Review: In the Crease
I recently purchased In the Crease, a documentary following a youth hockey team (California Wave Bantam AAA) in their journey to Nationals.
Not only does the DVD follow the team for a full month leading up to the US Nationals, but is interspersed with interviews from NHL players like Brendan Shanahan, Mathieu Schneider, Scott Gomez, Joe Thornton, Scott Niedermayer, Jeremy Roenick, Craig Conroy and Derian Hatcher. The players talk about their memories from youth hockey, their Nationals experiences, etc. The DVD bonus features include extended interviews with these players as well as scouts (prep school, major junior, and college scouts).
I’ve never played hockey before so it was really interesting to me to see the kids practicing (both in the rink and at home) and just following a team was a unique experience for me. I also thought it was great to follow a team from California with an African American coach (Mike Lewis) with players from a variety of ethnicities, which shows that the sport isn’t just for Canadian white kids.
The documentary interviewed the players on the team and you got to see the role hockey plays in their life and how important it is to them. For example, hockey was helping Erick cope with his parents’ divorce. The DVD then had a clip from their interview with Mathieu Schneider who said this about hockey helping him while his parents were getting divorced:
Without hockey, there are so many bad things I could’ve gotten into…Any personal problems I’ve had in my life, I get out on the ice and it’s all gone.
The documentary also highlighted the sacrifices the families made to allow their kids to succeed. These sacrifices were both financial and emotional in nature. For example, it once took Troy’s mother three and a half hours to drive to practice.
I also found it interesting to see Derian Hatcher and Brian Rolston comment on the successful youth hockey programs in southeast Michigan and you even get to see the Honeybaked team in the DVD. I did not know that they were that good on the national level, but now I do!
As I mentioned previously, the documentary helps show that hockey isn’t just a sport succeeding in Canada and select US states, the game is developing around the country and geography does not necessarily predict who will or will not win.
Additionally, the DVD features reactions from college scouts and even agency representatives as they watch the games at Nationals. In the Crease even interviewed Ken Martel from the NTDP to learn more about the program in Ann Arbor (I will hopefully be working for the NTDP over the summer on the media guide so it was cool to see that for me at least).
According to Michael Sarner, the director/producer of the documentary, In the Crease was the top selling sports film on Amazon.com last week. Currently, it sits at No. 10
I don’t own many hockey DVDs, but I really did enjoy the documentary as it opened my eyes to the pressures and hard work these young athletes put in to succeed and try to (1) win a National championship and (2) get a chance to continue their playing career in either a major junior league or for a college/university.
Cost: $25
You can buy it now at IntheCreaseMovie.com!
* I plan on posting more reviews over the next couple of weeks as I complete some hockey related books I recently bought! Know of a hockey book or DVD I should check out? Let me know via email or comments! *
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