Sign language play-by-play comes to NHL finals for 1st time

Bryce, I am delighted to have time with you this morning. Thanks for giving me a few minutes. Of course the feelings are mutual. Pleasure's all mine. Listen. And just that's just one little snippet. We're going to play more in the course of our conversation. But it to have ASL in the Stanley Cup finals for the last three games. I mean, overall, what is this experience been like? I mean, the NHL has changed my life. It's been a long and arduous journey just to get into professional sports. That's a lot of a lot of that is overlooked on how you get your foot in the door, how you get a meeting. And just because you get a meeting doesn't mean that there's any sort of progress. So the relationship relationship that I've had with the NHL for the past few years, it's been really rich. It's impacted my life, but also with what we're showing ASL. There's been an attack on ASL over decades and centuries, attack on the deaf community, and this is an opportunity to celebrate a cultural and linguistic minority that has a very rich and vibrant history. So it's far more than hockey here. This is this is there's a whole lot of extra significance, which we're going to understand a little bit more. But I'd like to see the broadcast team at work first of all. So we should say this is Jason Altman and Noah Blankenship. These are the commentators in the play by play. We're going to show a little bit of a highlight. This is an empty netter from game two. So just explain to us, Bryce, how they work. So Jason and Noah being broadcasters, they are synced up to us. I'm on on call. I'm talking to the producers. Producers are giving me cues. I'm relaying that to Jason and Noah along with my team interpreter. A lot of rehearsal, there's a lot of it's a delicate dance between those two of not trying to overlap, not trying to take away from the game, but also trying to make sure that I'm on top of my game to make sure that I can feed them anything that might be critical. It's an important thing for people to understand like this is not a translation. They're not listening to Chris and Craig and and, you know, translating this is a a language in and of itself, right? Yeah, absolutely. And they even say that in, in, in the intro that they are not interpreting hearing play by play or colour commentary. This is entirely from their own research, what they see and entirely in American Sign Language. OK, so, so let's look at again at another example just to appreciate. So this was the Fogel goal, the, the that made it 1-1 in game three last night. So let's watch this a little bit. And again, just give us a just give us a read here. And that's so amazing. So, so they're obviously different words and they've interpreted differently, but you can see with the physical gesturing as well. Obviously the emotion of that, of that moment. Absolutely. And what's so great about Jason and Noah too, is I think I, I would assume a lot of people don't realize this is that they've never been on TV before. We took a really big risk and swing. I put my life and job on the line and a lot of people with the NHL also did as well. This has been developing over the years. A lot of trust has been built, a lot of optimal execution as well. But this took a lot of time and effort, research and prep to get to this moment. I'm so proud of Jason and Noah for how they're able to show. And last night even the producer said that they're naturals. It's it's, it's unbelievable. It's fantastic. OK, I have more questions, but I do want to look at what I want to know how they have captured Sergei Bobrovsky because there really are no words for his and his heroic. So you don't need words. So I want to see how they have done so in American Sign Language. Let's take a look at this for Bobrovsky. Some of his say this goes back to game one. So exactly hold up there you go see the emoji helps too. It's fantastic holding ahead of you're you're an Edmonton fan. So watching that and and easily to be so impressed. What has the response been so far, Bryce in in the deaf community? That's a great question. So over the years that I've been working in professional sports, there's always been that apprehension of my work being performative, that I want to socialize with players and coaches and be in the sports environment. What this has shown is that it's an authentic partnership between PXP and the NHL. The deaf community has been overwhelmingly positive with the NHL and ASL. Again, a lot of credit goes to the NHL for believing in this for all of that production, the emojis that is all Matt Sully's creation. It's it's truly remarkable for individuals that have had no exposure to the deaf community to envision this. And then also with Jason and Noah. But this is a a great example of the deaf community seeing authentic ally ship. So, but are are you hearing back from members of the community? I mean, do you have any idea of the numbers or business aside obviously this is a key moment in a in a business arrangement, but just in terms of seeing themselves and the emotional impact of that. Can you speak to that a little bit, Bryce? Yeah, we actually had a pretty emotional night last night with game three and and thinking about it, I can't I can't help but get a little over clamped and with again, they've they've never been on TVA lot of time and effort has gone into this. Last night was this was the smoothest. They looked on top of their game. They have been on game one and game two, but last night was special. They were in their in their moment. It's changed their lives. They have new careers. It's changed my company and just you know, I didn't introduce you this way and perhaps I should have, but I maybe that maybe it's also a good culmination. You are the hearing son of two deaf parents. So personally for you 2 and your families development and and life, this got to be a lot ring true to you too. Yeah, I and I've, I've had other interviews where, I mean, the inspiration behind this is really from my relationship with my deaf father. He grew up in a time where American Sign Language was frowned upon. It was banned. He would get abused if he used American Sign Language. They tried to make him hearing and it did awful things to his psyche, his identity, his self esteem. And in consequence of that, we had a very difficult relationship because I was hearing, he gave birth to a hearing son and he didn't know why he was deaf, but I was hearing. But the thing that really connected us with sports. And so growing up, I would interpret for my father at sporting events. And little did I know that that would be the inspiration behind PXP. But all of this is for my experiences growing up in the deaf community as a CODA and now working with Jason Altman, who's my business partner, Chief operating Officer, the first ever deaf broadcast. We grew up together. His parents, my parents are best friends. I've known Jason for 35 years. So that's another gamble of creating a business together with one of your best friends.