Watch the Habs on 24/7
NEW REALITY SERIES gives fans a whole new look at the Canadiens
The Montreal Canadiens are getting their very own reality series, a behind-the-scenes look at the team à la really cool HBO hockey documentary series 24/7. TV crews have already been following the players and coaches around and 24CH will have its premiere on RDS on Saturday, with the series airing in English on TSN2.
But the great thing about 24/7 was its willingness to show the ups and downs of the National Hockey League teams, coaches and players, with the fun show actually thriving on dressing-room conflicts and colourful coaches’ tirades, complete with frequent use of the F-bomb. You have to wonder if the Habs, a famously controlling organization, and its official broadcast partner, RDS, will play up any potential controversies in the Habs ranks.
At a press event Monday at the Bell Centre launching the series, the footage shown was all pretty rah-rah Go Habs Go-type fare, with Canadiens president Geoff Molson seen interviewing general-manager candidate Marc Bergevin and then, once Bergevin landed the job, the two men are seen just moments before the new GM is introduced to the local media. It’s a long way from the scenes in 24/7 where Washington Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau is quite simply raging against his under-performing players.
“We’ll have incredible access,” said Domenic Vannelli, vice-president of production at RDS.
He pointed to the sequence in the sample material in which Molson is on the phone with former Habs great (and former GM) Serge Savard, who was helping Molson find a new GM last year. The name of ex-Philadelphia Flyers goalie Ron Hextall comes up and Savard wonders aloud if Hextall is the right man for the job. Vannelli sees that as a good example of the candid style of the series.
But the bottom line is that the Habs get to screen each episode and Molson and his colleagues have final cut.
“If there’s a conflict (shown), the Canadiens get to see all the episodes and they can ask to have the things taken out,” said Canadiens defenceman Francis Bouillon, who was at the press launch Monday. “But I think the Canadiens are opening their books here. I would’ve loved to see a show like this when I was a kid. So for sure people are gonna love this show.”
Bouillon says the presence of the cameras hasn’t bothered the players so far. But he did mention that the camera crew will not be following them into the showers.
“No one’s complaining,” Bouillon said. “It’s fun for the players.”
But goalie Carey Price said it has taken some getting used to having the RDS crews lurking around the rink.
“It’s OK, but it can be distracting when you have a camera over your shoulder when you’re tying your skates,” Price said.
Sure, it’s fun now, I say to Bouillon, but what about if the team goes on a major losing streak — hey, it could happen! — and conflicts start arising in the dressing room.
“Yeah, it’s true we’ve just played one game and we lost,” Bouillon said.
“If we lose a couple of games in a row or you’re just coming off a really bad game, for sure it’s a lot less interesting to have a camera in your face. But if it happens, it happens and people will see the reaction of the players live. So it’ll be fun to see that stuff.”
Said Habs head coach Michel Therrien, who was also at the press conference: “I think it’s a great opportunity for the fans to see the Habs behind the scenes. It’s the kind of access people haven’t had before.”
I mention to Therrien that one of the talking points of 24/7 was the warts-and-all portraits of explosive coaches, like John Tortorella from the New York Rangers and Boudreau from, at the time, the Capitals.
“Listen, I’m going to stay true to myself,” Therrien said. “The cameras are already there. So when it’s time to teach things, I’ll teach things. When it’s time to meet the players individually, I’ll meet the players individually. For it to be good, we have to forget about the fact that the cameras are there.”
There were quite a few Fwords flying in 24/7, particularly from Boudreau, so I had to ask Therrien if he’d be letting fly with a few choice swear words in the series.
“Well there are moments … I’ll just be myself,” Therrien said.
There are also spinoffs of 24CH on a couple of other platforms.
24CH Hebdo will appear on the website Canadiens.com every Saturday with a three- to five-minute segment, and 24CH Flash is a 45-second-to-oneminute shortie that will appear on the official Canadiens mobile-phone app each game day.
There’s already one 24CH Flash available, and there’s another coming Tuesday, the latest one featuring a scene in which you see Bergevin and Therrien telling hot prospect Alex Galchenyuk that he will be staying with the Canadiens and not returning to the minors.
The series 24CH premières with a one-hour episode Saturday at 10:30 p.m., after the Habs game and L’Antichambre. There will be six more half-hour episodes in the weeks to come.