Andi Petrillo and Blake Bolden on evolving hockey coverage

The inaugural season of Amazon Prime's hockey coverage is here – with a variety of programming the streamer is hoping will elevate the fan experience. Its much-anticipated docuseries "Inside the NHL" gave viewers a never-before-seen look into the locker room of last year's Stanley Cup Finals, and now its weekly Monday Night Hockey matchup is aiming to cover unfolding storylines with a fresh slate of hosts and analysts.

Among those are broadcasting veteran Andi Petrillo and the boundary-breaking Blake Bolden, who became the first Black woman to work as a scout when she was hired by the Los Angeles Kings in 2020. Viewers can watch the two in action – along with colleagues John Forslund, Jody Shelley, Thomas Hickey, Shane Hnidy, Adnan Virk, and Mark Messier – during 26 games this season, all produced by Amazon and available to stream live with a Prime membership.

theScore caught up with Petrillo and Bolden to get their thoughts on the way hockey coverage is evolving and what they're looking forward to seeing this season in both the NHL and PWHL.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

theScore: What NHL storylines are you looking forward to watching unfold this year?

Petrillo: There's a belief that the Edmonton Oilers can get back to the final so I think all eyeballs are going to be on them. (Prime will feature four Oilers matchups this season - on Nov. 4, Nov. 18, Dec. 16, and April 14).

The Leafs always have an incredible regular season. It's always going to be about the playoffs for them. (Leafs games on Oct. 21, Oct. 28, Dec. 2, Jan. 20, March 3, and March 17 will all be featured on Monday Night Hockey).

And then a big name that's moved - Steven Stamkos. It's intriguing because, to me, he's a Tampa Bay Lightning for life. Except, he's not. He's playing with the Nashville Predators now.

I think Lane Hutson is a great story for the Montreal Canadiens. I think in a couple months we're all waiting to see what exactly Patrick Laine will look like when he joins that lineup. (Monday Night Hockey kicked off with a Canadiens matchup against the Penguins on Oct. 14 and will also feature the Canadiens games on Nov. 18, Dec. 9, Jan. 6, and April 14).

There's just so many intriguing storylines, but those are probably the ones you know that just come to the top of my head right away.

Bolden: Seeing how Tampa Bay can respond without Stammer on the blue line. And can Toronto get past that first round of the playoffs with their high-powered offense? This Monday, we have Toronto and Tampa. So, I'm really excited about that game coming up.

I think it's just a battle, especially in the Atlantic Division. ... And, everybody's really excited about breaking the Gretzky goal record with Ovechkin. People are saying it probably won't happen, maybe next year.

theScore: There's so much new content for hockey fans right now. What are your thoughts on the way that hockey coverage has evolved?

Petrillo: In Canada, and knowing that this is the most popular sport, I think fans do appreciate a new voice, new look, new way of doing things. Sometimes it's nice to just kind of have another platform and check in to see, "What are they saying, what's their analysis? What's their approach to the game?" I think variety is something that hockey fans welcome. If you were to use the model in the States of the NFL - they're on three different networks, all kinds of podcasts, all kinds of peripheral programming around the NFL, you just can't consume enough when it's happening. I find it's the same thing here in Canada with hockey - you can't consume enough hockey when the season is happening. Now people can access hockey on Amazon and it's different faces and different voices.

theScore: What can we expect from Prime Monday Night Hockey this season?

Bolden: Each Monday will be at a different location. The panel will be on the concourse, almost like an (ESPN) College Game Day feel, where you're on site and you have the fans coming behind you and everybody's really excited. Especially for Tampa and the Maple Leafs (on Oct. 21), it'll be a sea of blue that you'll see on the camera.

I think the fans want that shift, especially the younger and intense fans that are excited about where their specific Canadian markets will go in this playoff run, or are watching to see if a Canadian team is going to be able to host the Stanley Cup after such a long time. Even if you look at Andi's hosting on (Prime's) "Coast to Coast" show, and bringing on special hosts and having analysts and all the games appear behind her like (ESPN's) Red Zone, she's just guiding the fans through what's happening in the NHL. I don't think that's really ever been done before. I think Amazon is just on top and on the forefront of all the new technology and getting fans direct access to great storylines.

theScore: How do you think broadcasting has changed from the start of your career to now?

Petrillo: I remember when I was with LeafsTV, and that was still a linear channel, but it was a specialty channel. I remember people, especially the diehards, they loved subscribing to it. You could tell that the tide was turning, that suddenly specialty channels were a thing. People were talking about cord cutting and wanting a la carte services from their cable providers. You just had this sense that we were at this fork in the road. Then Netflix makes its way into Canada, and then Amazon, and suddenly it's been this explosion of the market, in many ways correcting itself because everyone was cutting the cord. I think that's another fork in the road that we're in right now.

theScore: You often hear hockey fans say they want more personality and more peripheral content. Have you found that hockey players are getting a little easier to interview as they adjust to that changing sentiment?

Petrillo: I think they are because it's also just another generation. They've grown up in the world of social media and TikTok. They've grown up being fans of the NFL and even NBA, which have always been more open and have way more personalities. It's just natural for them to be that way, and I think they're also just seeing what's happening in the world of sport with "Drive to Survive" and all these other, you know, kinds of docuseries that really elevate the popularity of a sport.

Hockey players are not dumb. They get it. While the sport explodes in Canada, there is still a lot of work to do in many markets in the United States. There's also a reason why the NHL has the Global Series, because they're trying to expand. So if the players can do these types of things where they open up and show their personality, 1,000% that's going to help.

theScore: What are your thoughts on the PWHL's success last year and the upcoming season?

Petrillo: They've obviously increased the amount of games they're going to play. They're trying to get onto that NHL schedule as well, which is going from fall to spring. Slowly that is happening, where they're starting to get into a rhythm that we expect hockey to be in. Now they have logos and names. A lot of the athletes are returning. The first year was such a success with attendance to the point where - the Toronto team is a great example - they actually have to move venues.

I like what they're doing. They're being very strategic in the growth of this league. They're not biting off more than they can chew. They want it to be sustainable. They want it to be around for decades to come. As much as we want to see expansion and other teams come, I think they're doing it right. And once again, with games on CBC, we have a great crew that's back. There are great people in this country who love the game and have done it some fantastic justice by talking about it and giving it the attention that it deserves. Jocks in Jills, as we know, is a great podcast for that with Tessa Bonhomme and Julia Tocheri. So, I can't wait.

Bolden: I've been fortunate enough to play in the Canadian Women's Hockey League and the National Women's Hockey League and a little bit overseas. Now to have the PWHL that is inching its way towards becoming more and more legit for the women that are playing in this league, I love it. You have Kendall Coyne Schofield, Hilary Knight, Natalie Spooner, Sarah Nurse, Marie-Philip Poulin, all the big names, they're just driving our sport. These women are trailblazers and all the players in that league are just breaking all of these barriers.

Jolene Latimer is a feature writer at theScore.