One of the best hockey movies of all-time is Slap Shot. It may be the best hockey movie all-time and one of the best sports movies of all-time. The Charlestown Chiefs with the Hanson Brothers’ old-time hockey or goon it up style from the movie was based on a hockey league from the 1970’s even though it is not mentioned in the credits. The NAHL (North American Hockey League) only lasted 4 seasons in the 1970’s an it was the Federal Hockey League in the movie Slap Shot. The NAHL was a developmental league for another league that is not around any longer, the WHA (World Hockey Association). When the Eastern Hockey League went under in 1973, the Southern Hockey League formed with the NAHL to play 4 more seasons from 1973-1977. The connections the NAHL has to the movie Slap shot are right in front of your eyes. So are you ready to put the foil on coach?

The film’s screenwriter, Nancy Dowd, has a brother who is Ned Dowd, who played for the Johnstown Jets. Charlestown Chiefs and Johnstown Jets…

Most of the teams in the NAHL were from the state of New York. The Johnstown Jets came from the state of Pennsylvania. Nancy’s brother, Ned, suited up for the Jets as the movie Slap Shot had one of their own Neds. Ned Dowd played a part in Slap Shot, as the famous goon Ogie Oglethorpe who played on the Syracuse team.

In the movie Slap Shot, the Chiefs’ Ned was Ned Braden. A pure goal scorer with a college degree who would not goon it up.

In the movie Slap Shot, the Chiefs were up for sale.

The Johnstown Jets were also on the block.

The NAHL lasted 4 seasons and had 4 champions with two going to the Syracuse team, the Blazers.

The Slap Shot movie had their own version of the Syracuse team, who they called the Bulldogs as they were one of the top dogs in the league. Just like the Blazers who won two Lockhart Cups in the NAHL.

The Bulldogs in Slap Shot had Dr. Hook, Tim McCracken, as their captain and best player on the ice. The Blazers had Ray Adduomo as the team’s top scorerer who tallied over 50 goals in one of those years Syracuse took the Lockhart cup.

The other champion in the NAHL was the Philadelphia Firebirds who won a Lockhart Cup. The Johnstown Jets would add a title of their own in the 1974-75 season.

Spoiler alert!!! In the movie Slap Shot, the Charlestown Chiefs would win the championship.

The Jets would beat the Broome County Dusters and references of Broome county were mentioned in the movie Slap Shot. The NAHL had about dozen teams in its 4 year history. Other teams not mentioned so far were the Beauce Jaros from St. Georges, Quebec. The Erie Blades, another team from Pennsylvania. Cape Cod had two names, the Cubs and Codders, and they were out of South Yarmouth, Massachuettes.

Other teams were the Maine Nordiques, Long Island Cougars and the Mohawk Valley Comets, who were from Utica, New York.

The only team I left out of the 4 year NAHL, was the Buffalo Norsemen series with the Johnstown Jets. It links to the movie Slap Shot.

The Norsemen have the same colors as that team the Charlestown Chiefs rumbled with before the game with the team called the Hynannisport Presidents, in the movie. The Jets were up 3 games to 2 in a playoff series with the Norsemen and the three characters based on the Hanson brothers started a fight in the pre-skate. Steve, Jeff, and Jack Carlson who were three brothers for the Jets, were not afraid to drop the gloves.

If I’m talking about the movie Slap Shot, how can you forget about the Hanson Brothers? In the movie Slap Shot they have a character on the Charlestown Chiefs, Dave “the Killer” Carlson.

The Carlson brothers were retaliating against the Norsemen when the Buffalo fans made racist remarks to a black player on the Jets during the first few games of the playoff series. The Norsemen had signs saying the black hockey player should be playing basketball instead of hockey and all kinds of negative stuff was yelled out in that series. Which is just a shame. After the pre-skate brawl was broken up by the officials, both teams headed to their respective locker rooms. The Buffalo Norsemen would never come back out on the ice resulting in a forfeit to give the Jets the playoff series. Same kind of thing as the Chiefs won the championship in Slap Shot because the Bulldogs of Syracuse protested Ned Braden taking it all off as both teams were in middle of rumble on the ice. The officials made the call, the Bulldogs forfeited and Chiefs win the the cup.

Tommy Lockhart was the founder of the Eastern Hockey League that went under as the NAHL named the cup after him. The last season of the NAHL, the champion Syracuse Blazers won the Lockhart cup on April 10, 1977. Since that night, the cup has gone MIA. Only three historical cups according to the Hockey Hall of Fame have vanished without a trace. The Lockhart trophy, through the grape vine, was last seen in the basement of the Blazers’ coach, Danny Belisle.

Only two of the original NAHL teams would move on after the league folded up shop for good. The Philadelphia Firebirds and the Broome Dusters would still have life in the AHL American Hockey League. The best thing that came away from the NAHL would be by far the movie Slap shot that was well done. It showed some of these hockey league were like beer leagues and guys giving it all for the love of the game on the ice either by dropping the gloves or putting the puck into the net.