The NHL is hosting another #NHLMovieNight and hoping for another 'Miracle'
A Miracle is coming to Twitter.
Thanks to the National Hockey League, Twitter will become an arena for conversation around the 2004 movie Miracle on August 31 starting at 7 p.m. ET.
The affair is the NHL's second edition of #NHLMovieNight, a social media initiative where the league invites anyone to watch a film and tweet along. The NHL will have several employees monitoring Twitter for posts from fans and leagues and live-tweeting movie highlights from the @NHL account.
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In August of last year, the NHL hosted a watch party for D2: The Mighty Ducks and encouraged fans to tweet with the hashtag #NHLMovieNight. The league had 16 teams and thousands of fans participate. In an unexpected turn, one of the film's actors, Joshua Jackson, jumped into the conversation on Twitter:
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"Last year was a really huge success," Senior Manager of NHL Social Content Sean Dennison told Mashable. "The off-season is a slow time in the league and still a big need for us to keep our fans engaged on the platform and excited for the return of the season."
Not unlike other major American sports leagues, the NHL uses social media to keep fans up to date on the latest news around players, teams and games.
The NHL, however, claims to have the strongest community. "We like to boast that we have some of the most passionate and engaged fans," Dennison said.
They have the numbers to support it. A Nielsen study found that NHL fans spend the most amount of daily time on social media compared to NFL, MLB and NBA.
Why Miracle? The movie's focus on the 1980 U.S. men's Olympic hockey team aligned well with the current Olympics in Rio, the NHL said.
"I think choosing the movie Miracle leaves it up for success. We're in the middle of the Summer Olympics whoever was watching and participating whether it’s track and field or gymnastics followed the USA and the Olympics," said John Pacino, vice president of NHL content strategy.
"The movie itself is the greatest hockey movie ever made," Dennison said.
Despite Twitter's newfound penchant for hosting video, the microblogging site isn't vying for those rights or sponsoring the NHL-branded event. Interested fans will have to find their own way to watch. The film is available on iTunes and Amazon.
The NHL also is encouraging those who can not or choose not to watch the movie to just follow along on Twitter.
"You don't need to be watching the movie. Most of the entertainment occurs on Twitter, from us or other leagues. The more that we can get people tweeting, the more fun it'll be," Dennison said.
Topics Olympics Social Media X/Twitter
Kerry Flynn is a business reporter for Mashable covering the tech industry. She previously reported on social media companies, mobile apps and startups for International Business Times. She has also written for The Huffington Post, Forbes and Money magazine. Kerry studied environmental science and economics at Harvard College, where she led The Harvard Crimson's metro news and design teams and played mellophone in the Band. When not listening to startup pitches, she runs half-marathons, plays with puppies and pretends to like craft beer.
