Doug Glatt (Sean William Scott) appears to going nowhere. He's not particularly smart nor especially skilled. It's not until his hockey-mad best friend Pat (Jay Baruchel) takes him to a minor league hockey game that he discovers his real talent: smashing the crap out of another human being. The coach is impressed by his fighting chops after he knocks out one of the team's enforcers in the stands and the video goes viral.
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Soon Doug finds himself in Halifax, Nova Scotia, playing for a minor league affiliate of the Montreal Canadiens. He's assigned to babysit Xavier LaFlamme (Marc Andre Grondin), the team's star scoring leader, stuck in minor league rehab both because of a hookers and coke PR problem and skittish playing after he was leveled and concussed by rival enforcer, Ross Rhea (Liev Schrieber). Doug finds love with foul-mouthed, no-nonsense puck bunny Eva (Allison Pill) and friendship in the prickly Xavier, who slowly warms to him when Doug defends him on the ice. The on-ice action builds to a gory, teeth-crunching hockey fight between Doug "the Thug" and Ross "the Boss" Rhea.
Best part of story, including ending:
It both revels in the violence of the North American style of hockey, and also poignantly questions its place in the game, a fresh issue considering the rash of recent enforcer deaths due to CTE.
Best scene in story:
The final fight between Doug and Ross Rhea: it's both perfectly satisfying and perfectly repulsive.
Opinion about the main character:
Doug may be able to deliver a knockout with one punch, but he's unfailingly kind, gentle, and obliviously funny.
