TIFF 2026 Review: Smudge the Blades

A rag-tag Indigenous hockey team is helped by a reluctant and unlikely coach.

Kicked out of a top league, the Treaty 6 Blades need a new coach, who happens to be the local Zamboni driver, more motivated to bed a particular hockey mom than to put together a winning strategy on the ice.  Each of the players comes with their own emotional baggage, along with being victims of rampant racism directed towards their Indigenous heritage.

The Zamboni date sequence is a homage to the far more superior Rocky when it comes to mixing sports with battles that take place outside of the arena.  Countering stereotypes with stereotypes is the lazy way of getting the point across and results in characters that are strictly cardboard cutouts.  There is no doubt that this is star vehicle for Cody Lightning but it is done in a cringeworthy manner.  It would be somewhat forgivable if the transformation of the Willy from a sexually deprived reprobate who could care less about the aspirations of his team to someone with a deep appreciation of what they want to achieve did not come out of nowhere.

What would have been more fascinating to explore is the significance of the movie title and the character of Gene who practices the ritual and has pinpoint accuracy with the puck that goes awry in the heat of the action.  The camera is constantly moving to give the hockey scenes a kinetic and urgent aesthetic but the choreography is not all that awe-inspiring.  There is also an element of a community under siege that is causing fractures within and the idea of a team bringing everyone together is a not a new one but still resonates emotionally.  The trouble is that story does not come across as a high-powered slapshot which scorches past a goalie into the net but instead comes across as a swing and a broken hockey stick.

The 51st Toronto International Film Festival runs September 10-20, 2026, and for more information visit tiff.net.   

Trevor Hogg is a freelance video editor and writer who currently resides in Canada; he can be found at LinkedIn.