NHL 36: From Sea To Yawning Sea

I withstood a whiny 6 month old and an 8 year old who continually asked “What are you watching?” in that annoying ‘I don’t want to watch this’ voice and caught the second episode of the NHL 36 series, this time featuring Patrice Bergeron. I must say that I was pretty underwhelmed with what transpired on the program. 

For those that are unaware of what ‘NHL 36’ is, it’s a little like HBO’s 24/7, but on a singular level. Instead of following around two hockey teams, the camera crew follows around one player for 36 hours and gives the viewers a behind the scenes look of them on and off the ice.

I was excited to see Bergeron behind the scenes, but I feel that the production fell short. Patrice Bergeron, for all intents and purposes, is not the most energetic and out spoken person when it comes to off-ice things. In fact, he’s pretty dull. It could have been that my expectations were through the roof because it was a Bruins player being the main focus, but the Patrick Kane piece (which was the inaugrual episode) wasn’t any better.

Fact is there isn’t much to talk about when you focus on a singular player and not a team. 24/7 works very well because it looks at two teams as they work towards the same goal: Playing in the Winter Classic. NHL 36 just takes one player and follows them for a day and a half.

If you missed the Bergeron piece, here’s what you missed:

• Bergeron and Paille watch movies and TV shows on the plane.
• Dennis Seidenberg is afraid to be on camera, possibly because he’s a German spy.
• Tyler Seguin has the sickest mutton chops.
• Brad Marchand is an idiot. [He called Bergeron the captain].
• Bergeron doesn’t have any superstitous tendencies EXCEPT for putting water on the right side of his stall and doing the same ritualistic taping of his sticks.
• It seems Bergeron hangs out with a small group of players that consists of:
  • Brad Marchand
  • Tyler Seguin
  • Danny Paille
  • Dennis Seidenberg [Who may or may not have used a fake mustach so the US government doesn’t realize who he is]
• Bergeron is pretty good at soccer

Honestly, I thought it was pretty blasé. I didn’t watch the last five minutes because I was pretty bored and instead opted to feed Baby Pez a wonderful mix of pureed green peas and applesauce. She woofed em too, she loves her baby food! 

If you can catch the episode on YouTube, although it hasn’t been uploaded yet (and may not be), don’t do it while operating heavy machinery. 

Outside of the actual episode, Bergeron is probably one of the most stand up guys in the NHL. You can tell he’s a good dude while watching the program and most Bruins fans already know the type of person he is off of the ice. That really shines through.