Here Are 5 Movies To Rekindle Your Love Of Hockey
By Chuck Sudo in Arts & Entertainment on Jan 7, 2013 5:40PM
We can't wait to see "Original Six" matchups like the Chicago Blackhawks taking on the Detroit Red Wings. (Photo credit: Christopher Monaghan
With news breaking Sunday that NHL owners and players reached a deal on a new collective bargaining agreement that ends a months-long lockout, attention now turns to the upcoming season and whether we as fans should embrace it.
The standoff between the two sides wound up canceling half the current season, which has some fans wondering why the league should even come back for a truncated season. As fans, we react to labor disputes in professional sports with our emotions. But the new season will soon be upon us and hockey rinks across the country will drop pucks to welcome back the NHL.
The die-hard fans will show up, for certain. For those of you still on the fence, we’ve put together a list of hockey films available for online streaming that will remind you of how you fell in love with the game. Don your favorite team’s sweater and start streaming these selections.
Kings Ransom
It was known as "The Trade." In 1988, the Edmonton Oilers decided to trade Wayne Gretzy even as the team was winning its fifth Stanley Cup in six years. Gretzky, then at the peak of his skills, didn't want to leave Edmonton. But after meeting with Los Angeles Kings owner Bruce McNall and discussing the details, he agreed under specific conditions he bring some teammates with him. McNall also told Gretzky he had to tell Oilers owner Peter Pocklington he had to request the trade. Although Gretzky would never win a Stanley Cup with the Kings, the trade revitalized hockey in Los Angeles and across the nation, but led to many of the base issues (e.g. expansion of the league to non-hockey markets) that brought about the lockout. The ESPN "30 for 30" documentary Kings Ransom, directed by Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights, Battleship) details the trade and its aftereffects, with commentary by Gretzky, his father Walter (who knew about the trade for months before his son), McNall and many of Gretzky's Oilers and Kings teammates. (Available for streaming on Netflix)
Miracle
This Disney-fied take on the "Miracle on Ice" where the U.S. Men's Hockey Team defeated the juggernaut Soviet squad en route to the Gold Medal at the 1980 Lake Placid Winter Olympics does feature a strong performance by Kurt Russell as coach Herb Brooks. After this weekend's World Junior Hockey Championships, Miracle may hit the spot for those of you who like their hockey with a side of national pride, if not jingoism. (Available for streaming on Amazon Instant; Netflix)
Slap Shot
Where do we start with Slap Shot? The opening scene where goalie Lemieux gives Jim Carr and his atrocious toupee a lesson in the finer points of hockey? Is it where Reggie Dunlop (Paul Newman) taunts goalie Hanrahan with the knowledge that his wife's a lesbian. No, it's always the debut of the Hanson Brothers.
Personally, we think hockey would be better without all the fighting. But then half-emty arenas would go completely empty. Let's learn to crawl before we walk and, for now, enjoy the anarchy of the Hansons. (Available for streaming on Netflix and Youtube.)
Goon
Seann William Scott musters the full range of his acting abilities as a bouncer who suddenly finds fame, if not fortune, as an enforcer for a semi-professional Canadian hockey team and charts a course for a massive fight with veteran hockey goon and Scott's idol, Ross "The Boss" Rhea (Liev Schreiber). Despite the cliches, Goon is a well-crafted hockey film and the antagonistic relationship between Scott's Doug "The Thug" Glatt and the skillful Xavier Laflamme (Marc-André Grondin) draw comparisons to the relationship between Newman and Michael Ontkean in Slap Shot. (Available for streaming on Netflix)
A scene from Roch Carrier's The Hockey Sweater.
The Hockey Sweater
Canadian storyteller Roch Carrier's tale of a boy who idolizes Montreal Canadiens Hall of Famer Maurice "Rocket" Richard who mistakenly receiving a Toronto Maple Leafs sweater as a gift from his mother touches on our blind idolatry of sports stars with the innocence and disappointment of youth.
The video below brings Carrier's story to life, his protagonist's Maple Leafs sweater sticking out like an ugly duckling among his friends' Richard jerseys.
The Sweater ()