Episode Ghost Ship when Mac placed his first marker, the woman complimented how quickly he did it and told Pete that Mac must be in good shape. Pete replied that he does play lots of hockey!

In THE BATTLE OF TOMMY GIORDANO - you can hear the commentary of a televised hockey game in the motel room of the mafia thugs/hitmen.

In FAITH, HOPE & CHARITY, one of the bad guys responds (sarcastically) to Leo's denial with the line
'Right! And Ducks can ice skate'. Although hockey is not specifically mentioned, the timeline and wording would seem to point towards a reference/plug for the soon to be released Mighty Ducks film.

In Split Decision, you can see the usual hockey equipment stored in Mac's open shelf closet. Soon after, he & Earl get into a discussion about boxing which Mac quickly expresses his dislike about the sport. Earl is a bit taken back and counters about Mac's love for such a barbaric sport like hockey. Mac states that he 'still has hope for hockey'. Later in Mac's macgyvered gym, the mechanical boxer is fitted with various sports equipment including a hockey glove.

In The Human Factor, Dr. Ludlum tells Mac a little of what she knows about him including his 'alleged hockey player' reputation. Later and when he is breaking into the building/system - MacGyver picks up the sports page of a newspaper and discovers that his beloved Calgary Flames have lost again!

Dan Shea was the technical consultant and RDA's 'hockey' stunt double. He's posted an article that originally appeared in Hockey Illustrated about his experience as the Hockey Consultant for the episode 'Thin Ice'. A good read ... check his other postings for more MacGyver /Stargate tidbits ...



..... Not a Dog & Pony Show

Great article. Gives a very interesting insight into the daily activities of making the show.... and what RDA was like between takes.

Trouble make!

Yeah, RDA was in his comfort zone in that episode - for sure! Funny, how he says that RDA arrived from vacation in Hawaii in the middle of shooting .... because I'd got the impression that RDA (by his own account) worked like a slave from start to finish in the production months - paints a slightly different picture, at least for that particular period.



If you click around, you'll find that Shea goes on to become RDA's official stunt double for Stargate SG-1, the series' stunt coordinator, and also had a small part, recurring role as 'Sgt. Siler' ....


http://dsheastunts.blogspot.ca/2013_01_01_archive.html

Strictly Business - Mac's been playing hockey as he returns to the houseboat and Murdoc's surprise feast. He's clearly carrying his hockey gear and stick as he enters through the door.

It's a nice way of coming home. Dinner's ready with your arch enemy waiting.

In D.O.A. MacGyver, Mac explains to Carol about how the Phoenix Foundation does special things for him instead of actually paying out a financial bonus for his successful assignments. For example - he tells her that they once arranged for him to scrimmage with a pro hockey team.

Easy Target (Mac's opening commentary): 'It's occurred to me that some friendships are like a good game of hockey. The right balance of teamwork and smooth skating generally adds up to a winning combination .... like me and Pete Thornton.'

The Road not Taken: ' skatin with the Rangers' is Mac's response to Debra's query as to where he would be
right now if he weren't there with her. (today the response might be 'skatin with the Kings' )


.... later Debra states that after 8 years passing that they are not the same people anymore. To which Mac replies " sure we are, I still like hockey!"





So many references to hockey in this tv series. How many more ? ........

The video hockey game Mac is playing is 'Slap Shot' (1990) on the Sega Master System. The graphics on NES 'Blades of Steel' are very similar but the musical(tone generation) score is clearly from the Sega system and although Mac does a good job in attempting to hide the controller and so as not to give up any undue product promotion ... the hand-held device reveals itself in the end and as he is trying to hide the fact that he was not, as he had claimed, 'setting up a program' but more correctly 'gaming on the job' and as Maria enters the room. Really a classic scene and (as it's turned out) strong foreboding of a self-indulgent, irresponsible habit that's become commonplace & epidemic in today's world - leading to billions & billions of lost work time hours - worldwide.

I had a similar game on my Commodore 64 computer, back in the day, called 'International Hockey'

I guess there quite a few very similar games back then since most systems had similar audio/video capabilities.

I remember the good ol' Commodore 64.

I even recall their biggest game The Last Ninja. That was quite ground-breaking for its time.

I was totally into adventure games back then which feed into the whole MacGyver mindset of thinking your way out of a situation and allowed me to emerge myself into those situations and be a virtual MacGyver.

I really loved The Secret of Bastow Manor which was a lot like Deathlock.

Never played it but it sounds interesting.

Well, there was only so much you could do with those gaming graphics in the 8-bit era. Judging by the way RDA was manipulating that controller, though, that game console probably had been kicking around the studio for a few weeks before it was implemented into an episode. I still have my Coleco Telstar console from the 1970s btw, with hockey, handball, & tennis available at the flip of a slide switch. Very archaic by today's standards .... but we were over the moon to play and kill some time with it on a cold winter's day.

Don't feel too bad, Joe. I still have my Atari.

I just watched this episode for the first time the other night. This particular 'hockey insert' is significant as it melds in both RDA and MacGyver as Captain of the 1992 US Men's Olympic Hockey Team. In fact RDA was the honorary captain for that team and in this episode we can clearly see the jersey he's unpacking is a 1992 USA Olympic Hockey Jersey design, #92, and with MacGyver's name on the back. Not that we don't know/believe that, in many respects, MacGyver is 'playing out' RDA's traits ..... but this clip gives us a hardcopy that places them both on the same team and timeline.


USA Olympic Hockey Team Honorary Captain