Jeff Glover knows hockey is still hot in Atlanta

Photo submitted by Jeff Glover

 

Jeff Glover and NHL Center Ice missed a potential collaboration at the turn of the decade.

The subscription service delivering regional telecasts to displaced diehards ran a montage of supposed customers. Pairs depicted included Flyers fans in New York, Penguins patrons in Los Angeles and Blackhawks buffs in Boston.

Their universal message: “We may live in (city name) now, but our seats are definitely center-ice.”

Meanwhile, the actor’s front-of-camera career was on an untimely hiatus. Glover, a real-life Chicago devotee, was absorbed in an Atlanta radio gig.

By 2010, the future supporting regular on The Walking Dead and MacGyver had one item on his Internet Movie Database profile. He had made six uncredited appearances on a short-lived soap, Savannah, shot on location in Georgia’s fifth-largest city.

But there has been a can’t-miss constant in Glover’s life. He may have settled in the Peach State, but his house is definitely of the Mad variety. Multiple walls are adorned with Blackhawks merchandise he has collected since his boyhood in the Windy City suburb of Schaumburg.

Born in 1971, one year before Bobby Hull bolted to the WHA, Glover flexed 39 years of emotional endurance. By his mid-20s, his native city was nursing the longest active Stanley Cup championship drought. Between the ages of two and 38, he only remembered seeing the Hawks appear in one Cup final.

“My friends and I would always drive to Blackhawks games on Thursdays and Sundays down at the Chicago Stadium,” Glover recalled in an email to Pucks and Recreation. “I loved that place, and still can’t believe the Hawks lost to the Penguins (in 1992)."

One year before he started amassing more IMDB entries, the hex ended after 49 seasons.

“Fast-forward to 2010, it was a long time coming,” Glover said. “The ups and downs with their goalie situation that season, incredible. When the Hawks actually won the Cup, I cried I little. Tears of joy, I guess.”

Let that be another example of emotional acceptability for the picturesque Hollywood hulk. Those are the words of a man whose persona could, in a pinch, qualify him for Dave Bautista’s body double.

While his beloved Blackhawks went on to drench their parched legacy with two more titles in 2013 and 2015, the late-blooming Glover has saturated his acting resume. So far, the majority of his roles have been in the realm of police officers, security guards and CIA agents.

When he is on top of his game on camera, his characters are nothing to mess with. The same goes for when he is at his best on the ice or roller rink.

Glover’s adopted state capital lost its last NHL team to Winnipeg, the same city that pilfered Hull three decades prior. But the ECHL’s Gwinnett Gladiators have stayed in place and claimed the loose Atlanta dateline. Grassroots icers have sustained their enthusiasm as well.

“Atlanta hockey is doing really well,” Glover said. “The Thrashers had some incredible programs that helped kids learn to skate. Showcased the great sport to schools, rinks were built. The hockey talent in Atlanta continues to grow today, all because of the Thrashers.”

Meanwhile, long after its peak, roller hockey is a hit around Hotlanta. In recent summers, the metro area has hosted regional divisions of the North American Roller Hockey Championships (NARCh).

Glover missed last year’s regionals in Snellville due to MacGyver commitments. But this past month, he skated and spectated at the East Coast Finals. Age groups from six-and-under to pro competed at the converted Cooler ice rink in Alpharetta over a span of 11 days.

For the locals, the 12-and-under division generated the most pride. Six of the eight teams on that age group’s final day represented Georgia. Meanwhile, Glover got in on the men’s action with the Cobb County Chiefs. They would go 0-5-0, brooking four shutouts.

“We didn’t do so great,” he confessed. “But the hockey was competitive and the beer was cold afterwards.”

Cold has come mostly in methodical moderation since Glover reached adulthood. He starred on the ice at Schaumburg High School in the late 1980s, and was sought by Bemidji State in Minnesota.

“I had a chance at a partial scholarship,” he said.

Bemidji played at the defunct Division II level in that era, and was competitive at that. But Glover sought something more relaxed, and enrolled at Arizona State.

Like BSU, ASU would one day join the Division I varsity ranks. In Glover’s college years, it had a club program he could not find the heart to commit to. After trying out, then making erratic appearances at the Sun Devils’ practices, he never cracked their game roster.

“I had so much going on back then, and wish now I put more effort into playing with ASU,” he said.

Of his choice to go south, he offered, “No-brainer. But then again, another blunder in my hockey career.”

The game may never have been his career, monetarily speaking. But between radio work and acting, parts of it have worked their way in.

Savannah closed down after one TV season in 1996-97. Concomitant with that setback, Atlanta gained a new all-sports station and was preparing to restore its status as a four-sport market.

Previously dedicated to music, AM 790 WQXI became “The Zone” in April 1997. Two months later, Atlanta was awarded one of four franchises in the NHL’s expansion class. Soon christened the moniker, the team began play in 1999, filling a void left by the Flames 19 years prior.

Hired as a producer for “The Zone,” Glover would arrange interviews with all of the local teams.

“It opened the door with the Thrashers,” he said. “But I pretty much already knew everyone from the season-ticket reps to the Zamboni drivers with my local hockey contacts.”

The connection even helped Glover sustain his acting mojo amidst his lengthy break from the business. His IMDB profile lists “Atlanta Thrashers Scoreboard Intro - actor, ice hockey player” under his “other works.”

As it happened, the Thrashers’ lifespan was shorter than Glover’s time away from TV and movies. They departed in 2011 after rocky ownership precipitated the team’s sale to Winnipeg’s True North.

“My daughter Madelyn grew up at Phillips Arena,” said Glover. “I’m all Blackhawks hockey, but this was NHL hockey where I lived. I’ll always love the Thrashers. If it wasn’t for the terrible owners (Atlanta Spirit, LLC) the Thrashers would still be in Atlanta.”

Amidst the NHL’s absence from Georgia, the surviving brand in Glover’s heart keeps on giving. He makes annual northern pilgrimages to get in more ice action. Last year he was a guest coach, opposite ex-Blackhawks general manager Dale Tallon, at the Chicago Hockey Classic.

The August charity contest was orchestrated by a former local USHL player to raise money for the city’s Special Olympics chapter. A host of high-profile personnel representing the area and each of its notable hockey programs formed the contesting teams.

Patrick Kane, whose overtime goal opened Glover’s cathartic ducts in 2010, captained Glover’s team against Vinnie Hinostroza’s. The funds chalked up to north of $140,000.

As his other major northern pilgrimage, Glover joins the Chicago Clowns every February at the Pond Hockey USA tournament in Wisconsin. Elsewhere, he has sported a Charlestown Chiefs jersey in other charity games.

His lifelong leisure of choice and vocation have yet merge in full, though.

“I have not auditioned for a hockey movie,” he said. “I wish there was more of them. My all-time favorite hockey movie is Slap Shot, which I hope they don’t make anymore goofy remakes (of). Love the Goon movies.

“A hockey player in a movie would be good enough for me, like Happy Gilmore.”

In 2013, the year the Blackhawks nabbed their second Cup of his lifetime and casting calls accelerated, Glover took one baby stride. He put in an uncredited cameo as an anonymous ice skater in Anchorman 2.

That, along with The Internship, put Glover on the same roster as fellow celebrity Chicago fan Vince Vaughn. The two have since met up in Nashville when Vaughn’s Wild West Comedy Festival coincides with a Hawks-Predators card.

Yes, Hawks. Not to be confused with the team that remains Philips Arena’s sole wintertime tenant. Georgians, beware when you overhear Glover and assume he is talking Atlanta hoops.

“There’s only one Hawks,” he said.

Ranking the 10 best Mighty Ducks movie quotes

The official silver anniversary of The Mighty Ducks is finally here.

The NHL Network will shrewdly honor the occasion by screening the film Monday evening. Meanwhile, this site has gone on a, shall we say, Flying XXV for the last 25 days, touching on a comprehensive array of Duck-related topics.

Today’s finale of the 25 Duck Days series comes back to the cultural phenomenon’s point of origin. As collaboratively selected by the Pucks and Recreation writing team, here are the best of the original Mighty Ducks movie quotes.

10. “A team is something you belong to, something you feel, something you have to earn.”

Evoking the words of his late father, Gordon Bombay directs this statement to his boss, Gerald Ducksworth. Tellingly, he is also in earshot of his former coach, Jack Reilly when he asserts, “A team isn’t a bunch of kids out to win.”

You have to think he is asking for a couple of sour glares in that context. Predictably, he gets just that from Ducksworth and Reilly alike. As such, the added underlines to each man’s antagonistic status lend an appropriate touch of humor to the homily.

9. “Does that sound stupid to anyone else?”

This is how Greg Goldberg closes his first set of dialogue with Charlie Conway and Terry Hall. Charlie has just reminded him that his goaltending position means the puck is “supposed to hit you.”

Whether it’s courage, a basic grasp on the game or both, Goldberg is lacking in this early stage. Besides the amusing ignorance it conveys, this line illustrates how much he and the team have to learn. In that vein, it sets the core target audience up for a bolder flavor of fulfillment later on.

8. “To think I wasted all those years, worrying about what you thought.”

The big bad side of Reilly has persistently haunted Gordon, as three of the film’s four flashbacks affirm. In the latter-day championship, the worst of Reilly surfaces when a current player intentionally injures Gordon’s pupil.

At that point, Gordon flatly confronts Reilly with this statement. And maybe by standing up to him before the current Hawks, he will spare the next generation similar torment.

But for the moment and the kid-movie obligations, Gordon’s handling of the cheap shot is the game’s clear turning point. He sets up his empathetic audience for the sweetest sip of redemption possible.

 

7. “They know that if they mess with one duck, they gotta deal with the whole flock.”

Bombay prepares to put his respectability on the line when he says this. He can confidently doff his coat to display the jersey because he has made his point about the strength of a sum.

This lesson briefly backfires when the bulk of the team strikes upon misconstruing Bombay’s response to Reilly’s disrespect. But the entire squad uses it again in school, precipitating the point of reconciliation with their coach. And of course, they elicit it again when the Hawks mess with a Hawk-turned-Duck in the playoffs.

6. “Teach them to fly.”

The title team name is still not a concept when Gordon visits Hans for the first time in adulthood. But as if the eventual sponsor is not enough, Hans’ words of advice must have held partial sway.

As the movie and the series alike progress, Hans’ stress on this sentence keeps resonating. In the original, Gordon uses the metaphor upon unveiling the uniforms, and later when calling for the “Flying V” play. The team punctuates the championship turning point in D2 with a “Ducks fly together” rallying cry.

And poignantly, at Hans’ funeral in D3, Bombay entreats everyone to “Remember it was Hans who taught us to fly.”

5. “Quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, Mr. Ducksworth!”

Before taking his own long-time-coming verbal punch, Reilly watches Bombay dish out a more humorous helping to Ducksworth.

Earlier in the film, the habitually brash Bombay pokes fun at Ducksworth’s surname the same way. The key difference this time is that he does so to his face rather than his subordinates.

And why not? He is freshly fired at that point, so what does he have to lose?

 

4. “Losing fair is still losing.”

After Gordon’s gamesmanship improves him to a self-proclaimed 30-0 in the courtroom, he takes the proverbial Icarus flight. His taunting of rival lawyer Frank Huddy ignites Huddy’s killer instinct for three subsequent driving-related charges.

But in between, Bombay’s counterpoint to Huddy’s “I’d just like to lose fair” establishes his lofty learning curve. Add the fact that this is only two scenes removed from the first flashback in the opening credits. Reilly’s lasting damage to his demeanor has as much room for improvement as Goldberg’s fear of the puck.

3. “You really quacked at the principal? Are we Ducks or what?”

Gordon and the audience know something the kids do not when he marvels at how his whole team incurred a detention. He comes to their school within moments of quacking at his own detested authority figure.

If not for those concomitant displays of like-mindedness, all hope might have been lost. But the stars have aligned, and it’s smooth sailing toward Gordon’s prophecy of a playoff date with the Hawks.

The scene even offers a subtle callback, be it intentional or unintentional, to another Emilio Estevez classic. Fans of The Breakfast Club can doubly appreciate Gordon wearing his Ducks varsity jacket to a detention classroom.

2. “I believe in you, Charlie. Win or lose.”

Standing up to Ducksworth within Reilly’s earshot is Bombay’s first step toward self-exorcism. Confronting Reilly after a Hawk maliciously sends a Duck to the hospital for cheap scoreboard gains is the second.

The final step is sending Charlie off on his penalty shot with a pep talk 180 degrees removed from Reilly’s. After three rancid reflections on that scarring episode, he takes his third stride toward redress with substantive strategy advice on a move involving three dekes.

Is it a trite and sappy pattern through the adult eye? Yes. But it does what it is supposed to for a narrative of this nature.

1. “I’m proud to be a Duck, and I’d be proud to fly with any one of you.”

The movie paces itself before lending its title relevance, but Bombay’s speech makes the wait worthwhile.

This comes on the other side of Bombay ceremoniously revealing his team jersey after his flock loyalty lecture. It also marks the first of the aforementioned takeoffs on Hans’ advice.

And one could argue that it even gave Disney a boost when it chose to branch out the brand. Despite persistent ridicule, plenty of NHL personnel have been proud to be Ducks over the last quarter-century.

Miracle’s Nathan West: ‘It all started with Mighty Ducks 2’

Long before he played through a bruise on the leg as Rob McClanahan, goaltending prodigy Nathan West launched his acting endeavors by taking a bruise on the palm. Before he fought a rival-turned-teammate in character as McClanahan, he briefly brawled with Ken Wu. And before he reenacted an historic Olympic gold-medal clincher, he surrendered a scripted Goodwill Games shootout decider.

Nathan West entered the pristine, palm tree-flanked mansion, and felt right at home.

The aroma of Anaheim Arena’s untouched ice resembled that of his home rink in Alaska. The unseen machinery sustaining the surface made for a comfortable cold snap. The state-of-the-art (by 1993 standards) scoreboard hovered with an infectious aura of professionalism.

And the open space and free time left limitless roaming and running possibilities until it was time to get the work. The eventual influx of seat holders signaled that time. The time for the cast of D2: The Mighty Ducks to christen the rink of the soon-to-be-renamed Arrowhead Pond.

“It was crazy to see people walking in that building, and we had been all over,” West recalled to Pucks and Recreation. “It was our playground.”

At age 14, going on 15 by that summer’s end, West and his castmates were about to feel a fever of fun spread to the ceiling. Audiences reportedly exceeding 12,000 flocked with free admission to the July and August shooting sessions of D2’s gold-medal game scenes.

For West, it did not matter a single ice chip that he was playing an anonymous foil. He had an uncredited part as the goaltender for the villainous Iceland squad.

Anyone remotely fascinated with hockey goalies is bound to learn the late Hall of Famer Jacques Plante’s old saying. “How would you like a job where, every time you make a mistake, a big red light goes on and 18,000 people boo?”

Being a movie, D2 was a somewhat different dynamic. Its championship segment packed the majority of the Mighty Ducks trilogy’s Harlem Globetrotter-type antics. Yet it was faithful to the sport with repeat jokes at the expense of the netminder for its Washington Generals. (Or should we say Reykjavik Hershöfðingjar?)

As part of his job, West has his character’s shutout spoiled by a pint-sized converted figure skater late in the second period. He then confronts the scorer after being taunted, only to lose the fast fight upon getting the stick-gloves-shirt treatment.

Iceland proceeds to blow a 4-1 lead in the third period en route to a 5-5 regulation tie and eventual shootout loss. Along the way, West is snowed by USA Ducks speedster Luis Mendoza. He is mentally handcuffed by Russ Tyler’s equalizer on a preposterous “knucklepuck” shot from the other attacking zone. In the ensuing shootout, he is struck by Fulton’s famous slap shot with such force, he falls flat on his back with his head across the line and the puck trickling in after it.

By his own account, the audience ate it all up.

“Everyone was abuzz in that building,” West recalled. And he could not have relished the energy more.

The mixture of athletes, actors and observers were crossing into various forms of virgin territory. For the spectators, this was a free tune-up for when world-class professionals stepped onto the Pond’s ice in the same uniforms as the film stars. For the actors, this was a riveting replica of an athlete’s big-game experience.

And for the athletes, West included, this was an opportunity that never promises to duplicate itself. Here he was, a high-school hockey player with big-league dreams, taking time 2,400 miles away from home to inaugurate what many would come to liken to a Taj Mahal of sports facilities. One of those writers, Orange Coast Magazine’s Tom Singer, added that “Sports open the doors for international prominence.”

“We skated on that ice before the NHL Ducks even did,” he marveled.

“I don’t think you understand how much it means to those young kids to get on that ice between periods at a National Hockey League game,” he continued. “We all find it to be adorable, but for those kids, that is something that is engrained in your mind. It will never leave you, it’s going to be there for the rest of your life.”

Almost a quarter-century later, the afterglow of the opportunity still manifests itself across West’s life. Everything he has done on the ice, in other camera-laden settings, in a recording studio or even at home, he can trace back to D2.

Singularly scouted

The Nathan West of the ’90s was Nathan West, hockey prospect. Goaltending was his natural position, and the first scout with Mighty Ducks ties noticed.

Jack White, a Canadian-born animator by trade, was mixing Hollywood with hockey as early as the mid-’70s. With the help of Gordie Howe and Bobby Orr, just to name two, he started introducing the sport to novice skaters in the Los Angeles area.

His skills clinics grew rapidly in age range, and his roster of clients eventually included movie stars who needed to learn the game for a role. His earliest coaching credits included Michael Keaton’s Touch and Go and Rob Lowe’s Youngblood.

When Disney got in on the game, it lured White out to Minnesota, where he served as the hockey technical advisor for The Mighty Ducks. He also portrayed the referee in several ice scenes.

The icebreaking movie hit theaters on Oct. 2, 1992. Within five months, the company had its own NHL franchise in Anaheim, and the choice of nickname was natural.

To go with that offshoot, a sequel was already in the works, and it would follow White back home. The protagonists of The Mighty Ducks were going global in a fictitious Junior Goodwill Games tournament, shot on location in and around L.A.

Coming down from another direction and another prototypically puck-friendly state, West and his team had a real weekend tournament. By that point, Mighty Ducks of Anaheim merchandise was permeating the pro shops, and a Jr. Mighty Ducks youth hockey program was seeing action.

The local players from that program would make convenient recruits as extras and skating doubles. But White wanted more bodies to fill the rosters of the USA Ducks’ opponents. He found one in a visiting goalie from Alaska who turned in a tournament MVP performance.

West was not even a novice actor at that point. He had never thought about acting. Yet he remembers White pulling him aside after the final game of his visit. “All of a sudden, he’s like, ‘Hey, my name is Jack. Do you want to me in my movie?’” he recalled.

 

 

As it happened, West’s father was living in Southern California at the time. That connection was a pivotal blessing the likes of Jake Gyllenhaal lacked two years prior. (Gyllenhaal, a lifelong L.A. resident, had been cast as Charlie Conway in The Mighty Ducks. But his parents reportedly withdrew the 11-year-old from consideration, as the role would have entailed spending two months two time zones away.)

And so West spent two-and-a-half more months in the fledgling hockey market, where his assets were maximized, and his weaknesses muffled. Iceland, which supplanted Russia as the villain due to the then-recently ended Cold War going banal, was meant to spook with its superior size and skill.

For that, West had the physical maturity and the positional proficiency White and company needed. That, in turn, earned him the privilege of making his self-proclaimed “playground” out of the Pond.

But all playgrounds are bound to witness the occasional injury and upset. For the Hollywood neophyte, who hardly foresaw his future roles in Miracle and numerous non-hockey projects, the growing pains typified that reality.

Appropriately, West’s only “line” to make the final cut in D2 was a reaction to a relatively mild ailment. During Iceland’s 12-1 romp of Team USA in a round-robin game, Fulton is ordered to unleash his searing slapper in hopes of getting his club on the board and generating momentum.

Instead, West snuffs the shot with a deflating snare. Famed play-by-play announcer Bob Miller conveys the immediate letdown to the U.S. faithful, then speculates that the impact of the grab would leave a mark.

Sure enough, on cue, West doffs his trapper and lets out a pained grunt as he unveils a puck-shaped bruise on his left palm.

The goalie did have more to say, West recalls, but “I think I was so bad they had to just cut it all out.”

With that being said, “that really kicked off my acting career without my even knowing that I wanted to be an actor.”

The following fall, West returned to Anchorage and tended the nets for another three years at Robert Service High School. The Service Cougars hockey program, which later produced Brandon Dubinsky, is a big enough deal to have its own cheerleading squad. And West’s own overall popularity among his peers got him the title of 1996 prom king.

 

 

Afterward, he ventured back to the Lower 48 to pursue major-junior hockey rather than college. Undrafted but undaunted, he landed a roster spot with the OHL’s Detroit Whalers, where Robert Esche was the incumbent starter. Esche entered the 1996-97 campaign as the Phoenix Coyotes’ sixth-round selection, and the difference in the two stoppers’ ceilings translated to the stats.

Esche, who went on to play 11 seasons in the pros, saw action in 58 of Detroit’s 66 regular-season games. West managed 16 credited appearances, posting a 2-3-2 record, .841 save percentage and 5.31 goals-against average.

The 1997 Whalers sank before Sault Ste. Marie in the first round of the OHL playoffs. The Greyhounds, led by soon-to-be No. 1 NHL draft pick Joe Thornton, doubled them up in five games by a cumulative score of 22-11. With the scorchers on Esche, West made one relief appearance, which turned out to be his last formal hockey shift.

But to his pleasant surprise, there were still talent-seekers at his games who wanted to hear from him. Through Whalers bench boss Peter DeBoer, West received a card from a Michigan-based casting agent.

As his melting ice and dripping blue paint grew more readily apparent, he trusted the confidence of the entertainment scouts. Despite some previous frustrations at acting workshops, he decided to dabble in it again. He patiently paddled through the rapids of tough-love coaching and directing, and the dividends surfaced in the form of his first three acting credits in the autumn of 1998.

“It’s amazing,” he said. “I look back now and think, ‘Gosh, it’s been an incredible career,’ and it all started with Mighty Ducks 2.

“Here was this Disney move that offered me this opportunity that opened a door to a whole world that I never thought was there.”

Esche, who capped his junior career as an OHL all-star in 1998, made the American League’s all-rookie team in 1998-99. West did not fare too shabbily for himself in the concomitant television season. He made two appearances on The Practice and one on The Adventures of A.R.K. In the subsequent spring, he guest starred on ER and Smart Guy.

His career change would only look smarter after the change in millennium.

Forward thinking

The Nathan West of the ’00s was Nathan West, actor, newlywed and new parent once, twice and thrice over. Of those titles, the latter two were only true because of the first.

“My wife, who I love with all my heart,” he said, “I met her in an audition.”

Chyler Leigh, of Grey’s Anatomy and Supergirl fame, had also been acting since adolescence. Their paths crossed in 1999 on the set of an upstart series, Saving Graces, which never saw action on the screen. But the next fall, they co-starred as guests on 7th Heaven, and they were both cast in 2001’s Not Another Teen Movie.

While filming the movie — Leigh’s first and West’s third after Bring It On — he popped the question in a manner initially disguised as a standard scene shot. The moment lives on as part of the DVD extras.

They were wed in Anchorage in the summer of 2002, a time when another Disney hockey movie was brewing. It would be West’s chance to live a portion of yet another, though distinctly different, stretch of the studio’s sports output.

When he was a teen thinking he would be a one-off actor, Disney lived off kid-oriented comedic fiction for its athletic accounts. D2 came amidst the Mighty Ducks trilogy, plus Angels in the Outfield, The Big Green and two Air Bud projects.

The pattern had changed to living legends by the time West was perpetually pursuing new roles. When movies were his staple, Remember the Titans, The Rookie and Invincible defined Disney’s sports-movie output.

Between the second and third of those, the company conceived a film that would retell the story of the 1980 Olympic team. West was between agents when casting calls went out for it. But Leigh’s agent, whose husband was an avid recreational skater and hockey fan, made sure the word got to him.

Upon obtaining the script from Leigh, he recalls, “I read it, and I was, like, ‘I have to be a part of this.’” He went so far as to tell director Gavin O’Connor, “there’s no way in hell they’re making the film without me.”

 

The basic common threads with his first film a decade prior were not lost on West. In fact, he said, the connections were “100 percent” apparent. While he took nothing for granted, he knew that the prior Disney association, which came about specifically on account of his hockey skills, would be a plus.

But in stark, though ultimately favorable contrast to D2, West was no longer an outnumbered novice actor. O’Connor wanted proficient pucksters for every role, and, with the exception of retired NHL netminder Bill Ranford, no stunt skaters.

“His approach was genius,” West said, “because we’re telling a true story.”

Eddie Cahill, for whom Ranford doubled behind the mask as Jim Craig, and Kenneth Mitchell (Ralph Cox) would be West’s only company of seasoned actors portraying the players. Of the 20 young men who comprised the Olympic team, 10 have logged zero Internet Movie Database credits before and since Miracle.

And only West went in knowing what it was like to be on the ice with cameras and clapboards everywhere.

Nonetheless, he found one more way to stray from his comfort zone. He eschewed his familiar goalie pads and tried out as a skater, landing the part of first-line forward Rob McClanahan.

With McClanahan’s most famous contributions to the 1980 narrative, West was on a smooth path to some intriguing hockey movie motifs. Where the Iceland goalie shakes off the bruise to his palm, McClanahan resolves to “play on one leg!” when the opposite limb brooks a contusion.

“I never really thought about that,” he admitted. “Really interesting.”

But he should know as well as any ex-athlete that those bumps, bruises and scars are the investments for glory. And as an actor portraying an athlete, West scored the privilege of being involved in the last onscreen goal of D2 and Miracle alike.

In the U.S.-Iceland rematch at the Pond, the deciding shootout is deadlocked, 3-3, entering the fifth and final inning. In the top half, Adam Banks — who has his own laundry list of past ailments — looks to give the Ducks the lead. He does so by pinballing a close-range wrister in off the back of West’s right leg. Gunnar Stahl’s subsequent stubbornness to shoot into Julie Gaffney’s glove means Banks’ goal stands as the clincher.

“His approach was genius, because we’re telling a true story.” - Nathan West on Miracle director Gavin O'Connor

In the last game of 1980 Olympics, none other than McClanahan snapped a 2-2 deadlock for Team USA’s first and permanent lead with 13:55 to spare in regulation. The cast’s reenactment of that goal was the only highlight of the Finland game to make the Miracle cut. West can be seen burying the biscuit through the five-hole in slow motion as Kurt Russell, in character as Herb Brooks, narrates.

West is as good as Hollywood hockey’s answer to Edgar Renteria. Just as the Major League shortstop hit a walkoff base hit to clinch the 1997 World Series and grounded into the final out to lose the 2004 title, he got to be on both sides of a gold-medal goal.

When reminded of that distinction, he was practically as speechless as McClanahan would have been in the real moment.

“I guess I feel kind of honored to have been a part of those moments,” he said. “They come at a moment in each of these films that are so pivotal to telling the story. Whether it’s nonfictional or fictional, it doesn’t matter.”

West also has the honor of being doubly featured in fan-fiction crossovers. On Jan. 11, 2009, a clever YouTube user by the pseudonym “mmattuc” uploaded a “preview” for D2: The Minnesota Miracle. The mashup takes the audio from Miracle’s trailer and replaces the accompanying footage with clips from D2.

“I did not see that,” West admitted, sounding intrigued. “I should probably check it out.”

To instill interest among the indifferent-to-hockey majority of the American populace, Disney unquestionably needed a flare of compelling intensity in its Miracle trailer. The film’s reenactment of Brooks’ confrontation with the injured McClanahan was a natural fit.

For the Duck-oriented rendering, mmattuc interspersed clips of Gordon Bombay protesting Dean Portman’s abrupt ejection from the first Iceland game and Portman’s ensuing locker-room tantrum. But naturally, viewers only hear Russell and West dubbed over.

Other highlights in the creation include three of the USA Ducks’ shootout goals against Iceland. This means West and only West has both his voice and likeness (albeit masked) in the teaser. Because West and only West had the pleasure of performing in both of Disney’s full-length films about international hockey.

That also makes him an authority for establishing the comparisons and contrasts between each project. Both, he says, are important to keep in mind, especially when it comes to comparing the experience of making each.

 

“(It would be) interesting to somehow bring those two films together, maybe not,” he said. “They’re both hockey films, they’re both very special. But the stories are so different, they each kind of stand on their own.”

“There’s no way to compare those two experiences,” he added. “They’re very special experiences in their own way.”

A decade after the Pond, a smaller arena in Vancouver posed as the Lake Placid rink and served as a whole new playground for the twentysomething West and company. For the U.S.-Russia game that spawned the movie’s title, the Canadian crowd was more out of its element than anyone.

Of the big D2 shoot in 1993, Len Hall reported in the Los Angeles Times, “The crowd, many of whom had seen the first movie, needed little prompting to start the "U.S.A., U.S.A." chant.” (This is to say nothing of the more audible “We Will Quack You!” segment.)

Getting the audience in British Columbia to do the same was a more important prerequisite for Miracle. But as West remembers it, the crew had to yank the bystanders’ nationalistic fangs.

This was a place where the presence of a red maple leaf more than matched that of the Mighty Ducks’ crest around Anaheim. Even pretending to root for the rival to the south was an apparent affront.

“Imagine,” West said, “putting them in this arena and then telling them to chant ‘U-S-A.’ That combination was unreal, because they wouldn’t do it.”

At first, O’Connor openly pleaded through a megaphone to no avail. But two bystanders had the cure. They unfurled a strikingly large Canadian flag and draped it from the upper seating bowl.

That elicited the thundering din the filmmakers needed. And the locals eventually started to play along and act like they bled blue in addition to their natural red and white. The chant came late, but better late than never.

“(Both) unique moments in time for me,” West said, “and things I have great stories from.”

Loving life with Leigh

The Nathan West of the ’10s is East of Eli, singer and guitarist, at least professionally. Personally, he is Nathan West, devoted husband and doting father. His son, Noah, was on the way when Miracle was in the works. Now Noah is almost as old as Nathan was at the tournament that led him to D2.

Meanwhile, West’s youngest daughter, eight-year-old Anniston Kae, is taking up hockey this season. “So it’s still a huge part of my life,” he says.

Family business is somewhat bigger, though. With East of Eli, West and Leigh have more control over their opportunities to creatively collaborate. Sometimes known as WestLeigh, they have warmed North American and European audiences through 2015’s “Love Lit The Sky” and 2017’s “Nowhere.” Their duets, and East of Eli’s recent work in general, are expressly about appreciating one another and the family they have formed.

At times, when performing, West’s facial hair, shirt and hat make him look like an American Aldous Snow impersonator. He is anything but that, and WestLeigh is anything but the building-up-letting-down power couples people are accustomed to following. They stay out of the tabloids the same way start-to-finish smooth flights stay off the national news.

Of the concept of “Nowhere,” West told People magazine, “There’s a lot of times right now with our careers where there’s a lot missed opportunities to be together…that’s what I was thinking about. While I was thinking of her she was thinking of me. It’s special because love knows no boundaries.”

In the same People interview, Leigh offered, “We thought this would be a great opportunity for us to not be working together playing somebody else, but working together being ourselves.”

The only ponds the resultant straight-from-the-heart melody evokes are the kinds that uneventfully ripple before an impeccable sun-and-shade ratio. But West remains unequivocally grateful for his shift on the artist formerly known as the Arrowhead Pond.

After all, it did, in effect, lead him to Leigh. And he can claim membership on one of the same all-time rosters as Ranford and Ken Dryden (both of Miracle). Ditto Chris Chelios, Cam Neely, Luc Robitaille and Wayne Gretzky, who all appeared in D2.

“This whole door opened kind of by accident, but man, Jack White had started it. Without that, I don’t know that I would have my three kids. Kind of funny to look at it from that perspective.” - Nathan West

“I’ve had a very unique hockey career,” West told Pucks and Rec. “I did get to be a pro hockey player…not as a professional athlete, but as an actor.”

Per his IMDB page, West has not logged an acting credit since 2010’s Alleged. But one year before that, he elicited his hockey background once more to land a guest spot on the puck-themed episode of Bones, “Fire in the Ice.” As it happened, Robitaille also cameoed in that episode as himself, just as he had done in D2.

Robitaille has appeared in two movies and on seven scripted TV shows, be they dramas, primetime sitcoms or even cartoons. The current president of the L.A. Kings typically goes no more than four years between entertainment spots.

In a way, that pattern could extend Robitaille’s status as “someone I always looked up to” in West’s playing days. As West was wrapping up his chat with Pucks and Rec, he supposed that another as-yet-unforeseen, but ultimately enticing hockey/acting project could always emerge.

He has a point. The speculation may never stop as to a potential D4 film. That is unless it actually happens, in which case it could pursue a two-time Disney veteran with ample rink knowledge.

Or perhaps in another couple of decades, the 1998 gold-medalist U.S. women’s Olympic team will be made into movie material. Or maybe the to-be-determined fate of the 2017-18 women’s national team will become film fodder. And maybe by then, the likes of Anniston Kae West will be in a prime position to portray a player.

Or maybe she will just have a fun, innocent youth playing career while Dad kicks back as a spectator. Even that could come with an intermission twirl at L.A.’s Staples Center or Anaheim’s Honda Center. At least in that scenario, Anniston’s father would handle her moment in the sun with an informed perspective.

Either way, it would be sound symmetry for Nathan West, who is where he is and has what he has because he manned the crease so deftly in the winter of 1993.

“This whole door opened kind of by accident, but man, Jack White had started it,” he said. “Without that, I don’t know that I would have my three kids. Kind of funny to look at it from that perspective.”

Mighty Ducks movie viewership: The rookie and the re-visitor

The first Mighty Ducks movie, if not the whole trilogy it begat, can pass as a Slap Shot for kids.

It takes a protagonist team of athletes of roughly the same age as the intended audience on an age-old Cinderella path. Along that road, it spawns a slew of you cannot get out of your head, but can certainly spread to your peers’ brain books.

But with the film’s silver anniversary comes a more visible reality that, for the youngest age groups, viewership is not necessarily automatic, even for budding hockey enthusiasts. Unlike Slap Shot, where a first-time screening can be like a curious youngster’s first beer, the 1992 Disney film may not be passed down as easily.

Case in point: Pucks and Recreation boasts one correspondent who admitted to never having seen the movie. To rectify that in a fun, productive way, he belatedly broke that ice while a colleague who grew up on the film rewatched it after a protracted hiatus.

Both viewers’ assessments yielded ample encouragement for Ducks devotees who hope their childhood staple cements its place in the collective peewee pucksters’ entertainment library.

Ceremonial faceoff: Enlightening exposure

Eugene Helfrick: Growing up in Florida means a sport like hockey was never on the radar as a kid. Sure, you knew about the sport and would watch it on occasion. But in general, hockey was that “other” sport that existed on that magical surface known as ice that you only saw in cubed form.

Due to this lack of knowledge of the sport, I never saw The Mighty Ducks in theaters or on VHS. Somehow, well into adulthood and hockey fandom, I still never saw the movie that popularized so many tropes about the sport.

My question going in: Does the film hold up after 25 years, or is nostalgia its only hope for long-term appeal?

Zach Green: Conversely, I grew up outside of Philadelphia, one of the most hockey-crazed cities in the world. I am a little too young to have been able to see any of the Mighty Ducks movies in theaters, but was just the right age to watch them whenever they were on TV.

When my friends and I would play street hockey, oftentimes, one team would be the Flyers and the other would be the Ducks. It went so far that one of my friends had a Mighty Ducks mask that whoever was playing goalie would wear. 

With Eugene seeing The Mighty Ducks for the first time, this was the perfect opportunity for me to watch it again as someone who views it with nostalgia, and to get my feelings as to how the movie has held up.

First period: How the film holds up with millennials this day and age

Eugene: To start off, the film is very watchable. This may sound like weird praise, but there are many sports movies released in the ’90s (especially ones made by Disney) that are simply unwatchable today.

Obviously this is a film made for children and young adults, so much of the humor falls on deaf ears. And sure, the plot is one giant cliché, but it works. It helps that it doesn’t take itself too seriously, with everyone on board with the fact that they are in a Disney sports movie.

In fact, The Mighty Ducks doesn’t feel like a Disney film, which also helps its appeal. It is firmly entrenched in the ’90s, allowing for scenes that would never happen in a Disney film today. Just look at how, within the first 10 minutes, the lead character is shown drinking and driving, smart-mouthing a cop and swearing.

Even the kids get on with this theme, openly swearing and making mildly racist remarks in a Disney film. While it does fit with the era, it also comes off as very forced at times when you can tell that the kids are supposed to be nothing more than attitude.

Zach: I completely agree about how watchable it is. Children’s movies in general get tougher to watch as you get older, but not The Mighty Ducks. It stands the test of time, which is something that very few movies do, and is a film that I will be showing my future children. It was super-entertaining to me as a kid, and still is today.

While yes, this is a kids’ movie that does toe the line on appropriateness, it isn’t unheard of from Disney. I agree that some scenes wouldn’t fly today, but Disney has more recently made some PG-13 movies like that aren’t in the studio’s classic mold. The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise comes to mind.

This is where I feel The Mighty Ducks fits in. I agree with Eugene as well when he says that it is helped by the fact that it doesn’t feel like a normal Disney movie. Otherwise, I might not be able to enjoy it as much as I still do.

Second period: The quality of the hockey scenes

Eugene: I did appreciate how authentic the actual hockey looked onscreen. This was supposed to be a peewee league, and it actually looked like a bunch of unstable kids on the ice. Players were constantly falling and skating slowly, which gave the film a little more realism in the one area where realism matters.

Zach: This was such a crucial detail that Disney got just right. They could have cast some elite hockey players for the roles, but didn’t.

Another observation I made was that the ice they played on wasn’t perfect either. Had it looked like they brought out the Zamboni before every shot, it may have been noticeable and brought me back to a reality that wasn’t real.

Third period: The quality of the humor

Eugene: The few moments that made me laugh out loud weren’t related to the film at all, just some retrospective thoughts.

Chief among them, the two NHL teams that were briefly shown in the film — the Minnesota North Stars and the Hartford Whalers — don’t exist anymore. Yet the franchise spawned by the film will be celebrating their 25th anniversary next year. Times change fast when it comes to sports franchises.

Zach: I still love the jokes in the movie. “Cake eater” is my favorite hockey insult ever, and absolves this movie of all poor attempts at humor.

In addition, I am a sucker for cheesy jokes, of which there are plenty. I now see the comedic irony of the teams featured, but didn’t ever think of that as a kid. 

Overtime: Conclusion

Eugene: In all, The Mighty Ducks is worth watching, if for no other reason than to understand some of the quotes the movie spawned. Everyone knows the Flying V and the “Quack” chant, so having the context to those jokes is nice after so many years.

The movie itself holds up well, and is fun enough to keep it as one of those classics that stay around for another 25 years.

Zach: I still love this movie, and now am going to go watch the other two. Surprising as it may be, some things never change, as evidenced by how similar our observations are on this movie.

It is a must watch for any hockey fan, regardless of age, if only to learn the jokes from the movie that have become commonplace in hockey-related conversations.

How D4: The Mighty Ducks should unfold, if it ever happens

Those who were born the year the Eden Hall Warriors gave way to a Mighty Ducks mascot have reached or are on the cusp of legal drinking age.

Is that enough time for the opening and closing slow-motion flashbacks from D3 to lose their authority? Can the vault reopen for a long-rumored/proposed D4 late in this decade or early in the next?

In the quest for an answer, the most encouraging aspect is the widespread approval of the trilogy’s veterans. In a 2014 Time Magazine piece, Matt Doherty (Averman), Elden Henson (Fulton) and Marguerite Moreau (Connie) all indicated they would want in. Joshua Jackson (Charlie) has repeatedly expressed comparable sentiments.

Technically, “when” still has yet to upend “if” on this matter. Regardless of that status, the question of “how” has more open ice to work with.

To drop the puck on Pucks and Recreation’s 25-day look back on The Mighty Ducks and all of its offshoots, a quartet of staff writers offer their ideal plotlines for a hypothetical D4.

Eden Hall ensemble

Two years ago, Jurassic World gave us one sound example of how to pick up on a ’90s film series two-plus decades later. That is, it rehashed a familiar storyline and brought back a few familiar faces, but let new blood take to the forefront. And that would be the way to go for a belated D4.

With several of the Mighty Ducks actors now focusing on other careers, there is no sense in reassembling the old flock. With that said, there is no reason to shut out the characters whose performers are still in the business. There should be enough to create a story-hopping screenplay that catches up with a handful of former Ducks in their adult, post-playing lives.

Charlie is an obvious must-have, and maybe by now he could be coaching Gordon’s teenaged son at Eden Hall. Meanwhile, to reflect the progress the women’s game has made, the school should field a girls’ team co-coached by Connie and Guy, a la Shannon and Matt Desrosiers.

Like their coaches before them, the new players carrying the Ducks torch will take everything that comes with it, including off-ice hijinks and run-ins with rival teams. A bonus narrative could revolve around the injury-prone Adam Banks trying to end his professional playing career with dignity. – Al Daniel

Like Gordon, like Charlie

The logical choice for D4 would be to bring back many of the central characters, but keep the focus on Charlie. In the same way Gordon grew distant from hockey in the events leading up to the first film, a possible plot in D4 could involve Charlie returning from his own hockey hiatus, this time as a coach of his son’s team.

Throughout the movie, the cast of the original trilogy could make cameos, with Bombay assuming a similar role as Joss Ackland’s late Hans character. Gordon could supply the hockey wisdom Conway needs in his first attempt at coaching.

By the end of the movie, returnees such as Fulton, Banks and Julie Gaffney could all make an appearance to cheer on Charlie and his son’s team as they face their main rival.

Who would be that rival? If the primary antagonist is a player from a previous Ducks movie, be it an ex-teammate of Charlie’s or a former opponent, conflicting loyalties could make for an interesting D4 plot twist. – John Morton

Aging with grace

The Mighty Ducks trilogy’s original fan base has grown over its quarter-century of existence. It would therefore make sense if the movie universe had moved on in time as well. So, if D4 is made, it should be set in the present day with a recently retired Charlie Conway.

Conway went on to have a long, successful career in the NHL, and is now coaching his son’s team. He is struggling in that role because he is overbearing on his kids, and must realize that he is becoming like Coach Reilly from the first movie. He must learn the balance of getting his players to win, but keeping it fun for them in the process.

Conway’s relationship with his son would be a major storyline in the movie. Due to his time away from the family in the NHL, he doesn’t have a great relationship with his son. Having missed many special events, he decides to coach his son’s team to rebuild their relationship. But with his intensity, their already shaky relationship becomes even rougher.

Eventually they get it together and face off against a rival team with Conway’s son winning on a breakaway with a quadruple deke because the goalie only expects the triple deke. Charlie Conway had made the triple-deke famous in the NHL, therefore the move has become commonplace. – Zach Green

The more things change…

If D4 ever happens, the time that has passed since the original three came out offers a great chance to go full circle. The kids from the original film would likely be in their 30s by now, perhaps with kids of their own playing youth hockey

D4 should focusing on two teams, one for each generation. One would be the traditional Mighty Ducks, made up of a few children of some of the original team, and perhaps a few other players. It would be most fitting for Charlie to coach the team. As Bombay’s protege, it is only fitting that he would go on to fill his shoes someday.

The tactics and style of play would now be engrained into Mighty Ducks hockey, and the team would truly be a force to be reckoned with. They are no longer underdogs, but the dominant team in the area, much like the Hawks once were.

The other side of the film would focus on the original crew, now playing on an adult-league team coached by Bombay. The guys would have grown up to be successful in their adult lives, thanks to the shift in focus from winning to teamwork fun as the original films progressed.

Along with the success in their day-to-day lives, the hobbies of the original crew would be shown. Among these would be reflecting on their “glory days” of hockey, watching their children play for their former team and playing their own games. – Andrew Wisneski