It's A Wrap: 24/7 Penguins Capitals Closes In Remarkable Fashion

The fourth and final installment of HBO's 24/7 Penguins Capitals Road to the Winter Classic series wasted no time zeroing in on what the three previous episodes had been building up to.

1-1-11.

To do that, the cameras first shined on the Washington Capitals and superstar winger Alexander Ovechkin.

Not in a flattering way, mind you.

As the Caps' practiced outdoors at a makeshift rink in Arlington, VA to try and get ready for the elements and the game, we were able to see several of the Washington players experimenting with things that they wouldn't otherwise ordinarily use -- and in ways they wouldn't ordinarily use them.

Or at least we can hope.

Especially since one of those things was eye black that Ovechkin put around his mouth.

Uh .... yeah.

Meanwhile, back in the world of the normal hockey club, center Jordan Staal was meeting with Pens' GM Ray Shero and Head Coach Dan Bylsma to discuss whether or not he would be cleared to play in the New Year's Day game. 

After hearing Shero and Blysma say they were a little concerned about him coming back to soon, I was amused by Staal's pleas to have them be more specific about exactly what it is they were worried about -- just like most skeptical 22-year olds would be with their parents.

In the end, good on the Penguins for giving Gronk the go-ahead to suit up and enjoy the experience in what has otherwise been a miserable first part of the season for him in the press box the entire time.

In an amusing moment, after Staal left the room, Shero playfully asks Bylsma about the team's 2-1 shootout loss to the New York Islanders the prior evening:

"What the fuck happened last night, Dan?"

Meanwhile, the next day at the Pens' Winter Classic practice @ Heinz Field, we got to see the team stage a shootout competition --- not for determining January's mustache boy, but instead to have the loser have to go all the way to the top of the stadium and touch the section 527 sign.

True to form, Pittsburgh goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury was taunting EVERYONE in the shootout, saying things to his teammates like "F- off you bitches".  Then, with the ultimate insult, he taunted Staal as he was the last player to approach him and in need of a goal to keep things tied ---- "you're going up," Fleury said.

Sure enough, the guy who may have still been the most out of shape was stopped by The Flower and had to do the Heinz Field steps.  There was great camera footage of that along the way, too.

Meanwhile, later that day, viewers got a great treat in witnessing a bunch of NHL officials, including NHL Vice-President Bill Daly and Director of Hockey Operations Colin Campbell, among others, participate in a conference call to debate a key decision -- whether to postpone the scheduled 1 PM game and push it back becuase of inclement weather conditions.

Of course, in the end, that's what they decided to do, wisely moving the game to 8 PM to avoid a well-known bad forecast and providing sufficient notice to everyone involved in advance.

So, with the stage set for the first evening Winter Classic under the lights in primetime, the players and coaches are getting revved up.

First, we see the Caps' fat assclown coach, Bruce Boudreau telling his team about what's at stake, and then proclaiming that, while it's only 2 points, "it's two fucking points we're going to take from these pricks."

Then, in a further motivational move, he posts an article from Pittsburgh radio personality Mark Madden, who wrote a piece for the Beaver County Times newspaper that the Capitals don't have what it takes to beat the Penguins in a 7-game series.

Next we see Ovechkin trying to ramp himself up in the locker room before the game, saying "fuck this shitsburgh team"

Perhaps my favorite part of the episode came next when HBO showed my man, Pens' backup goaltender Brent Johnson -- one of the locker room leaders when it comes to music -- cuing up his Ipod before the game for he and his teammates to get ready.

The song of choice?

Burning Heart, by Survivor --- from the Original Motion Picture Soundrack to one of the greatest movies of all time, Rocky IV.

Yeah, I'm italian.

Anyway, HBO did a fantastic job with that, showing only picture footage of the teams getting ready without any audio, and pricelessly set it all to that song.

Just outstanding stuff.

Nearly as outstanding was the look Pens' LW Matt Cooke was giving Ovechkin in their team's line, which formed right next to Pittsburgh's line as the teams walked out into the stadium.  It was like Cooke was ready to spear Ovechkin in the throat right there.

Once all the pomp and circumstance was through and we moved to game action, HBO's footage went up a notch, if that were even possible.

One of the most notable moments was when Pens' Captain Sidney Crosby was complaining about not getting a penalty shot to referee Paul Devorski after being hauled down by Caps' blueliner Mike Green.

Devorski did call a holding penalty, but I couldn't believe he had the nerve to say to Crosby, "I give you a power play and you give me attitude about it" when it was clearly a penalty -- at least.

What was Crosby supposed to do?  Thank him for making the obvious call he should have?

Crosby had a fair beef that it should have been a penalty shot since he was in front of Green with a clear path to the net when Green held him from behind, and in expressing that to Devorski after Devorski said what he did, Crosby said that, in fact, it was a penalty shot "because I've watched 80 fucking games this year and it's a penalty shot every time."  

While there was a lot of other great stuff during what ended up as a disappointing 3-1 Penguins' loss, almost as good as Crosby's comment was Cooke telling Caps' center Niklas Backstrom that if he slashes him again, he's going to take his teeth out.

After the game was over, you heard Boudreau standing there with his team waiting to see if there was going to be a handshake, saying "make them come to us".

Then, when the Penguins didn't come over (nice), he said "fuck 'em all"

In the locker room, we got to see a Washington team that hasn't won the Stanley Cup once (let alone 3 times, like the local hockey club), be led in celebratory fashion by Boudreau, saying "It's not the Cup but it feels pretty f'in good!"

Please.

For his part, the thing I found most notable about Bylsma talking with the Penguin players in the locker room after the defeat was not what he said, but how he said it.

You could just see the player in him coming out -- wishing he was out there with his team.  He's still has that competitive fire in him, and I think that helps him as a coach.  It was really neat to see that up close and personal in the locker room in a way that hadn't been shown in the previous 3 episodes.

I will say that I thought the end of the episode -- and the series -- was a little cheesy, showing a washing machine up close washing jerseys, as if to signify that it's back to the grind of even more games in the long, regular season cycle that makes up an NHL year.

Overall, I think the last episode was on par with the first for the best one of the series, and can't say enough about the series as a whole.  It was fantastic, and it gave the NHL great publicity.

In fact, there's no doubt in my mind that HBO will return to do another 24/7 series next year.  They'll probably lead up to the Winter Classic again and focus on whichever teams are chosen for that next season, but where it's really going to get interesting is whether or not they'll try to go for the real prize in coming years, which would be to follow a team or two through the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Logistics exist in doing that (for example, if the team gets eliminated early, then what do you do?), but there's already some sentiment for trying it, and HBO might be willing to do that. 

Even if they don't, though, the production they did this year has been deemed such a success in the entire sporting world that HBO is probably going to try to take the concept to the other sports.  And then the NHL will get a lot of credit and good publicity for helping pioneer what it's like to capture a professional sports team during actual game play, rather than, for example, in training camp, as HBO's Hard Knocks series has already done.

Let's face it -- the National Hockey League as a whole is on a really good run the last few years.  TV ratings are up, interest in the game is rising, and there are a bevy of young stars and rivalries -- including the Penguins and Capitals -- that have put the league in the spotlight, and done it in a good way.  Commissioner Gary Bettman deserves some credit for that, and the hope here is that the NHL is able to parlay its recent success into a new TV deal (which the league is due for this summer) that actually pays them money they can share with their member clubs.

Of course, that's something that just doesn't exist right now, as the NHL receives no rights fee to permit NBC and Versus to televise their constests.

Either way, both the league and the Pittsburgh Penguins have done a great job being in the spotlight, and that's an exciting thing.

Next up for the flightless birds is a game tomorrow afternoon in Boston against the Bruins.  Sidney Crosby won't be in the lineup for that, and probably won't return to the lineup early next week after all, as had been initially hoped after he sustained his concussion.  I guess we won't know for sure because Bylsma has said he will no longer provide daily updates on #87's condition, so we'll just have to wait and see.

I'll try to have a recap Sunday.

Let's Go Pens!