HBO 24/7 Philadelphia Flyers New York Rangers: Week 1 Recap

The HBO documentary series 24/7 Flyers/Rangers: Road to the NHL Winter Classic premiered Wednesday night and delivered once again. The show gives fans a behind the scenes look at the New York Rangers and Philadelphia Flyers as they gear up for this season’s NHL Winter Classic.

This week’s premier episode started off by highlighting the two teams, their place in history, and their rivalry. Right away we got to see some great on-ice action with mic’d up players (which also always means a fair share of f-bombs from players and coaches alike).

Last season it was the Capitals' Bruce Boudreau who took the f-bomb prize. This season it appeared that it was going to be Flyers coach Peter Laviolette and his pregame speech.

As the show wore on, he calmed down and we got to see his intense and serious nature.

The show also gave us great glimpses of a number of Rangers out to eat in Buffalo and playing credit card roulette to decide who had to pay for dinner. Goalie Henrik Lundqvist was one of the losers, as his card was randomly selected to pick up a $2500 tab.

We also got to see Wayne Simmonds of the Flyers skating with little kids as part of a Flyers outreach program to bring hockey to underprivileged kids. Simmonds seemed right at home with the kids, telling one that he didn’t really do much on the goal he scored the previous night—“I just tapped it in.”

HBO gave us insight to how the locker rooms worked, how each coach handled pregame and intermissions. Both John Tortorella and Laviolette seem similar in their intense passion for the game and for winning; each seem like guys players would love to play for.

Tortorella was mostly calm on the bench, except for one segment where he let Marion Gaborik have it pretty good. It worked though, as Gaborik would go on to score a big goal.

The show had great on-ice action. Watching players agonize over missed shots is great—it’s good to know they care and feel it as badly as fans do.

Another great moment was Scott Hartnell telling Pittsburgh’s Matt Cooke that he was the “dirtiest player in the league” during an after-whistle scrum. Good stuff.

One of the highlights of the show was the now infamous Artem Anisimov rifle salute after a shorthanded goal against Tampa Bay. The HBO cameras, and microphones, caught the melee afterward, including Anisimov in the penalty box asking the ref, “What I do?”

We then saw Tortorella very calmly telling the referee that he disagreed with the call and asking him if he ever saw a celebration result in a misconduct before.

In the locker room Anisimov explained to one of his teammates that a player in Russia used to celebrate like that and he vowed to do it in the NHL. After the game, which New York lost, he apologized to his teammates.

The other big story that HBO was able to capture was the injury to the Flyers' Claude Giroux.

Leading the league in scoring he took a knee to the head from teammate Wayne Simmonds and is out with a concussion. We got to see the intensive precautions and testing that NHL players get from trainers before being let back on the ice.

With the attention that head injuries are getting, seeing this was insightful and timely.

Best Performance of Episode 1:

Flyers goalie Ilya Bryzgalov takes the prize for the best performance of the episode. From waxing about the grandness of the universe to talking about Chinese lion poaching laws (“In China if you kill tiger and they find you—you dead) he was hilarious.

What do we have to do to get a Bryzgalov show in the making?

Most touching moment:

Rangers captain Ryan Callahan playing in front of his family in Buffalo. The pride on his father’s face and him getting choked up talking about his son being the captain was priceless. So was his 80-year-old grandmother crying at the joy of seeing him play.

These are the moments that 24/7 delivers on each episode.

Best Sean Avery Moment:

There were several to choose from. There was his awkward modeling shoot and him calling someone a “@#@%&^% Loser” on the ice.

However, the best part was the smile he shot Anisimov as he entered the locker room after the “rifle” incident. It was one that said “I’m glad someone else did something stupid." Quick but funny.

Episode 2 of HBO’s 24/7 will air next Wednesday at 10 o'clock Eastern.