Last weekend's NHL All-Star Game was an opportunity for NHL Network's Jackie Redmond to highlight something that is not always possible on the net's nightly studio show "NHL Now" -- the players' personalities. “In hockey, there are so many players who have great personalities, but they’re just not always exposed,” Redmond said. “On a daily show, that’s hard to do especially, when they’re not in the studio with us. But at an event like this where we can have fun or do something different, it’s the perfect place for that.” Redmond, who joined NHL and MLB Network in September ’17 after six years with Sportsnet, was a crucial part of NHL Network’s wall-to-wall coverage of the three-day event. That included serving as the in-venue host of media day on Thursday, reporting on the red carpet and during the skills competition on Friday, and hosting the pre-All-Star Game edition of "NHL Tonight" on Saturday. That gave Redmond ample opportunity to chat with players and dive into some of those questions, such as the one she posed to Sharks D Brent Burns on the red carpet. “I asked him to give out All-Star awards for the Sharks, including an award for who tells the most dad jokes,” Redmond said with a laugh. “My mindset is to try to have fun and figure out different questions to ask the players about things that have nothing to do with the season -- I really don’t think they want to talk about that,” she said. “Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t, but I want to tell or show people something that they already don’t know.” Redmond, who was back to her duties co-hosting "NHL Now" this week, said the net will continue to dive deeper into the league on its studio shows through things like interviews, on-set demonstrations and statistical breakdowns while also celebrating the lighter side of the game, like team mascots. “If we have fun while covering the game we love, I think the viewers will also have fun, making them want to tune in even more,” she said.
