Add to favorites Examiner Bio

Hockey movies for the NHL draft and Hall of Fame nominees

With the recent induction of Brett Hull, Brian Leetch, Luc Robitaille, and Steve Yzerman in to the Hockey Hall of Fame and a top-notch NHL entry draft, now is a great time to take a look at some of the great hockey movies in film history. Sadly, there are very few good hockey films and, in fact, actually a number of poor ones.

There are really only two outstanding hockey films. The first is Miracle, the wonderful tale of the 1980 Olympics gold medal-winning “Miracle on Ice” team. At this point, almost everyone knows this story of young college kids going against inconceivable odds to beat the toughest, most experienced, and skilled hockey players in the world. This film is powered by Kurt Russell as coach Herb Brooks and features solid performances from a number of unknowns, as well as parts of the game’s original audio broadcast. This movie is a definite goose bump maker.

The other good hockey movie is the 1977 cult classic Slap Shot. One cannot find a true hockey fan who doesn’t love the Hanson brothers. Let us not confuse the Slap Shot Hansons with that “Mmm Bop” group. (Wouldn’t we all like to see the hockey Hansons beat down the others?) Featuring goofy hi-jinks, lots of hitting, a good amount of hockey, and even a strange, skating, half ballet, half striptease finale, this is an odd one, but still a winner. Besides, it features Paul Newman, and who doesn't enjoy Paul Newman?

On the somewhat mediocre side is the film Mystery, Alaska. The movie centers around the tiny isolated town of Mystery in, you guessed it, Alaska, and how the local boys can really play hockey. In fact, that is about all they do. Allegedly they are so good they could beat a pro team and they get that chance. The workings behind how the New York Rangers end up playing them is boring in detail and the movie does not do anything to add to that. However, the movie features a solid cast including Hank Azaria and a pre-massive ego version of Russell Crowe. They even throw in Burt Reynolds. Most of the acting is solid, and some of the hockey action isn’t too bad, but most of the hockey is terrible. The movie is mostly uninteresting filler leading up to the big game, which is a disappointment. There are a couple of laughs, but the overriding message of the film completely contradicts itself in the end. To top it all off, they couldn’t even get any real players to cameo.

Sudden Death mentions hockey, but is mostly just a Jean-Claude Van Damme action film that takes place during a hockey game. However, it does features real hockey players, including recent Hall of Fame inductee Luc Robitaille.

One of the worst hockey movies ever to crawl out of a film canister is Youngblood. Is this the Youngblood featuring Rob Lowe you might ask.Yes. Since Rob Lowe is in a hockey movie, the case seems to have made itself. The movie is a joke featuring terrible acting, a pathetic plot, and very poor hockey action.

So there it is: a sad list of cinematic contributions to the sport of hockey. There are probably some better movies out there somewhere. Anyone who has to ask why The Mighty Ducks was left off of the list cannot call himself a hockey fan. Hopefully, a quality hockey film is on the horizon; we could use one.