Build a movie plot around this: Why do the players change their minds? Because the stands are full of NHL scouts.
A:
Reggie Dunlop (Paul Newman) is the aging player-coach of the Charlestown Chiefs hockey team in the fictional Federal League. A perennial loser for years, the team's manager Joe McGrath (Strother Martin) has resorted to extreme cost-cutting techniques and embarrassing promotional antics to keep local interest alive. Dunlop, while not particularly talented as either a player or coach, is a skilled con man, and regularly manipulates the team to his own advantage. During a hopeless season, the Chiefs pick up the Hanson Brothers, bespectacled violent goons with childlike mentalities, complete with toys in their luggage. Horrified at being given players who seem stupid, immature, and unreliable, Dunlop initially chooses not to play them.When it is announced that the local mill will be closing and 10,000 workers will be unemployed, Dunlop grows concerned about the team's future. He makes several attempts to learn the identity of the team's anonymous owner (a running gag throughout the film), but is deftly deflected by McGrath each time. When McGrath accompanies them on an away game, top scorer Ned Braden (Michael Ontkean) overhears him attempting to get a job with another team. After Braden relays this information to his teammates, Dunlop confronts McGrath, who confirms that the Chiefs will fold at the end of the season.Determined to save the team at all costs, Dunlop starts provoking fights at games to secure goals and the Chiefs start to win games. In a moment of desperation, he lets the Hansons play and discovers that their aggressive fighting style enthralls the fans. He begins retooling the team as a goon squad in the Hansons' image and attendance quickly increases. Capitalizing on this growing interest, he plants a false story with eccentric sports news writer Dickie Dunn (M. Emmet Walsh) that a Florida retirement community is interested in purchasing the team, in order to bolster the confidence of the players and to hopefully inspire an actual sale.Most of the players, such as Dave "Killer" Carlson (Jerry...