According to the most recent data from ESPN, 35 percent of Americans still claim football to be their favorite sport. With baseball coming in second, it proves that what American sports fans like most is men giving each other concussions and people standing on grass while wearing polyester, in that order. Of the professional leagues, hockey came in dead last, making it the least-popular regularly televised sport. And so, in an attempt to raise hockey’s public profile—or at least draw in a few curious viewers—the NHL has partnered with GoPro to attach its affordable little cameras to hockey players, hoping to spice things up by making the footage part of the game’s broadcast.
As Variety reports, the first live event to feature players wearing GoPros will take place this weekend during the NHL All-Star Skills Competition, which focuses on hockey’s most thrilling aspects—like shooting accuracy and firing pucks into comically small nets. GoPro cameras have previously been used at X-Games events, but this partnership with the NHL marks the company’s first foray into team sports. As the below GoPro teaser video shows, the new set-up will bring fans closer to the player experience than ever before, putting them right in the middle of the minutia of offsides penalties and Sidney Crosby’s incessant whining to the refs.