'NHL Big City Greens Classic 2' will be 'really cool' Weekes says

Saturday’s matchup between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Boston Bruins will feature some of the top hockey players in the League, namely Sidney Crosby, Kris Letang, Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak.

And, depending on which network you watch the game, you could see some of the main characters from Disney’s hit cartoon, "Big City Greens," right alongside them.

For the second year in a row, the NHL is providing a special broadcast of the game that will show real-time players on the ice animated as characters from the cartoon.

"The NHL Big City Greens Classic 2," will be available at 3 p.m. on Saturday on Disney+, Disney Channel, ESPN+ and Disney XD. The regular broadcast of the game will be on ABC and ESPN+. 

Kevin Weekes will be calling the game (and will be animated himself) alongside an animated Drew Carter and Arda Öcal. All three broadcasters will also be wearing virtual reality headsets to help immerse themselves in the game.

“It’s definitely upper tier because it’s unique,” Weekes told NHL.com. “The fact that it’s such a unique offering is really cool. I wish we did more of it and I hope we end up doing more of it.”

Big City Greens characters will be featured throughout the broadcast, including Cricket as the coach of the Penguins and Gramma as the coach of the Bruins. Cricket’s sister, Tilly, will also be featured.

“The fact that you’re able to have Cricket and Tilly and some of the awesome characters in "Big City Greens" competing – either playing or coaching – with real time Sid or Malkin or Pasta or Marchand, it’s pretty amazing,” said Weekes. “It’s really cool. It’s a melding of two amazing worlds.”

Weekes sees this broadcast as a “force multiplier,” capturing the attention of young hockey fans, which in turn brings family members and other fans.

“When you capture the attention of a youngster, ultimately mom’s involved, dad’s involved, siblings are involved, grandparents,” said Weekes. “A lot of these kids are the future generation of people that are going to be playing the game or coaching the game or owning teams.”

To animate the players and broadcasters, the presentation will use two types of tracking technologies: NHL EDGE positional data (NHL Puck and Player tracking) and Hawk-Eye Innovations optical tracking to create more dynamic player movements.

It’s a lot to keep track of, and a bigger operation than what Weekes is normally used to, which means countless hours are being spent on preparation for Saturday.

The crew is doing walk-throughs throughout the week and will have a run through right after the NHL trade deadline wraps up Friday.

Then, Saturday morning, there will be another run through to iron out all the details before puck drop at 3 p.m.

There are certainly a lot of moving parts, but to Weekes it’s more than worth it. He raved about the positive feedback he received from last year’s broadcast, hearing from hockey fans, players, owners and general managers about the success of the broadcast.

“People just want to see and feel and touch and experience the game in different ways,” Weekes said. “It’s another awesome offering and showcasing of our sport and our game.”