Skip to main content

It's been more than a month since almost all of Peter Laviolette's working moments were caught on camera by HBO's 24/7 show, but the Philadelphia Flyers coach appears to still be a bit caught up in that experience.

With the announcement coming Thursday that the Detroit Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs will play in the 2013 version of the Winter Classic, Laviolette was asked Wednesday if he had any advice for those two teams given all the attention about to come their way.

After going through the whole thing with his team this past January in Philadelphia, he predicted Leafs coach Ron Wilson will become the star of the show come next season.

"I know Ron – he'll have fun with it," Laviolette said of Wilson, who he has coached with internationally with Team USA. "He's got a good personality [for the show].

"Within five minutes of it going on, I forgot I was [on camera]. I watched [every episode]. My family watched it, my kids, everybody. HBO does a great job. When it comes out next year, that'll be great – I can't wait to see it."

Here were more of Laviolette's thoughts on being in the HBO spotlight:

"They would be in this meeting right now. They'd be in the meeting in my office, or a pregame speech or whatever. But they're good guys and they put on a good show and they were easy to work with as long as you have the mindset that you're going to be subject to that. It's not a problem. I mean it's part of the deal. It comes with the acknowledgement that you're going to play in the Winter Classic. You acknowledge that there'll be HBO cameras around for a month.

"The product that they put out is real. You don't remember that the microphone is on you or the camera is there. It's about winning. I think you saw that both years [of the show] ... It gives you a real glimpse of what it's like on a day-to-day basis.

"I didn't really like seeing myself to be honest with you. With profanity and everything else. I've got kids and a wife and what you do is usually behind closed doors. It's not out there for the public. But it is what it is. Everything you saw was real.

"What I'm saying is it's never out there for the public. What goes on, what players do, what coaches say, it's just never really out there. I like it better when it's not out there."

Interact with The Globe