NHL • Phoenix Coyotes • The Goofily Named

No hockey? Watch a movie

The worst part about the NHL playoffs, aside from the Calgary Flames and the Minnesota Wild, is the 20 or so hours each day when there’s no hockey being played. Oh sure, there’s eating and sleeping and reading about hockey, but that stuff will only get you so far; there’s still too many hockey-less hours to try and fill.

If you find yourself jonesing bad for some kind of hockey-related relief during the next few weeks, I would heartily recommend spending an hour watching the film Death by Popcorn: The Tragedy of the Winnipeg Jets, a mockumentary about the downfall of the Jets and the city from which they once hailed. Made by an “art collective” called l’Atelier-National du Manitoba, the 60-minute film is stitched together mostly from found TV footage and paints a surreal portrait of Winnipeg’s downfall that at time borders on the psychedelic. I would advise you down a couple Molsens before and during this film.

One of the best parts of Death by Popcorn is its Manitoba take on the Edmonton Oilers and Wayne Gretzky. The Oilers, seen through the eyes of the Winnipeggers, are the Army of Satan come to rape and pillage the pure essence of Manitoba, while Gretzky is portrayed as the anti-Christ, the harbinger of doom and destruction. Classic stuff. And I’ll let you know right now, there’s no happy ending to this story because of the cruel twist of fate that allowed Gretzky to end up owning and coaching the Jets, now known as the Phoenix Coyotes.

Death by Popcorn also includes a performance from Les Dale Hawerchuk, my newest favoritest band from Quebec. If you want to see how French Canadians rock out, check out this video for “Dale Hawerchuk”

Since Death by Popcorn is a whole hour long I won’t post it here, you can watch it at Google Video where you can blow it up to full screen size. So in between hockey games this week, gather yourself around the computer monitor and watch this film and be glad you don’t live in Manitoba. (Unless you already do, in which case, we’re very, very sorry.)

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