So, something that has become a tradition for me before any sport starts up, I go on a movie bender.

For baseball, I usually watch Bull Durham (which there is talk of a sequel in the works. Please, for the love of Nuke LaLoosh, don't.) For football, I'll watch Any Given Sunday. For basketball, it's White Men Can't Jump (apparently, I can't get enough of the chatty Ron Shelton flicks).

But for hockey, it's always been Slap Shot. It's so delightfully vulgar and quotable, I can't start the season without at least one viewing. But now that I'm older, and I have a kid in kindergarten, I can't just pop in The Adventures of Reg Dunlop and the Hansens anymore.

So this year, I kicked off the season with a hockey flick off the radar, Mystery, Alaska. Sure, I could've gone with Miracle. I want some popcorny goodness before the season, especially if the Kings are going to be cellar-dwellers.

In case you haven't seen it, 1999's Mystery, Alaska is about a fictional town far up north in Alaska, where the inhabitants gather around to watch their local uberteam of local athletes play some serious pond hockey. It stars Russell Crowe (who was on the verge of breaking out in 2000 for Gladiator) as John Biebe, the town sheriff, who may be a step slow but is the glue of the crew.

Hank Azaria plays Charles Danner, a former resident of Mystery, who left town to become a writer for Sports Illustrated (Hockey in SI? This must be the movies...) and writes about the Mystery's mythical team. He is able to convince the NHL to get the New York Rangers to travel to Mystery and play an outdoor game, dubbed the Great Alaskan Hockey Rush. (Hmmm, think Bettman saw this movie?)

Other supporting characters include Burt Reynolds as Judge Walter Burns, who once coached the Saturday game, but has grown wary of its hold on the town. Mike Myers does his best impression of Don Cherry, as hockey commentator Donnie Shulzhoffer. (Too bad Myers didn't play this character again rather than the forgettable Guru Pitka in The Love Guru). Alongside Myers is the Kings' color commentator Jimmy Fox!

Colm Meaney (of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine fame) is Mystery's mayor and is married to the absolutely wicked-hot Lolita Davidovich, who winds up having an affair with one of the Saturday gamers in the movie. And last but not least is Mary McCormack (film wife to Howard Stern in Private Parts and star of the USA Network series In Plain Sight), who plays John Biebe's wife and mega-hot hockey mom, Donna.

Now, they are has been someone else who has been given the title of hockey mom quite recently, Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Now, I'm not here to get political, but I agree with Tim Parent from the bleacherreports.com, what exactly are Palin's credentials as a hockey mom, anyway?

In the movie, Donna is seen fixing a helmet, quipping that the town's new/old Zamboni gets her "all wet" and taking a hard check to the snow by the future Maximus Decimus Meridius. The only thing I know about Palin's hockey credentials is she's going to drop the puck for the Flyers home opener on Saturday. Sorry, but I'll take Mary over Sarah any day of the week, and twice on Sunday. Then again, I have a crush the size of Saskatoon on the Tony Award-nominated actress McCormack, so Sarah really never had a chance. (BTW, congrats to my girl Mary and the rest of the peeps over on In Plain Sight, for being picked up for a second season!)

Mystery, Alaska ends like you would expect, with a last-second shot and a ton of standard sports movies gimmicks: the son who comes into his own against his father, the old-timer's grasp at one last game, the inevitable comeback against all odds. What you're left with is a decent movie about hockey that's a nice diversion for a few hours. That's better than I can say about The Love Guru.