Ice Hockey at the Movies

The Stanley Cup—the climax of the long NHL ice hockey season—is upon us once again, as the two best teams go head-to-head over the best-of-seven games to lift the huge trophy. With endless close-up action and scintillating side stories aplenty, the sport certainly offers lots for moviemakers to work with. So if you can tear yourself away from the Oddschecker predictions, there’s no better time to catch up on the cool, crazy and often-controversial world of ice hockey movies.

Why Hockey?
Hockey is an attractive sport for both big-budget and indie film makers because the game is so dynamic and immediate. Rather than watching ant-sized action from up in the gods at a football game, the hockey audience is rink-side, with just a thin sheet of Perspex between them and the fast-flowing game. This gives hockey an immediacy and a level of direct involvement that you just don’t get in other sports. The emotions and the commitment, and the anger and the ecstasy, are writ large for all to see, which is, of course, grist to the mill of the screenwriter or filmmaker in search of inspiration

Whether it is underdogs triumphing against the odds on the field of play or the endless off-field twists and turns behind a great team, this sport lends itself to the moviemaker’s narrative like few other areas of life. Add this to the immediacy of the hockey action and you have a winning combination. Rather than being surprised at the number of hockey-based films, perhaps we should be wondering why there are not many more of them.

The Lighter Side of Hockey Films
When it comes to the most famous hockey movie of all time, one of the strongest contenders is also one of the silliest. Walt Disney’s The Mighty Ducks, starring Emilio Estevez, not only spawned two sequels, but it also led to a real-life hockey team. The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim was founded by Disney in 1993, the year after the movie was released. This was initially seen as nothing more than a fancy marketing move, but the team developed into a major force in the game. Renamed the Anaheim Ducks, they went on to win the Stanley Cup in 2007 and five consecutive Pacific Division titles between 2012/13 and 2016/17.

The ultimate underdog story, The Mighty Ducks tells the tale of a rich lawyer who is forced to coach a team of poorer players as part of his community service. Despite their troubles, he inspires them to beat the team comprised of more affluent players while learning the essential Disney ‘valuable lessons about life’ along the way. The formula was such a success that D2 and D3 followed in ’94 and ’96, and, unlike most second-rate sequels of this kind, they retained the services of their big-name star.

Perhaps the most lightweight of all hockey films has to be MVP: Most Valuable Primate, the 2000 release from Keystone Entertainment, which featured a hockey-playing monkey. At the other end of the comedy scale comes the 2011 indie effort, Goon, which traces the career of a nightclub bouncer who can’t play hockey very well but is great in a fight, and he uses those talents to help his team succeed.

The Darker Side of Hockey Films
While the violent side of ice hockey might lend itself to comedy at times, there are plenty of serious takes on the rougher side of the game. Of these, perhaps the most famous is the Slap Shot series, starring Paul Newman as part of an outrageously-brutal hockey team that literally fights its way to the top of the game. Despite the unpleasant attitudes inherent in the game that the first installment boldly addressed, it went on to produce two sequels (each without their original star), although they both went straight to video.

Hockey history off the rink was almost as vicious and competitive as it was on it, and this was illustrated in brilliant detail in the TV movie Net Worth. Tracing the early days of the NHL, when each player was expected to be happy just fulfilling his dreams as a pro-hockey player (with little pay and few benefits), it focuses on the battle between players and the overbearing team owners for control of the sport.

It’s not always about Hockey
Alongside pure sporting stories, hockey films have also provided vehicles for dealing with a host of other issues that are peripheral, yet intrinsic to the game. 2011’s Breakaway and 2017’s Indian Horse both use hockey to look at life for Native Americans and Native Canadians, especially within sports, while the 2007 biopic of Maurice Richard, The Rocket, looks at the wider issues beyond the game for French-speaking Canadians.

On a lighter note, hockey is often used as a metaphor, the most poignant case being the innovative 2015 Disney animation film Inside Out. The film uses the game throughout the film to illustrate the main character’s mood and frame of mind, with ‘hockey island’ portrayed as one of the fundamental cornerstones of her psyche, alongside family and fun.

Movie Magic
From cheering the underdogs to booing the baddies, and from tense real-life stories to comedy capers, ice hockey movies cover all the best movie genres in style. It’s simple enough to keep us glued to the screen (whether we are dedicated hockey fans or know nothing at all about the game), yet complex enough to produce the full spectrum of human emotions—all up close and personal for all to see. So, as the Stanley Cup rolls around once more, you could do a lot worse than treating yourself to a season of hockey’s greatest movies.