You have to love it when a league fully embraces new technology. The National Hockey League (NHL) is going full-bore with social media and is finding new ways to engage its fans. The NHL is hosting a fantasy hockey pick’em game tonight that can only be played via Twitter.

Playing the game is pretty simple. To enter, fantasy players tweet a reply to @nhl with a predicted winner for each of today’s fifteen hockey games plus provide a guess of the league’s total penalty minutes for the night, and put the special hashtag #nhlpick15 in the tweet. The prizes are tickets and NHL GameCenter Live. Not too shabby for tweeting, and costs the league practically nothing to provide. It is a win-win for everyone.

Whenever launching a new fantasy game, the least amount of education you have to do, the better. With this game, most people understand pick’em leagues, and twitter users understand twitter. While this game may appeal to a limited number of fans, it is really simple game for those fans to play. Simplicity is what makes fantasy games work and grow.

As a side note, this game is a product of Vayner Media, who is also working the New York Jets on some social media activities. Do not be surprised to see Vayner Media all over the social sports media scene in the future (as if they are not already).

Additional Coverage:
The NHL’s Latest Social Media Push: A Twitter Contest