Friday, December 17, 2010

And if my Mom phones, tell her I'm not at the rink today...

Poor Bruce Boudreau, beyond the troubles with his under performing and highly paid hockey club today he has a much larger problem on the horizon this Christmas, he has to face his Mama after his television debut on HBO this week.

Boudreau and his Capitals are part of a number of HBO programs tracking both the Caps and the Pittsburgh Penguins, as they work their way through December of the NHL season on their way to a rendezvous on New Years Day at the Winter Classic at Pittsburgh's Heinz Field.

Styled as a behind the scenes all access pass kind of program, hockey fans are learning a fair amount (perhaps a little too much) about some of their favourite hockey players, their coaches and any other fellow traveller that pops into the camera viewfinder in the next few weeks.

The program titled 24/7 Penguins Capitals road to the NHL Winter Classic is clearly not the thing of a Peter Puck greatest hits collection, unfiltered and clearly uncensored, the good, the bad and the profane is all there for display.  A fascinating glimpse inside the dressing room, team bus, airport waits and any other location that Pens and Caps may gather with the camera almost a constant companion.

Boudreau's debut on the television documentary screen has made for much conversation after episode one, his liberal use of F bombs in his missives to his Capital troops a warning to coaches everywhere from high school to the pros, that emotions caught on tape can certainly provide for talking points not to shortly after public review.

For those who missed the debut on Wednesday, but want to total up the F bombs themselves, (providing that Mom and any little children for that matter aren't around) the more colourful of Boudreau's cinematic rant can be found on You Tube.

No one is keeping tabs on the profanities exhaled by Boudreau (perhaps because they are too plentiful and too fast to count) , who may find sympathy from many hockey fans for his exasperation at the sluggish work efforts of his players in the last few months, but one person in particular is hoping that Bruce keeps offering up the words that could be bleeped anywhere else but on HBO.

New York Jets head coach Rex Ryan, currently under more than a bit of pressure of his own with his NFL team stumbling in the late going is no doubt hoping that the the chatty Boudreau keeps the F words flowing.

Up until the first episode of the Pens and Caps home movies, Ryan was most famously known for his own expletive deleted missives to his players on a similar style program on the Jets aired by HBO called Hard Knocks..

With the Capitals coach ramping up the cursing to a grander scale, Ryan suddenly is off the hook with his own Mom, passing the torch for coaches with a lot of splaining to do his new best friend Bruce.

The HBO series continues to air (with words as blue as a cold winter's sky) every Wednesday through December, you can check the schedule here for  other air times on HBO Canada,

If you're watching at home be sure to keep the volume down, lest your Mom have to make a call to Mr. Boudreau's mom about the nature of his public speaking!

Some of the reviews of the HBO show can be found below:


Newsday -- Caps coach is curse king
Washington Post -- HBO's 24/7 series documents Washington Capitals, warts and all
Washington Post-- A bit too close up
National Post-- HBO’s most stunning NHL revelations
National Post-- HBO's 2/7 Penguins/Capitals proves mastery of the salty language arts
Ottawa Citizen-- Capital's coach gets earful from mom over HBO curses
ESPN -- Boudreau won't soften - not even for mom
ESPN-- Winter Classic chow is honest, entertaining
Globe and Mail-- HBO turns its candid cameras on NHL
MSNBC-- Snap review: 24/7 Penguins/Capitals an instant classic
Huffington Post -- Bruce Boudreau F-Bomb speech
Yahoo Sports-- HBO 24/7 Penguins-Capitals Ep. 1: Bruce Boudreau gets dirty
New York Times--  NHL excited about HBO Documentary

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