The show starts off with Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist taking some time on his day off to go practice with a band he’s playing with, featuring John McEnroe, who is jamming with Hank for a benefit concert in February. Playing “Hero” by the Foo Fighters, Lundqvist blows of some steam before the team’s coming road trip.

 

Meanwhile, defenseman Dan Girardi prepares for the upcoming road trip by spending some time with his one-and-a-half year old son, Landon, who hammed for the camera while practicing one-timers in their living room with dear, old dad before settling in for breakfast. This, in my opinion, was one of the best moments of the show so far, showing the human side of the sport and showing the sacrifices that these players make for the game that they love.

 

The scene flips over to Washington, where the Flyers have just got done dismantling the Capitals for their sixth-straight win. The HBO cameras catch up to Paul Holmgren for the game, who is very pragmatic (as one would expect) about the lack of Claude Giroux and Chris Pronger.

 

“We can’t sit around feeling sorry for ourselves, because nobody’s going to feel sorry for us.”

 

Well then. We get to see Peter Laviolette give an inspirational pep talk to the squad prior to a montage that intersperses clips of the game with clips of the team boarding their team charter, all to the tune of REO Speedwagon’s “Roll with the Changes.” Appropriate, considering the circumstances.

 

Montage over, we flip back to New York as the Rangers are boarding their team charter to St. Louis to the tune of “Pressure and Time” by Rival Sons. We see some more great behind-the-scenes footage, as Rangers Equipment Manager Acacio Marques talks about what his staff has to do when there is a practice scheduled right away when they land. Oh yeah, and there was a Marc Staal sighting on the plane too. Dan Girardi and Ryan Callahan talk a bit about needing consistency before they show a great look at an NHL film session, with some golden moments from Torts. Among them were comments on how Anton Stralman might want to cover a guy now and again and that Steve Eminger plays the game really, really ugly.

 

To Montreal now and the Flyers’ practice, where the tone of Philadelphia’s practice is much different than that of the Rangers – the team is winning and we all know that winning cures all. There’s some gold with Danny Briere talking about the rookies that have stepped up (I don’t know anyone that has referred to Sean Couturier a “grisly veteran,” but there you have it.)

 

There is also a great exchange between Peter Laviolette and Scott Hartnell, where Laviolette congratulates Hartnell on his two-hundredth goal, making mention that it’s two-hundred more than he has, to which Hartnell chirps with a smile, “You didn’t get one?”

 

After the upbeat practice, Harry Zolnierczyk and Zac Rinaldo each talk about being rookies with the squad, then get a little nostalgic about playing with Jaromir Jagr. After all, as Rinaldo put it, “He was on Sega Genesis.”

 

At the pregame meal, some ribbing of Ilya Bryzgalov led to this gem from the man now dubbed “Universe:”

 

Another brilliant discourse by Bryzgalov not only was entertaining, but showed the principle that Ms. Conduct pointed out on Backhand Shelf might actually be true. The shtick might wear thin.

 

After Bryz comparing one of his dogs to a beautiful female (seriously, watch the video), we’re on to St. Louis where we get to hear from Marc Staal.

 

Staal talks about his concussion and talks about coming back, saying, “You know, waking up, not feeling well was a big sign to me that something wasn’t right. Over the last little while, it’s been a lot better.”

 

In the same vein as has been done in past episodes, HBO followed up this intensely serious interaction with Staal, about his injury, with a more light hearted moment with Brandon Prust and Brian Boyle waking up from their afternoon naps.

 

This, in my estimation, is turning into a very nice bro-mance between the two and the two roommates are very entertaining to watch. Upon waking up from their naps, Prust tells his roomie, “We’ve got to go score some goals,” followed by Boyle stating, “I don’t have any clothes on right now,” and Prust following it up with, “You don’t want to film that.”

 

After that brief, but entertaining interaction, we see Prust help Boyle pick out his shirt and tie, then Boyle straighten his jacket and Prust’s as well. Like I said. A great bro-mance.

 

The highlights (or low lights, depending on your point of view) of the St. Louis game were punctuated by some great locker room material, with Tortorella laying into the team for their lack of effort and defense, followed by a more reserved Torts addressing the media.

 

Back to Montreal, Peter Laviolette points to the cameras as added motivation for teams to put a beating on the Flyers, saying to Max Talbot, “As we sit here, with the cameras from what’s going on around here, I couldn’t wait for your team to get to us last year.”

 

This is just further proof that this might not be the most ideal situation for these teams, which makes it all the more admirable that they handle it so gracefully.

 

This is when one of the best moments of the show so far is shown, because we often see interaction between the players and the refs on television but rarely know what is said in the interactions. The gold, though, came from Peter Laviolette talking to the refs (be warned, the video has some harsh language).

 

After Laviolette has calmed down and the Flyers have won the game, we find out that Chris Pronger is going to miss the rest of the season and the playoffs with post concussion symptoms.

 

Back to the Rangers, they have an intense practice prior to flying to Phoenix, and the talk turns to, briefly, Sean Avery and then to Mike Rupp, who Torts has nothing but glowing words for. Then it moves on to the moment of the show, where we meet 10-year-old Liam Trainer – a Rangers fan with cerebral palsy. The show highlights the friendship between Trainer and Tortorella, which began after the two met at a Garden of Dreams event.

 

In order to really grasp how special this moment is, you need to watch the show. The joy in Tortorella’s voice and face when he talks about Liam is one of the most touching things I’ve ever seen and really humanizes him in a way that I don’t think anything has before.

 

Back to the Flyers, and Paul Holmgren talks about how hard not having Chris Pronger is going to be for the team and also mentions how hard not playing will be for Pronger before showing that Claude Giroux is progressing well. There’s a little back and forth between Giroux and Matt Carle, then we’re on to the reason why people are tuning in.

 

Bryz:

 

Again, you’ve got to watch the clip to fully understand how awesome his tangents really are.

 

We move on to the Briere household where we get to see the relationship between Briere and his sons and rookie Sean Couturier. It’s a typical Friday night and we see a nice little segment between Couturier and Briere’s sons that show that Couturier is really just part of the family at this point, which bodes well for his future because he’s found himself a great mentor in Briere.

 

On to Phoenix, where Mike Rupp’s addition to the line up gives the Rangers a little more of a physical pop and it shows in the way the game is played. Rupp’s intimidating tactics finally take their toll when Raffi Torres tackles him after a hit and we get some more interaction between the refs and the players.

 

During the intermission, the cameras take us inside the refs’ locker room where we get to see a little interaction between the refs and hear what they talk about between periods. We go to the training room to see Ruslan Fedotenko get stitched up and Steve Eminger find out his shoulder has been separated, then Marian Gaborik hands out the Broadway hat to Brad Richards after his last second goal.

 

Finally, we’re back to Philly and Scott Hartnell heading to the rink. The bachelor talks about how difficult not being home for the holidays is before we get to watch some more concussion testing on Claude Giroux. The signs are all positive as he does some light exercise before meeting with team doctors and showing us some more concussion testing.

 

On to the game, and it’s a disaster for the Flyers. They fall behind big, early and nothing seems to go their way, up to and even after Sean Couturier gets hit in the head by a slapshot. Couturier heads to the quiet room, then to the hospital for observation and we end the episode with the Flyers’ winning streak ending at seven games.

 

“My husky, basically, she’s a hot girl, man.” – Ilya Bryzgalov waxing poetic on dogs

 

“Flavor of the month, concussions. That’s what everybody wants for Christmas this year, I guess. Hopefully I don’t get one from Santa Claus.” – Matt Carle

 

“He was on Sega Genesis.” – Zac Rinaldo on Jaromir Jagr

 

“Torres didn’t see the hit. And he just sees him laying on the ice, so he’s thinking he just got [expletive] killed there, right?” – Referee Wes McCauley

 

“I’m glad that he’s part of my life and I’m glad I’m part of his.” – John Tortorella on Liam Trainer

 

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