24/7: In China, If You Kill Tiger, You Get Death Penalty

Last night’s 1st episode of 24/7 had a ton of awesome moments and interesting behind the scenes stuff. Anybody else know about the Flyers victory song (see video above)?

The Coaches

While the Rangers’ John Tortorella does curse a bit more than our own Peter Laviolette, he’s no an f-bomb machine like Washington’s Bruce Boudreau was last year. A few New York players mention that Torts is very direct and they appreciate his honesty. I don’t believe them. Lavy seems as laid back as he normally is during a press conference.

In Game Moment

Aside from all the trash talk and the other little things you hear, I was most interested in hearing the interaction with the referees. And honestly, they didn’t make themselves look good. After Artem Anisimov shotgun goal celebration started a small brawl, the ref sounded like a complete idiot when talking to Brandon Dubinsky and then John Tortorella. First he didn’t even want to tell the players why Vincent Lecavalier asn’t given a penalty for starting the whole fight.  Then when Torts asked him if he’s ever seen a penalty given for a celebration, he seemed caught off guard and gave a completely b.s. explanation and claimed it’s because Ansisimov skated too much before celebrating.

Star of the Show

Sean Avery: fashion model extraordinaire! I’m kidding…I know who everyone is really talking about. Ilya Bryzgalov has yet to live up to the hype on the ice, but off the ice he has absolutely let his personality shine. I don’t know which of his rants I liked more, the universe or about killing tigers in China. If HBO is monitoring all of the talk about the first episode, then over the next few weeks they have to follow him around more. One thing I’d love to see is him chatting with Sergei Bobrovsky, who was completely absent from the entire episode.

Ouch

When Michael Del Zotto crashed shoulder first into the boards and then you get to hear him as the trainers run over to check him out, it kind of made me realize how much these guys go through during the season.  I see big hits all the time, and guys get shaken up, but I’m just so desensitized by it because it’s so common. But when you get to actually hear the person’s reaction, it makes it more real. Same goes for when Giroux got clipped by Wayne Simmonds in the head accidentally.  After guys go to the locker room with a head injury, we usually don’t see them again until they have recovered and come back. I liked seeing what the player looks like, and then the follow up concussion testing was interesting as well.

Final Thoughts

HBO does a nice job putting this together.  They cut back and forth between the two cities and pick up on a lot of little things we would never usually get to see. There’s a ton of chatter about the show on sports radio, Twitter, and various other blogs. I’m definitely looking forward to next week’s episode.

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