Friday, January 6, 2012

Flyers/Rangers 24/7 HBO Series - Ep. 2

Ok ... so I'm late to this.  Moving from place to place, not having HBO, or not having the internet makes it pretty hard to update things.  With that being said, I have a place to watch some 24/7 and now updating with my thoughts.

Episode 2 opens up with Henrik Lundvist jamming out with John MacEnroe, for a charity concert.  Lundvist seems like an all around great Swede, and not just a great goalie.  Much nicer to see him giving to charity and not just giving to his teammates (read: lost credit card roulette in episode 1).  Then we get a look at an old friend ... the Capitals losing streak.  We saw a lot more of it last year on 24/7, but this year it was just one big loss against the Flyers.

I really like the road trip portions of this show.  It shows the watcher how teams get together.  Jagr's dry humor is spot on when he asks Bryz to sit somewhere else, and then picks up his food and moves away.  Ilya is still fantastically quirky.  I really hope next year is just "Ilya Bryzgalov 24/7".  Episode 2 has showed me why I have a bit more respect for John Tortorella.  His intermission speech helped his team out ... maybe not in the end, but they picked it up and listened to him.  Episode 2 also showed me why I can't fucking stand Peter Laviolette.  He's an asshole.  He's every whiney high school coach.  He's a fucking joke.   Maybe a good coach, but still a fucking joke.

We also get to see a different side of Torts ... something far different than most fans see on TV.  The moments with Liam are pretty cool.  You can actually see that Tortorella is happy to talk about this young guy.  Plus Liam's room is badass.  It's all Rangers in there.  It was awesome to hear Torts talk about giving Liam and his family tickets to the Winter Classic.  Another reason to think this guy is better than most people see.

Ok ... just when I think Bryzgalov can't get better, he comes off with another interview.  He's dead on though, who's more crazy ... him or defensemen ha.  Then the next question and subsequent pause, smile, and laughter from cameramen was just hilarious.  HBO does the Coyotes/Rangers game like it does.  A lot of emphasize on a hard fought game, some referees talking in between periods, and a goal with 0.1 seconds on the clock.  HBO turns right around and does the same thing with the Bruins/Flyers game, and more concussion testing on the show.  That's pretty interesting to me, to be able to see that kind of stuff.  Sucks that this keeps happening throughout the NHL though.

I've left Episode 2 looking forward for Episode 3.  These episodes are the ones where HBO gets everything right ... when the two Winter Classic teams play a week or so before the outdoor game.  There's nothing better than having 12 or so cameras in one arena, showing fans the game within the game.

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