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Hockeymom1960

Leafs/Wings 24/7 Episode 3 Discussion (12/28)

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Amazing how useless these coaches' speeches are.

"Keep skating". "Wear their D down". Bla bla bla. Not exactly groundbreaking comments anyone couldn't figure out themselves.

I guess whatever X's and O's are involved aren't being shown on this program. They make the coaches sound like simple minded idiots.

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Guest Playmaker

A few complaints:

- They sort of skimped on the two wins at the beginning, didn't they? Ours, in particular (the overtime thriller against the Flames). I get that the centerpiece needed to be the WC preview, but, I dunno, it gave me a weird impression. "Oh, hey, by the way, these two teams who keep losing actually won. It was nice. But we're most interested in losses, because that's our whole narrative dealy. DRAMA!"

- Repetition. Predictability. Carlyle overkill. Too much locker room stuff. Maybe I wouldn't feel this way if it were the first or second episode, but by this point we know how the coaches and players are going to feel about x or y developments, and that every single player in the NHL says, "f***in' right(, boys)!" every chance he gets.

- Hockey players skating on outdoor rinks and ponds. Is it the Winter Classic? No? Then I really don't care, tbh. Unless there's, like, a hooker there, or something.

- Phaneuf's extension. It took too long. And, for the record, I would be saying the same thing about a Datsyuk or Zetterberg extension. Unless there was a hooker in the background, or something.

I'm not saying I didn't enjoy the episode. I did. I'm not even saying it was a big let down. I guess I just felt like, overall, it was too much stuff we'd already seen, and some questionable points of focus for the non-game segments. I'm sure it'd be a lot more enjoyable for us if our team hadn't s*** the bed this month. But what can you do...

Agree with most of this. It just all feels too staged and just not really anything new or different. While Alfie seems like a nice enough guy, I just don't really "care" about him yet, if that makes sense. He's still too new to the Wings. But it seems like he was one of the few Wings who would allow the cameras "in". Instead of Z skating on a pond, how about exploring his star status in Sweden, along with his wife. Or Datsyuk's obvious love for his homeland. The stuff with Brendan Smith, Dekeyser and Alfie wasn't bad, but would have loved to have learn more about guys like Z and Pav, Kronwall, Franzen, etc.

The series has been a major disappointment to me so far.

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It's not so much HBO forcing awkward conversations on our guys, but more of our guys trying to do something for the cameras which turns out to be really awkward.

i.e. frickin' Cleary talking to Siri about Datsyuk while hes right next to him.

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Guest Playmaker

I think they're featuring the guys who are willing to face the cameras. It seems like most of them aren't. I guess you can't force them to, but seems like HBO sure didn't get their money's worth and it hasn't been very watchable.

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It was cool getting to see DK and Smith a bit.

Kadri sure doesn't seem like the sharpest knife in the drawer.

And if you thought the Babcock glare was scary, his snarl in the locker room is worse.

You can see why guys want Cleary on the team. There's no questioning his compete level and how personally he takes it every time the Wings get scored on. It's got to be frustrating that he just can't manage to compete the way he wants anymore.

As for the shortcomings of the show, I think a big part of that is how quickly they need to turn it around and air it. This episode the last footage was shot at least Christmas Eve and aired four days later. It would be different if they could follow the guys around for months and then construct the series over the course of several more months.

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I liked the show but kudos to players from both teams, I wouldn't allow them to film my house, family and gf that's just too far into privacy. Hats off to Danny K for signing all these autographs while just wanting to eat something, another great example of why hockeyplayers are the most humble team sport athletes by far and bar none.

Loved how Alfie talked about keeping their swedish traditions but also adjusting to the american lifestyle, man would I have loved to have this guy in his prime here.

Also the difference between Babcock and Carlyle is huge, now I can see why the players are getting sick of his act it's always "compete, let's go, work hard" Babs on the other side is giving instructions on what to and how to do it beetter.

I also think this show could need more Orr and Frazer McLaren seeing both of these mammoths train and preparing for fights would be nice.

btw. thanks for the link I'd advise everyone to download it before they take it down :( btw 2 the quality is superb nice job

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did anyone see howies winter classic mask? pretty sick. references the wolverine helmets.

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Too bad the wolverine helmets are so ugly... I like the Howard mask though

When we saw Bert and Clarkson talking during the game, my brother and I assumed Clarkson was asking hert to fight. We both were excited to see how the conversation played out on 24/7... An argument about a water bottle was not what we expected. loved it though!

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Too bad the wolverine helmets are so ugly... I like the Howard mask though

When we saw Bert and Clarkson talking during the game, my brother and I assumed Clarkson was asking hert to fight. We both were excited to see how the conversation played out on 24/7... An argument about a water bottle was not what we expected. loved it though!

wolverine helmets are awesome

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Did anyone pay attention to the part where Babs talks about the morning skate? He says that because he has "Kids" on the team he has to make morning skate mandatory, Implying that young players are not as good/ready blah blah blah. He says that if it was mostly vets he wouldn't have to make it mandatory.

I for one always beleived Babs and Holland favored vets for a variety of reasons. But that exchange made, at least to me, it seem like to me that young players are just basically completely unappreciated here. thoughts?

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Did anyone pay attention to the part where Babs talks about the morning skate? He says that because he has "Kids" on the team he has to make morning skate mandatory, Implying that young players are not as good/ready blah blah blah. He says that if it was mostly vets he wouldn't have to make it mandatory.

I for one always beleived Babs and Holland favored vets for a variety of reasons. But that exchange made, at least to me, it seem like to me that young players are just basically completely unappreciated here. thoughts?

Not really. Kids need more practice. It's like that with anything you do. If you've been doing something for 20 years, you're probably as good as you're going to get at it. If you're 20 years old, there's still a lot of room to grow.

Another thing is that the kids are still getting used to the NHL game, and since they're call-ups, they're still fitting into the lineup and getting used to their teammates. The vets that have been here a while know each others' tendencies, and the ones like Alfie may not know the individuals, but they've been around enough to adjust quickly.

Both the need for practice and the need for making them more comfortable in their surroundings are reasons to have the kids practice more.

Other thoughts: "Go dye your hair." Really? That's like calling the fat kid "fatso". Shows no originality or effort. -oooooooh burn, did you wake up at three in the morning thinking "hey! he has grey hair! I'll tell him to dye it!"- Don't quit your day job.

Nice bit on DeKe. It's what the series needs: more slow-mo getting-dressed shots not involving equipment. The whole "putting on skates and/or pads in slow-mo" is getting old.

Johan's Eddie is getting to be a big boy. Cute as a little muffin.

Hank moved three years ago? After he and Emma re-did the kitchen in their old house? Wow. That rich and still flipping houses. Wonder if this one was a fixer-upper too. That would be a cool show. Hockey + DYI = my kind of show.

Smith's dad is funny. Loved the "went down like a cheap suit" comment. Was waiting for "hooker" rather than "suit" but I guess even dads draw the line somewhere.

Not in the show, but would have been cool props: Dec. 19th was 3 years of sobriety for Tootoo. Good for him.

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Pretty good episode, but the intermission part during the NY Islanders game was shocking. Babs trying to get the guys going with a "let's go" at the end of his speech... and you could hear a pin drop as he was walking out. After one bad period and that was it, game over. Lack of leadership during that intermission

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Pretty good episode, but the intermission part during the NY Islanders game was shocking. Babs trying to get the guys going with a "let's go" at the end of his speech... and you could hear a pin drop as he was walking out. After one bad period and that was it, game over. Lack of leadership during that intermission

Yeah, I noticed that too. I was surprised Babs didn't turn around and go "I said LETS GO!" because there was absolutely zero response in the locker room.

But overall, the best episode so far, seemed like more focus on the games, especially the one in Toronto, obviously.

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Pretty good episode, but the intermission part during the NY Islanders game was shocking. Babs trying to get the guys going with a "let's go" at the end of his speech... and you could hear a pin drop as he was walking out. After one bad period and that was it, game over. Lack of leadership during that intermission

I don't know about lack of leadership, but he nailed the problem- no emotion, going through the motions, all that. They had given up before it was over. The coach has to have the senior players backing him up there. They're the ones who have to rise up, dig in, and motivate the others.

There was a game against Chicago 6 or 7 years ago where we lost 6-0. Malts and Cheli were the only players on the team who put any effort into that game. They were too old to actually make a difference, but they tried to lead by example. They were what Cleary has become.

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I watched most of the episode on DVR this morning (was out of town). I'd have to rewatch to be sure, but I'm about 90% sure that DeKeyser is staying in the Lakeshore Towers in Grosse Pointe Shores (and was eating on Mack Avenue). Pretty cool since it's like minutes from where I grew up.

I mean, given that I've been anticipating these episodes for almost two years (or whenever they announced the original Winter Classic for the lockout season), a let-down of some degree was inevitable. George Malik of Kukla's site wrote a lengthy article ripping the series a new one.

But I think there are reasons we are (and aren't) seeing what we're seeing. You can't tell me that HBO went into this thing planning to focus on guys like Smith, Deke, and Abdelkader at the expense of Datsyuk and Kronwall. I think there are limitations to what they are able to get. Keep in mind the following, also:

  • Datsyuk was concussed/recovering for much of late November/early December, which certainly limited the access they would have to jam a camera in his face and interview him all day.
  • The strongest "narrative" episode of 24/7 is always the first one (This was true for Bryzgalov, Boudreau, etc.), since they have the most time to plan out what they want to do. The later episodes have a few family visits and a bunch of game clips thrown in.
  • If both Babcock and Carlyle can toss cameras out of their locker room, I find it hard to believe that the teams/players don't have other methods of restricting access to players
  • Some of the most fascinating stories on the Wings side are ones that HBO isn't willing to tell. Most notably, Marek/Wyshinski's idea after the Bert/Corona screen shot that the series could look at the Steve Moore incident and his reinvention/redemption as a tough-but-subtle veteran who has avoided discipline issues (obvious PR/legal issues with showing that).

My point is, there ARE great stories to be told on the Wings side, HBO just can't tell them. The failure to get Datsyuk in front of a camera a la Bryzgalov for more than a few minutes and just see what he'd say is still pretty baffling to me in the past two episodes. All in all, it's still an enjoyable product and a unique opportunity paired with the Winter Classic, but it's taken a step back this year.

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I don't know about lack of leadership, but he nailed the problem- no emotion, going through the motions, all that. They had given up before it was over. The coach has to have the senior players backing him up there. They're the ones who have to rise up, dig in, and motivate the others.

There was a game against Chicago 6 or 7 years ago where we lost 6-0. Malts and Cheli were the only players on the team who put any effort into that game. They were too old to actually make a difference, but they tried to lead by example. They were what Cleary has become.

No, that was a clear indication of lack of leadership in the locker room. Pavs, Alfie, Bert, or even Cleary needed to setup and get some energy going but no one did. I would have loved to see someone stand up and rant a la Brett Hull The Season. That is exactly what the young kids need to hear, wake the f up and play the teams game, not your way but the teams way.

Oh and that one scene where Cleary was saying something and you can see Babs in the background, barf!!!

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No, that was a clear indication of lack of leadership in the locker room. Pavs, Alfie, Bert, or even Cleary needed to setup and get some energy going but no one did. I would have loved to see someone stand up and rant a la Brett Hull The Season. That is exactly what the young kids need to hear, wake the f up and play the teams game, not your way but the teams way.

Oh and that one scene where Cleary was saying something and you can see Babs in the background, barf!!!

Oh- I get what you're saying now. I went back and re-read your post that I had originally responded to.

I thought you were saying that Babs had a lack of leadership. I now realize that you were saying that the team had a lack of leadership from within its ranks.

Yeah- I totally agree with that. Sorry for the confusion.

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