The Confluence
“24/7” Episode 3: Now That’s Hockey
by Tony on 12/30/10 at 09:19 PM ET
Comments (7)
Naturally the third installment of HBO’s “24/7” focused much of the hour on the pre-Winter Classic showdown between the Penguins and Capitals at the Phone Booth, won by the Pens 3-2 in a shootout.
Of course, that wasn’t all that was shown. Plenty of other fascinating insight into both teams.
Some observations:
- Mike Knuble’s jaw and Ben Lovejoy’s face: You know, it’s somewhat miraculous that more players and referees aren’t struck in the face more often than they are, especially when you consider a lot of them are face-to-face with 100mph slapshots.
- Coach Boudreau hoping the Penguins are “not very good defensively”. Now that’s an interesting comment, coming from a coach of a team that has a bunch of defensemen that barely play defense.
- Boudreau on Malkin’s tendency to take retaliatory penalties: Thank you, Bruce. Now if the Penguins are smart, they’ll show Geno that clip about, oh I don’t know, 147 times.
- Pens’ Assistant Coach Tony Granato: ”(The Caps) are already on offense when they’re supposed to be on defense”. Hit the nail on the head with that one, Coach.
- Repeat mention from last week: I love the referees being miked. Quite possibly my favorite parts of the series so far.
- Max Talbot: “That goalie (Neuvirth) is shaky”
- HCDB: ”(Mike) Rupper, keep hitting (Mike) Green.”, as well as on the ice “Heads up Green, you pussy”.
- Sid and Ovie trade F-bombs galore. You knew it was just a matter of time before HBO showed this. This is nothing earth-shattering, we can all read lips, but to get these guys miked-up on the ice is fantastic.
- More HCDB, on Neuvirth “This goalie isn’t that good”.
- Referee on Tyler Kennedy “If he’s going in there (to the goal), he’s gonna take a little shit”.
- HCDB to Sid, “You tired?” Sid: “I didn’t do anything”. HCDB “Good point”. Frickin’ classic.
- Boudreau at the ice cream shop in the mall. Come on, man.
- Eric Fehr and wife in Adopt-A-Family program. Much respect.
- Niklas Backstrom’s Christmas dinner, complete with Swedish song. Where’s Abba when you need them.
- It’s weird to say, but now that Jordan Staal to making his return, he’s been gone so long, I’m almost used to it. Can’t wait to see him take the ice, whether or not that’s at the Winter Classic.
- I really hope HBO shows more of the Pens’ lackluster game in Ottawa next week, although I doubt it. I need to see a HCDB chewout session.
Filed in: | The Confluence | Permalink
Tags: NHL-Hockey, Pittsburgh+Penguins, Washington+Capitals,
Comments
I don’t give a rat’s ass what the Caps do in the regular season, it’s what you do in the playoffs…..
Posted by Tony from Virginia Beach, VA on 12/30/10 at 10:42 PM ET
2 different arguments. Still doesn’t answer the question: if our D sucks, our goalie sucks and PItt’s d is great how are we winning any head to head matchups? You should be beating us 4 straight every regular season and post season matchup.
Posted by flacco5 on 12/30/10 at 10:45 PM ET
Well, the Pens HAVE won nearly every post season matchup….
Last season was a combination of very mediocre Pens defense and goaltending…. That’s why you saw the Caps score at least five goals in three of the four games….. It was also the reason you saw the Pens lose against Montreal (probably the Caps also, right ??) Theodore and Varlamov gave up at least three goals in every game, it’s not like they were standing on their head….
I think the Caps addition of Hannan will help their defense, but they could use one more good defensive defenseman….. In goal, I think the jury’s still out on Neuvrith…. Frankly, I thought Varlamov was the better goalie…..
Posted by Tony from Virginia Beach, VA on 12/30/10 at 11:12 PM ET
- Boudreau on Malkin’s tendency to take retaliatory penalties: Thank you, Bruce. Now if the Penguins are smart, they’ll show Geno that clip about, oh I don’t know, 147 times.
That clip shocked me. I am surprised that teams would let cameras in during strategy and film deconstructions. I’ve never seen HBO get this kind of access with any other sport, but I don’t watch that much HBO Sport programming. I’d be surprised if other teams (that are financially stable) would want to be in this series in future years after seeing Bruce spell it all out like that.
Posted by redxblack from Akron Ohio on 12/31/10 at 09:53 AM ET
I don’t get HBO. All I want to know is: how did the Kid’s porn ‘stache look??
Posted by Red Winger from Sault Ste Marie on 12/31/10 at 11:40 AM ET
- Coach Boudreau hoping the Penguins are “not very good defensively”. Now that’s an interesting comment, coming from a coach of a team that has a bunch of defensemen that barely play defense.
I think he was talking about Crosby and Malkin, more than the Pens as a whole. Boudreau said a couple things in this sequence that had me mystified. This was one, the other was that Crosby and Malkin always play together.
- Boudreau on Malkin’s tendency to take retaliatory penalties: Thank you, Bruce. Now if the Penguins are smart, they’ll show Geno that clip about, oh I don’t know, 147 times.
This is when Boudreau started making sense. He was dead on with this one. I loved how he had, like, 90 clips of Malkin making dumb retaliations.
Posted by StevieSteve on 12/31/10 at 03:43 PM ET
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Last 9 head to head meetings: Was 7-0-2. Our defense sucks,our goalie sucks and Pitt’s defense is great so how does this happen??? And Pit: 16 straight meetings with equal or more PP’s so you can’t blame the refs.
Posted by flacco5 on 12/30/10 at 10:40 PM ET