An inside look at hockey jobs

This past Saturday was called “Super Saturday” by the NHL because all 30 teams were in action that day, which made for a great day full of hockey. The NHL’s website linked to 20 feature articles written by different teams. Each article focused on a day in the life of a certain employee within the organization. For example, the Nashville Predators’ article described what the PR staff did during an average game day that stretches from 7am until 11pm, which really helps those interested in a career in Sports PR with an idea of what work is like on an average game day. While I can’t post the entire piece, here is an excerpt and be sure to check out the rest of it here.

6:15 p.m.: Wilson mans the press box, getting ready to disseminate pre-game lineups. Darling heads back to the locker room to coordinate player introductions.

7:07 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.: Game time. Wilson’s primary responsibility is to distribute information to the press box, including intermission stats. Darling’s primary responsibility is to coordinate requests to and from the locker room, including on-the-bench interviews and intermission interviews with players or coaches.

9:35 p.m.: Darling opens the Predators locker room after the game and assists media with their postgame player and coach requests. Wilson makes sure all postgame stat sheets are printed by the NHL stats crew, copied, and then distributed through the press box and the locker rooms.

9:50 p.m.: The game-night staff starts to trickle back into the office to transcribe postgame quotes from home and visiting players and coaches.

For anyone interested in working for an NHL team, all of these Super Saturday articles were fantastic reads (great job NHL.com people for coordinating it). When you work on game day as part of the PR staff, you have to interact with plenty of other departments including security, marketing, game-day staff, equipment managers, etc. so it’s beneficial to get a basic understanding of what those other positions entail. As you can see from the various articles, a job in sports usually equals long work days. Here are links to the 20 articles for those interested in reading more.

Anaheim Ducks: Boys in the box get the best seats in the house

Atlanta Thrashers: Thrashers’ mascot knows how to have a good time

Calgary Flames: No rest for the equipment crew

Chicago Blackhawks: National anthem a Chicago speciality

Colorado Avalanche: DeLuzio helping bring Avs fans closer to the game

Columbus Blue Jackets: Jackets firing off successful history lesson

Dallas Stars: Perlmeter keeps Stars on time

Edmonton Oilers: Press box keeps everyone informed

Florida Panthers: Panthers Ice Dancers are always in the spotlight

LA Kings: Hangin’ with the coolest cat in the league

Minnesota Wild: Loomis provides the non-playing entertainment

Nashville Predators: Preds’ PR staff makes sure everyone is taken care of