Editing Slap Shot (section)

==Plot==
In the fictional [[Rust Belt]] city of Charlestown, [[Pennsylvania]] (inspired by the city of Johnstown, where the movie was filmed), the local [[steel mill]] is about to close permanently and [[Layoff|lay off]] 10,000 workers. This indirectly threatens the existence of the town's [[minor league]] [[ice hockey]] team, the Charlestown Chiefs, which is already struggling with a losing season, incompetent players and an increasingly volatile crowd of spectators. [[Player-coach]] Reggie Dunlop, like most of the team, has no employment prospects outside hockey. As a money-saving measure, the team's penny-pinching manager, Joe McGrath, begins selling equipment and signs three young, immature brothers, the [[Hanson Brothers|Hansons]].

After seeing Charlestown fans responding positively to violence, Dunlop unleashes the Hansons, whose play mainly consists of brutalizing the other team. Although some of the players are slow to adopt this increasingly violent and thuggish style of play, it electrifies the fans.

Dunlop learns that the owner plans to sell the team. To motivate the players, he leaks to a newspaper a fabricated story about a potential sale to a community in [[Florida]], hoping that if the team becomes popular, it will actually happen. The brawls are bringing fans to the games, increasing attendance and making that prospect more likely.

Ned Braden, the team's top scorer, refuses to take part in the violent antics; Dunlop attempts to get him to fight by exploiting Braden's marital troubles, encouraging Braden's wife Lily to leave Braden due to his coldness, but to no avail. Games begin to devolve into [[bench-clearing brawl]]s which become increasingly violent. Dunlop even offers a $100 reward to any player who assaults Tim McCracken, the player-coach of the rival [[Syracuse, New York|Syracuse]] team. The Chiefs rise up the ranks to become contenders for the league championship.

Dunlop attempts several times to reconcile with his estranged wife Francine, who intends to obtain a divorce and take a job on Long Island. After Lily moves in with Dunlop to get away from Braden, Dunlop takes her to meet Francine, and the two women commiserate over their shared difficulties in being married to hockey players.

Eventually, Dunlop meets the reclusive team owner, Anita McCambridge, and learns that his efforts to increase the team's popularity and value through violence have been for naught, as McCambridge could sell the team if she wished, but would make more money if she folded the team as a [[Write-off|tax write-off]]. Dunlop decides to abandon the strategy of violence for the championship game, believing it to be his last, and the rest of the team agrees. However, their opponents from Syracuse have stocked their team with violent "goons," many of whom were previously suspended from the league or even imprisoned. After the Chiefs are crushed during the first period while playing a non-violent style of "old time hockey" and getting booed by their fans, a furious McGrath tells them that various [[National Hockey League]] [[Scout (sport)|scouts]] whom he invited are watching the game.

Dunlop and the rest of the team, except Braden, immediately switch back to brawling, much to the delight of the fans. However, when Braden sees Lily, who has avoided seeing him, cheering for the Chiefs, he enters the rink, but instead of joining the brawl he performs a live [[striptease]], adding to the audience's enjoyment and breaking up the fight. When McCracken protests this "obscene" demonstration and [[Sucker punch|sucker-punches]] the referee for dismissing him, Syracuse is disqualified, granting the Chiefs the championship. After their win, with the Chiefs effectively folded and finished, Dunlop accepts the offer to be the player-coach to a [[Minnesota]] team, intending to bring his teammates with him. In a parade held for the Chiefs, Dunlop unsuccessfully attempts to convince Francine to stay with him, and watches her drive away.