“Most boring interview”: Pat McAfee slams NHL’s intermission interviews despite ESPN deal

Pat McAfee, a staunch hockey enthusiast and host of The Pat McAfee Show, never hesitates to express himself. While he is a huge fan of the NHL, he recently fired a shot at one of the sport's longest traditions—intermission interviews. On his show, McAfee lambasted the uninspiring quality of these interviews, terming them as dull and uninteresting.

Pat McAfee, a Pittsburgh Penguins fan who actively follows teams across the league, didn’t hold back in expressing his discontent.
“Hockey is just a ‘Do it for the lads, do it for the team. We’re trying really hard. We got to execute.’ Like, the most boring interview every time. Especially the in-between period stuff,” McAfee said via Awful Announcing.

To most NHL enthusiasts, his words sound genuine. Intermission interviews usually take on a familiar script—players delivering clichéd answers regarding hard work, adjusting, or staying the course with the game plan. Though these interludes do provide some perspective, they generally fail to convey raw emotion or personality that the fans want to see.
McAfee's criticism is made at a time when the NHL is locked into a long-term television deal with ESPN and TNT. Following the expiration of NBC's rights in 2021, ESPN acquired the main broadcasting package, which consists of four Stanley Cup Finals up to 2028. TNT has the secondary package and will broadcast three Finals over that period.
Even with the NHL's attempts to expand its fan base through these alliances, intermission coverage is still a source of weakness. Viewers will tune out or change channels, knowing they will be hearing the same old clichés instead of new analysis.
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With the Stanley Cup Playoffs coming up, intermission interviews will be a regular occurrence. But might the NHL be able to make them more compelling? Adding more personality questions, mic'd-up moments, or behind-the-scenes action might be the key.
For the time being, at least, McAfee—and plenty of hockey fans—will just have to sit through the usual "we just need to execute" soundbites.