Odd Man Rush: Les Chiefs de Laval

Are you looking for a hockey gift for that special puckhead on your X-mas list that has a interest in and a fascination for the fighting aspect of the sport ? Well if you are let me suggest...

LES CHIEFS

"The Chiefs!" is a 75-minutes documentary film that digs its fingernails into a truly bizarre sub-section of Canada's National Sport. The LHSPQ is the NHL's perverted little cousin. Here you may see 10 fights in a single period, or a bench-clearing brawl in the warm up. Coaches beat on each other. Goalies go at it. And players hike through the stands to slug it out with fans. Welcome to Laval, Quebec, home of The Chiefs de Laval, the toughest team in the Quebec Semi-Pro Hockey League. The story begins underneath the bleachers in the back of an old arena. Once a ramshackle storage area, it is now a ramshackle apartment, home to several of the team's tough guys. Although it is cold, noisy, and a fire exit on game days, it is rent free and the players don't seem to mind scaling the fire escape, or climbing through second-story windows to get in and out of their home.

Throughout the season, the arena dwellers fight their way to celebrity status but when the playoffs begin, the Chiefs find themselves in a viable position to win it all and the goons end up watching from the bench. As the team progresses closer to the championship game, the battles once fought on the ice become battles within themselves. Am I a hockey player or a circus clown? The plot turns even more on end, when an underground boxing promoter surfaces with an offer that seems too good to be true.

With characters like a crazed ex-military strong man, a six foot seven, 320-pounds giant, and a French Canadian superfan who believes that hockey is religion and The Chiefs are gods, "The Chiefs" has all the makings of a cult classic.

oddmanrush gives Les Chiefs DVD a 3 out of 5 pucks rating, I bump that up to 4 out of 5 pucks when considering the DVD extras in the overall rating like the directors cut commentary, the fight club highlights and the cut scenes which are all excellent. I highly recommend this DVD and I too think Les Chiefs is destined to become a hockey cult classic. You can get this DVD through amazon.ca

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