Editor’s note: This story contains spoilers for Amazon’s “Faceoff: Inside the NHL” documentary series, which releases to the public on Friday.
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman’s voice echoed through the delirious Amerant Bank Arena as a sweaty, shaggy Connor McDavid trudged into the small visitors’ locker room, the last one in, seemingly in a daze. Bettman was announcing McDavid as the Conn Smythe Trophy winner as playoff MVP, a legacy-making honor, but McDavid’s face didn’t register any of it. The Edmonton Oilers captain had just been told outside the locker room by the NHL’s chief content officer, Steve Mayer, that he had won the trophy, and that he was expected to accept the trophy despite having just suffered the most agonizing, consequential defeat of his life to the Florida Panthers.
“I wouldn’t have gone out there for a million dollars,” he later said.
So the greatest player on the planet walked into the silent dressing room and sat at his stall, staring into the middle distance, trying to hold back the flood. On his left, Leon Draisaitl reached over and grabbed McDavid’s left leg and patted it. On his right, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins put his arm around him. And that’s when it all landed — the grind, the work, the blood, the sweat, the fears. All of it adding up to one goal short of glory. And he couldn’t hold it back anymore.
McJesus wept.
At that point, a voice rang out, “Get the f—ing cameras out of here.”
Those cameras belonged to Box to Box Films, the production company behind the wildly popular Netflix series documenting the drama and personalities of Formula 1, golf and tennis, among other sports. Last spring the company turned its attention to the NHL, creating a series of six 45-minute episodes for Amazon Prime Video called “Faceoff: Inside the NHL” that will be released on Friday. Unlike recent behind-the-scenes documentaries such as “Road to the Winter Classic,” the teams and league did not have editorial control on what was included and what was not. So the new series got much more of the vibe of the popular HBO “24/7” shows of yesteryear, with all the drama, all the joy and anger and, of course, all the curses.
GO DEEPER
Jeremy Swayman discloses doubt over Bruins future in Amazon’s NHL series — ‘Is this the last time?’
While the Panthers’ Matthew Tkachuk gets perhaps the most air time, McDavid is the clear star of the show. In Episode 5, he calls himself an introvert and notes that people call him “boring” and a “robot.” The big revelation of this show is that he’s anything but. He’s fiery, emotional and in the postseason, seemingly constantly teetering on the edge of a meltdown, his eyes glaring and his legs fidgeting constantly — on the bus, during team meetings, on the bench. McDavid is all intensity and emotion, and we see it time and time again through the production’s cameras. Amazon spoiled the best moment of the whole series — the all-time fit McDavid threw in the locker room after Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final — in the trailer, but, of course, it’s way better with all the F-bombs.
We’ll get to all that in a bit. Here’s a quick, spoiler-filled review and recap of each episode.
William Nylander and David Pastrňák out to dinner.
Episode 1: Best of Rivals
Featuring William Nylander and David Pastrňák
Overview
Let’s start with the “newsiest” bit out of this. Yes, Nylander said exactly what we all thought he said during that infamous playoff bench argument with Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews. “F—ing shoot it! Stop f—ing crying! This is the f—ing issue, you guys f—ing b—- about s—-. Let’s f—ing go!”
This being an NHL-adjacent production, it’s legally required to start with a Toronto Maple Leafs-centric segment. In fact, this episode might be more Leafs-centric than every podcast in the hockey world. Pastrňák and the Boston Bruins are very secondary. The producers fell in love with William Nylander — a big personality, by hockey’s modest standards — and made him the centerpiece of a story leading up to the Bruins’ seven-game first-round victory over Toronto. Nylander’s friendship with Boston star David Pastrňák, and the migraine that kept Nylander out of the first three games of the series, get the spotlight.
Best exchange
Nylander and Pastrňák are getting dinner following a late-season matchup, discussing the standings.
Pastrňák: “Right now, we’d play each other in the playoffs.”
Nylander: “That’d be fun.”
Pastrňák: “Always fun, Toronto-Boston.”
Nylander: “Just because you guys win all the time. For us, every time we have lost. It’s been so s—–.”
Pastrňák: “It doesn’t matter. If you don’t win the Cup, it doesn’t matter who moves on from the first round.”
Highlights
• Nylander, looking like the most casual man alive wearing shades and a puffy jacket, driving with one finger on the wheel with his left leg up against the door.
• The clips of Nylander and Pastrňák as kids are adorable.
• Seeing Nylander during Games 1-3 watching the games from home, living and dying with each play.
• Pastrňák’s moving discussion about his devotion to his daughter, Freya, after he and his partner, Rebecca, lost their first child at just 6 days old: “You mature real quick when something like that happens in your life.”
Quibbles
• TNT analyst Paul Bissonnette, in a talking-head segment, says “The Boston Bruins are the standard.” Really? The Bruins, while perennial contenders, have one Stanley Cup championship in the last 52 years.
• Auston Matthews is barely mentioned and interviewed just very briefly. Get used to it. Though Box to Box followed roughly 20 players around, including Matthews, Sidney Crosby and Connor Bedard, those three and many others were left on the cutting room floor in their entirety.
Best use of profanity
Nylander: “A lot of years now, we’ve lost Game 7. People say, ‘Next year. We’ll be better next year. Next year.’ F— that.”
Jack Eichel, right, and Noah Hanifin, left, with their partners, before Eichel orders seemingly the whole menu.
Episode 2: As Tough As It Gets
Featuring Filip Forsberg and Jack Eichel
Overview
The episode focuses on the Nashville Predators’ Filip Forsberg and Vegas Golden Knights’ Jack Eichel as they build toward first-round playoff exits, but it’s Forsberg’s pregnant wife, Erin Alvey Forsberg, who emerges as the MVP of the series. Her eloquent and insightful perspective on the sport from a partner’s point of view — on watching her husband fight, on concussions, on living with a routine-oriented pro athlete, on the sting of defeat — is far and away the best away-from-the-rink portion of the series. Also, she has an air freshener hanging from her car’s rearview mirror that is simply Forsberg’s face. She wins the show.
Beyond that, we get a recap of Eichel’s fight to become the first NHL player to have artificial disk replacement surgery and the trade to Vegas from the Buffalo Sabres. The show really leans hard into the idea that Eichel was very unhappy in Buffalo and is now very happy in Las Vegas. The cancellation of Nashville’s trip to see U2 at Sphere and the subsequent 16-0-2 run gets a good chunk of time, too.
Best exchange
Eichel, on a double date with Noah Hanifin and his partner, summons a server and orders the following for the table: Shrimp cocktail, meatballs, calamari, penne alla vodka, rigatoni bolognese, sliced New York strip, creamed corn (?!), chicken parm and a (surely very expensive) bottle of Sassicaia. There are only four people at the table.
Highlights
• Learning that Forsberg wakes up at exactly 8:08 a.m. every day and puts his skates on before a game at exactly 7:07 p.m. “When you’re speaking it out loud, it’s pretty silly,” Forsberg allowed.
• Eichel: “Everyone’s biggest issue with (the surgery) was that it hadn’t been done on a hockey player yet. I don’t think, medically, that’s a good enough reason to not let someone do something.”
• Forsberg, mere days after being eliminated by the Vancouver Canucks, is holding his newborn, wearing a hat that says, “Hey, I’m Here For You.” “The only silver lining of losing in the playoffs, I’ve been home for every single day.” It’s very sweet.
Quibbles
• Did you know that the Stanley Cup is the hardest trophy in sports to win? Well, you will after hearing it roughly 342 times.
• Extreme close-ups of Forsberg’s foot and ankle as he gets acupuncture and electric stimulation therapy aren’t necessarily for the squeamish.
• The Predators’ postgame celebratory line dance thing is even harder to watch than the acupuncture.
Best use of profanity
• Nashville’s Ryan O’Reilly in the locker room before Game 7: “I can guarantee you you’re gonna get my f—ing best. I expect it from every single one of you motherf—ers.”
Matthew Tkachuk, left, and his brother, Brady Tkachuk, taking it easy in Florida.
Episode 3: Learning to Win
Featuring Jeremy Swayman and Matthew Tkachuk
Overview
If you were wondering if goaltender Jeremy Swayman was going to budge in his contract negotiations with the Bruins, you won’t be after watching this episode. He ain’t budging. Even though, as he says himself in this episode before losing in the second round, “I’ve still got so much more to offer, and I haven’t proven s—.” Meanwhile, Matthew Tkachuk is the happiest human alive, just driving his golf cart around Fort Lauderdale and literally hopping in the ocean and then his pool before every single home game.
Best exchange
Tkachuk’s dad, Keith, is grilling outside Tkachuk’s house in Florida.
Matthew Tkachuk: “He basically lives at the house. F—ing annoying. Hey, a little smoky there, Dad. You gonna burn the house down?”
Keith Tkachuk: “Shut the f— up while I’m cooking. I’m doing you a favor, buddy.”
Matthew Tkachuk: “I did you a favor by coming down here (to Florida).”
Highlights
• Swayman has a framed photo in his home of himself and former teammate Linus Ullmark doing their postgame goalie hug. D’awwww.
• Tkachuk parking his golf cart at the beach for his pregame ocean ritual, looking at the meter, and saying, “I’m not paying.” He makes $9.5 million per year.
• Tkachuk to ailing Bruins forward Brad Marchand at the bench: “You all right? You all right? Never seen a captain quit on his team.” Pastrňák responds: “Heh. Don’t even listen to that.”
• Swayman, after his star turn in the playoffs, on the arbitration process and the bad blood it engenders: “The arbitrator on their side, their job is to rip players. Hearing you’re not worthy of what you think you’re worthy of, that was hard to hear. You don’t forget what was said. I wrote them down and I looked at them the other day, and I had a couple checkmarks. My biggest knock was how I wasn’t trustworthy in playoffs. Check.” Swayman also points to Tkachuk as someone he admires. “He wills his team to win games. I want to be like that.”
• Like the Old Man in “A Christmas Story,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice works in profanity the way other artists might work in oils or clay. It is his true medium.
Quibbles
• N/A. Not much to quibble about in this one.
Best use of profanity
Swayman: “We don’t have to shy away from it. There’s a contract on the line. … I’m gonna be a motherf—er in the net.”
Jacob Trouba to his baby: “You legend!”
Episode 4: The Captains
Featuring Quinn Hughes, Gabriel Landeskog and Jacob Trouba
Overview
In what is by far the weakest episode of the series, the show tries awfully hard to mythicize the idea of the NHL captain. Can Hughes be a leader at just 24 years old? Can Landeskog work his way back from a devastating injury? Can Trouba walk the line with his hits? Can we all stay awake while watching this?
Best exchange
The New York Rangers’ Braden Schneider breaks up a scoring chance with some quick stick work. Back at the bench, Trouba praises him.
Trouba: “Beautiful. Beautiful laydown of the stick.”
Schneider: “I almost pooped my pants.”
Trouba: “No pooping of the pants.”
Highlights
• Trouba, in roller blades and full Rangers uniform, getting his arms and legs slathered in black paint before jumping into a canvas repeatedly. Art is pain.
• Landeskog told his son that the huge scar on his leg was from a shark attack.
• Hughes talking about how he “went full health-freak mode this year” and read 20-25 books. “I just want to get off my phone.” When it’s time to cook: “I’m gonna chef up.”
• Hughes gets a brief pep talk (“like 40 seconds”) from his dad before every game. That’s cute.
• Trouba, trying and failing to give his baby a bottle: “Come on, we’re on camera, man. One time!” The baby immediately takes the bottle. “You legend! Dad of the year.”
• “What Chaos” host Pete Blackburn, in a talking head segment: “The Washington Capitals basically puked their way into the playoffs.”
Quibbles
• If you’re one of those cynical types who rolls your eyes when you hear people talk about leadership and intangibles, this episode could be hazardous to your health.
• Trouba, who has a long history of borderline, injurious hits: “If you watch hockey and you think I’m a bad guy, I have no control over that. I’m just doing my job.”
• There’s no way around it: That Trouba jumping-into-a-canvas painting was not very good.
Best use of profanity
None. This episode was pretty thin.
Connor McDavid under pressure.
Episode 5: Cup or Bust Part I
Featuring Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Zach Hyman
Overview
Now we’re getting to the good stuff. The Stanley Cup Final material is the series’ strongest, even if it skews heavily toward Edmonton. On the ice, in the locker room, in the heads of the biggest names in the league — this is where the show really shines.
Best moment
During an intermission in the Stanley Cup Final, Panthers bench boss Maurice takes one of his goalies’ gloves and stick, gets on his knees in the middle of the locker room and demonstrates why he wants his players to shoot high on Oilers goaltender Stuart Skinner. “Under the f—ing bar!”
Highlights
• The show really tries to portray McDavid and the Oilers as under unfathomable pressure in Edmonton while Tkachuk is the chillest dude alive in South Florida. You see a tense, aching McDavid getting physical therapy — smash cut to Tkachuk in his pool with shades on, talking about how the Panthers are “almost too relaxed.” You see Tkachuk before Game 1 smiling broadly and saying it’s “like Christmas morning” — smash cut to McDavid all jittery and fidgety on the bus on the way to the arena. It might be exaggerated, but it’s effective.
• McDavid’s obvious love for his dog, Lenard, is adorable. “He’s my most prized possession.” There are pictures of Lenny all around the house.
• McDavid has a basketball court and a custom-built weight room in his house.
• McDavid on whether he feels he’s the best in the world: “When I’m at my best, it’s a tough level to match.”
• Draisaitl on the adulation the Oilers get in Edmonton: “It’s hard to describe. We don’t walk around thinking we are the Beatles. We’re just like any other guy at home, eating chips or watching ‘Friends.’”
• Media personality Blackburn on Oilers fans: “When the team is bad, their life is bad.”
• Maurice during the first intermission of Game 2: “Breathe through your nose, not through your a–hole. Let’s go, baby!”
Quibbles
• We could have used a little more Zach Hyman. He seems great.
• Apparently, Tkachuk is the only Panthers player. We couldn’t hear a little from Aleksander Barkov? Or Aaron Ekblad? Anybody?
Best use of profanity
There’s no doubt it goes to McDavid’s already famous tirade after the Oilers lost Game 2 in Florida. “Right f—ing now! RIGHT F—ING NOW. RIGHT F—ING NOW. This happens so many f—ing times. But that’s not f—ing good enough. It’s the f—ing finals! DIG THE F— IN. RIGHT F—ING NOW. WHATEVER THE F— YOU HAVE. THAT IS NOT F—ING GOOD ENOUGH.”
An absolutely epic moment that will live forever.
Matthew Tkachuk on playing in Stanley Cup Final Game 7: “You dream of this.”
Episode 6: Cup or Bust, Part II
Overview
Oilers vs. Panthers, McDavid vs. Tkachuk. It all comes to a head in an unforgettable Stanley Cup Final.
Best moment
It’s obviously McDavid’s breakdown following the Game 7 loss. The raw immediacy of the moment is extraordinary, and something we rarely get to see. McDavid is so often performing superhuman feats that it’s easy to forget he’s actually human. But for variety’s sake, the fact that Amazon gives us the actual moment Mayer, the NHL’s chief content officer, approached McDavid about winning the Conn Smythe is fascinating.
Mayer: “You won the Conn Smythe.”
McDavid: “They want me to go out there?”
Mayer: “Yeah.”
The audio then cuts out of the rest of the conversation, but McDavid quickly turns and walks into the room. That’s when the producers cut to a follow-up interview in which McDavid said, “I wouldn’t have gone out there for a million dollars.”
Highlights
• McDavid, calmly, on his post-Game 2 meltdown: “It’s a high-emotion situation.”
• Tkachuk’s recounting of his broken sternum during the 2023 Final — brother Brady had to lift him out of bed so he could play — is harrowing.
• It’s moving to see how much Tkachuk winning the Cup meant to his father, who never won it. Brady Tkachuk said getting the Tkachuk name on the Cup would be “big for our family.” Seeing Keith in tears after Game 7, and seeing how much it meant to Matthew to hand him the Cup on the ice, was really something.
• Tkachuk before Game 7, after the Panthers had blown a 3-0 series lead: “You dream about this. I never dreamed about winning the Cup in Game 4, or 5, or 6. Or scoring the goal or making the big play in those games. It was always … Game 7. Always. Each and every single time.”
• The on-ice action and audio is terrific, as you’d expect.
Quibbles
• Seriously, how did the Panthers win the Stanley Cup with Matthew Tkachuk as the only player on the roster?
• Do not take a drink every time a member of the Tkachuk family talks about “the dream.” You will die.
• The five talking heads the show used for exposition and analysis were Bissonnette, Blackburn, PK Subban, Jackie Redmond and Sarah Nurse. All of them did well (Redmond does most of the heavy lifting) but Nurse felt under-served. We could have used more of her perspective as both an elite professional athlete and Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse’s cousin.
Best use of profanity
Hyman, after Game 7, while McDavid sobs: “There’s nothing I can say that’s gonna make this feel better. But I know we’ll be back. I f—ing KNOW we’ll be back. I know it in my f—ing heart.”
(Photos courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios)
