I am not sure if I am still in my hockey era. Every time I start questioning it, another story pulls me right back in. You’re doing your job, ReelShort. I see you. I am patiently waiting for more sports romances to enter the chat, but for now? Apparently, I have more time to spend at the rink.
Before We Break: Playing Dirty gives me a pretty good reason to stay. Yes, there is romance. Yes, there is a hockey player worth swooning over. But the reason I became invested is a woman who is tired of being useful to a man who refuses to see her potential. Alexa isn’t asking for someone to hand her a dream. She wants the opportunity to pursue it herself.
And the way that Katherine Gibson plays Alex/Alexa makes you want that opportunity for her, too.
ALEXA DESERVES MORE THAN A PLACE ON THE SIDELINES
Alexa loves hockey. She understands the strategy, knows the game, and wants to play. The problem is that there isn’t a girls’ team, and her boyfriend, Jeremy, seems perfectly happy benefiting from her knowledge without making room for her on the ice.
Jeremy is, to put it politely, a douche. He values what Alexa can do for him, but that is not the same as valuing her. There is something particularly frustrating about watching a man trust a woman’s intelligence when it helps him win, then dismiss her ambition when she wants something for herself.
That is what makes this more than a story about getting back at a terrible boyfriend. Alexa has spent time investing in someone who treats her support as an entitlement. She deserves that energy back. She deserves to be listened to, challenged, and taken seriously without having to make herself indispensable first.
She deserves to not have to settle.
When Jeremy breaks his promise to make the team co-ed, Alexa decides she is done waiting for him to open the door. After overhearing Hudson Cross’s team discussing a player named Alex, she sees an opportunity. With her best friend’s help, she takes on that identity and joins the team.
Totally reminiscent of She’s The Man.
Is it a complicated plan? Absolutely. Would I recommend building your athletic future around an assumed identity? Probably not. But do I understand a woman reaching the point where she refuses to hear another excuse about why she cannot have a chance? Completely.
There is also something worth holding onto in the fact that her best friend helps her. Alexa’s attempt to claim space begins with another woman believing she can. For a story about entering a world determined to underestimate her, that support matters.
STRENGTH SHOULD NOT REQUIRE ACCEPTING CRUELTY
Alexa knows hockey, but knowing the game and surviving the physical demands of this team are different things. She struggles with the hits, and the hazing makes an already difficult situation worse. Still, she keeps showing up.
What I appreciate is that her strength doesn’t depend on being immediately good at everything. She has things to learn. She gets hurt. She has to adjust. None of that makes her less deserving of the opportunity.
But I also want to be clear: the team treating Alex badly is not what makes Alexa strong. She should not have to endure cruelty to prove she belongs. There is a difference between challenging a teammate and humiliating one, and the story is most compelling when it makes me want better for her, not simply another test of how much she can take.
Yes, Alexa wants to beat Jeremy at his own game. I am not above enjoying that motivation. But revenge is only part of what makes me root for her. Beneath it is a woman discovering how much of herself she has been setting aside for someone else.
Getting back at Jeremy might get her onto the ice. Recognizing that her future deserves to be bigger than abad boyfriend is part of what gives her story the emotional weight that it deserves.
KATHERINE GIBSON GIVES ALEXA BOTH FIGHT AND FEELING
Gibson is the reason those different parts of Alexa hold together. The disguise gives her room to exercise her comedic timing, and she makes the awkwardness fun without reducing Alexa to a joke. There is humor in trying to maintain a secret while navigating a team that has no idea who you really are. Gibson understands how to let us laugh at the situation while still caring about the person inside it.
Just as importantly, she knows when the comedy needs to give way to something more vulnerable. Alexa can be determined and still feel the sting of being dismissed. She can want to win and still want someone to recognize how hard she is trying.
That balance is what makes Gibson’s performance stand out for me. She doesn’t treat strength and vulnerability as opposites. Alexa’s feelings are not an interruption to her ambition; they are part of why that ambition matters.
There is an old Hollywood quality to Gibson’s screen presence, a charm that draws your attention without making every moment feel like a demand for it. But here, what impressed me most was the range within the role. She gets to be funny, frustrated, hopeful, and stubborn. She gives Alexa a life beyond the mechanics of keeping her identity hidden.
I have enjoyed watching Gibson take on different kinds of characters, and this role makes particularly good use of her ability to move between humor and sincerity. She makes Alexa someone I want to see win, not because the story tells me to, but because I understand what losing another opportunity would mean to her.
BLAKE LEWIS MAKES HUDSON WORTH ROOTING FOR
Then there is Hudson Cross, played by Blake Lewis. Apparently, I was not leaving my hockey era without getting attached to him.
Hudson has always been attracted to Alexa, and he doesn’t understand why she is with Jeremy. To be fair, neither do I. But attraction alone isn’t enough to make a romance work. What interests me is what Hudson does when he doesn’t know Alex is Alexa.
He is willing to put himself on the line for Alex. His deal with Phoenix costs him his captaincy, and while that loss bothers him, his willingness to take the risk gives his character a leg to stand on.. Before he knows the truth, he has already shown us something about how he treats a teammate.
That distinction matters. I don’t just want a romantic lead who recognizes the heroine’s worth because he wants to date her. I want someone whose behavior gives me a reason to believe he can be a good partner.
Lewis brings the heartthrob appeal, of course. But his vulnerability is what makes me invest. He lets Hudson care, and he makes that caring feel like something that can cost him. There is a difference between playing a man who looks good in a romance and playing a man whose happiness you start worrying about. Lewis gives me the latter.
That is where he excels: making you root for the person underneath the romantic lead. I want Hudson to win, but I also want him to be understood. Lewis gives that desire enough emotional weight that the romance has something to build on beyond attraction.
THE BEST PART OF THE ROMANCE IS MAKING ROOM FOR EACH OTHER
What works about Alexa and Hudson is the possibility of a relationship that doesn’t require Alexa to step away from what she loves. Hockey isn’t simply the backdrop where she meets a man. It is something she wants for herself.
That should remain true even when she falls for someone.
After Jeremy, the appealing alternative isn’t merely a nicer boyfriend. It is a different kind of connection, one where her ideas and ambitions are part of what someone values about her rather than resources he can use.
Hudson doesn’t expect her to give up her dreams to placate him. Instead he wants her to chase her dreams. He asks through his actions for nothing more than her to follow what she wants.
However, the hidden identity complicates that connection. Hudson cannot fully know Alexa while she is keeping such a significant part of herself from him. That gives their time together tension beyond whether they are attracted to each other. There is the question of what they are actually building and how much can become real before everything is out in the open.
For me, that is where the emotional investment lives. Spending time together can create closeness, but a relationship also needs the chance to survive honesty. I want the attraction, absolutely. I also want the relief of being able to stop performing and trust that the person beside you still wants to stay.
Gibson’s mix of humor and vulnerability, alongside Lewis’s emotional openness, makes that possibility worth rooting for. Alexa deserves to be wanted as herself: talented, imperfect, ambitious, and still figuring things out. The romance is most appealing when it feels like it could give her room to be all of those things.
A TEAM WITH MORE STORIES TO TELL
One of the smartest choices here is building a world that can support more than one central romance. Like a connected series of standalone books, this story introduces people whose futures could become their own reason to keep watching.
That does not mean I am equally invested in everyone yet. Hudson and Jeremy’s rivalry could use more definition; being on opposing teams gives them a reason to compete, but I wanted a clearer sense of what makes their conflict personal.
Phoenix, on the other hand, certainly gets a reaction.
Cameron Porras plays him with enough cocky entitlement that I wanted someone to knock him down several pegs. I often find Porras likable onscreen, so watching him make Phoenix this frustrating is a reminder that likability and effectiveness are not the same thing. Here, making me dislike the character is part of the job.
And yet, I am curious about whether Phoenix can become better. That is useful groundwork for another story, provided any growth asks him to take responsibility rather than expecting charm to do the work.
Evan Adams has less to work with here. His dialogue and presence in this installment didn’t give me enough to form the same investment, which feels more like a limitation of the material than a fair measure of the performer. If the next stories give him more space, I would be interested to see what he does with it.
ALEXA’S FUTURE BELONGS TO ALEXA
By the time Alexa’s identity is exposed and she takes down Jeremy, the satisfaction isn’t just in watching him lose. It is in watching her refuse the limits he placed on her.
Gibson makes that payoff feel personal. The comedy gets us close to Alexa, the vulnerability gives us a reason to care, and the determination keeps the story moving. Lewis gives her a romantic counterpart worth investing in, but the strongest thing about this hockey romance is that falling for Hudson doesn’t have to be Alexa’s greatest accomplishment.
She has a game she loves. She has a mind worth listening to. She has a future that should never have depended on her boyfriend deciding she was allowed to pursue it.
That is the kind of girl strength I want to cheer for: not a woman who never struggles, but one who starts believing that her dreams deserve the same care she has been giving everyone else’s.
So, am I still in my hockey era? Apparently. Before We Break: Playing Dirty gave me a romance to root for, but more importantly, it gave me a woman whose place on the ice I wanted to see respected.
The swooning is a bonus. Watching Alexa begin to claim her own life is the reason I stayed.
