Post by managermike99 on Jul 29, 2014 16:31:42 GMT -5
"The Box"
Theme song;
Airing time; Saturday @ 9:00pm
status; picked-up, ordered 12 episodes
Category; Action/Drama (Sports)
Production Company; HokNov Inc.
Running time; 60 min
~creators~
E. Besler
K. Staines
~Producers~
K.Staines
~Directors~
T.W. Peacocke
~series synopsis~
For those who don't "get it" Box Lacrosse seems a barbaric sport for little pay. But for the Warriors who step into the Box, its everything that life is about. Challenge, team, and unsung glory. No limits, no holding back, no big dollar contracts.
Rochester, New York, has a long tradition of independent sports franchises. Too small for the major leagues of sport, but often unwilling to settle for the whims of being a minor league enterprise, this city has been famous for competing against the big cities with teams in leagues such as Indoor soccer, Team Tennis, Dodgeball, and now a return to Box Lacrosse.
~Cast~
Patrick Huard as Luke Bichon
- originally from New Orleans, this legend of the game is considered the greatest Box player ever, with an asterix. After seven superstar seasons he received an intentional slash to the knee that knocked him out of the game. Comebacks failed more to do with painkillers and self-loathing then they did skill or speed.
Christopher Bolton as Jack Hollister - son of a local industrialist, and now the owner of the Rochester Rifles, an expansion team in the Major Lacrosse League (MLL). Eager to prove his own abilites, and even more eager to rub shoulders with the athletes of his favorite sport. Fast, rough, and unforgiving, the future of Hollister Enterprises and the future of sport.
Stephen Amell as Noah Cormier - like many Canadian youngsters had the dream of playing pro hockey. After toiling in the minors for several frustrating years becasue his skating isn't up to NHL level, can he be convinced to convert to his summer sport Lacrosse full-time, and lead the expansion Rifles to the promised land?
Gregory Odjig as Daniel Stevenson - Native Canadian superstar toiling in a semi-pro First Nations league, untapped potential but under the heavy burden of years of racial indignation as well as societal pressures not to leave the reserve. His skill level is unbelievable, but his mental state is questionable.
Nick Vachon as Stephan Oulette - it takes a special breed of person to be a goalie in box lacrosse, most likely these rare athletes are reincarnated from earlier lives as Japanse Kamikazee pilots. It helps that Oulette is able to block it all out and concentrate, at least there is one positive to being deaf since birth.
Marty Denniss as Mick Mullen - didn't know they play Lacrosse in Australia? Every team needs a goon, but leave it up to the rifles to go half way across the globe to find untapped potential in this monster.
Jennifer Lyons as Denise Sutton - born and raised in Rochester, pursuing her dream of being a local sports reporter and having to put up with the usual male ego stuff every step of the way. But things change suddenly when she mets Luke Bichon.
~episode guide~
1.01 - "Viva Les Rifles" 6/1/07 - 8.45
Luke Bichon wakes up in an unfamiliar hotel room, hungover, and laying beside an unfamiliar woman. He shakes his head to clear the cobwebs while reaching for a mostly empty whiskey bottle. "damn they keep getting older" he laments to himself. As he tries to pull himself out of bed his knee gives out and he crashes to the floor. His companion stirs and asks if everything is all right. He replies "fine, just a little stiff from old jock injuries", to which we get the obligatory stiff joke from his companion...
Jack Hollister, busy with a secretary putting up decorations on the walls of his new office for the Rochester Rifles. He says this is his chance to prove himself to the people of Rochester by bringing them a team and a championship they can be proud of...
Luke travelling on a plane to Rochester, fortunate enough to sit beside the pretty young Denise Sutton. Not knowing she is a sports reporter from Rochester he says a couple of negative things about the city. and about how expansion teams generally get killed for a couple years then clean house getting rid of the veterans. He doesn't sound hopeful for his coaching job interview later today. He orders himself a double scotch...
Luke's interview with Hollister seems to go well, and he has the job locked up, they start to talk about recruiting players. That's when Hollister mentions Luke being a player-coach, not just a coach, to which Luke balks and almost leaves the office. Hollister says the team needs his leadership in the box, not just on the bench, and that they will build the team around him, lots of speed and toughness. Finally they agree that Luke will be a part-time player at best and if Luke can be a good enough recruiter of talent and coach that they win without him, then he can stay out of the box...
Luke visits the team doctor for his league physical. Doctor considers failing him, but Luke tells him not to worry about the knee as he will only be playing part-time. The Doctor says its not the knee he is worried about, its the liver, from all the drinking.
Recruiting scenes as they recruit the talented but frustrated Canadian hockey player Noah Cormier. Then they travel to the Native reserve and convince the elders to allow young Daniel Stevenson to pursue his dreams of playing pro lacrosse, as Lacrosse is a very important game in the Native culture. Next they are off to a special olympics team where they recruit their goalie, the deaf and thus overlooked Stephan Oulette, nicknamed the Cat because of his reflexes. Not kowing that he was deaf turns out to be a great negotiating ploy for the goalie, as in the lockeroom taking off his gear he doesn't have any idea that Hollister is talking to him. Desperate to get his goalie, Hollister keeps upping the ante until the Cat turns around, reads his lips, and accepts the inflated offer to play pro on the spot. The final recruiting spot is simply at the airport where they meet the Australian goon Mick Mullen coming off his plane. Luke asks Hollister, "couldn't we simply have found a goon in the US?" to which with a big smile on his face Hollister says "not a goon like this." On cue four immigration officials come out to detain Mullen who begins to put up a struggle.
Back at Hollister's office the two men look over the empty arena. Hollsiter pours himself a drink and offers one to Luke who accepts, but then thinking about it puts it down. He asks Hollister what the crew is doing down there, putting in some kind of flooring. With a look of chagrin on his face Hollister says that the Rifles are the secondary tenants here, its a beautiful new arena, much better then being second tenant at the old War Memorial behind the hockey team. But the primary tenant, for whom the arena was built, is the Rochester Smash, the second year team and defending champs of the American Dodgeball League.
Luke just shakes his head and says "no kidding".
Luke hears voices in the hall and the two lookout to see Denise asking questions of the Dodgeball coach. When Hollister tells Luke who she is, and her reputation as a shark. Luke just shakes his head and walks over to his drink.
1.02 -" Competitive Fires"
Training camp opens and still short a few good players Hollister holds open tryouts, which brings out a wide assortment of cooks. Tensions rise between the Box Lacrosse players and the prima donna Dodgeball players.
When a Rifles practice session is cancelled due to an unscheduled practice of the Smash, not willing to concede defeat Luke moves the practice outside, in the November cold. To make matters worse he insists on playing in the arena parking lot, letting the concrete seperate the men from the boys.
All goes well and helps build morale until an errant pass zooms out of play and smashes through the window of a car, setting of the alarm. Soon the Smash are out to see who damaged one of their vehicles and it ends in a pushing match between the two teams.
Luke tries to talk Denise into not running a story in the paper with his comments made on the airplane. She leaves him sweating for awhile before finally Hollister lets him off the hook telling him she is a sports nut and Rochester fan first, a reporter second. Luke asks Denise out on a date but she shoots him down in flames.
Last practice of training camp ends horribly when Noah tries to cradle a hot pass from Luke, only to watch it sail through the netting of his stick and smash into the face of a local rookie, busting his nose. Upon inspection Luke says the netting was tampered with, weakened, and it was only a matter of time before the sabotage played out this way.
1.03 - Limping Home
When the Rifles invite an Aboriginal all-star team to come down to Rochester and play them in a pre-season exhibition it becomes an uncomfortable situation for Daniel as the game turns rough. He has a hard time deciding between his Nation and his new team. Between halfs he is cornered by his Uncle who is coaching the Aboriginals, and tries to pressure him to quit Rochester and return home.
In the second half the Rifles begin to click and start to run up the score before putting on the breaks. The game however gets rougher and when one of the All-Stars tries to take out Luke from behind, in a flash with a crosscheck, Daniel has chosen to side with his new team.
Opening night see's tension between Hollister and his father, the family patriarch and self-made millionaire. Senior of course wants Junior to step away from the day to day of the team, enjoy the luxury suite, but come back full time to the Hollister family of companies. Junior of course refuses and his father leaves before the opening draw.
After a dramatic home opening win, the team gets a chance to bond on a four-game road trip. Except they spiral into a miserable losing streak, and with a faulty bus, bad snowy roads, and a case of the runs after eating some bad burritos, the team is at each other's throats.
Luke however is happy when Denise joins the team on their final stop in New Jersey to cover their game for the paper. The team takes the opportunity to go to Atlantic City where Luke tries to kiss Denise on the boardwalk only to get his face slapped, Mick wins big and considers quitting the team to become a full time gambler, and Stephan is hit by a car that he can't hear coming.
The team limps home 1-4 with team morale in the toilet.
1.04 - "Old acquantance be forgot"
Hollister and Luke go about putting their team back together, like recruiting them all over again. They find Noah shooting pucks at a local arena with a ferocity that suggests he has lost his mind, Daniel has to be dragged away from a sweat lodge, Stephan is wheeled out of the hospital against doctors orders, and they apply guilt to make sure Mick comes back to the team.
It's their second home game, and they take on Buffalo who add one player to their roster on game day. The same player who intentionally took out the knee of Luke years ago; Don Van Trapp.
Some of the Buffalo players bump into the Rifles at a local sportstore, and in a heated exchange between Luke and Don, the truth comes out. Luke was targeted intentionally by Don because Luke had provided testimony against one of his former teammates about use of steroids that saw him kicked out of the league. Luke was blackballed, and became a pariah in the league.
The players are split in their analysis of the situation, some supporting Luke others picking up the blackball strategy again. Just as the team had come back together they are again ripped apart.
Rochester loses big to Buffalo that night to fall to 1-5, and having seen only spot duty Luke is finally goaded into playing the final quarter by Don. The two old acquantances hook-up again and Luke uses his fists to express a decade full of pent up rage on Van Trapp. Unwilling to lose gracefully the Buffalo player slammed his body against the bad knee of Luke taking him back. This brought in Mick, one of the players who had been giving Luke the cold shoulder, and started a nasty line-brawl between the teams.
Luke accepted the apologies of his teammates in the dressing room following the match, and then was surprised when Denise caught him after the game to go out for drinks.
1.05 - Off Day
After a big home win the Rifles find themselves back in the playoff hunt at 4-6 with 6 games remaining in the short Box Lacrosse season. They also find themselves burned out and their coach Luke gives them a rare day off.
Team owner Hollister decides to spend it in his office catching up with paperwork. However, the Dodgeball team decide to have some fun at his expense, ducktaping him to his chair, including his mouth, and pushing him into a closet. They think the Rifles have a practice that day and will let him out, not knowing practice was cancelled. However, there in the closet for the day, Hollister is able to overhear two important conversations covertly. First the General Manager of the Smash and the President of the Arena discuss how the Dodgeball team is losing money hand over fist despite high attendence. Secondly, after his father drops by and can't find him Hollister hears his old man talking to himself in his office, about how proud he is of his son.
Luke uses his day off to go on a date with Denise. They are at a piano bar and she mentions she plays, and he embarrases her insisting she play for him. Finally she does, and she is very good, but she gives him the cold shoulder after. Finally that night she divulges to him that it was her Mother that loved piano and music and insisted she play even though she prefered the sports that her Dad encouraged her to play. She says her Mother left them when she was a teen and they have never heard from her again.
Mick decides to drive to a casino in Windsor Ontario, only to lose all the money he had won at Atlantic City.
Daniel takes Stephan with him to an upstate Indian reserve where they try and council young children on sports, and witness first hand the epidemic of sniffing solvents.
1.06 - Lost Game
Luke visits the doctor who wants him to have surgery on his knee that will put him on the shelf the rest of the season, but Luke wants to play through the pain, and risk permanent injury to finish the season.
When Hollister finds out that Mick has taken a part-time job as a bodyguard but really it's a cover for being a debt collector he goes ballistic on the Aussie.
Jack extends an olive branch to his father after hearing his kind words, but it has the opposite effect driving his father further away.
Denise is still giving Luke the cold shoulder so to get away she travels to the Indian reserve to do a follow-up story on the visit of Daniel and Stephan. But on the way home her car breaks down and she is sexually assaulted by a couple of drunks who happen onto the scene.
The Rifles have a big home game that night but are minus their coach Luke who has gone to the hospital to see Denise, and Mick who has temporarily quit the team after his run in with Hollister. Noah is determined to save the day and has the game of his life scoring 9 times only to lose 14-10 when the visitors score 3 goals in the last two minutes. The Rifles fall to 5-7 with 4 games left and their playoff chances are slim.
1.07 - Triumph & Tragedy
Under the leadership of Luke their player-coach, and the inspired play of both Noah and their all-star goalie Stephan the Rifles piece together three straight wins.
Denise leaves Rochester for good, to deal with her assault, leaving Luke in denial and obsessing over only the Rifles.
One of the Rifles defensemen meets with tragedy as he drowns after too many drink while attending a party.
The loss puts the Rifles into another tailspin as they prepare for the final game of the season, needing a win to make the playoffs, against their nemesis Buffalo.
1.08 - Pre-Game
A faster paced episode then normal, with more musical accompanyment, and some flashbacks to other episodes, are the conventions used to show the highly tense game day preperations of both the home team Rifles, and the visiting Buffalo squads.
Watch as Luke goes through the physical pain of his physiotherapy, as the players continue to mourn a fallen team mate, Stephan deals with nerves he's never felt before, and rival Buffalo's Don Van Trapp tries to let go of the anger he still feels for Luke.
The episode concludes with the opening faceoff of the big game to see if the Rifles will qualify for the playoffs.
1.09 - Survival
The Rifles win their final regular season game to catch the last playoff spot. The owner Hollister throws them a celebration, angering Luke who thinks the team is under the impression they can't win the first playoff round and yells at the owner his attitude is counter-productive.
Luke works the phones to try and make a last minute pick-up, and tells Hollister he will have a player feign injury if needed to get league permission. Hollister is angered and pulls the plug on the idea leaving he and Luke no longer on talking terms.
Luke's spirits are lifted by a phone call from Denise, she is getting better and is contemplating a quiet return to Rochester after the Rifles season is over.
1.10 - Game 1 of 3
Best of 3 first round playoff game, starts in Rochester with the next two to be held in Buffalo.
Luke's ringer grates on the nerves of the whole team, and he has no choice but to start him on the bench or face mutiny.
Hollister's father confronts him, and gives him an ultimatum. Either sell the team and rejoin the family firm or he will be taking the company public and the younger Hollister will no longer be assured of a job.
Denise attends the opening of the trial for the two men who raped her, opening wounds once again.
The Rifles surprise Buffalo and lead through much of the game in front of their first sold-out crowd. Buffalo turns the momentum around though when they injure Stephan the goalie on purpose, and Rochester is forced to use a green rookie.
Tempers between Van Trapp and Luke get out of hand, but Noah steps in to take on Van Trapp, getting himself kicked out of the game. Without their leading scoarer and their #1 goalie things start to fall apart for Rochester. They blow a fourth quarter lead, and then lose the game in overtime.
The series now heads back to Buffalo where Rochester must win two in a row.
1.11 - Game 2 of 3
Rumors circulate that Hollister will be selling the team, but he assures Luke and the rest of the team that it is not true.
Denise calls Luke from the rape trial, and they have an emotional conversation. Luke wants to go see her, to forget game 2, but he just can't make himself do it, and she can't make herself ask.
Tensions rise on the bus ride from Rochester to Buffalo that ends in a brawl between Mick and Noah.
Hollister wants to address the team before the game in the dressing room about the rumors, but Luke says it will just make matters worse and bans him from the dressing room.
Hollister flips out telling Luke he's the owner and will do what he wants, causing Luke to threaten to quit. Hollister calls his bluff only to find out Luke wasn't bluffing.
Minutes before game time and Luke packs his gear and heads off to meet Denise. A reluctant Hollister steps behind the bench but the whole team is now demoralized.
Buffalo routes Rochester, and Noah goes after Van Trapp getting kicked out of the game for hitting him in the head with the lacrosse stick. That starts a bench clearing brawl. Later in the game one of the Buffalo playes calls Daniel a "lazy Indian" and Daniel gets kicked out of the game for a gloved punch to the face of the Buffalo player.
All is lost and the score gets run up as Buffalo clinches the series two games to none.
1.12 - epilogue
There is no joy in Rochester, as the Rifles have lost, Luke had left the team, and everyone else is packing up to leave town not speaking to each other.
But things get worse even before they can leave town as Hollister calls the team together, and gives a sincere thank-you for a fun season, and for meeting their goal of making the playoffs. However, he then announces that he is selling the team and going back to his father's company. Most of the players say their good-byes now knowing they will not be back.
Luke and Denise quietly retrun to town, to empty their apartments and move in together "somewhere in California". But when they hear that Hollister is selling the team they decide they need to confront him.
After shouting at each other Hollister and Luke mend fences, but they can't talk him out of selling them team or assuring that the Rifles will stay in Rochester.
Daniel returns home only to find others in the Native community resent him for having left. His parents preach patience and time, but Daniel is not of the same mindset.
Noah also returns home and tries to land a try-out with an NHL squad but only gets a cold shoulder.
Luke and Denise put together a plan to find local buyers, and save the Rifles, keeping them in Rochester but have some stiff competition in a Japanese firm who wish to buy them and move the team to Vancouver.
Theme song;
Airing time; Saturday @ 9:00pm
status; picked-up, ordered 12 episodes
Category; Action/Drama (Sports)
Production Company; HokNov Inc.
Running time; 60 min
~creators~
E. Besler
K. Staines
~Producers~
K.Staines
~Directors~
T.W. Peacocke
~series synopsis~
For those who don't "get it" Box Lacrosse seems a barbaric sport for little pay. But for the Warriors who step into the Box, its everything that life is about. Challenge, team, and unsung glory. No limits, no holding back, no big dollar contracts.
Rochester, New York, has a long tradition of independent sports franchises. Too small for the major leagues of sport, but often unwilling to settle for the whims of being a minor league enterprise, this city has been famous for competing against the big cities with teams in leagues such as Indoor soccer, Team Tennis, Dodgeball, and now a return to Box Lacrosse.
~Cast~
Patrick Huard as Luke Bichon
- originally from New Orleans, this legend of the game is considered the greatest Box player ever, with an asterix. After seven superstar seasons he received an intentional slash to the knee that knocked him out of the game. Comebacks failed more to do with painkillers and self-loathing then they did skill or speed.
Christopher Bolton as Jack Hollister - son of a local industrialist, and now the owner of the Rochester Rifles, an expansion team in the Major Lacrosse League (MLL). Eager to prove his own abilites, and even more eager to rub shoulders with the athletes of his favorite sport. Fast, rough, and unforgiving, the future of Hollister Enterprises and the future of sport.
Stephen Amell as Noah Cormier - like many Canadian youngsters had the dream of playing pro hockey. After toiling in the minors for several frustrating years becasue his skating isn't up to NHL level, can he be convinced to convert to his summer sport Lacrosse full-time, and lead the expansion Rifles to the promised land?
Gregory Odjig as Daniel Stevenson - Native Canadian superstar toiling in a semi-pro First Nations league, untapped potential but under the heavy burden of years of racial indignation as well as societal pressures not to leave the reserve. His skill level is unbelievable, but his mental state is questionable.
Nick Vachon as Stephan Oulette - it takes a special breed of person to be a goalie in box lacrosse, most likely these rare athletes are reincarnated from earlier lives as Japanse Kamikazee pilots. It helps that Oulette is able to block it all out and concentrate, at least there is one positive to being deaf since birth.
Marty Denniss as Mick Mullen - didn't know they play Lacrosse in Australia? Every team needs a goon, but leave it up to the rifles to go half way across the globe to find untapped potential in this monster.
Jennifer Lyons as Denise Sutton - born and raised in Rochester, pursuing her dream of being a local sports reporter and having to put up with the usual male ego stuff every step of the way. But things change suddenly when she mets Luke Bichon.
~episode guide~
1.01 - "Viva Les Rifles" 6/1/07 - 8.45
Luke Bichon wakes up in an unfamiliar hotel room, hungover, and laying beside an unfamiliar woman. He shakes his head to clear the cobwebs while reaching for a mostly empty whiskey bottle. "damn they keep getting older" he laments to himself. As he tries to pull himself out of bed his knee gives out and he crashes to the floor. His companion stirs and asks if everything is all right. He replies "fine, just a little stiff from old jock injuries", to which we get the obligatory stiff joke from his companion...
Jack Hollister, busy with a secretary putting up decorations on the walls of his new office for the Rochester Rifles. He says this is his chance to prove himself to the people of Rochester by bringing them a team and a championship they can be proud of...
Luke travelling on a plane to Rochester, fortunate enough to sit beside the pretty young Denise Sutton. Not knowing she is a sports reporter from Rochester he says a couple of negative things about the city. and about how expansion teams generally get killed for a couple years then clean house getting rid of the veterans. He doesn't sound hopeful for his coaching job interview later today. He orders himself a double scotch...
Luke's interview with Hollister seems to go well, and he has the job locked up, they start to talk about recruiting players. That's when Hollister mentions Luke being a player-coach, not just a coach, to which Luke balks and almost leaves the office. Hollister says the team needs his leadership in the box, not just on the bench, and that they will build the team around him, lots of speed and toughness. Finally they agree that Luke will be a part-time player at best and if Luke can be a good enough recruiter of talent and coach that they win without him, then he can stay out of the box...
Luke visits the team doctor for his league physical. Doctor considers failing him, but Luke tells him not to worry about the knee as he will only be playing part-time. The Doctor says its not the knee he is worried about, its the liver, from all the drinking.
Recruiting scenes as they recruit the talented but frustrated Canadian hockey player Noah Cormier. Then they travel to the Native reserve and convince the elders to allow young Daniel Stevenson to pursue his dreams of playing pro lacrosse, as Lacrosse is a very important game in the Native culture. Next they are off to a special olympics team where they recruit their goalie, the deaf and thus overlooked Stephan Oulette, nicknamed the Cat because of his reflexes. Not kowing that he was deaf turns out to be a great negotiating ploy for the goalie, as in the lockeroom taking off his gear he doesn't have any idea that Hollister is talking to him. Desperate to get his goalie, Hollister keeps upping the ante until the Cat turns around, reads his lips, and accepts the inflated offer to play pro on the spot. The final recruiting spot is simply at the airport where they meet the Australian goon Mick Mullen coming off his plane. Luke asks Hollister, "couldn't we simply have found a goon in the US?" to which with a big smile on his face Hollister says "not a goon like this." On cue four immigration officials come out to detain Mullen who begins to put up a struggle.
Back at Hollister's office the two men look over the empty arena. Hollsiter pours himself a drink and offers one to Luke who accepts, but then thinking about it puts it down. He asks Hollister what the crew is doing down there, putting in some kind of flooring. With a look of chagrin on his face Hollister says that the Rifles are the secondary tenants here, its a beautiful new arena, much better then being second tenant at the old War Memorial behind the hockey team. But the primary tenant, for whom the arena was built, is the Rochester Smash, the second year team and defending champs of the American Dodgeball League.
Luke just shakes his head and says "no kidding".
Luke hears voices in the hall and the two lookout to see Denise asking questions of the Dodgeball coach. When Hollister tells Luke who she is, and her reputation as a shark. Luke just shakes his head and walks over to his drink.
1.02 -" Competitive Fires"
Training camp opens and still short a few good players Hollister holds open tryouts, which brings out a wide assortment of cooks. Tensions rise between the Box Lacrosse players and the prima donna Dodgeball players.
When a Rifles practice session is cancelled due to an unscheduled practice of the Smash, not willing to concede defeat Luke moves the practice outside, in the November cold. To make matters worse he insists on playing in the arena parking lot, letting the concrete seperate the men from the boys.
All goes well and helps build morale until an errant pass zooms out of play and smashes through the window of a car, setting of the alarm. Soon the Smash are out to see who damaged one of their vehicles and it ends in a pushing match between the two teams.
Luke tries to talk Denise into not running a story in the paper with his comments made on the airplane. She leaves him sweating for awhile before finally Hollister lets him off the hook telling him she is a sports nut and Rochester fan first, a reporter second. Luke asks Denise out on a date but she shoots him down in flames.
Last practice of training camp ends horribly when Noah tries to cradle a hot pass from Luke, only to watch it sail through the netting of his stick and smash into the face of a local rookie, busting his nose. Upon inspection Luke says the netting was tampered with, weakened, and it was only a matter of time before the sabotage played out this way.
1.03 - Limping Home
When the Rifles invite an Aboriginal all-star team to come down to Rochester and play them in a pre-season exhibition it becomes an uncomfortable situation for Daniel as the game turns rough. He has a hard time deciding between his Nation and his new team. Between halfs he is cornered by his Uncle who is coaching the Aboriginals, and tries to pressure him to quit Rochester and return home.
In the second half the Rifles begin to click and start to run up the score before putting on the breaks. The game however gets rougher and when one of the All-Stars tries to take out Luke from behind, in a flash with a crosscheck, Daniel has chosen to side with his new team.
Opening night see's tension between Hollister and his father, the family patriarch and self-made millionaire. Senior of course wants Junior to step away from the day to day of the team, enjoy the luxury suite, but come back full time to the Hollister family of companies. Junior of course refuses and his father leaves before the opening draw.
After a dramatic home opening win, the team gets a chance to bond on a four-game road trip. Except they spiral into a miserable losing streak, and with a faulty bus, bad snowy roads, and a case of the runs after eating some bad burritos, the team is at each other's throats.
Luke however is happy when Denise joins the team on their final stop in New Jersey to cover their game for the paper. The team takes the opportunity to go to Atlantic City where Luke tries to kiss Denise on the boardwalk only to get his face slapped, Mick wins big and considers quitting the team to become a full time gambler, and Stephan is hit by a car that he can't hear coming.
The team limps home 1-4 with team morale in the toilet.
1.04 - "Old acquantance be forgot"
Hollister and Luke go about putting their team back together, like recruiting them all over again. They find Noah shooting pucks at a local arena with a ferocity that suggests he has lost his mind, Daniel has to be dragged away from a sweat lodge, Stephan is wheeled out of the hospital against doctors orders, and they apply guilt to make sure Mick comes back to the team.
It's their second home game, and they take on Buffalo who add one player to their roster on game day. The same player who intentionally took out the knee of Luke years ago; Don Van Trapp.
Some of the Buffalo players bump into the Rifles at a local sportstore, and in a heated exchange between Luke and Don, the truth comes out. Luke was targeted intentionally by Don because Luke had provided testimony against one of his former teammates about use of steroids that saw him kicked out of the league. Luke was blackballed, and became a pariah in the league.
The players are split in their analysis of the situation, some supporting Luke others picking up the blackball strategy again. Just as the team had come back together they are again ripped apart.
Rochester loses big to Buffalo that night to fall to 1-5, and having seen only spot duty Luke is finally goaded into playing the final quarter by Don. The two old acquantances hook-up again and Luke uses his fists to express a decade full of pent up rage on Van Trapp. Unwilling to lose gracefully the Buffalo player slammed his body against the bad knee of Luke taking him back. This brought in Mick, one of the players who had been giving Luke the cold shoulder, and started a nasty line-brawl between the teams.
Luke accepted the apologies of his teammates in the dressing room following the match, and then was surprised when Denise caught him after the game to go out for drinks.
1.05 - Off Day
After a big home win the Rifles find themselves back in the playoff hunt at 4-6 with 6 games remaining in the short Box Lacrosse season. They also find themselves burned out and their coach Luke gives them a rare day off.
Team owner Hollister decides to spend it in his office catching up with paperwork. However, the Dodgeball team decide to have some fun at his expense, ducktaping him to his chair, including his mouth, and pushing him into a closet. They think the Rifles have a practice that day and will let him out, not knowing practice was cancelled. However, there in the closet for the day, Hollister is able to overhear two important conversations covertly. First the General Manager of the Smash and the President of the Arena discuss how the Dodgeball team is losing money hand over fist despite high attendence. Secondly, after his father drops by and can't find him Hollister hears his old man talking to himself in his office, about how proud he is of his son.
Luke uses his day off to go on a date with Denise. They are at a piano bar and she mentions she plays, and he embarrases her insisting she play for him. Finally she does, and she is very good, but she gives him the cold shoulder after. Finally that night she divulges to him that it was her Mother that loved piano and music and insisted she play even though she prefered the sports that her Dad encouraged her to play. She says her Mother left them when she was a teen and they have never heard from her again.
Mick decides to drive to a casino in Windsor Ontario, only to lose all the money he had won at Atlantic City.
Daniel takes Stephan with him to an upstate Indian reserve where they try and council young children on sports, and witness first hand the epidemic of sniffing solvents.
1.06 - Lost Game
Luke visits the doctor who wants him to have surgery on his knee that will put him on the shelf the rest of the season, but Luke wants to play through the pain, and risk permanent injury to finish the season.
When Hollister finds out that Mick has taken a part-time job as a bodyguard but really it's a cover for being a debt collector he goes ballistic on the Aussie.
Jack extends an olive branch to his father after hearing his kind words, but it has the opposite effect driving his father further away.
Denise is still giving Luke the cold shoulder so to get away she travels to the Indian reserve to do a follow-up story on the visit of Daniel and Stephan. But on the way home her car breaks down and she is sexually assaulted by a couple of drunks who happen onto the scene.
The Rifles have a big home game that night but are minus their coach Luke who has gone to the hospital to see Denise, and Mick who has temporarily quit the team after his run in with Hollister. Noah is determined to save the day and has the game of his life scoring 9 times only to lose 14-10 when the visitors score 3 goals in the last two minutes. The Rifles fall to 5-7 with 4 games left and their playoff chances are slim.
1.07 - Triumph & Tragedy
Under the leadership of Luke their player-coach, and the inspired play of both Noah and their all-star goalie Stephan the Rifles piece together three straight wins.
Denise leaves Rochester for good, to deal with her assault, leaving Luke in denial and obsessing over only the Rifles.
One of the Rifles defensemen meets with tragedy as he drowns after too many drink while attending a party.
The loss puts the Rifles into another tailspin as they prepare for the final game of the season, needing a win to make the playoffs, against their nemesis Buffalo.
1.08 - Pre-Game
A faster paced episode then normal, with more musical accompanyment, and some flashbacks to other episodes, are the conventions used to show the highly tense game day preperations of both the home team Rifles, and the visiting Buffalo squads.
Watch as Luke goes through the physical pain of his physiotherapy, as the players continue to mourn a fallen team mate, Stephan deals with nerves he's never felt before, and rival Buffalo's Don Van Trapp tries to let go of the anger he still feels for Luke.
The episode concludes with the opening faceoff of the big game to see if the Rifles will qualify for the playoffs.
1.09 - Survival
The Rifles win their final regular season game to catch the last playoff spot. The owner Hollister throws them a celebration, angering Luke who thinks the team is under the impression they can't win the first playoff round and yells at the owner his attitude is counter-productive.
Luke works the phones to try and make a last minute pick-up, and tells Hollister he will have a player feign injury if needed to get league permission. Hollister is angered and pulls the plug on the idea leaving he and Luke no longer on talking terms.
Luke's spirits are lifted by a phone call from Denise, she is getting better and is contemplating a quiet return to Rochester after the Rifles season is over.
1.10 - Game 1 of 3
Best of 3 first round playoff game, starts in Rochester with the next two to be held in Buffalo.
Luke's ringer grates on the nerves of the whole team, and he has no choice but to start him on the bench or face mutiny.
Hollister's father confronts him, and gives him an ultimatum. Either sell the team and rejoin the family firm or he will be taking the company public and the younger Hollister will no longer be assured of a job.
Denise attends the opening of the trial for the two men who raped her, opening wounds once again.
The Rifles surprise Buffalo and lead through much of the game in front of their first sold-out crowd. Buffalo turns the momentum around though when they injure Stephan the goalie on purpose, and Rochester is forced to use a green rookie.
Tempers between Van Trapp and Luke get out of hand, but Noah steps in to take on Van Trapp, getting himself kicked out of the game. Without their leading scoarer and their #1 goalie things start to fall apart for Rochester. They blow a fourth quarter lead, and then lose the game in overtime.
The series now heads back to Buffalo where Rochester must win two in a row.
1.11 - Game 2 of 3
Rumors circulate that Hollister will be selling the team, but he assures Luke and the rest of the team that it is not true.
Denise calls Luke from the rape trial, and they have an emotional conversation. Luke wants to go see her, to forget game 2, but he just can't make himself do it, and she can't make herself ask.
Tensions rise on the bus ride from Rochester to Buffalo that ends in a brawl between Mick and Noah.
Hollister wants to address the team before the game in the dressing room about the rumors, but Luke says it will just make matters worse and bans him from the dressing room.
Hollister flips out telling Luke he's the owner and will do what he wants, causing Luke to threaten to quit. Hollister calls his bluff only to find out Luke wasn't bluffing.
Minutes before game time and Luke packs his gear and heads off to meet Denise. A reluctant Hollister steps behind the bench but the whole team is now demoralized.
Buffalo routes Rochester, and Noah goes after Van Trapp getting kicked out of the game for hitting him in the head with the lacrosse stick. That starts a bench clearing brawl. Later in the game one of the Buffalo playes calls Daniel a "lazy Indian" and Daniel gets kicked out of the game for a gloved punch to the face of the Buffalo player.
All is lost and the score gets run up as Buffalo clinches the series two games to none.
1.12 - epilogue
There is no joy in Rochester, as the Rifles have lost, Luke had left the team, and everyone else is packing up to leave town not speaking to each other.
But things get worse even before they can leave town as Hollister calls the team together, and gives a sincere thank-you for a fun season, and for meeting their goal of making the playoffs. However, he then announces that he is selling the team and going back to his father's company. Most of the players say their good-byes now knowing they will not be back.
Luke and Denise quietly retrun to town, to empty their apartments and move in together "somewhere in California". But when they hear that Hollister is selling the team they decide they need to confront him.
After shouting at each other Hollister and Luke mend fences, but they can't talk him out of selling them team or assuring that the Rifles will stay in Rochester.
Daniel returns home only to find others in the Native community resent him for having left. His parents preach patience and time, but Daniel is not of the same mindset.
Noah also returns home and tries to land a try-out with an NHL squad but only gets a cold shoulder.
Luke and Denise put together a plan to find local buyers, and save the Rifles, keeping them in Rochester but have some stiff competition in a Japanese firm who wish to buy them and move the team to Vancouver.