Editing Slap Shot (section)

==Development==
The original screenplay by [[Nancy Dowd]] is based in part on her brother [[Ned Dowd]]'s experiences playing minor-league [[ice hockey|hockey]] in the U.S. in the 1970s. At that time, violence, especially in the low minors, was a selling point of the game.<ref>{{cite web |date=2007-06-27 |title=Slap Shot Is 30! |website=GoonBlog |url=https://www.goonblog.com/2007/06/slap-shot-is-30/ |access-date=2023-10-23 |language=en-US}}</ref>  Dowd would call his sister “from these various towns—Utica, Syracuse, New Haven—and tell me how he was being beaten-up and having his teeth knocked out.” That, she told ''[[The New York Times]],'' “sort of fascinated me.”<ref name=":0">{{cite news |last=Klemesrud |first=Judy |date=1977-03-03 |title=Author Says Her 'Slap Shot' |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1977/03/03/archives/author-says-her-slap-shot-talk-is-realistic.html |access-date=2024-05-27 |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331 |url-access=subscription}}</ref>

Dowd was living in Los Angeles when she got a call from Ned, a member of the [[Johnstown Jets]] hockey team. He gave her the bad news that the team was up for sale.<ref name="SI">{{cite news |title=Goons Forever |url=https://vault.si.com/vault/2007/07/02/goons-forever |magazine=[[Sports Illustrated]] |date=July 2, 2007 |pages=106–107 |first=Austin |last=Murphy |access-date=July 14, 2024}}</ref> Dowd spent a month with his team doing research for a movie. She worked her own notes and from tape recordings that her brother had made for her in the locker room and on the team bus. She was paid $50,000 for the screenplay, which took four months to complete, and was present during the entire filming.<ref name=":0" />

The movie was filmed in [[Johnstown, Pennsylvania]], [[Pittsburgh]], and in central New York State ([[Clinton Arena]] and [[Clinton]], [[Oneida County, New York|Oneida County]]; [[Utica Memorial Auditorium]], [[Utica, New York|Utica]]; [[Colgate University]], [[Hamilton (town), New York|Hamilton]], [[Madison County, New York|Madison County]] and the [[Onondaga County War Memorial|Onondaga County War Memorial Auditorium]], [[Syracuse, New York|Syracuse]]).

Nancy Dowd used Ned and a number of his Johnstown Jets teammates in ''Slap Shot'', with Ned playing Syracuse goon Ogie Ogilthorpe. He later used the role to launch a career as a Hollywood character actor, an assistant director, and eventually a line producer. The characters of the Hanson Brothers are based on three actual brothers: Jeff, Steve, and [[Jack Carlson (ice hockey)|Jack Carlson]], who played with Ned Dowd on the Jets. The character of Dave 'Killer' Carlson is based on then-Jets player Dave "Killer" Hanson. Steve and Jeff Carlson played their Hanson brother counterparts in the film. Jack Carlson originally was written to appear in the film as the third brother Jack, with [[David Hanson (ice hockey)|Dave Hanson]] playing his film counterpart Dave 'Killer' Carlson. However, by the time filming began, Jack Carlson had been called up by the [[Edmonton Oilers]], then of the [[World Hockey Association|WHA]], to play in the WHA playoffs, so Dave Hanson moved into the role of Jack Hanson, and [[Jerry Houser]] was hired for the role of 'Killer' Carlson.

Paul Newman, claiming that he swore very little in real life before the making of ''Slap Shot'', said to ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' in 1984: 
{{cquote|There's a hangover from characters sometimes. There are things that stick. Since ''Slap Shot'', my language is right out of the locker room!}}

Newman stated that the most fun he ever had making a movie was on ''Slap Shot,'' as he had played the sport while young and was fascinated by the players around him. During the last decades of his life, he repeatedly called Reg Dunlop one of his favorite roles.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/news/why-slap-shot-is-the-perfect-1970s-sports-movie-w468651 |title=Why 'Slap Shot' Captures the 1970s Better Than Any Other Sports Movie |magazine=[[Rolling Stone]] |last=Epstein |first=Dan |date=2017-02-24 |access-date=2018-02-23 |archive-date=February 23, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180223232250/https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/news/why-slap-shot-is-the-perfect-1970s-sports-movie-w468651 |url-status=live}}</ref> [[Al Pacino]] wanted to play the role of Reggie Dunlop (#7) but director George Roy Hill chose Paul Newman instead.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NglRYSqXxN8C&q=%22al+pacino%22+and+%22slap+shot%22&pg=PA93 |title=Al Pacino |isbn=978-1-4169-4879-7 |last1=Grobel |first1=Lawrence |publisher=Simon and Schuster |date=December 1, 2006}}</ref>

Nancy Dowd rejected suggestions that the film was sexist and said that she considered herself to be a feminist.<ref name=":0" />