NHL players are good at lots of things, like scoring goals, checking, skating fast and fighting. They struggle unfortunately, when it comes to naming Disney princesses.
With the release of Frozen 2 on Nov. 22, the NHL, who partners with Disney on their streaming product NHL TV, asked a slew of players to name as many Disney princesses as possible. The results, as you might expect, were hilariously bad.
Before we get into the video, a point of clarification. According to the complied wisdom on the internet, the Disney Princess cannon includes 12 princesses in name, even though some of them might not be actual princesses, in the literal sense. So, Mulan may fit under the banner of a Disney Princess even though, technically, she’s not a princess.
Anyway, to the video!
No NHL player got all 12, but (spoiler alert) the Philadelphia Flyers Kevin Hayes came out on top by naming 7. Other honorable mentions go to Jaccob Slavin of the Carolina Hurricanes who had a decent showing, goalie Tuukka Rask who had a delightfully unique way of saying Rapunzel and Derek Stepan who was the only one to name Tiana.
On the flip side, the Maple Leafs Auston Matthews had a dismal showing, getting only two out of 12. The Penguins Sidney Crosby seemed to be on a roll, but then picked Tinkerbell as Disney princess. Jonathan Marchessault was also way out if left field naming like, Daisy Duck.
I’ll admit, I am begrudgingly charmed by this video even though it’s just a marketing ploy for a movie that is going to be wildly popular whether or not NHL players talk about it. It’s nice to see a glimmer of personality from players that isn’t related to their hockey careers. I enjoy that Crosby gets so obviously bugged by not knowing more names! And that Jonathan Toews, because he’s of a certain generation, just goes for Ariel from Little Mermaid as his first pick.
Anyway, maybe players can use those long road trips to brush up on their Disney movies. Rumor has it they might even have a new streaming product out.