Wild coach Bruce Boudreau on movies ...
• His favorite is "Shane" (1953). "I used to watch it with my dad [Norm] all the time when it came on TV, and it was his favorite movie. Alan Ladd was in it. That was his favorite actor. He loved Westerns."
• Formerly an avid comic book collector, he devours most superhero movies. "When Marvel started doing movies, I'd see them all. The first 'Spider-Man,' watching the movie, it was so cool. I'd be like, 'That's from Spider-Man 18, that's from Spider-Man 49, that's when the Green Goblin comes back in Spider-Man 44.' I knew where they were taking the story lines from."
• Among his top sports movies are "Rudy" and "Knute Rockne, All American," ("I think that's how I became a Notre Dame fan") and "For the Love of the Game" with Kevin Costner. "He's mad at his girlfriend and goes, 'Haven't you ever loved anything that much?' " Boudreau said. "To me, his passion in saying that line, I was like, 'Yeah, hockey, for me.' "
• The first hockey movie he remembers was "Gabby Dugan, King of Hockey" — "The guy's girlfriend would come to the penalty box and just start chatting away. It was crazy the way they did it."
• His favorite hockey movie is "Slap Shot" because he had a small role in the cult classic and the apartment where Paul Newman's character, Reg Dunlop, lived in was Boudreau's actual apartment.
"Forty years later, it's great, but it was the dumbest move I've ever made," Boudreau said. "The Fighting Saints had folded. There was a dispersal draft, I was taken No. 1 overall to Indianapolis. Alan Eagleson was my lawyer, and he goes, 'Why don't you just go to Johnstown, finish the season and we'll sign you with the Leafs in the summer?'
"I could have signed with the Leafs right away, gone to Oklahoma City, played the first year in the AHL-equivalent Central League and been way ahead of the game toward an NHL career. I went and did the movie, it was a great experience, but 40 years later, they're not talking about my NHL career, they all talk about 'Slap Shot.' "
MICHAEL RUSSO
