Joel Quenneville was one of the main attractions in the
Joel Quenneville was one of the main attractions in the "Road to the Winter Classic" series. (USATSI)

One of the big questions heading into this year’s Winter Classic was how the NHL would do without 24/7, the popular HBO series that was used as a three-episode lead-up to the Winter Classic before giving fans an inside look at the event itself in a fourth episode. That series was replaced with a similar show on EPIX entitled Road to the NHL Winter Classic.

Though EPIX made the show available for free via various streaming platforms including NHL.com, thus making it available to a larger audience than it would be otherwise, there was some skepticism about how adequately the show would replace the very popular HBO series. Ross Greenburg, the executive producer for the EPIX series was at HBO when 24/7 first started. As a result, the tradeoff hasn’t been as severe as previously feared.

There have been times the show has looked more like a lower-budget knockoff of 24/7, right down to the Liev Schreiber sound-a-like narration and all sorts of slow-mo footage for max dramatic effect. But overall, Road to the Winter Classic has given the viewers what they had regularly came to expect when sitting down for 24/7.

If you want to hear how many F-bombs a head coach can drop, Joel Quenneville and Barry Trotz have got you covered. “Say, what are these fellas like off the ice,” you might ask. The cameras did catch many a candid moment away from the rink, particularly with their families. And as always, the on-ice visuals and sounds were as good as you could hope.

The show followed the 24/7 model well and was every bit as artful in trying to tell a story with no clear narrative to drive viewers to this game. There were many unexpected moments, most tragically the death of Chicago Blackhawks assistant equipment manager Clint Reif. The show handled that delicately, with sensitivity to Reif’s family, the team, and even the viewer.

Here’s a look at some of the best highlights from the show’s first three episodes (most of the bad language is bleeped out in these clips, but beware of a few NSFW language tags as well).

Bryan Bickell and Andrew Shaw banter in the training room

Blackhawks forward Bryan Bickell got pretty banged up in a game just before the first episode of the series. His face looked like it had been through a pretty tough battle. As Bickell gives the rundown of how his face came to look like that (which included his face running into the post), Chicago agitator Andrew Shaw entered the room to gawk. Though as Shaw soon found out, Bickell wasn’t about to take any of his nonsense and turned the tables on Shaw by making fun of his haircut. It was that classic pro-athlete banter that most people visualize happens on a daily basis in pro locker rooms.

Alex Ovechkin’s mom

We knew Ovi’s parents would have to figure into the series at some point and when the family came to visit, they stole the show from the Capitals star. Ovechkin’s mother was filmed cooking a Russian dinner for her son and teammate Evgeny Kuznetsov. Her conversations with Oveckin were subtitled on the screen, which led to a funny quip after the Caps star asked his mother what was in the salad he was eating. In Russian, she said “Don’t tell them it’s from the store. Let them think it’s homemade.” The maniacal laughter that brought out of the group was as comical as it was kind of scary.

Jonathan Toews’ injury against Bruins (NSFW Language Warning)

There was some controversy after Jonathan Toews was leveled into the boards head-first by Boston Bruins defenseman Dennis Seidenberg. Toews stayed out for his next shift and only after that was removed from the game. This clip shows exactly how the Blackhawks handled and the difficulty these teams face with players that never want to come out. Toews didn’t end up missing any more than the last two periods of that game, but this is a battle that the NHL has to constantly wage.

Capitals goalie coach Mitch Korn’s traveling closet

Caps goaltending coach Mitch Korn is known for being a character. His segment in Road showed that off prety well. He came over to the team from Nashville with Barry Trotz and hasn’t bought a place in Washington yet. So he lives out of a hotel room. During every road trip, he checks out of the hotel so as to not be charged for the room. So every time the team hits the road, he packs up all his clothes into his car and leaves it there. He’s one of the good guys in the game, but he sure is a strange one, too.

Remembering Clint Reif

The images of a teary-eyed Joel Quenneville addressing the death of the team’s longtime assistant equipment manager and the words from the head coach offered the best way for the show to handle this very personal and tragic moment. Earlier in the episode, the camera crew was with Reif in an empty Blackhawks dressing room as he was preparing bags for a road trip. It showed the hard work that goes on behind the scenes, which was something they planned to use before Reif’s passing. Watching the passion he put into his work, and the care he took with each player’s gear and what he said about them showed why his loss impacted the team so greatly. It’s painful to watch knowing how the story turned next. The show handled this as delicately as it could, telling a story and honoring the late Blackhawks staffer.

Other highlights:

The Families – Players are often the stars of the show, but this year, there was a lot of emphasis on family. Many players were caught in softer moments with their children, and both head coaches’ families saw some quality screen time throughout the series. They weren’t always the most exciting moments caught, but they always felt the most genuine. There were some particularly nice moments with Brad Richards and his newborn son, as well as Nicklas Backstrom, Troy Brouwer and Karl Alzner with their daughters.

Joel Quenneville’s snow monkey – While following the Blackhawks head coach on his holiday trip to the family’s vacation home in Vail, Colo., Quenneville let the camera crew in on his good luck charm. He showed them his “snow monkey” which he had his entire staff kiss on a group trip out to Vail before the 2012-13 season. It was only after they kissed it that he revealed the snow monkey was actually a deer’s rear end. Screen cap via WashingtonPost.com.

Michael Latta and Tom Wilson’s bachelor pad – The young Washington Capitals forwards invited cameras into their apartment and it looks like the nicest dorm room ever, complete with three gigantic bottles of ketchup in the fridge and barely any furniture to speak of.

Joel Quenneville’s goal exclamations – What does a coach say when one of his players scores a big goal? “PEANUT BUTTER!”