Sneaky Feminist Flick
Slapshot was written by a woman; Nancy Dowd. At almost every turn, women have the upper hand, especially wen it comes to Reg.
First, Reg's wife is leaving him. She looks classy and smart, moving out of shoddy and failing Charleston, for upwardly mobile Long Island. The final scene of the film illustrates just how pathetic Reg is. Francine, his ex, is portrayed more as an adult than Reg pursuing the prolonged dreams of his long faded adolescence. She shoots him a glance at the end that is part pity, part condesencion.
The Chiefs mystery owner is also a woman--a rich woman at that. She's amused by Reg and his antics, and she even gives him a bit of a sexy look. But he is clearly out of her league and it becomes obvious when she states, that she can sell the team, but won't because she can make more off of the depreciation of the team on her taxes. Again, a woman in a superior position and one that thwarts his dream of saving the team and his lost boys has power over Reg.
Hanrahan's wife, played by Melinda Dillion confides to Reg in bed that she had a lesbian affair while drunk, but then she did it sober and she kissed a girl and liked it. Reg uses the news against her goalie husband and here is yet another example of a man being humiliated by woman, this time it's not Reg, but he's an accomplice.
At the end of the film while the two teams are mauling each other on the ice, the one "guy" that comes off looking halfway human is "Ned" played by Michael Ontkean. Instead of brawling and mauling, he decides to do a striptease on ice, which in many ways is incredibly emasculating, given the context of the film and the times. Ontkean is the most "feminine" man in the film and is the one that Dowd rewards. At the end, it's Ned skating off the ice with the trophy cup, not Reg. Even in wining, Reg is trumped by a "girlie-man."
The men on the team are all caricatures. Moe is a gloating and disgusting horn dog. Killer is a lost boy and Reg is his Captain Hook. Even the beloved Hanson Brothers are portrayed as a case of arrested development with their race cars in the locker room and brainless violence.
Lastly, even Strother Martin, the team's publicist gets outed by Reg for being a bra-wearing "fag" according to Reg.
Nancy Dowd took a slap shot at men in this film and I think that was her goal.