Penalty Box Office: The Top 5 Hockey Movies of All-Time
If you are either a hockey player, or an avid movie goer, or both, then chances are you have compiled a list of your favourite hockey films. Movies that are synonymous with long bus rides and road trips to play the opposition.
Films that have inspired us to reach within ourselves and win the big game, or to simply punish our opponents all over the ice with huge hits and the occasional fisticuffs. If your like me, and rarely ever score, than you are probably in the later of that equation.
That being said, I decided to rank my favourite hockey films, and came up with a list of 5. You may have your own different rearrangements, but I’m fairly certain most would be among everybody’s favs.
So, without further adieu, here is My Top 5 Hockey Movies of All-Time…
5. Mystery Alaska
Mystery, Alaska is a 1999 drama directed by Jay Roach about a fictional small-town ice hockey team that plays a game against the New York Rangers of the National Hockey League. It stars Russell Crowe, Hank Azaria, and Burt Reynolds.
The movie also features appearances by Phil Esposito, Barry Melrose and Mike Myers. Mike Myers’s cameo as Donnie Shulzhoffer is a play on Don Cherry’s Hockey Night in Canada segment “Coach’s Corner”.
The movie is about a small town in Alaska named Mystery, where hockey is the game of choice, and the “Saturday Game” is a weekly event. After an article describing the town and its players appears in the latest Sports Illustrated, a game is set up between the New York Rangers and the hometown boys of Mystery, Alaska.
The team loses to the Rangers (5-4), but they are celebrated, and congratulated anyway, even by their opponents.
4. The Rocket
The Rocket (2005): The Maurice Richard Story. It was released in the United States as The Rocket: The Legend of Rocket Richard and was distributed by Universal Studios. It stars Roy Dupuis in the title role and was directed by Charles Binamé. It features appearances by National Hockey League players Mike Ricci, Sean Avery, Vincent Lecavalier, Philippe Sauvé, Stéphane Quintal, Ian Laperrière and Pascal Dupuis.
The film depicts an era widely considered as a corner-stone of the NHL’s history. It shows the life of The Rocket beginning with his years as a teenager, his ascension to the Montreal Canadiens, up to The Richard Riot, showing a full spectrum of Richard’s career. It ends the year before Richard brought Montréal to an unrivalled record of five Stanley Cup Championships in a row.
3. Miracle
Miracle is a 2004 American biographical sports film about the United States men’s hockey team, led by head coach Herb Brooks, that won the gold medal in the 1980 Winter Olympics. The USA team’s victory over the heavily favored Soviet team in the medal round was dubbed the Miracle on Ice.
The movie chronicles the journey of the 1980 US Olympic Mens ice hockey team. Then University of Minnesota head coach Herb Brooks (played by Kurt Russell) interviews with the United States Olympic Committee, discussing his philosophy on how to beat the Soviet team, calling for changes to the practice schedule and strategy. Brooks meets his assistant coach Craig Patrick at the tryouts in Colorado Springs. However, Brooks selects a preliminary roster of 26 — later to be cut to a final roster of 20 — indifferent of the tryouts and the preferences of senior USOC hockey officials. He convinces Walter Bush, the executive director of the committee, that he has their best interests at heart. Bush agrees to take the heat from the committee, saying, “I’ll back you up on this one.”
2. Youngblood
Youngblood is a 1986 American drama film, starring Rob Lowe, Patrick Swayze, Cynthia Gibb, Keanu Reeves and Ed Lauter.
Then-active NHL players Steve Thomas and Peter Zezel both have small, non-speaking roles as Youngblood’s teammates on the Mustangs. The film also starred Canadian former professional National Hockey League (NHL) player Eric Nesterenko, who played the father of character Dean Youngblood (played by Rob Lowe).
The film begins with a 17-year-old farmhand from rural New York state, Dean Youngblood (Rob Lowe), who has dreams of playing in the National Hockey League. First he must prove to himself, his family and his teammates that he can survive in the harsh, brutal world of Canadian Junior Hockey with a rag tag team of roughnecks, the Hamilton Mustangs. Possessing blazing speed and a quick stick, he has a violent run-in with a brutish player, Carl Racki (George J. Finn), during try-outs. Youngblood quickly learns that flashiness and pure athletic ability will not be enough to be successful in this league.
1. Slap Shot
Slap Shot is a 1977 film starring Paul Newman and Michael Ontkean and was directed by George Roy Hill. It depicts a minor league hockey team who discover that violent play makes them heroes to their declining factory town.
Washington Capitals head coach Bruce Boudreau appears as an opposing player in one scene
The screenplay, by Nancy Dowd, is based in part on her brother Ned Dowd’s experiences playing minor league hockey in the United States in the 1970s, during which time violence, especially in the low minors, was the selling point of the game.
At the time, Dowd was living in Los Angeles, when she got a call from her brother Ned, a member of the Johnstown Jets hockey team. Her brother gave her the bad news that the team was for sale. Dowd would move to the area and be inspired to write Slap Shot. It was filmed in Johnstown, Pennsylvania; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and upstate New York (Utica Auditorium and the Onondaga County War Memorial Auditorium in Syracuse).
Nancy Dowd (who also produced the film) used her brother Ned and a number of his Johnstown Jets teammates in Slap Shot, with Ned Dowd portraying Syracuse goon “Ogie Ogilthorpe”. He later used the role to launch a career as a Hollywood character actor and producer. The characters of the “Hanson Brothers” are in fact based on three actual brothers, Jeff, Steve and Jack Carlson, who played with Ned Dowd on the Jets. The character of “Dave ‘Killer’ Carlson” is based on then-Jets player Dave “Killer” Hanson. Steve and Jeff Carlson played their Hanson brother counterparts in the film. Jack Carlson was originally scripted to appear in the film as the third brother, Jack, with Dave Hanson playing his film counterpart, “Dave ‘Killer’ Carlson”. However by the time filming began, Jack Carlson had been called up by the Edmonton Oilers, then of the WHA to play in the WHA playoffs, so Dave Hanson moved into the role of “Jack Hanson”, and actor Jerry Houser was hired for the role of “Killer Carlson”.
