And the Winner Is...

by Anne

In our 2nd Weekly poll we asked you to choose your favorite hockey movies from a list of four.
The choices were:

Mighty Ducks (original, 1992)
Miracle (2004)
Mystery, Alaska (1999)
Slap Shot (1977)

And the results?:

#4 Mystery, Alaska (11%)

I only saw part of this movie over this past Easter weekend, and while I can't give it too accurate of a review, I was easily able to tear myself away.

My best guess is that I'm not a huge Russell Crowe fan and the cheese factor at the end of the movie was to the point of it no longer being believable. But, it's still a good story and I'd probably rather watch this movie than, say, Meet Joe Black which, in my opinion is one of the worst movies of all time.

#3 Slap Shot (22%)

This movie, while a classic, is more geared toward our male hockey fan brethren. However, we ladies can obviously appreciate and thoroughly enjoy the story, and we do get to see some mostly naked Michael Ontkean at the end.

Slap Shot gave us a litany of quotes to toss about.

"Jesus, what did the old man trade for these assholes, a used puck bag?"

" [referee skates over to Steve Carlson during the playing of the National Anthem]
Referee:(yelling) I got my eye on the three of you! You pull one thing, you're out of this game! I run a clean game here! I have any trouble here, I'll suspend ya!
Steve Hanson: I'm listening to the fucking song!"

"Hyannisport Broadcaster: Look at that. You can't see that, I'm on radio. "

Talking to an opposing player, mid-game:
Dunlop: Tough news, Barclay. Sorry.
Barclay: What fuckin' news ?
Dunlop: Minnesota dropped you. Yeah, it's in the Hockey News. I'll save it for you.

The beginning of the movie interview with Denis Lemieux is classic, you have to watch it, its not funny unless you hear it actually said.

It gave us The Hanson Brothers:

And the biggest crush I've ever had on a fictional character. Ned Braden, the Johnstown Chiefs' equivalent of Jason Pominville:

He also gave us the now famous strip-tease on the ice. Woohoo! You have to watch it for the fashion show scene and just think about the Catwalk for Charity, hahahahaha.

Tie for 1st between:

The Original Mighty Ducks (33%)

What can you say about the Mighty Ducks? It's your perfect sports movie meets inspirational teacher movie meets overcoming obstacles movie with a drawn from personal experience life lesson, its the kids teaching the teacher, featuring the kid that gets "traded" because they re-drew the town lines but then he gets hurt by his former team and its REDEMPTION time. Then you throw in Goldberg, knucklepucks, the quacking, a pre-Dawson's Creek Joshua Jackson, that creepy kid who looks like he's the devil, all on top of a youth hockey team: AMAZING.

Remember when Gordon Bombay starts quacking at his boss?

EDIT: Knucklepucks do not appear until D2, I watched D1 today and learned of my error. Also, the above picture is probably also from D2, but WHATEV.

and Miracle (33%)

Why do people love it?

It's a (mostly) true story about much more than hockey. It was in Lake Placid, NY. It was the United States v. Communist Russia in a semi-final game, it wasn't even for a medal. The USA went on to defeat Finland for gold. The Soviets had royally ABUSED the United States by winning an exhibition game 10-3 not long before this game took place. It's good over evil, it's David v. Goliath. Its the underdog winning. It's a bunch of amateur hockey players who had no business beating the strongest hockey team in the world. If you're American, or at least not Russian, it makes you feel warm and fuzzy all over.

Mike Ramsey, a player the Sabres drafted 11th overall in 1979, played in this game. He was the youngest player on Team USA. He played with the Sabres for 14 years and was team captain from 1990-1992.

This game was named as the most significant in the IIHF's 100 year history, 1908-2008.

Here's the pregame speech from the film:

Interesting fact, Penguins Dman Brooks Orpik is named after Herb Brooks.

Here's Al Michael's call of the last 16 seconds:

Here's a guy named Curt Chaplin who recorded his notes for a report like a play by play standing on a camera platform, it's long but worth the watch:

There we go. Stay tuned for our next weekly poll which I have no idea what its going to be...