ESPN and the NHL have worked together over the last two seasons, presenting a Stanley Cup Final broadcast and coverage of the sport across multiple platforms. While the sports media entity has implemented many innovations within its broadcasts, it will attempt something that has never been done before on Tuesday night. The network will present NHL Frozen Frenzy, a live whiparound studio program hosted by John Buccigross and Kevin Weekes that begins exclusively on ESPN+ at 7 PM ET before being simulcast on ESPN2 from 8 PM ET until 1:30 AM ET.
This occurrence marks the second time the league has had all of its teams active on one night since its most recent expansion. Buccigross, who is a longtime ESPN employee, has participated in many facets of hockey coverage on the network but has yet to participate in a project quite like this. The 15-minute staggered start times for the 16 games around the league positions the broadcast in the best place possible to ensure that there will always be action.
Tuesday night marks one of two instances where the league will have all 32 of its teams in action throughout the 2023-24 regular season, a rare chance to instantiate a new tradition.
“There’s so much enthusiasm and expectation behind it,” Buccigross said. “I’m like, ‘Man, I hope we can deliver and get lucky,’ because yeah, you can go to a game and nothing might happen for two minutes. At least in a red-zone situation like the NFL, you’re going to have a winner or a loser within the game.”
The whiparound style of programming cultivates a certain sense of enthralling drama that captivates the viewer and adds to the overall experience. As a sports fan from the time he was young, Buccigross remembers the excitement surrounding all of the games around the league; however, it was difficult to watch them in real-time. With technological advances and changes in the way fans consume media content, ESPN is tackling something new, and through the special event, the network will hope to expand interest in the sport.
“We’re a bit at the mercy of the players in the games themselves that we can get lucky and pop it around, and me and Kevin Weekes with our enthusiasm,” Buccigross said. “Kevin’s like me – we’re both hockey nerds [and] consume everything every night.”
Buccigross received a tape recorder from his parents at the age of 11, which instantly captured his imagination. Throughout his youth, he would practice commentating games across all different sports, including staging faux, nine-inning baseball games during the league’s work stoppage. Additionally, he scrutinized television programs, frequently noticing minor changes in graphics, production elements and camera angles.
Equipped with the mindset of a producer, Buccigross considers himself a “geek” in the recondite space and positioned himself to gain repetitions in television and radio by attending Heidelberg College. The 900-student institution allowed him to major in communications while continuing to play basketball; in fact, he may not have discovered the landing spot had the head coach not called to recruit him.
“All that initial interest, pre-cable TV, was already there watching network sports – NBC; CBS; ABC – and doing my own thing with my tape recorder,” Buccigross said, “and then when the cable world came, it just exploded with these certain interest channels – 24-hour weather; sports; music – and then so that just fed right in.”
Versatility remains a critical aspect of Buccigross’ mindset as he continues covering hockey at the national level. By the time he started matriculating as an undergraduate student, he had picked up audiovisual editing skills, written newspaper articles, and possessed a strong work ethic with a willingness to take constructive criticism. Under the mentorship of professor Gary Dickerson, Buccigross helped bolster the communications program and has served as an inspiration for generations to come as a bonafide success story. Even so, he always remained persistent and focused on the next challenge, amassing myriad air checks.
Once he graduated from the university, it took 14 months for him to land his first job as an anchor for Cape 11 News in Cape Cod, Mass. Buccigross realizes that his path may differ from others having never attended job fairs or actively pursuing a college education. Before he began to be paid for his work, however, he took initiative by looking for broadcast outlets in a phonebook and inquiring about openings. Residing in the New England area at the time, he got in touch with Channel 58 and was told that he could work for free. Despite the dearth of compensation, Buccigross seized the chance and tackled the challenge of compiling a demo reel.
When he landed the paid job several months later, he was content with his lifestyle and focused on staying true to himself. It is part of the reason why he decided to neglect changing his surname, going against the encumbering advice of his boss, and working hard covering sports at all levels over the course of five years.
Whether it was covering high school sports, charity events, or other local events, he made the most of the experience to make mistakes and hone his craft. By the time Buccigross was hired by WPRI-TV in Providence, R.I., he was adept on television and covered both college hockey and the American Hockey League (AHL). Throughout those years, he was no longer operating as a one-man band and interviewed sports figures such as Bobby Orr and Tiger Woods.
ESPN had always stood out to Buccigross as a trusted, reliable source for sports news and insightful opinions. The network took the air during his youth, and he promptly became a viewer of SportsCenter, the entity’s flagship highlight show. In watching anchor Chris Berman deliver highlights and discuss the action of the day, he became interested in working on the show later on.
“When I was in college, I saw this quote that said, ‘I’m like a man who walks down the street, trips over something, reaches down to pick it up and it’s exactly what I want,’” Buccigross said. “I’ve always kind of lived that way – keep showing it up; take it slow; be patient and eventually something will come along that I’ll trip over [that] I want.”
When plans of Time Warner merging its CNN brand with Sports Illustrated (SI) to create a 24-hour news network became public, ESPN diligently worked to beat the company to its launch date. Because of this, the company hired several new on-air talents, including Buccigross, to serve as anchors on ESPNEWS, something that may have not come to fruition had he not seen a USA Today article authored about Al Jaffe. The longtime ESPN vice president of talent was tasked with exploring and recruiting candidates for consideration to join the network.
Despite thinking he was around five years away from applying to the network, he had tripped over the opportunity and decided to send Jaffe his tape anyway, hopeful it would elicit a response. Two months later, the company contacted Buccigross and invited him for a day-long audition process. Shortly thereafter, his hiring was made official and he was on the air helping launch a new facet of the network’s sports coverage.
“ESPN is a place for grinders, so it was perfect for me,” Buccigross said. “I was always a grinder as an average high school athlete; always a grinder as an average broadcaster, but you just kind of keep grinding.”
At the time of Buccigross’ hiring, ESPN was in its second media rights agreement with the National Hockey League, the sport he had grown up watching and closely studying. With an axiomatic knowledge of the game, he began to fill in on select programs during the Stanley Cup Playoffs and was eventually named the lead host of NHL 2Night.
The 30-minute highlights and news show kept viewers cognizant about the latest occurrences around the league, and his familiarity with the sport was conspicuous throughout. Even today, he can effectively identify players and teams without excessive preparation because of the consistent effort he puts in to stay informed about the league.
Buccigross has constructed an auspicious career through his ability to combine his passion and knowledge for the game with an understanding of how to appeal to consumers. Since NHL 2Night was on after playoff games – which can drag on for several hours if they reach overtime due to the absence of a shootout – Buccigross and his colleagues would each select which player they thought would score the game-winning goal.
Once Twitter launched in the mid-2000s, he decided to extend what became known as the “#BucciOvertimeChallenge” to users on the platform and would reward 10 correct guesses with retweets.
“It’s kind of clunky and long,” Buccigross said of the name. “If I had a focus group, it probably would have been something else, but maybe that’s part of the charm and the early going – this guy just made this up – and it just kept growing and growing and growing.”
One of those analysts was Barry Melrose, a former hockey coach and fixture on ESPN’s hockey coverage who recently stepped away from the network after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. Buccigross had the privilege to work with Melrose for several years and refers to him as the face of hockey in the United States over the last several decades.
“It’s like being with Elvis,” Buccigross said of Melrose. “Everybody stops and watches him walk across the room, always dressed well [and] always early.”
When the NHL endured a lockout that canceled the entirety of the 2004-05 season, it led ESPN to opt out of a new media deal it had agreed to with the league. As a result, negotiations re-opened for the slate of games, which was eventually rewarded to Comcast. Nonetheless, Buccigross remained employed by ESPN as a hockey columnist and SportsCenter host. In some ways, he felt he would have more freedom in his abilities to criticize facets of the game and demonstrate augmented candor in his work.
“It probably created value for me at ESPN,” Buccigross said. “One reason why, again, I stuck around so long without being a star or anything was that, ‘Just in case we [get] hockey back, we need somebody here,’ so maybe they [had me stick] around just in case.”
In being able to contribute to coverage in numerous formats and means of dissemination, he proved himself to be a commodity rather than an impediment from a previous broadcasting era. Even though Buccigross feels he would have likely been watching just as much hockey without the column, being tasked with such an assignment forced him to stay informed and knowledgeable. One thing he would never do is submit to indolence, and by thoroughly executing his role without a share of league media rights, he was always ready should the property return.
“Maybe [it] just gave me this outsider view for the viewer at home saying, ‘Oh, he’s a hockey guy, because look how much he’s pushing the sport but they don’t have it,’” Buccigross articulated. “So I think maybe it worked out in my mind.”
In the time when the network did not have NHL broadcasts, Buccigross contributed to coverage of the Frozen Four NCAA Championship and has served as the play-by-play voice of the tournament for the last decade. Telling the stories of these collegiate hockey players is something he considers to be an honor and a responsibility with an impact he does not impugn or take lightly.
“You know at some point, you’re going to have a National Championship call that that kid and that team is going to listen to for the next 80 years,” Buccigross said. “Your voice is part of history; you’re part of the history books because now we’re such an audiovisual world.”
The Walt Disney Company reacquired rights to the NHL in a seven-year deal worth a reported $400 million annually and, in turn, introduced a new lineup of commentators at the rink and in the studio. Buccigross currently serves a dual role as both a host and play-by-play announcer, the latter of which he had been looking to become involved with once the deal was completed.
While he does not want to mimic the inimitable styles of other announcers, he always makes sure that his love of the game is evident. From the preparatory process – which consists of meetings, interviews, and research – to the actual call itself, Buccigross embraces the grind and does not take anything for granted.
“It’s not often you’ll be at the same company for 27 years, and then late, you get this new opportunity – like this breath of fresh air – without leaving the company,” Buccigross said. “A different role; a different challenge, and it kind of reinvigorates you and re-energizes you.”
Buccigross balances the play-by-play assignments with hosting The Point, a weekly NHL-focused show broadcast on ESPN2 and ESPN+ complete with highlights, news, and analysis, along with in-depth storytelling from network reporters. In 2022, he was able to host the program live from the Stanley Cup Final and is excited to push towards the championship series again, the second time it will be broadcast by ESPN under the current rights deal.
“It is tough to go through this long slog of a season and then like last year at the end, ‘Man, we don’t get the Cup. I’ll just go home and watch on my couch,’ so it’s nice to have that cherry on top of your year,” Buccigross said. “I’m sure the TNT guys feel the same way; it was awesome, probably, to have the last game of the year.”
Within all of his roles, Buccigross consistently brings creativity and inquisitiveness to the table, always trying to discover ways that ESPN can pragmatically strengthen the scope of the property. In an era predicated on interconnectivity and the haste circulation of content, Buccigross knows that he provides value to the network by lending his voice and opinions gained through years of experience and feedback.
“Even though I’m not the most talented person at ESPN – I’m really a nuts-and-bolts kind of bench guy utility guy,” Buccigross said, “but again, I’ve been around now since 1996, 27 years. I think one reason why I’ve stuck around is [because] I’ve had ideas. I’m not afraid to voice my ideas.”
Buccigross’ contract with the network expires in two-and-a-half years, and he hopes to be extended so he can finish out the media rights deal, including an additional Stanley Cup broadcast. Down the road, he may look to convert elements of his hockey coverage into a brand, producing independent content through a podcast channel and/or mobile application.
“I love collaborations and a small team, and maybe trying to build something from the ground up,” Buccigross said. “That’s been in the back of my mind in a while.”
As part of the network’s media rights deal, ESPN+ carries NHL Power Play, a slate of more than 1,050 out-of-market contests available to all of the platform’s subscribers. This functionality renders the NHL Frozen Frenzy undertaking possible in the first place, which will be paired with a simultaneous tripleheader of traditional game broadcasts on ESPN beginning at 6 p.m. EST/3 p.m. PST.
Buccigross is determined to deliver his best on the air, reflecting back on his time with ESPNEWS when highlights would come in during the midst of the broadcast and he would try to narrate them extemporaneously. The NHL Frozen Frenzy whiparound show ostensibly combines elements of play-by-play announcing and studio hosting, experiences he will blend in order to excel.
“I love that challenge of doing a highlight without a script,” Buccigross said, “and so this is right up my alley.”
At the moment, it remains unknown how the whiparound show will be perceived by hockey fans and if there will be a sequel to this project. Part of the allure and appeal imbued within the sport is how pivotal instances during a game can occur in a matter of moments. Buccigross’ sedulous approach towards his work will keep him poised and alacritous should things unexpectedly slow down or speed up. Whatever ends up happening Tuesday night in the 16 arenas across the United States and Canada, he will try to impart his fervor and excitement to the viewers.
“You certainly have two big hockey fans in me and Weekesy who love the sport and sell the sport and know the sport,” Buccigross said. “….It’s kind of a test to see how it looks [and] how it goes, and if it’s something maybe we can repeat.”
Derek Futterman is an associate editor and sports media reporter for Barrett Media. Additionally, he has worked in a broad array of roles in multimedia production – including on live game broadcasts and audiovisual platforms – and in digital content development and management. He previously interned for Paramount within Showtime Networks, wrote for the Long Island Herald and served as lead sports producer at NY2C. To get in touch, email Derek@BarrettMedia.com or find him on X @derekfutterman.
