While Inside The NBA gets much of the ink around TNT Sports’ offerings, their other studio shows often have notable moments too. A real contender there is NHL on TNT Face Off, which has produced many hilarious moments over its four-season run to date, and somehow finds ways to keep going further. A key example of that came Wednesday.
There, the show handed down a NHL Department of Player Safety-style video “suspending” Boston Bruins forward Brad Marchand from their own “Mr. TNT” award (given to the player or coach who brings the most personality to TNT’s broadcasts). That was thanks to his recent comments towards analyst Paul Bissonnette in a previous pre-game interview last week. There, Bissonnette first chirped Marchand’s hair, then Marchand responded with a line about the fan assault on Bissonnette. (This came with a great and very serious introduction from host Liam McHugh, then with Bissonnette playing “Peorge Garros,” a very obvious take on NHL DPS head George Parros, and claiming to be the “Head of Broadcast Safety.”)
BREAKING: Brad Marchand has been SUSPENDED for a full season from the Mr. @NHL_On_TNT competition 🤣 pic.twitter.com/tF7BBgoLpH
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) December 5, 2024
Face Off then “reinstated” Marchand after the Bruins’ 4-2 win over the Chicago Blackhawks:
The moment you’ve all been waiting for…
Marchand on the @NHL_on_TNT post-game has been REINSTATED for the Mr. TNT trophy 🤣 pic.twitter.com/JyX7kePKIJ
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) December 5, 2024
That’s all pretty funny, complete with the deep parody of the DPS’ suspension analysis videos, Marchand’s various reactions, Bissonnette’s “angry elf” shot at him, and the neck brace Bissonnette donned for the panel here. And there are great lines here, such as “Under Rule 46.9, any player who continues to hurl personal attacks at an analyst who is already down bad will be assessed a full-year suspension on eligibility for the Mr. TNT Award.”
The six-person assault on Bissonnette was actually quite serious, and Marchand probably shouldn’t have brought it up on-air in the first place, but Bissonnette rolled with that when it happened, laughing at the line and saying “Yeah, I knew you looked a little familiar. You’re out of the running for Mr. TNT, buddy, you’re done.” And this was a clever follow-through on that, especially with the DPS parody.
It’s somewhat remarkable that an official NHL broadcaster can make fun of a part of the NHL that the league takes extremely seriously. But this fits with a lot of the light, funny, and unusual stuff the NHL on TNT has done so far, especially around Face Off (which has itself grown and evolved over four seasons), and they certainly haven’t been afraid to be irreverent and beyond at times. And that’s a big part of why they’re so critical to the NHL’s U.S coverage, despite having lower tonnage of games versus ESPN/ABC/Disney streaming platforms. And they pulled off something quite clever and amusing here.
[B/R Open Ice on X]
