'Quest for the Stanley Cup' goes inside bubbles, decision to protest

This season's edition of "Quest for the Stanley Cup," which premiered Wednesday at 6 p.m. ET on ESPN+ in the United States and on
YouTube
in Canada, begins with narrator Bill Camp telling viewers, "These days just about everything seems different."

The opening episode of the six-part all-access series goes on to demonstrate just how different these Stanley Cup Playoffs are for the eight teams that advanced to the second round: the Philadelphia Flyers, Tampa Bay Lightning, Boston Bruins and New York Islanders in the Eastern Conference bubble in Toronto, and the Vegas Golden Knights, Colorado Avalanche, Dallas Stars and Vancouver Canucks in the Western Conference bubble in Edmonton.
Competing for the Stanley Cup during the coronavirus pandemic involves daily COVID-19 tests, living in hotels, and players, coaches, executives and staff being isolated from their families, friends and the outside world. All of those things, and how mentally challenging life in the bubbles can be, are part of the first chapter of this story.
But the most powerful moment of the episode is when the camera crews from NHL Original Productions take viewers behind the scenes when those inside each bubble came together for what Camp describes as "a historic show of player solidary."

The decision to not play games Thursday and Friday as a form of protest against systemic racism and police brutality was the culmination of conversations among the players in Toronto and Edmonton that were held in person and over the phone Thursday. The NHL players followed the example of players in the NBA, WNBA, Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer and the NFL, who also postponed games or canceled practices in reaction to the police shooting on Aug. 23 of Jacob Blake, a Black man, in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Later, players from the four teams in Edmonton packed the interview room at Rogers Place to surround and support Vegas forward Ryan Reaves, Colorado forwards Nazem Kadri and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, Dallas forward Jason Dickinson and Vancouver forward Bo Horvat while they spoke at the podium.
"That was optional for every player," Reaves, who is Black, says during the episode. "If they wanted to come show support, they could. If they wanted to sit in their room, it was fine. You could barely get all the players in that room. I think every player showed up and showed their support and stood behind what was going on, and I think that was the powerful message of the day."
Hockey was pushed aside for two days of valuable discussions about racism. But it will eventually resume its role as the primary character in "Quest for the Stanley Cup," which is produced by Ross Greenburg Productions, and will continue with new episodes premiering each Wednesday.
That will be true for the players too.
"The things that we're doing right now are important, but I'm also chasing a dream here too," Reaves says. "I'm in a bubble for a month now for a reason. I'm here to win a Stanley Cup. That's also important to me."