Showtime’s “All Access: Quest For The Stanley Cup” aired its first episode on Friday night and overall it was a pretty enjoyable experience. The program, like many before it, took cameras behind the scenes and offered an uncensored view at life in the locker rooms for the four teams competing in the Conference Finals. Unfortunately, the program didn’t dive too far into territories fans may have hoped to see and often came across as more of a game recap program than an actual all access program.
If you missed it or forgot set your DVR, below is the first episode in its entirety:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4d9KG0PsSg
The first episode was a lot of fun and offered some truly entertaining moments. Ken Hitchcock’s comments alone made this worth watching. Viewers were offered a quick peak behind the curtain in some of the biggest playoff games of the season. But that peak left a lot to be desired.
Checking in at about 30 minutes in length, there isn’t much time for the show to dive into any real deep topics or moments. Game recaps make up 95% of the action. Only one brief scene involving Matt Cullen takes place off the ice, which almost seems out of place considering how much time is spent recapping games. Comments from players and the head coaches during the action often take place off camera which makes it tricky to identify who is even talking unless you’re already familiar with the players and team staff. The show may be playing to a more serious audience, but that’s a big problem for the casual viewer.
With the time constraints, Showtime elected to stick with a format which consisted of a quick pregame coach comment, show most of the goals with a few player/coach comments on the ice, quick postgame comment from player or coach before moving to a different game or series. A longer format (like an hour) would have allowed the program to explore more than just the action on the ice most hockey fans have already seen.
