Best hockey movie quotes ever

“The fans are standing up to them! The security guards are standing up to them! The peanut vendors are standing up to them! And by golly, if I could get down there, I'd be standing up to them!”

This is not one of the best collection of lines from Slap Shot. It is one of the most repeated, considering nearly every NHL arena has “time to get the crowd riled up” montages and this scene is a staple for those such endeavors. 

There are many lines from Slap Shot that could make this list, but are not on here for fairly obvious reasons. This isn’t the last one, though.

“Why’d you turn against me, Gordon? For six years, I taught you how to skate, I taught you how to score, I taught you how to go for the “W’. You could’ve been one of the greats! And now look at yourself. You’re not a has been. You’re a never was.”

Sports movies rely on a lot of the same types of characters. One such standby is the opposing team’s evil coach, and Jack Reilly might be the best of all time. This guy wouldn’t last one season as a pee wee coach in 2015. I mean, “it’s not worth winning if you can’t win big?” Telling these poor kids to goon it up against the other team’s star player? Reilly’s interactions with Gordon Bombay were particularly sinister, and amazing. 

As an aside, most of the dialogue from the Mighty Ducks trilogy has not held up well. The third movie, where the kids go to a prep school and have all of their offensive creativity drilled out of them by a defensive-minded coach does feel like it would fit right in as a movie about hockey in 2015 though.

“You know what, Mikey, you can make their heads bleed in this one. … I’m going to make Wayne Gretzky’s head bleed for super fan No. 99 over here.”

This scene was so money, baby. It’s so money and it doesn’t even know it.

Note: Clip contains adult language

“Well that was borderline treasonous, and a disgrace to our nation and its proud and storied history. My father didn't kick the Nazis'... and the puck drops!”

Another archetype for sports movies is the zany announcer. Halifax Highlanders announcer Rod McCaudry ranks up there with the best of them.

“Great moments ... are born from great opportunity. And that's what you have here, tonight, boys. That's what you've earned here tonight. One game. If we played 'em ten times, they might win nine. But not this game. Not tonight. Tonight, we skate with them. Tonight, we stay with them. And we shut them down because we can! Tonight, we are the greatest hockey team in the world. You were born to be hockey players. Every one of you. And you were meant to be here tonight. This is your time. Their time is done. It's over. I'm sick and tired of hearing about what a great hockey team the Soviets have. Screw 'em. This is your time. Now go out there and take it.”

What a speech.

“Game on!”

It’s one of the great hockey scenes in a non-hockey movie, even if there is barely any hockey actually played. “Game on!” and “Car!” became staples of the Wayne’s World cannon, and it gave us another great line:

“Led Zeppelin didn’t write songs that everyone liked. They left that to the Bee Gees.”

“Five seconds left in the game. Do you believe in miracles? YES!”

It’s one of the greatest calls in the history of sports. The final period is some of the best sports action ever created for a film, and using the original call at the end was definitely the right choice. Underrated great line in the movie? When Herb Brooks looks over at the Soviet Union bench at a befuddled Viktor Tikhonov, and then at Craig Patrick and says, “He doesn’t know to do.”

“You do that, you go to the box, you know. Two minutes, by yourself, you know and you feel shame, you know. And then you get free.”

This entire scene, where Lemieux demonstrates various hockey infractions to the local sports broadcaster, is hilarious, but “you go to the box … and you feel shame” is probably the most famous line uttered in a hockey movie.

“I play hockey and I fornicate, because those are the two most fun things to do in cold weather.”

A lot of the humor in older hockey movies, well, let’s just say it might not make it past the editing process or a producer’s notes session. This line is timeless though, and is the most memorable from an underrated movie.

“You have my respect. Whatever that means to you, you got it. But, know this shit hard. If ever there comes a time when it gets down to the marrow, and it's you and me. Kid, I will lay you the f— out.”

This is a snippet of the diner scene with Ross “The Boss” Rhea and Doug Glatt. It’s the greatest off-the-ice scene in a hockey movie. It’s beautifully shot, beautifully written and perfectly executed.  

Note: Clip contains adult language​