Former Capitals Head Coach Bruce Boudreau was a second-round draft pick by the Leafs, a Calder Cup-winning head coach in the AHL, and a successful bench boss in the NHL. Yet he might be best known for a 15-second cameo he made in the cult-classic movie Slap Shot.
Next Wednesday, the NHL will debut a documentary entitled Slap Shot at 40, which features interviews on the film’s enduring popularity. Boudreau will be a big part of that special along with the Hanson Brothers, Bob Costas, Ned Dowd, Adam Oates, Mike Gartner, and many others.
While playing for the now-defunct North American Hockey League Johnstown Jets, Boudreau was cast as an extra for the movie. Boudreau wore a green No. 7 sweater while playing for the fictional Hyannisport Presidents. In the movie, Boudreau’s Presidents took on the Hanson Brothers and the Charlestown Chiefs.
“Charleston was really brutal at the beginning,” Boudreau said. “So they’re trying to show how the goalie is constantly barraged by shots. So [the director] says, ‘We’re just going to focus on the goalie. We’re just going to have some plays in the zone.’ I just kept skating around the net, around the net. Just like in a circle. I was always in the shot.”
“I was such a ham,” Boudreau joked. “I kept staying in front of the camera so people recognized who I was.”
In the movie, the apartment where Reg Dunlop (Paul Newman’s character) lived was Boudreau’s real life home.
“George Roy Hill was the director and he came into the dressing room and says, ‘Who has the worst, messiest apartment on the team?’ And they all pointed to me,” Boudreau said to the Star Tribune’s Michael Russo.
“It’s all crazy,” Boudreau continued. “That was 40 years ago and no one would have thunk that the movie would have had an impact like it did. As years go by, more people talk about it all the time.”
And now there’ll be a NHL documentary, exposing a younger generation to the movie.
More from the NHL:
NHL NETWORK LOOKS BACK ON THE MAKING OF SLAP SHOT AS THE ICONIC HOCKEY FILM APPROACHES ITS 40TH ANNIVERSARY
NHL Network Originals: Slap Shot at 40 to Premiere on Wednesday, Feb. 8 at 8:00 p.m. ET
Documentary Features Interviews on the Film’s Enduring Popularity with the Hanson Brothers, Bruce Boudreau, Bob Costas, Ned Dowd, Plus Current NHLers & Hockey Hall of Famers
February 1, 2017 – As the counter-culture hit movie Slap Shot approaches its 40th anniversary this month, NHL Network looks back at the
making of the film and explores its status today as a cult classic in NHL Network Originals: Slap Shot at 40 on Wednesday, February 8 at 8:00 p.m. ET, followed by Slap Shot at 8:30 p.m. ET.When Slap Shot premiered in 1977, it painted a gritty and humorous picture of a minor league hockey team in a blue-collar town, featuring performances by Academy Award-winning actor Paul Newman and real-life minor league hockey players. Slap Shot at 40 centers around an interview with the former professional hockey players Jeff Carlson, Steve Carlson and Dave Hanson, who combined to star in the film as the now-iconic Hanson Brothers. They describe playing for the team that inspired the film, Johnstown Jets in the North American Hockey League (NAHL) in the 1970’s, and reveal that they were only cast in the film once producers couldn’t find actors who could realistically portray hockey players. The documentary also features archival interview footage with Paul Newman about his persistence that the movie be made, plus interviews with fellow former NAHL player Ned Dowd, whose sister, screenwriter Nancy Dowd, took inspiration from his stint with the Johnstown Jets to write the original screenplay for Slap Shot, as well as Minnesota Wild head coach Bruce Boudreau, who played for the Johnstown Jets in 1975-76, and preeminent sports broadcaster Bob Costas, who served as an announcer for the Eastern Hockey League’s Syracuse Blazers from 1973-1974.
The film’s popularity is described in comments from current NHL players Victor Hedman, Connor McDavid, Kyle Okposo, Ryan Suter and Shea
Weber as well as Hockey Hall of Famers Mike Bossy, Phil Esposito, Mike Gartner, Al MacInnis, Adam Oates, Billy Smith and Bryan Trottier.Slap Shot at 40 is the second installment of the documentary series NHL Network Originals, following the debut episode Orchestrating An Upset: The 1996 World Cup of Hockey, which premiered in September 2016.
About NHL Network: As the TV home for the National Hockey League, NHL Network™ gives viewers an all-access pass to complete hockey coverage both
on and off the ice, including live NHL games and special on-site coverage of NHL events, plus three signature studio shows, interviews, highlights and expert analysis from a variety of hockey insiders and former players. Additional programming includes behind-the-scenes features, player profiles and international and amateur hockey competitions. For more information on NHL Network, log on to nhlnetwork.com or follow @NHLNetwork on Twitter.
