The Charlestown Chiefs are a wretched minor league crew, but they love hockey. Captain Sean Linden is an ex-NHL star demoted for multiple misconducts and suspected of throwing a key game. Goalie Gasmer is a semi-psychotic on meds. The none-too-bright Hanson brothers are scrap-happy geeks. Miller, their brightest NHL prospect, is a sardonic pessimist. Having won only ten games in two years, the team is sold to a new league and moved to Omaha Nebraska. New owner Richmond Claremont, head of a family media company, views the game only as lucrative entertainment rather than sport. His Ivy League laced Icebreakers are to hockey what the Harlem Globetrotters are to basketball. The Super Chiefs – renamed for political correctness - are to be their ever-losing opposition.
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Games are scripted and rehearsed under Icebreaker “coach” Dexter Howell, a Broadway choreographer. Rules stipulate that the Super Chiefs never strike back while taking pratfalls and humiliations. Icebreaker captain/pretty boy Skipper Tesch likes to mock and goad. The Hanson brothers are fired. Tempers flare. Salaries are doubled to avert revolt. The Super Chiefs' coach, hockey maven Jessie Dage, assures her team that real hockey will be added to their schedule, but even she begins to doubt it. When team members play a vengeful prank that ruins an Icebreaker charity luncheon, Claremont's lawyer persuades the debt-ridden Linden to accept a payoff/release in return for converting his teammates. His pre-departure pep talks infuse most of them with enthusiasm and appreciation for their hefty pay, and subsequent games proceed smoothly. But conscience and pride reverse Linden's decision. He returns between periods of a televised game and rallies his team to play real hockey regardless of consequences. When they return to the ice, they shock the Icebreakers into aggressive retaliations, the fans into serious excitement, and Claremont into fury. Dage insists the scoreboard be reset to zero. With seconds to go, the score is tied. But the aftermath will be just as exciting as the tiebreaking goal.
The review of this Movie prepared by vjm
