Would Matthew Tkachuk get there?

Anyone watching the 2024 Stanley Cup Final between the Edmonton Oilers and Florida Panthers could feel the tension and anticipation as the Panthers’ Tkachuk sprinted from center ice and attempted to chase down a bouncing puck toward his team’s empty net. As Tkachuk launched himself from the edge of the circles, American Sign Language (ASL) broadcasters Jason Altmann and Noah Blankenship conveyed the moment. Altmann put together his hands and leaned left as the moment unfolded. Blankenship raised both of his hands to near eye level, kept his left one still and waved the fingers on his left hand while his mouth was agape. When Altmann and Blankenship saw Tkachuk had miraculously swept the puck away from the net, they both threw their hands up and opened their mouths, nearly in unison.

Sports can tell a story without language. You can appreciate stunning athleticism without knowing the full context of what’s happening. A fadeaway jumper, a diving catch, Tkachuk’s desperate goal-saving lunge — all can be marveled at without knowing everything about the individual, the teams or the game. But it’s that context that converts viewers into fans.

And it’s that context, that Altmann and Blankenship, who are both deaf, were able to finally provide during the Stanley Cup Final to a community that has always faced barriers in embracing professional sports. The Deaf community may plan gatherings around major sporting events or participate in sports themselves, but becoming that next-level fan — the one who can recite all the stats, whose day can be made or broken by their team’s result — has never been easy. When the NHL, in partnership with P-X-P, a company that seeks access, inclusion and representation in pro sports for deaf and hard of hearing fans, had Altmann and Blankenship broadcast last season’s Cup Final in ASL, it was a game changer for them and their community.

On the broadcasts, a video feed of the action is shown, along with isolated shots of Altmann and Blankenship providing commentary in ASL. They also have the ability to make emojis appear on the screen for emphasis.

“For the Deaf community, they’ve always craved to have an ASL broadcast or ASL that’s visible, that’s on the screens, and to engage Deaf culture in the commentary, reference sports and tie it to the Deaf community, because sports play a pivotal role in the Deaf community,” Altmann said through ASL interpreter and P-X-P founder and CEO Brice Christianson. “The Deaf community has obviously been underserved and marginalized. For us to get together and how we want to host a party, sports were always a great reason. We could enjoy the game and socialize and use our language. So, deaf softball, deaf basketball, volleyball clubs, we would always get together. Sports play such an instrumental role in our conference.

“And now, you have pro leagues where it’s always been inaccessible. There are 33 million deaf and hard of hearing people that live in the United States and Canada, and we’ve barely ever seen any sort of representation in professional sports, especially broadcasting. And so, for us to open the door with the NHL in ASL, the Deaf community is absolutely ecstatic.”

For seven games, Altmann and Blankenship made that history last June. From the Panthers building a 3-0 series lead to the Oilers responding to force Game 7 to the Panthers lifting the Cup to the all chaos in between, Altmann and Blankenship broadcast it all. This wasn’t just them interpreting what other broadcasters were saying. This was them putting hours upon hours of work into the studio on the production side, doing their homework on the players and teams and then broadcasting it all, most importantly, in their language. Christianson also is in the studio (off camera) to relay information from the control room to Altmann and Blankenship.

“American Sign Language is a legit language,” said Altmann, who is the chief operating officer of P-X-P. “It has its own phonology, morphology effect, syntax, semantics. If you ever watched the NHL in ASL (during) the Stanley Cup Final, any of the broadcasts, you notice that me and Noah were very expressive showing the hits or the goals. So that’s our effect. The Deaf community can’t see that in closed captions, or that’s usually not there.

“And so, for spoken English, how that is reflected is in tone. You don’t get that in closed captions. So, for example, Vin Scully might say, ‘And it’s a long shot deep,’ or Joe Buck or Troy Aikman might be commenting. Hearing people feel engaged because of that inflection and tone and pace. That’s not in closed captions. ASL can show that. So, with me and Noah, what we do is we offer that added element and that extra value tied to the emotional feeling that we get when we watch sports. For example, the Edmonton Oilers coming back down 3-0 to force a Game 7, we wanted to show that excitement where the Oilers players were able to continue the Stanley Cup Final run after being down 3-0. We really are focusing on the Deaf community to feel engaged and inspired based off of our expressions and our commentary.”

Here’s how Florida’s first goal was called on the ‘NHL in ASL’ broadcast (Jason Altmann and Noah Blankenship): pic.twitter.com/ZDf67OS0S1

— Sports TV News & Updates (@TVSportsUpdates) June 9, 2024

It was reasonable to wonder if the broadcast would be a one-off by the NHL. Was the broadcast performative or was it the start of something more significant? The NHL answered that this season by creating a weekly ASL highlight show and bringing back Altmann and Blankenship to their New York City-based studio to broadcast the Winter Classic on Dec. 31. The broadcast will air on MAX in the U.S. and Sportsnet+ in Canada. There is more to come, too.

“The bottom line is this is here to stay for us,” said NHL vice president of social impact and strategic integration Rachel Segal, who helped bring the ASL broadcast to life and called it the most rewarding experience in her career. “We’re constantly trying to find new ways in and new initiatives to help underserved communities feel involved and included in our game, and that means not just having it be one-off experiences, such as the Stanley Cup Final last year. So, we alongside P-X-P came up with a strategic plan (with) more to be announced shortly about how we were going to expand it for this year so that we could show the community, hey, we’re here to stay, we’re showing up for you and you’re welcome in our sport. So, the weekly highlight shows were a way to create touch points throughout the season while we work on what additional broadcasts will be.”

An ASL hockey broadcast had always been a hope for Kevin Delaney. He’s known about the popularity of hockey within the Deaf and hard of hearing communities for years. Delaney, who is hard of hearing, first attended the AHIHA Stan Mikita Hockey School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing as a youth player in 1984. Now, he’s the school’s president, along with being a development coach for the Chicago Blackhawks. He’s witnessed the game’s popularity expand within the community and is humbled to carry on what Mikita and Irv Tiahnybik started in 1973.

“I just want all the players coming up now to experience what we did,” Delaney said. “We had 29 new families this year. We continue to grow. … If you have something preventing you (from) living a normal life, you find a way to live your life. If you want to play a sport, your disability shouldn’t stop you from playing a sport.”

That said, Delaney also understood the limitations for the deaf and hard of hearing to become hockey fans. As much as closed captioning may assist in following a television show or a movie, it’s a challenge in following sports. Delaney believes the NHL’s ASL broadcasts will not only be embraced by deaf people who like hockey but also will open the game up to people who aren’t familiar with the sport.

“It makes hockey more popular,” Delaney said, “because it’s reaching out to a whole different market of people who don’t watch hockey. The Deaf community is very tight-knit and close. And so, for someone to say, ‘OK, we’re doing an ASL broadcast,’ it just makes it inclusive for the Deaf community. It has nothing to do with hockey. It has to do with making it accessible for people who normally wouldn’t watch hockey, don’t know about hockey.”

As Altmann said, there is money to be made from their community just as any other.

“The Deaf community has a lot of economic power,” Altmann said. “They generate a lot of revenue, too. So not only it being the right thing to do, there’s also an economic value — 33 million deaf and hard of hearing people. And I think sports teams and leagues are realizing (that), especially with what P-X-P is doing, because the Deaf and hard of hearing community is looking for representation and inclusion.”

There may be financial reward in it all, but there’s certainly value well beyond that. That comes through in all the feedback P-X-P has received from the Deaf community since the Stanley Cup Final broadcasts.

“The feedback really touched my soul,” Altmann said. “It’s been overwhelmingly positive. It was almost like a breath of fresh air for the Deaf community for several reasons. Sports is a huge part of the Deaf community and they see representation on a large and national platform. They see the NHL investing in the Deaf and hard of hearing community. It inspires them and makes them realize that we’re here. We have a large community throughout North America that is underserved and overlooked.

“We’ve received some emails from deaf kids, teenagers. One kid in particular from northern rural Canada (who) watched the NHL in ASL was so over the moon that she could watch a show with her parents who are hearing that barely knew any sign language. She could get together and bring the family together to watch the NHL in ASL. Just think about it, northern rural Canada, you rarely probably see maybe one or two deaf people in that small town. For that kid to see me and Noah on the screen and go, hey, wait a minute, that’s someone like me on TV to watch it any time. It’s unbelievable.”

Altmann and Blankenship have been busy preparing for the Winter Classic between the Chicago Blackhawks and St. Louis Blues on Tuesday. From both teams’ in-season coaching changes to Connor Bedard to Robert Thomas to two franchises who are taking different paths in search of success again, Atlmann and Blankenship will have plenty of information to share over their broadcast. But like any good broadcaster, Altmann knows a little help from elsewhere could make the game even more memorable.

“Unfortunately, we won’t be in Chicago in Wrigley Field, we’ll be in studios in New York City, but we will definitely incorporate the pulse, the atmosphere in the vibe and incorporate that to our broadcast,” Altmann said. “I’m hoping that there’s going to be a snow-globe atmosphere, just a little bit of an added touch to the environment.”