Finally, a Movie Gets Hockey (Almost) Right

Hollywood films give hockey about as much respect as Don Rickles gives hockey pucks. From the fighting goons of “Slap Shot” to the “Bad News Bears”-meets-Ice-Capades story of “The Mighty Ducks,” it’s hard to find an accurate representation of the sport.

So it’s refreshing to report that “Mystery, Alaska” captures some of hockey’s speed and grace--qualities that I and millions of other hockey players and fans have long admired instead of the violence.

The film pits the pro New York Rangers against a ragtag team of puck-chasers in a publicity stunt to revitalize the sleepy Alaskan town of Mystery. Though the premise is outlandish, the hockey scenes strive to be as realistic as possible.

No wonder, given the people behind this Disney production. Writers David E. Kelley and Sean O’Byrne played hockey together at Princeton, and they still lace ‘em up recreationally in the L.A. area. Jack Kelley, the writer’s father and a consultant on the film, coached professionally for the New England Whalers in the early ‘70s. And the Whalers’ owner of the time, Howard Baldwin, was a “Mystery” producer.

What’s surprising is that director Jay Roach was an utter newcomer to the game, and yet he still found a way to reach the heart of hockey.

To prepare for the project, the New Mexico-raised filmmaker read books, including two seminal hockey works, “The Game” and “Home Game” by goalie-turned-lawyer Ken Dryden. He watched every hockey movie he could get his hands on. And he hung out with the Pittsburgh Penguins and some of L.A.’s many celebrity hockey players--including Mike Myers, the man he directed in both “Austin Powers” movies.

“I wanted to treat the game with respect and reverence,” said Roach, who learned to ice skate after receiving a pair of skates from Myers. “It really stemmed from a desire to capture the meaning of the sport. . . . [While scouting locations in Canada] I completely got caught up in how a town’s hockey program and self-esteem were connected.”

The actors, many of whom have hockey backgrounds, also got caught up. About three weeks before the shoot in Canmore, Alberta, hockey coordinators Craig Yeaton and Brad Turner held training camp. All the actors on the team voluntarily reported, and as in any training camp, there were some aches and pains. Lead Russell Crowe was among those who had spent even more time preparing, since he hadn’t known how to skate at all.

“We really became a team on and off the ice. Even once the shoot started, and we were between takes, we had a 4-on-4 game going constantly,” said Michael Buie, a Kitchener, Ontario-born actor who plays Mystery’s star forward.

Buie said he and his co-stars practiced plays so much that a great deal of the final action shots involve the actors, rather than the semipros and former NHLers who did stand-in work and portrayed the Rangers. “I’m immensely proud of that,” said Buie, who describes himself as “a mediocre hockey player who gets to live the dream in this film.”

Nostalgia for hockey’s past is woven throughout “Mystery,” but it warrants some explanation for the uninitiated.

First, there are the subtle visual cues: The Mystery men, for example, wear traditional hockey sweaters similar to those worn by the Montreal Maroons of the 1920s and ‘30s. Pictures of old-time hockey greats decorate the locker room. One of the players uses skates that must date back at least to the 1970s, even though the film is set in the mid-1990s.

Then, there is the town’s style of play: a freewheeling brand of pond hockey (or what Canadians call “shinny”) that Kelley and Baldwin grew up playing in the Northeastern U.S. and that O’Byrne knew from his Edmonton childhood.

In pond hockey, pure skating is the key on the fast “black ice”--a term for ice so clear that the dark lake bottom is visible from above. There are no offsides, no confining boards, no stoppages in play except to collect the puck from the net or to retrieve an errant player from the snow.

Onto Mystery’s pond of dreams skate the menacing Rangers. Pro hockey emphasizes something foreign to the locals’ style: stops, starts, body checks, on an artificial ice sheet that’s painted white. It’s played 5-on-5, in 45- to 90-second shifts for each player, not 4-on-4 with every man playing the entire game as in Mystery.

The locals’ goal is to beat the Rangers with speed; in real life, the Rangers, who are trained to skate in explosive bursts, would probably blow the doors off them. (Though given the Mystery players’ stamina, they could probably outrun the Rangers in a marathon.)

But such is the stuff of sports movies--the underdog always has a chance. Interestingly, “Mystery” differs from past hockey movies in that the action on the ice is more enjoyable than the off-ice drama--a fact commented upon by critics such as The Times’ Kenneth Turan.

Hollywood’s sad hockey history began with “The King of Hockey,” a 1936 feature that struggled just to get the terminology down. Fast-forward 41 years to “Slap Shot,” a lovable-deplorable cult classic starring Paul Newman that epitomizes the joke: “I went to a fight and a hockey game broke out.”

In 1986, Rob Lowe starred in “Youngblood” and Michael Keaton in “Touch and Go,” but both were generally weak films. And 1992’s “The Mighty Ducks” had some unbelievable trick shots that I’ve spent years convincing little kids are impossible to replicate in a game.

For all the sins “Mystery” avoids, though, it does have its hockey foibles. Among them:

* This is not NHL-caliber play, and the ersatz Rangers’ skills and physical size do not measure up to those of the real Blueshirts--no matter how awesome the stand-ins appear climbing out of their chartered helicopter.

At the time of the shooting in early 1998, the Rangers were not the nameless, faceless team portrayed in the film. The game’s most recognizable player, Wayne Gretzky, was a Ranger then. But with shooting taking place during the season, it wasn’t practical to pursue a deal for the team to participate.

A potentially confusing moment in the film results when Gretzky is named player of the month on a segment with real ESPN announcers Steve Levy and Barry Melrose; is the Great One in L.A. or St. Louis, one of his two pre-New York teams?

* It’s not as exciting as watching a game in person, for which there’s simply no substitute. Years of mediocre TV ratings for the NHL would tend to substantiate that.

* The issue of concussions is given a fairly lighthearted treatment for a sport that has seen many high-profile careers ended by head injuries. In the film, people get knocked out right and left, with seemingly few ill effects. In real life, post-concussion syndrome is a growing concern in hockey at all levels.

* And for all its sincerity in talking about the pure love of the game, there are an awful lot of ads for hockey equipment manufacturers and other NHL sponsors.

But, fortunately, no ads for “The Mighty Ducks” cartoon series.

Scott Sandell is a Los Angeles Times editor and former USC hockey player who still plays for fun.