Wild hockey comedy 'Shoresy' hits Hulu, stars former NHL players

Jordan Nolan wasn't much of a card player during his NHL days.

While his teammates were saddling up to the poker table at 10,000 feet, the two-time Stanley Cup champion with the Los Angeles Kings was popping on his headphones and flipping on a movie. When his feet were on the ground, they'd often take him to the theater or a movie set.
Now, Nolan is on the other end of the screen.
Along with his older brother Brandon Nolan a former member of the Carolina Hurricanes] and Terry Ryan [the Montreal Canadiens first round draft pick in 1995], Jordan Nolan will be lacing up his skates as part of the fictional Sudbury Bulldogs in "Shoresy," a new Hulu television series hitting the United States on Friday [it debuted in Canada on May 13].
The show is a spinoff of the popular Hulu series "Letterkenny," an irreverent, farcical, and bawdy series that introduces Jared Keeso's portrayal, which he reprises as the title character in "Shoresy." In the mold of its predecessor, the layers are peeled back on the tongue-twisting, foul-mouthed, Grade-A chirper after he joins a fourth-place Senior AAA team [in a league with only four teams] and is determined to never lose again.
To aid him on his quest, Shoresy enlists the services of a ragtag group depicted by a number of guys with pro hockey experience. Brandon and Jordan Nolan play two of three characters on the show named Jim. "It's just crazy … I was just, like, this can't be real. Like, I'm a hockey player, I'm not an actor. I'm like, 'what the heck would they want us for?'" Brandon Nolan told NHL.com. "[I'm] just honored to be a part of it."
The third Jim is played by Jon "Nasty" Mirasty, who spent time in the minors, including two seasons with the infamous Danbury Trashers of the United Hockey League. Jonathan-Ismael Diaby, a 2013 draft pick of the Nashville Predators, stars as Dolo.
Ryan plays Ted "Hitch" Hitchcock, a fellow former first-rounder from Newfoundland. Like his character, Ryan has also played in Senior hockey. Four days before heading to Sudbury to film the show, he played a game with the St. John's Caps of the Avalon East Senior Hockey League.
"That's why Hitch also resonates with me a little bit," Ryan told NHL.com. "If art imitates life, then this show, you don't have to go any further."
Like Ryan's Newfoundland accent and hockey smile, "Shoresy" lifts straight from real life. The former NHL players wear their old jersey numbers on the show and, yes, the hockey is a slobber knocker with a donnybrook or two thrown in.
"We all played a little bit of pro hockey, so I think they were kind of just happy with what they saw and asked for input,'" Jordan Nolan told NHL.com. "I think they kind of leaned on us a little bit to make it more realistic."
The show, which also leaned on the Sudbury Wolves of the Ontario Hockey League, depicts the game to a T, from where to place the tape in the locker room to how guys dressed during intermissions to who would be the DJ.
"It's [a] camaraderie. In the show, there's people in the room telling stories and then playing tunes and chirping and then as soon as they say, 'Cut,' we put on our own tunes, tell our own stories, and start chirping," Ryan said. "It's wild how it all went down… I hate to overuse the word surreal but that's exactly what it is." The Bulldogs jelled quickly -- on screen and off -- and while he appreciated that the hockey is "crisp and clean" on the show, Brandon Nolan was even more impressed by the diversity of the cast.
"'Letterkenny' did an amazing job of representing different cultural backgrounds, different people of color and then 'Shoresy' is no different," he said. "There's a lot of Indigenous people. There's other people of different colors and backgrounds and cultural backgrounds. So, it really truly depicts how a Senior AAA hockey team would be in a small town like Sudbury."
Brandon and Jordan grew up in Garden River First Nation and
[started their organization, 3NOLANS
, in 2013 with their father Ted Nolan, the 1997 Jack Adams Award winner as the NHL's coach of the year with the Buffalo Sabres. The trio offer a hockey skills development camp for First Nation youth in communities across Canada. While they are inspiring Indigenous youth on the ice, they now hope to do it off the ice too.
"My brother and I were talking a couple of weeks ago, like, maybe we can aspire some Indigenous youths to become [actors] now," Brandon Nolan said. "Which is just crazy because if you asked me a year ago if I'd be on a TV show, I would laugh right in front of your face. It's pretty crazy looking back where we are today."
One might think going from the NHL to the fictional NOSHO (Northern Ontario Senior Hockey Organization) would be a downgrade, but for the former players involved, it is another chance at a different type of hockey glory.
Jordan Nolan is currently working with the Kings as a community relations consultant and studying firefighting through the Professional Hockey Players' Association's partnership with the Fire and Emergency Services Training Institute (FESTI) in Ontario. But, has the movie buff been bit by the acting bug? Would he trade one of his Stanley Cups for a chance at an acting statue?
Taking a page from "Shoresy," he responded with tongue firmly planted in cheek.
"Well, I got a [2019] St. Louis Blues Cup ring [as a 'Black Ace']," said Jordan Nolan, referring to a late-season call-up from the San Antonio Rampage where his veteran group was referred to as aces in the hole. "So maybe I will trade that for an Emmy or an Oscar."