The Best Hockey Scenes in Non-Hockey Movies
Awful nice of Kevin to allow me to grab the mic for two days while he goes to Calgary to “to see some friends” … which I’m pretty sure is man code for “seeing how many Flames Girls I can scam on the Red Mile by dropping ‘AOL Sports’ and ‘tight with James Mirtle.’” As the BMR czar mentioned, I write the NHL Closer weekdays at Deadspin and then trade my dick jokes for some modicum of journalistic integrity over on FanHouse and The Fourth Period. If you’ve heard of me, swell; if not, Welcome to Mooseport…
Although it appears I have slightly more jobs than a Jamaican cab driver, some of my ideas just don’t seem to fit any of these audiences. So I’d like to use this opportunity to bang out one of them here: The Best Hockey Moments in Non-Hockey Movies.
The criteria are fairly simple. Miracle and Mystery, Alaska are hockey movies. Happy Gilmour is disqualified because, essentially, it’s a movie about a hockey player. Also out is, other than Slap Shot, my favorite hockey movie of all-time: The Van Damme good Sudden Death. (I always wondered how many different “Die Hard in a ____” settings they went through before settling on the Stanley Cup Finals. “Sir, the North American Tiddlywinks Association has rejected our request to film at the Squidger Bowl.” “Dammit, get me the NHL!”)
With that in mind, here are seven of the greatest hockey moments in non-hockey movies:
The Adventures of Bob & Doug McKenzie: Strange Brew (1983): Dave Thomas vs. hockey storm troopers. “The power of the Force stopped you, you hosers!”
Chasing Amy (1997): Affleck and Joey Lauren Adams have a frank discussion about the history of finger-cuffing at a minor league hockey game. The film also contains the second-greatest hockey video game moment in movie history, in which Jason Lee questions the masculinity of the Hartford Whalers nearly 15 years after they traded for Sylvain Turgeon.
Clerks (1994): Rooftop hockey and Jeff Anderson rocking a Devils hat. I actually attended the world premiere of Clerks at a movie theater in Hazlet, NJ. Kevin Smith and the cast were signing autographs. I think I remember saying something about “a bunch of nobodies” when I blew past them to the popcorn line. Hey, I was a fat kid.
Just Friends (2005): There’s a scene where Ryan Reynolds plays pond hockey and starts Phaneufing a bunch of preteens. Incidentally, if you haven’t seen it, Anna Faris gives what I believe is one of the single funniest comedic performances by a female in the last decade of film. Seriously, Netflix cue, pronto.
Lethal Weapon 3 (1992): Riggs and Murtaugh chase a dirty ex-cop at what’s supposed to be a Leafs/Kings game in LA. Joe Pesci gets shot on the ice. Says “OK” a lot. Braveheart saves him, after discovering he's not a Jew.
Swingers (1996): “I took the Kings to the Cup.” “Yeah, against the computer with the off-sides off.” “It's not so much me as it’s Roenick. He’s that good.”
Wayne’s World (1992): Let’s put aside Stan Mikita’s donuts for a moment; they play street hockey in black Chucks and Blackhawks jerseys, Committing To the Indian! well before it was the cool thing to do. “Game On!”
Any more?
Photos from Eclectric Dragonfly and View Askew.
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Not sure it counts, but the scene in The Running Man where Arnie's Ben Richards goes up against Subzero is pretty sweet.
ReplyDelete"Killian. Here's your Subzero... now plain zero."
Awesome. In fact, here's the scene - judge for yourself whether or not it counts.
I would also like to nominate the fight scene between Casey and Raphel in TMNT. It made me want to move to Canada and become the next vigilante goalie.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=EuNUR5vKMKQ
this isn't exactly live hockey, but the nhl 94 scene in swingers remains my favorite non hockey movie hockey scene.
ReplyDeleteHappy Gilmore disqualified? awww...
ReplyDeleteWhat about "Bon Cop, Bad Cop"? or is that too much about hockey?
Here's one of my favourite bits. Rick Mercer is Ron Berry--remind you of anyone?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiV5EJ7asTA
It's not really the "best scene" but it's a hockey reference anyways. The male love interest in "Little Black Book" works for the New Jersey Devils or something like that and there are quite a bit hockey scenes and a lot of references to players and Pat Burns.
ReplyDeleteI swear, the sight of hockey was the only reason why I stopped to watch it when it was on TV.
Hartford versus Vancouver in Mallrats. Jason Lee tells Shannen Dougherty about how great the Whale are, and how rare it is for the Whale to dominate the Canucks.
ReplyDeleteClassic video game hockey chatter.
Teebz, you beat me to it.
ReplyDelete"Now Hartford, the Whale? They only beat Vancouver once, maybe twice in a lifetime."
Great scene, great movie. Yes, I'm still 15 years old.
sudden death baby, van damme at his best.
ReplyDeleteDarren McCord takes his two kids to a Pittsburgh Penguins National Hockey League play-off game, unknowing that the sports arena has been taken over by terrorists, who are holding the Vice President of the United States, as well as many other high-ranking officials hostage. Darren later becomes the only one who is aware of the situation. And, the stakes are raised when the terrorists announce that they will blow-up the building at the end of the game. Therefore, Darren must not only subdue the terrorists, but postpone the game and send it to overtime."
i think that says it all, by the by, its the blackhawks vs the penguins in game 7 of the stanley cup finals... WHAT SUSPENSE!
paul - of course, having the Blackhawks on a Game 7 takes it well beyond mere movie fantasy in to the realm of outright delusion.
ReplyDeletehockeymovies.blogspot.com has the "best and worst" hockey movies.
ReplyDeleteWhat about in Canadian Bacon, the scene when John Candy yells that Canadian beer sucks at a hockey game, and a huge riot breaks out in the whole stadium. Incidentally, its the only Michael Moore movie that is and ever will be worth watching.
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