HBO's first episode of its legendary 24/7 reality series featuring the Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals premiered Wednesday night to rave reviews throughout the hockey world in particular and sporting world in general.
Here and here are just two examples of that.
There's a reason HBO is in the business, folks, and if you missed Wednesday's night's opening episode of the 4-part series, shame on you for 6 weeks, because they just did a fantastic job with the production.
I've been a Penguins and hockey fan for 28 seasons, so I've been around the game long enough to know the way some things work behind the scenes, but some of the things HBO put out there for public consumption surprised even me. I was riveted to my television like my wife when one of the Real Housewives shows comes on.
And that was only after one episode.
The thing that struck me most about the entire 60 minutes is the stark contrast between the styles of the two clubs.
The Penguins seem to be much more of a team. They have more camaraderie among their players and in the locker room than Washington does, and just appear to generally care more about each other.
And I don't think those presentations are solely attributable to the contrasting streaks the teams were on during HBO's coverage this last week.
Sure, the Penguins being on a 12-game winning streak, while the Capitals being on a 6-game losing run played into the storyline. Capitals' coach Bruce Boudreau went as far to mention in one of his locker room addresses that it was a tough week because the HBO cameras were around and he's sure the Penguins are all smiles in their room because of the way they are playing -- in obvious contrast to his team's work lately.
Still, losing streak aside, there was little in the way of team togetherness on display in anything the Capitals did. Okay -- they skated with families on a rink around the National Mall. That may be good for public service, but isn't a team bonding moment.
Meanwhile, we saw the Penguins' players participate in a team Christmas party with their families, engage in a snowball fight on the streets in Buffalo, play a prank on rookies' Ben Lovejoy and Mark Letestu by putting all their hotel room furniture in the hallway, joke and laugh during their team shootout competition to determine the monthly 'moustache boy', and banter with each other throughout -- whether on the plane or in the locker room.
Some of the show's best quips and lines came from all of those moments, by the way:
1) Goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury flipping the tables on teammate Max Talbot and calling him a "douche" on the plane (an obvious reference to how he famously referred to Washington Capitals superstar Alexander Ovechkin in an off-season radio interview), then telling the cameras that his road roommate likes to get naked;
2) Pascal Dupuis greeting teammate Evgeni Malkin on his way in the building with a simple, "F-U Geno";
3) Lovejoy coming across all the furniture in the hallway and saying, "We're going to get to the bottom of who did this, and probably do nothing about it.";
4) Talbot first telling one of his teammates' young infant daughters (it was unclear which) at the holiday party never to date a hockey player, then later on playing with Matt Cooke's son, openly (and playfully) accusing him of spearing him, then pretending to drop his gloves with him; and
5) Finally, Talbot approaching Santa Claus at the same party later on and -- with his eyes on two hot female elves on each side of Kris Kringle -- saying to Santa, "I want for Christmas your two little helpers".
Boy I hope we re-sign Talbot just for his character. You can't underestimate what he brings to the team and the locker room.
While Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovehckin were also mentioned at various times throughout the first episode -- including a segment on Ovechkin shaving as a component to a new endorsement deal he has with Gillette -- I thought HBO did a great job of keeping the focus on both teams rather than those individual players.
In fact, I think the network did a great job just picking up on the teams mid-season. That couldn't have been easy, but with transitions and references to both teams as Stanley Cup contenders, they quickly segwayed to talking about a run-of-the-mill regular season game in December for the Penguins against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Anyway, while Sid and Ovie weren't the main focus of the first episode, head coaches Dan Bylsma and Boudreau did have more of a starring role, and I thought it was fascinating to watch both.
While we know Bylsma is generally regarded as a players' coach, the glimpse we got of the way he addressed his team in the locker room before games and during games only reaffirmed that notion.
He was energetic, and focused on the Penguins' style of play. We know that 'getting to our game' is one of his main principles, and that clearly came out during the episode.
Interestingly, though, we got to see a little bit about how he intereats with his guys behind the scenes ... trying to pump them up and get them going. Seeing him credit defenseman Deryk Engelland for his fight with Toronto tough guy Colton Orr -- and the 3 stitches Engelland had to get in his eye afterwards -- was a treat. As was hearing Blysma rally his guys by saying things like "get after 'em bitches"
It was also fascinating to catch of glimpse of Blysma meeting with Pens' GM Ray Shero and evaluating his players' performance after the Toronto game. Hearing him be frank and say in reference to Cooke that "I didn't like his game" was a rare glimpse into what really goes on when a coach and GM talk.
Meanwhile, on the Capitals' end, it's hard to single out a particular thing that took the cake when it came to Boudreau.
Probably because there were so many things that actually did.
First of all, the guy is even fatter than I thought. You talk about Santa Claus having a bowl full of jelly? Boudreau has about 3X that. I mean, how does this guy look below his gut and see his penis?
Wait a minute .... he has none anyway, so who cares.
Okay, his weight aside (which is hard to ignore when there are shots of him during the episode with ketchup or barbeque sauce or something all over his face), the other thing we learned about him during episode 1 of this series is his ability to drop the F-bomb.
During one locker room speech that lasted about 60 seconds after Washington looked pretty lost in dropping their 4th straight to the Florida Panthers, 3-0, the guy dropped it 15 times, I kid you not. Among those highlights were something like, "so it isn't f'in working for the last 10 days, stop feeling f'in sorry for yourselves, get your f'in heads out of your asses and make it f'in work!"
That may not be the exact quote, but that's only because there were so many uses of the F-word and so many criticisms of his team, I couldn't keep up!
I confess -- one of the most enjoyable parts of the first episode of the series was seeing the Caps' struggle so badly. I mean, really --- watching the 'behind the scenes' of that was outstanding. When I heard Boudreau say on the bench to his players down 3-0 to the Rangers, "I'm f'in sick and tired of losing," I couldn't help but smile.
Since that deficit morphed into a 7-zip loss and their 6th straight defeat, I guess Ovechkin getting into a fight and trying to rally the bench afterwards by saying, "F'in come on for F- sakes!" didn't work too well.
Another moment that made me smile was seeing Boudreau tell his players after their 5th straight defeat that they played well, and that "you play that f'in good tomorrow, I guarantee you'll walk away with 2 points."
Uh, yeah. That worked out.
Boudreau has to be almost out of motivational tactics, doesn't he? I mean, he even had his assistant coach, former Capital Dean Evason, berate his team after 2 periods in the Ranger game instead of him. How about this gem from Evason?:
"F'ing COMPETE! Someone grab their f'in sock and compete, PLEASE!"
All in all, the show left me longing for more, and very anxious for the next episode. Hell, I wish they could follow the Penguins all year like this. That would be amazing.
While the tenor of next week's show will likely change somewhat, since the Penguins have now dropped 2 straight this week after their winning streak ended, it's going to be especially interesting to see in future weeks whether the upcoming games between the two teams -- first next Thursday, 12-23, then the Winter Classic -- impact the way the episodes turn out.
In fact, if Washington continues to struggle, playing the Penguins could be a good thing for them, because it may bring out the competitive beast that for some reason is in their collective closets right now.
All of it will make for compelling hockey. And compelling television.
More soon.
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