SVG Sit-Down: Inside the Wild World of Producing Quest for the Stanley Cup with NHL's Steve Mayer and Check Point Productions' David Check New episodes of the docu-series drop exclusively on ESPN in the U.S. each Friday By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital Monday, June 28, 2021 - 1:15 pm
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The Stanley Cup Final begins Monday evening, and with it comes the dramatic culmination of one of sport's great marathons: the battle to carve one's name into Lord Stanley's Cup.
For the past six seasons, the NHL has taken fans behind the scenes to experience what it's like to soldier through the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The original documentary-style all-access series Quest for the Stanley Cup is back this year with a seven-part series of 30-minute episodes that premiere every Friday at 6 p.m. ET through July 16. It's the fourth straight season the show is exclusive to ESPN subscribers in the U.S. In Canada, viewers can watch on the NHL's YouTube channel.
What's it like to produce such a high-end series at the frenetic pace of the playoffs? SVG sat down with the executive producers of the show - Steve Mayer, EVP/chief content officer, NHL, and David Check, president, Check Point Productions, the league's production partner on the show - to discuss the challenges of producing an all-access series in the COVID era, what creative decisions needed to be made to work around them, and how this year's edition is different from any of the seasons before.
Note: Both Mayer and Check offered praise to key members of the production team making this year's edition of Quest for the Stanley Cup possible. Heading up postproduction and editorial efforts on the series were Tim Mullen and Jackie Decker. Field producers were Jason Katz and Darryl Lepik. Cinematographers and DPs were Steve Lamme and Rob Newman.
NHL's Steve Mayer: There has been a really cool dynamic this year, having our new broadcast partner [ESPN] as the distributor of the show.
This is the sixth season of Quest For The Stanley Cup. What's new this year?
Mayer: The way the world has changed - even from the beginning of our playoffs to now, with fans being let in the door and now the Canadian exemption - just makes it different. At the end of the day, this is what the show is all about: the quest for the Cup and [how] different teams might take a different route to get there. You might have to go through different teams. You might have to deal with protocols and testing and all the things that we're dealing with as the world is slowly but surely opening up. In the end, winning that Cup is what it's all about, and we think the show portrays that.
Check: The first episode was titled Familiar Foes. Reason being, in those first-round match-ups, those teams have played each other eight times in the regular season, which is unprecedented. They were very familiar with each other. That's why you got a lot of overtime games. That's why you got a lot of really closely contested matches. We played up that familiar-foes angle.
This is my first season on the show, and Quest has a great history. This year, we set about trying to strike a different balance between games and adding off-ice features. Very early on in the first episode, you're seeing [Tampa Bay Lighting] head coach John Cooper smoking a cigar and reminiscing about winning in the bubble and how difficult that was. Then, about five or six minutes later, the captain of the [Colorado] Avalanche [Gabriel Landeskog] is changing diapers and is playing a game that night. We're really seeking to dimension-alize these players so that, when you get to the games, you care about them more. We're very determined to strike that balance.
The NHL has done a great job of creating a culture in the postseason where access is expected. That is not true in every professional sport. It is pretty much understood that, in every game, you are wiring a player from both teams, you are wiring a coach from both teams, and you're wiring a referee, [which] leads to giving viewers a backstage pass to what's going on in this postseason. The level of access here is really impressive.
What challenges have you needed to overcome in creating an all-access show in the hybrid COVID environment we're in now? What precautions do you need to take for your crew? Do you use any different kind of gear to effectively do what you need to do?
Check: Prior to shooting with any players, it was very clear that, if we're going to be shooting these off-ice features with these players, we're going to be outside, and we're going to be social-distanced. That is what's most different from last year. Even when Landeskog is changing diapers, he's doing it on his front lawn. We were with [Lightning defenseman] Victor Hedman this week, and we were outside.
Check Point Productions' David Check: We can't predict outcomes. When you're putting together a show like this, you need to be nimble as a production team.
Would I call it a challenge? We knew, given the COVID realities, [that] was the way we were going to tackle it. All of the creatives that we're coming up with, with players and coaches and team personnel, [are] going to be outdoors.
Mayer: The number-one priority for the league is to have one of these teams hold up that Stanley Cup at the end of it. Even last year in the bubble, ultimately, if we didn't get to that final moment, we would have failed. It has been a lot bumpier this year. We've had plenty of teams have to take time off, and plenty of players had COVID. But, ultimately, we want to get to the end, and I think our medical team is very conservative, and rightly so.
We've known from day one, with regards to this show, we were going to ha
