The third episode of Epix’s Road to the Outdoor Classics features a brilliant exchange between Matt Martin and Mitch Marner, “big softy” Steve Ott wearing some ridiculous sleepwear, and a killer Mike Babcock pre-game speech in the desert.
Here are seven things we learned from Episode 3.
Martin and Marner may have similar a relationship as me and my wife:
Episode 3’s opening scene is a beauty. Over coffee and eggs, Leafs tough nut Matt Martin asks young Mitch Marner what he got up to last night.
Marner says he played cards and watched a movie. Martin asks what movie, and Marner reluctantly tells him Sully.
“You watched Sully without me,” Martin says, incredulous. “I’ve been trying to get you to watch Sully with me for a freaking month.”
Marner defends himself by explaining that he really just saw the first 10 minutes of the Tom Hanks flick and fell asleep.
“The point is, you started it,” Martin says, not letting it go.
“OK, we’ll watch it next road trip,” Marner promises. “Can you pass the ketchup, please?”
“No. You can get your own ketchup.”
Red Wings enjoy their Top Gun moment:
A quartet of young Detroit players make the best of their Florida downtime by heading to Fort Lauderdale Beach for a sandy game of football: two-on-two, “Frenchies against English.”
Good pals since their AHL days, Andreas Athanasiou, Xavier Ouellet, Anthony Mantha and Ryan Sproul distract themselves from a losing skid by doffing their shirts and frolicking with the pigskin on the beach.
“You build such close relationships,” says Athanasiou, “you could spend every day with them.”
We’re not saying it’s exactly like the beach volleyball scene in Top Gun, but we could hear Kenny Loggins’ “Playing with the Boys,” faintly in the background.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zmfd9etbXGE
The time away from the rink worked, as the Wings defeated the Panthers 4-3 in a shootout the next day, helping call-up goalie Jared Coreau earn his first NHL victory.
Ott has two sides, and one wears festive PJs:
To mic up Detroit agitator Steve Ott is to fill your speakers with expletives.
In the Florida tilt, he calls Jussi Jokinen—by most accounts, a lovely man—a loser and an ugly rat.
“You’re a f——’ ugly f—,” Ott chirps the Finn.
They call this playing with an edge and is part of the reason Ott is still employed at age 34.
It’s not Jokinen that zings Ott back, however, but the referee, who calmly skates over to the veteran and says, “Stevie, last time I saw you play that many minutes was in 1987.”
“Still got it, though,” Ott retorts. “I’m just getting going. I’ll probably draw a couple.”
Back home on Christmas, Ott morphs into what his wife calls “a big softy.” He helps bake cookies, takes his children, aged nine and two, out on the family’s mini outdoor rink and gamely wears the family pyjamas.
Reaves plays a very weird and amped-up Santa:
Continuing the theme of hard-nosed role players as loud, comic relief, St. Louis Blues 224-pounder Ryan Reaves disguises himself as jolly old Saint Nick and fills a sack full of energy drinks before a game in Tampa—an effort to rile up an inconsistent squad.
“Who the f— wants a Red Bull?! Santa came to deliver some bulls to all the naughty boys!” Reaves hollers as he enters the dressing room and starts tossing slim cans into big hands.
The scene feels very… CrossFit.
Despite the boost, the Blues lose 5-2 to the Lightning and drop three of four heading into the Christmas break.
Despite all their star power, the Blackhawks live off small success stories:
“When you do have a salary cap, you have to be better than any other team at providing a supporting cast, complementary players, drafting,” explains club president and CEO John McDonough.
Rightly, some play time is devoted to the contributions of the newly extended Artemi Panarin, but we would’ve enjoyed more exploration into the Bread Man’s beginnings.
Instead, we get familiar with good-natured local boy Vinnie Hinostroza and his immediately likable family, who live 60 minutes from United Center.
Hinostroza, 22, still has an autograph from Jonathan Toews that his mom secured for him when he was a kid. It’s just scribbled on a scrap piece of loose leaf.
“He’s able to live his dream an hour away from our house,” says the sixth-rounder’s dad, proud as can be.
Babcock delivers a beauty speech for Matthews’ homecoming:
Addressing his charges prior to Auston Matthews’ much-hyped NHL debut in Arizona, Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock asks his players to rally around the moment.
If a game is important to one of our players, it’s important to all of us.
“We’re gonna f—–’ go balls to the wall,” Babcock tells the room. “Let’s make sure Matty’s proud of how hard we play, how committed we are.”
The little detail of William Nylander tapping Matthews’ shoulder like a drum on the walk out to the ice is wonderful. And the montage of Matthews’ Grade A scoring chances in that game, set to dramatic music, is A-plus.
Matthews sets up the first goal but can’t find the net himself. Fellow rookie Connor Brown does, and Babcock cheers from the bench: “How ’bout that shot by the Brown Cow?!”
After the Leafs’ win, Matthews returns to the ice in his suit and gets flocked by local hockey-playing kids. Then we see the rookie hugging his grandparents in the hallway post-game and it’s good TV.
We still want the show to go deeper:
Maybe player access or production time is limited or the focus is spread too thin trying to tell the stories from four different teams spread over the map, but we often feel like we want this show to dive further into some stories, even if that means ignoring others.
We see Matthews at the Coyotes game, for example, but nowhere else. We’re given a snippet of Duncan Keith talking to children he helps support through Ronald McDonald House, but aren’t given much backstory into the kids or into Keith’s passion for the cause. There is a skimming of the surface in many of these vignettes that often leaves us wanting a bit more.
As a result, the candid mic’d-up exchanges between players, refs and coaches in-game and the raw dressing room talk are the series’ saving grace. We never tire of that stuff.
