Top Goon

Plot

Bart is tackled by a player on King Toot's team, and Moe's team loses. Moe invites Nelson to join after seeing him bully someone. Moe sends Nelson to Top Goon Academy to learn to be an enforcer, where Nelson is taught that Bart is the primary and must be protected.

Nelson and Moe bond after Nelson's graduation. The team wins a game and holds a victory party, but Bart pranks Moe, angering Nelson. Nelson decides Moe is the primary and breaks Bart's arm.

Moe kicks Nelson off the team, and Nelson joins Fat Tony's gang. Moe visits Nelson's mother and learns Nelson considers Moe the primary. Moe finds Nelson about to attack King Toot for Fat Tony, convinces him to stop, and steals King Toot's trophy to give to Nelson.

Production

The episode featured former NHL enforcers Stu Grimson, Dave Schultz, and Tiger Williams playing themselves. Grimson, now an NHL Network analyst, was recruited by producers through the network. He recorded his dialogue in a Nashville studio, taking live direction via video call.

Grimson guessed he was chosen, along with the other players, because of their distinctive nicknames. He later watched the season premiere in California and noted the cameo could introduce hockey to viewers who might not normally watch. A planned connection to the season six episode "Lisa on Ice" was ultimately dropped.

Reception

Due to an NFL doubleheader on Fox, the episode scored a 1.0 rating with 3.42 million viewers, making it the most viewed show on Fox that night. Tony Sokol of Den of Geek gave the episode 5 out of 5 stars, praising the featuring of Nelson and Moe without requiring the characters to change and highlighting the visual jokes, and felt the ultimate message was optimistic. Matthew Swigonski of Bubbleblabber gave the episode a 6 out of 10, finding the story fairly simple and previously done but noting the Nelson and Moe relationship.

Did You Know?

• The episode title is an homage to the 1986 action movie Top Gun.
• The hockey academy in the episode teaches the novel Beloved by Toni Morrison.
• The story has a similar premise as the 1992 film The Mighty Ducks.