Welcome back to another review of The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers. In this review, I’m looking at Episode 4, “Hockey Moms”. You can find more of Popped’s Disney+ and Hulu coverage here. Spoilers ahead.
The episode begins with an intense training session with the Ducks following the Don’t Bothers getting a goal against them. We see Sophie struggling to manage her double life as she trains with both hockey teams and is tired as a result. Sophie announces she has not told her parents and reveals she is still training with the Ducks and has to find her parents in a good mood to tell them. We meet Sophie’s parents, and her brother who is headed to Harvard as the family hilariously celebrate with a Harvard themed cake and matching Varsity hoodies. Sophie ultimately forges her parental permission slip which is no surprise, and I see this backfiring soon…
Alex and Gordon head to dinner with her boss at the new local restaurant and discuss the Moms Skills Challenge – where the mothers of the Ducks team face another team in a series of challenges. Gordon offers the Don’t Bothers moms to go against the Ducks, to which the boss accepts. I really like how Gordon and Alex are getting on, they both have great chemistry on screen, could see them getting together – won’t be the first time Gordon Bombay would have hooked up with a player’s parent… The chemistry between the two is one of my favourite parts of the series, seeing it develop onscreen whilst the series develops is great, and I think it helps the show be more than a “kids show”.
Nick continues to be my favourite character as he asks Evan for a sleepover and celebrates as he makes “The Best Friend Zone” a fun spin on the typical friend zone… Koob has a sad moment where he feels he’s disappointing people as he lets in 17 goals; we get a great captain moment where Evan invites him to the sleepover too. Whilst at the sleepover, the boys have to deal with Nick and his Mom’s 10 pm Screentime curfew, which is something I’m familiar with from being a young Josh… I won’t lie, this episode provides some good and required character development for Koop who hasn’t really had a large proportion of the show’s screen time. We get a hilarious mission with the boys attempting to recover his mobile from Nick’s moms, with Koob giving a beautiful rendition of I Dreamed a Dream from Les Miserables, bringing the two moms to tears. Fun fact, I didn’t know until googling Luke Islam, who plays Koob – he was a contestant on America’s Got Talent, and made it to the Season 14 Semi-Finals with a Singing Act.
We meet the Hockey Moms (Evidently the title of the episode). Hilariously, none of the “Moms” have heard of Bombay, in a funny moment where there’s an awkward silence after he asks if they know of him. We get a fun montage of everyone practising their skills on the ice, with some fun moments including Lisa (Maya’s Mom) letting us know that she is from New York City.
“Why is she in a clown suit?” – probably my favourite line from the episode, when Sophie shows up to Ducks practice in a Don’t Bother uniform. Sophie tells her parents that she can be a winner if she can be the best version of herself and playing for the Don’t Bothers and not the Ducks. Sophie tells her parents that she’ll rejoin the Ducks if the Ducks win the Mom’s Skill Challenge, so definitely some excitement from this episode – very competitive to say the least! We get to the competition and it all comes down to the final event with Alex doing the puck challenge against her boss. Somehow despite getting a higher score, she’s disqualified for having her skate over the line and ultimately letting the Ducks win. Sophie’s Dad changes his mind however and lets her join the time… so every cloud as they say!
‘The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers’ Season 1, Episode 4 Review – Final Thoughts
Overall, I had a fun time with this episode. What this episode does well it proves that it has time to give other characters more screen time than others and fairly share it out, it’s also great to meet secondary characters (like the moms) and really flesh out this story of these underdogs. I’m excited to see what comes next and ultimately really looking forward to the mini-reunion episode in two weeks time!
The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers – Episode 4 “Hockey Moms” debuts tomorrow, Friday 16th April – streaming exclusively on Disney+.
Thank you for reading this review. You can find my previous review of Godzilla vs. Kong here.
