Just Another Job

Hockey from the inside out, showing why it is an exciting spectator sport and Canada's most popular national game. From the Pee-Wee division to the Bantam league, from the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association to the big-league professional stars, the film climbs the ladder, showing what it takes to make a hockey player--stick-handling ability, skating speed, science, strategy, expert coaches, and expensive equipment. And from east to west, the close identification of fans with players is evident in the excited cries, not of "They've won," but of "We've won!".

Bestselling author Roch Carrier narrates a mortifying boyhood experience in this animated adaptation of his beloved story, "The Hockey Sweater." In the 1940s, in the rural village of Saint Justine, Quebec, listening to the hockey game on the radio was a Saturday night tradition... and so was rooting for the Montreal Canadiens. All the boys worshipped the star player, Maurice "Rocket" Richard, and proudly wore the number 9 emblazoned on their sweaters. The boy in the story outgrows his hockey sweater, so his mother writes to "Mr. Eaton" for a new one. But instead of the coveted red, white and blue of Les Canadiens, the company sends a Toronto Maple Leafs jersey! Imagine the young player's chagrin when he shows up at the neighbourhood rink in the blue and white colours of the arch-enemy! The Sweater has universal appeal for children and adults alike.

Voici le hockey professionnel vu de l'intérieur, une expérience du jeu réservée aux joueurs potentiels. Le film porte sur les Nordiques de Québec, l'unique club de hockey professionnel véritablement canadien français. L'équipe, que l'idole Maurice Richard entraîne au début, joue ici son match d'ouverture dans l'Association mondiale de hockey au Colisée de Québec. Tout est d'un réalisme saisissant : la tension qui précède le match, l'action sur la patinoire où la trajectoire de la rondelle fait naître l'espoir et, pour un joueur au moins, le rêve qui se concrétise dans le cabinet privé où l'on signe de gros contrats.