If you get a second chance, instinct tells you to take it. For a second consecutive year, I travelled to Sweden to join the social media team for the CHL Final. Being asked to work the Final was something I never expected, but I must have made a good impression last year so I wasn’t complaining.
As happens with big events, a press conference was held the evening before the Final along with a live stream NHL 19 Challenge. To my surprise I was asked to present the stream, being a journalist I should be used to presenting shows, but this was something completely different. The live concept was daunting at first, but as they say practice makes perfect, so as the stream went on I became more confident and comfortable. This was a learning curve for me but this is what the job is, learn from your experience as well as your mistakes.
Final day. As responsibilities go I was think I was given a well-suited job, the responsibility of the Instagram story. After experiencing the CHL Final last year I had a better idea of what to do, what to capture and the best way of capturing it. Ice hockey is the most watched indoor sport and is one of the fastest paced sports in the world, making it difficult to keep on track with a lot of the game as well as the fans. But if you watched the Instagram story you will see I managed.
It will never cease to amaze me the skill level which is shown in European Hockey. Frölunda has won the tournament before, making this their third CHL title in four years. But this isn’t to say that Munich didn’t compete, they’re determination was evident from puck drop and they were a great challenge for the Indians. That made my job harder, but who wouldn’t want that?
Deciding what goes on an Instagram story is difficult, especially when you want to give the audience the details, this was the biggest struggle but also the biggest skill that I’ve now developed. From the moment, the players stepped onto the ice it was my decision what people would see. What were the best bits? What are the fans like? and how do you balance fans to players and fans to opposition fans? Being a neutral made this easier as I had no commitment to any team but you feel bad if you don’t give one enough screen time.
To keep the audience keen and interested I conducted and edited flash interviews with players from either team, one in the first period break and one in the second. This is when being young and learning techy stuff in Uni helps a bit, as they were out and on the story within minutes. The video was created especially for Instagram which is why the video is not landscape.
Before the game started I was allocated a team to interview at the end no matter what the result, and for the second year running I managed to grab the winning team, making my interviewing job a lot easier and much more fun. The game ended with Frölunda taking the win, 3-1. No matter how much experience I get, the novelty of being on the ice during winning celebrations will never become normal, as will interviewing professional hockey players for that matter.
I also had the pleasure of interviewing Frölunda captain, Joel Lundqvist, twin brother of NHL goaltender Henrik, who plays for the New York Rangers. I can now officially say I interviewed a Lundqvist, which is pretty cool.
To say I had an unforgettable experience would be an understatement but there’s no other way of describing the opportunity that was offered to me. I hope this isn’t the end.
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