Auston goes to the movies

Auston

Sometimes even hockey movies exaggerate for dramatic effect. Fortunately Auston Matthews is here to help discern the real from the Hollywood.

The Toronto Maple Leafs center fact-checked some classic hockey movies "Miracle," "The Mighty Ducks," "Youngblood" and "Goon" and broke down the most realistic elements of each film in a video for GQ.

Matthews is something of a movie buff and, also, obviously a hockey expert. Apologies to Gordon Bombay, but Matthews squashed the Flying V in "The Mighty Ducks," the legendary formation used by the Minnesota youth hockey team from the 1992 Disney classic.

And he broke down the many elements of ridiculousness in Charlie Conway's penalty shot, including Conway taking it without a helmet on.

He observed that the players in "Goon" looked more like beer league players because they're old and out of shape, and that Rob Lowe perhaps had a little too much time to shoot in "Youngblood."

Matthews, however, particularly liked "Miracle," the 2004 Disney movie about the United States team that upset the Soviet Union at the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics, which he called "pretty realistic."

He especially liked its depiction of coach Herb Brooks' demeanor, practice drills and training regimen, including an exercise where players passed a weight plate down a line while doing wall sits.

"When I was in bantam, so I was probably 14 years old, we did dry-land, which is basically off-ice [drills] and we did that exact exercise," Matthews said. "It's kind of funny to see that now."

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