TIME TO BOOK YOUR HOLIDAY READS
Now is the winter of our hockey discontent.
Shinny is taking some hard point shots for its handling of concussions, mental health, equal opportunity, affordability, not to mention the recent rash of hard-ass coaches allegedly physically abusing players.
Those troubling topics found their way into some of this year’s Christmas hockey books, but if we didn’t give a damn about the game, there wouldn’t be so much puck stuff under the tree. And should you give the gift of reading on the national pastime, consider these:
Most Valuable
Joyce
❚ Viking, $ 32.95
❚ 325 pages
Sidney Crosby is no kid anymore and who knows how much longer before time and attrition wear on him. So why not a close look at how Crosby influenced the game, putting the new in the new NHL, becoming its marketing mug and adding iconic moments such as the Golden Goal.
Gare Joyce has followed Crosby’s path since Pittsburgh came out of the lockout with this generational talent to rebuild around. After three Cups, the most in the salary cap era, Crosby gets high marks for aiding the league’s emergence from the dead-puck era and being linked to successors such as Steve Stamkos, Nathan Mackinnon, John Tavares and Connor Mcdavid.
Nicklas Lidstrom: The Pursuit Of Perfection
Gunnar Nordstrom and Bob Duff
❚ Triumph, $ 38
❚ 279 Pages
When the Red Wings look back at the 1989 draft, they could’ve been content with the great Sergei Fedorov, forwards Mike Sillinger and Dallas Drake, who’d each play for Detroit on the way to 1,000 NHL games and defenceman/ future coach Bob Boughner.
Oh yeah, there was that quiet Swedish defenceman they took in the third round, who’d go on to win four Stanley Cups, seven Norris trophies, accept the captain’s mantle from Steve Yzerman and shine on the international stage. Nicklas Lidstrom was nicknamed by his admiring teammates as The Perfect Human during his long tenure in Hockeytown (think Wings fans miss him now?) and this bio reveals what made him so incredibly dependable.
Two of the game’s top writers covered Lidstrom on both sides of the world and it’s also fascinating to get No. 5’s inside take on what made the Detroit teams of the 1990s and 2000s so strong.
Number 4 Bobby Orr: A Chronicle of the Bruins’ Greatest Decade 1966- 1976
Kevin Vantour and Kerry Keene
❚ Page Publishing, 392 pages
❚ $ 33.87
This was one of the hockey book critics’ choices, a numerical nirvana for those who rank Bobby Orr as the NHL’S greatest. His summaries are reviewed by season and further parsed into months and game- by- game stats, enhanced by pictures, interviews and clippings.
Beating The Odds In Hockey And In Life
Eddie Olczyk with Perry Lefko
❚ Triumph, US$ 28
❚ 319 pages
Few Nhlers can say they played, coached, have their name on the Cup and worked in TV. But only one transitioned from the broadcast booth at ice level to the starting gate at the Kentucky Derby.
That Ed Olczyk was even around to use his thoroughbred horse sense was remarkable as he took on Stage 3 colon cancer. Olczyk and former Postmedia scribe Lefko weave that battle in the Chicago native’s eventful journey with the Rangers’ title run, the Mario Lemieux era of the Penguins, the revival of the Blackhawks and how a family sticks together in challenging times. There are plenty of Olczyk anecdotes from hockey to jockeys, team ownership, management and media.
The Greatest, Weirdest Most Amazing NHL Debuts
Andrew Podnieks
❚ ECW, $ 24.95
❚ 200 pages
There’s a first time for everything and Podnieks lists the most noteworthy and offbeat in the NHL. Goalie Bert Lindsay, father of Ted, gave up nine goals on the opening night of NHL play in 1917 — yet his Montreal Wanderers still beat Toronto by scoring 10.
It’s on to the only four players to net the 1- 0 winners in their first games, those who scored on their first shift and shot beside Super Mario and how all nine Sutter brothers and sons, plus various international stars, fared in their initial forays.
Guardians of the Goal: A Comprehensive Guide To New York Rangers Goaltenders
George Grimm
❚ Sports Publishing, 312 pages
❚ $ 33.65
Another special for Original Sixers that bookworms from the Society for International Hockey Research backed, it details the 88 men through nearly 100 years who’ve minded the net at MSG. From The Gump to The King with a lot of surprising names and numbers in between.
A Fly In A Pail Of Milk: The Herb Carnegie Story
Herb Carnegie with Bernice Carnegie
❚ ECW, $ 19.95
❚ 300 pages
A revised edition from 1996 with commentary from Herb Carnegie’s daughter Bernice. Seven years after his passing, “the best black who never played in the NHL,” has more of his compelling life story come out.
Critics from way back in the late 1940s insisted he should’ve taken the Rangers’ offer to at least start on the farm and make his inevitable way up. But at 29, having been denied an NHL chance by old- schoolers such as Conn Smythe, Carnegie chose to support his family with better pay in Quebec. NHL history is poorer for how it all turned out, but Carnegie dedicated himself to helping young black players.
Offside: Challenges Faced By Women In Hockey, A Memoir
Rhonda Leeman Taylor and Denbeigh Whitmarsh
❚ Self- published $ 12.99
❚ 194 pages
Some might look at a growing list of female players entering the Hockey Hall of Fame and figure the gender gap must be closing.
But there is still no financially viable league for the top women to play in or young girls to aspire to. That they’re even getting recognition at the amateur level is a credit to advocates such as Rhonda Leeman Taylor, from a family of seven hockey loving kids in Kingston, Ont., who began playing in the 1960s. She endured with many others by having to hide her hair under a helmet when males picked sides before an all- girls team and the Queen’s University varsity squad led to a post with the Ontario Women’s Hockey Association.
To become a board member of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association, she had to navigate the old- boys network and while many of them were helpful, there was discrimination and one # Metoo moment with a colleague (since deceased) that complicated her work.
Taylor wants to “pass the torch” to the next generation with her personal observations to keep athletic opportunities open to all. A portion of book sales go to the Grindstone Award Foundation to help young girls afford to play.
Eddie Shack: Hockey’s Most Entertaining Stories
Eddie Shack and Ken Reid
❚ Frameworth, $ 34.95
❚ 214 pages
There are so many clichés and robotic players today, one forgets what a lovable loose cannon Eddie Shack was. We enjoyed the family visuals of this coffeetable project by Sportsnet’s Ken Reid, who joked he lost 5,000 words from his manuscript after weeding out Shack’s many expletives.
Before The Lights Go Out
Sean Fitz- Gerald
❚ Penguin, $ 34
❚ 296 pages
This is described as a “love letter to a sport that’s losing itself ” and there are some tough truths here. Fitz- Gerald, who always had sticks and gear jutting into the passenger seats of his car even before he became a hockey dad, spent a year following the people and players of the Peterborough Petes, the famous junior team in a hardcore Ontario hockey town. The kids still want to make the NHL, but the citizenry is finding it hard to cope from expenses at the grassroots and attracting a non-traditional fan base.
Reading this could save the cost of another Royal Commission, but we’d like to think resilience is also part of hockey’s DNA.
Scotty: A Hockey Life Like No Other
Ken Dryden
❚ Mcclelland & Stewart, $ 34.95
❚ 400 pages
Of the many who’ve tried to explain what the hell made Scotty Bowman tick, here’s someone who played for him and won five of his six Cups with the coach. The author of The Game tapped into some great Bowman bon mots from fellow members of the Montreal dynasty.
The Real Ogie: The Life and Legend of Goldie Goldthorpe
❚ Liam Maguire
❚ Burnstown Publishing, 240 pages $ 30
A look underneath that famous mop of hair and the legendary enforcer’s career in six different leagues. You’ll see quite a different man than his Slap Shot movie character Ogie Oglethorpe.
The Grim Reaper: Life And Career Of A Reluctant Warrior
Stu Grimson
❚ Viking, $ 24.58
❚ 352 pages
Stu Grimson is a real- life clubhouse lawyer, who augmented his fights with hitting the books to have something meaningful after the final bell sounded.
Relentless: My Life in Hockey and the Power of Perseverance
Bryan Berard with Jim Lang
❚ Simon and Schuster, 240 pages
❚ $ 27.59
Like Auston Matthews, Bryan Berard wore No. 34 for the Leafs, was an exciting American- born first overall pick with a great future. But Berard’s life changed forever on March 11, 2000, when Marian Hossa’s follow- through on an errant shot attempt caught him in the right eye.
Berard’s darkest moment as a player would reveal an inner strength that startled teammates, doctors and the hockey world. This is his journey from gifted prospect to being blinded to staying in the game against great odds and finding peace after retirement.
No Days Off
Max Domi with Jim Lang
❚ Simon and Schuster, 224 pages
❚ $ 18.99
Like father, like son. Three years after Tie Domi and Jim Lang combined for Shift Work, it’s Max Domi’s turn with quite a different yarn.
You’ll melt at the cover, Domi and his six- year old service dog Orion, who is trained to recognize odour changes in Type 1 diabetic Domi’s blood sugar via a pack around the Canadiens forward’s waist. Domi talks about his playing a demanding game with major medical issues and growing up in the Toronto fishbowl with tough- guy Tie, his dad, and Mats Sundin among his influential elders.
This Team is Ruining My Life
Steve ( Dangle) Glynn
❚ ECW, $ 19.95
❚ 296 pages
Amid the tsunami of stay- athome social-media mavens hoping to lure NHL and Leaf clicks in particular, Steve ( Dangle) Glynn rode the crest of the wave.
From a street- hockey urchin to teenage blogging all the way to his own show on Sportsnet, Dangle relates the trial and error in attracting a new generation of fans and making a career out of ranting. ECW does many fine Canadian hockey books and despite a spring release, this remained its top 2019 seller in the genre.