When interpreting the annual state of the Stanley Cup Final from the NHL address into American Sign Language for the first time in 2022, Brice Christianson feared it would be a one-time thing, his only chance to open hockey’s doors to the Deaf community.
Two years later, it’s hard for him not to get emotional as the league takes another big step.
The Stanley Cup Final will mark the first time a major sports league broadcasts games in ASL, with each game in the series between Edmonton and Florida featuring deaf broadcasters doing play-by-play and color analysis. Game 1 is Saturday.
“This is a great first step toward having representation, having deaf people on screen, getting the deaf community to connect with people like them,” said Christianson, founder and CEO of PXP, which is making the broadcasts that will be available on ESPN+ and Sportsnet+. “For the NHL to approve this and believe in this, it’s groundbreaking. It’s truly historic and they’ve also doubled down and said they want to continue to do this.”
This next step in the NHL’s partnership with PXP, a company working to make sports more inclusive through interpretation, comes on the heels of another historic moment: TNT broadcasting the Deaf Women’s National Soccer Team match in ASL of the USA against Australia last weekend. Reporter Melissa Ortiz was on screen describing the action at ASL.
That will be the case in the Cup final for Jason Altmann, who is third-generation deaf and director of operations at PXP, and Noah Blankenship of the Denver Office of Services for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. Having this representation is more meaningful than closed captioning because it directly serves the deaf community rather than having members read words over games.
“For us to have this real-time play-by-play coverage and colorful commentary in American Sign Language being called out directly, as opposed to a reinterpretation, is really what the deaf and hard of hearing community wants,” said Kim Davis, Senior Executive Vice President of Social Impact, Growth Initiatives and Legislative Affairs for the NHL. “It’s what they deserve. This makes the game truly meaningful to them. It’s not like you’re basically reinterpreting it from another language. They are listening to the game live in their own language and in the way they understand it best.”
Getting to this point is another achievement for Christianson, an ASL interpreter who was born to deaf parents and who for years has tried to persuade teams and leagues to try things like this. The NHL connection began in a 2021 meeting with Vice President of Youth Strategy and Hockey Culture Paul LaCaruba that ended with Christianson begging for one person to take on his ideas for serving the deaf community.
Christianson said LaCaruba became that person, paving the way for him to interpret for Commissioner Gary Bettman and Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly two years ago. This was at a press conference, but this is a chance to bring the most important games of the season to an underserved segment of the population.
“We know there are millions of hockey fans who are deaf and hard of hearing – and many more who have yet to fall in love with the sport,” said LaCaruba. “We are building access for the deaf community, by the deaf community, and there is no better platform to gauge a reaction than during the Stanley Cup Final.”
The intention is to evaluate a reaction, not to take a victory lap. Christianson said there is a plan to continue doing this for the NHL beyond this series, and that the path forward allows this to be a test run of sorts, with possible changes and improvements for next time.
“I think it’s really brave of the NHL to say, ‘Hey, we want to do this,’” Christianson said. “Let’s all go in with our best and try our best, and then we’ll come back and we’ll take stock and try to improve in each process.”
You may end up being a model for others. Davis, who has learned a lot about ASL and how to communicate with the deaf community, would be thrilled if the NHL was the first, but not the last, to try something like this.
“We’re doing something that no other major league has ever tried before, and that’s a broadcast and an experience for the deaf by the deaf,” Davis said. “We are proud of it. We just want to continue to support the communities we want to be authentic to, and if another league wants to model it, we think imitation is the best form of flattery, so let’s do it.”
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