WBD Sports’ NHL coverage often has a lot of fun with the sport they’re covering. And, much like the success they’ve found in basketball with the back-and-forths between the Inside The NBA team of Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal, Kenny Smith, and Ernie Johnson, their NHL on TNT Face Off team of Liam McHugh, Anson Carter, Paul Bissonnette, Henrik Lundqvist, and Wayne Gretzky has become quite known for some of their on-air banter.
The Face Off team provided a great example of that Wednesday. There, they did a segment where they played first a serious video ad for Lundqvist’s “Next Chapter” fragrance line, and then a Bissonnette parody of it for a “Rôde de Pine” fragrance referencing his time as a frequent NHL benchwarmer (something he’s been roasted for on-air by guests):
@HLundqvist may be dashing, and intelligent and heading to the HOF fame, but does he smell better than @BizNasty2point0?
The short answer: yes
The long answer…pic.twitter.com/hGpUMx5tCF— Liam McHugh (@liam_mchugh) November 9, 2023
There are some great lines in there, including “A lot of blood, sweat, and tears went into this, literally” and “I rode the pine for years. Now it’s your turn,” plus the facial reactions from people and the very French-accented “By Paul Albert Bissonnette” at the end. And after the parody video, Bissonnette describes the scent as “Like wood and ball sweat.” They then show a montage of NHL players sniffing smelling salts and reacting strongly, claiming they’re reacting to “Rôde de Pine.”
This is just the latest funny bit from the Face Off crew. Some past highlights there include the panel roasting Gretzky’s “Luke Skywalker” look, Bissonnette trying to get Gretzky to meow, and Bissonnette and Lundqvist covering Green Day’s “Good Riddance” to send off colleague Rick Tocchet. And earlier this week, they had quite the segment on cross-checking:
https://twitter.com/NHL_On_TNT/status/1722077230140952976
The Face Off crew is a big part of why TNT’s coverage has attracted so much attention, despite them only having half the NHL package. And this was one of the many creative video projects the NHL on TNT team has done to date.
[Liam McHugh on Twitter]
