before.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
ESPN:\u00a0Said Brian Iglesias, Vice President, Sports Marketing at ESPN: \u201cWe wanted this campaign to show new audiences that it only takes one game to get hooked on the intensity,\u00a0energy\u00a0and unpredictability of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. By working collectively with the league and other broadcast partners, we were able to create a connective thread across every platform that tells this unified story in a powerful way.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sportsnet:\u00a0Said Adam Bower, VP, Marketing and Creative at Rogers Sports & Media: \u201cThe Stanley Cup Playoffs are among the most intense and exciting events in\u00a0all of\u00a0sports. Our collaborative approach to this year\u2019s campaign with the NHL and its other broadcast partners reflects a shared commitment to growing the game across North America and telling a unified story on hockey\u2019s biggest stage.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
TNT:\u00a0Said Drew Watkins, SVP, Creative Director at TNT Sports: \u201cThe NHL continues to spearhead exciting ways to connect with\u00a0fans,\u00a0while drawing on the shared enthusiasm its broadcasters have for playoff hockey. We were all pursuing a unified approach, while\u00a0retaining\u00a0the ability to fine-tune aspects of the creative to meet our respective network\u2019s promotional needs.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n
Creative Credits:
NHL
Casey Hall, SVP Marketing & Innovation
Dan Palla, Sr. Director Marketing
Charlie\u00a0Keuchler, Sr. Manager Marketing\u00a0<\/p>\n
ESPN
Jo Fox, SVP Marketing
Brian Iglesias, VP Sports Marketing
Lucas Ferraro, Sr Director Sports Marketing
Jason Ritchkoff, Assoc Director, Sports Marketing
Sierra Edwards, Assoc Manager, Sports Marketing
Emma Mansfield, Coordinator, Sports Marketing
Christopher Mantzaris, Sr Director, Production
Shaun Leska, Assoc Director, Creative Production
Matthew Cheron, Assoc Director, Creative Production
Jonathan Weber, Sr Producer, Creative Production
Albert Herrera, Sr Producer
Thomas O\u2019Hare, Lead Producer Editor
Grayson Sedory, Supervising Post Editor
Matthew Stolbof, Creative Production Assistant
David Cohen, Art Director\u00a0<\/p>\n
SPORTSNET
Adam Bower, VP Marketing & Creative
Julia McDonald, Director Marketing
Irene Bastl, Sr. Manager Marketing
Patrick McCann, Director Promo & Commercial Creative
Hilding Gnanapragasam, Sr. Creative Director
John Mallon, Sr. Promo Producer & Editor
Murray Fleming, Sound Designer\u00a0<\/p>\n
TNT
Drew Watkins, SVP Creative Director
Tyler Lassiter, Senior Creative Director
Brodie Wasserman, Senior Marketing Director
Dylan Harrison, Marketing Manager
Brett Langefels, Senior Editor
Sean McPherson, Compositor & Colorist
Dan Cahill, Sound Designer\u00a0<\/p>\n
A&L
EXECUTIVE CREATIVE DIRECTOR:
Charles Hodges
Molly Jamison\u00a0<\/p>\n
DIRECTOR OF STRATEGY:
Andy Grayson\u00a0<\/p>\n
HEAD OF PRODUCTION\/EXECUTIVE PRODUCER:
Lisa Setten\u00a0<\/p>\n
CREATIVE DIRECTORS:
Brett Simone
Chris Kim\u00a0<\/p>\n
CREATIVE TEAM:
Jacob Castillo
Sam Case
Brendan Howard
Matt Terrell\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
PRODUCER:
Rachael Yang\u00a0<\/p>\n
GROUP BUSINESS DIRECTOR:
Alex Scaros\u00a0<\/p>\n
BUSINESS DIRECTOR:
Guy Campbell\u00a0<\/p>\n
BUSINESS MANAGER:
Paige Majdic\u00a0<\/p>\n
STRATEGIST:
Joe Carr
Scott Woodhouse\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
MUSIC SUPERVISOR:\u00a0
Casey Wheeler\u00a0<\/p>\n
DIRECTOR OF BUSINESS AFFAIRS:
Lenora Cushing
Kim Burns\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
BUSINESS AFFAIRS MANAGER:
Jennifer Kmetzsch\u00a0<\/p>\n
FILM PRODUCTION: OPOSITIVE \/ SOMEPLACE NICE
Director:\u00a0Kenny Herzog
Executive Producer:\u00a0Ken Licata Jr.
Executive Producer:\u00a0Ralph Laucella
Executive Producer:\u00a0Estelle Weir
Executive Producer:\u00a0Marc Grill
Line Producer:\u00a0Kellyann Murphy
Director of Photography:\u00a0Mat Barkley
Assistant Director:\u00a0Scott Weatherall\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The National Hockey League (NHL) and its U.S. and Canadian broadcast partners are bringing fans closer to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":532192,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[463,464],"tags":[5,4,60,14,104,718],"class_list":{"0":"post-532191","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl-playoffs","8":"category-stanley-cup-playoffs","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-nhl-playoffs","12":"tag-stanley-cup","13":"tag-stanley-cup-playoffs","14":"tag-stanley-cup-playoffs-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116321660645773494","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=532191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532191\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/532192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=532191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=532191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=532191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}