I know that most people would say that Slap Shot was the best hockey movie ever but IMO it is the 1971 classic Face-Off. How many of you have seen that one? I am just watching it again now on one of The Movie Networks. It is the classic about the young Toronto Maple Leaf Billy Duke (played by the great Art Hindle with Jim McKenny standing in for him in the game footage) who meets a singer who distracts him from his game. If the story doesn't grab you, the classic footage of the Leafs of that era playing the likes of Montreal (at the old Forum), Detroit (at the old Olympia), Boston, the New York Rangers and the California Golden Seals will. The captain of the Leafs at that time, George Armstrong, has a speaking part and we also get cameos from the likes of Harold Ballard and even the sports reporters of that time such as George Gross and Fergie Olver. John Vernon, who would become much better known for his role as Dean Vernon Wormer in Animal House several years later, plays the hard-nosed coach of the Leafs who has to face the pressures of coaching in Toronto and putting up with an unhappy wife. There is a scene in this film which makes it appear as though it was him, and not Roger Neilson, who should have been known as Captain Video. There is also a wonderful scene where Derek Sanderson tries to talk some sense into an enraged Duke on the ice. This movie has it all!
