Hockey Book Reviews.com

Top Ten Montreal Canadiens Books

2009-12-02T07:30:00.000-05:00

With the 100th anniversary of the Montreal Canadiens officially upon us, I thought I'd count down the top ten books about Les Glorieux:

10. Jacques Plante: Man Who Changed Face of Hockey by Todd Denault - Published just this autumn, it is one of the best hockey biographies I've ever read. On top of that, the book captures the essence of the 1950s dynasty nicely.

9. Rocket Richard: Reluctant Hero by Chrys Goyens and Frank Orr - A beautiful coffee table book with surprising written content, Goyens and Orr offer an honest look at Rocket Richard's impact.

8. Our Life With The Rocket by Roch Carrier - This book ranks higher on my list than many other people would rank on theirs, but I thoroughly enjoyed Carrier's book about growing up with the undeniable influence of Rocket Richard and the Montreal Canadiens.

7. Lions In Winter by Allan Turowetz and Chris Goyens - Perhaps the most thorough text covering the Habs history, the book was first published in 1986 with updated re-releases over the years. The most recent update was supposed to be available in autumn 2009, but was postponed to a future date.

6. The Montreal Canadiens: 100 Years Of Glory by D'Arcy Jenish - Deserves mention with Lions in Winter. It kind of has taken the torch from Lions, although through a much different vantage point. Jenish collects newspaper and media reports throughout the years, telling the story of the Canadiens as it has been archived by history.

5. My Life In Hockey By Jean Beliveau - The often updated and re-released autobiography of Quebec's second most favorite son, Beliveau's book is just like him - full of class, elegance, and success.

4. The Habs by Dick Irvin - Dick Irvin Jr. literally grew up in the Habs dressing room. His legendary father was the coach, and he was a very observant adolescent who would go onto become a legendary broadcaster. No one knows the Habs better, and he documents their history with that dressing room feeling only bettered by Ken Dryden.

3. La Glorieuse Des Canadiens by Pierre Bruneau et Léandre Normand - I wish I could read more French so I could actually read this book. Robert Lefebvre of Eyes On The Prize tells me "A French book that is a bible, a season by season summary that has everything you'd ever want to know about the Habs documented and detailed."

2. The Game by Ken Dryden - The greatest hockey book ever? One of the top ten sports books, out of any sport, of all time.

1. The Hockey Sweater/Le Chandail de Hockey by Roch Carrier - The children's book is something every Canadian kid grows up with. It's like Sesame Street or street hockey. Published in French in 1979 and in English in 1984, it has become a Canadian rite of passage, and the best selling hockey book of all time. It is one of the top selling Canadian books of all time. Heck, a passage from the book is immortalized on the back of the $5 bill!

Lesser Known Montreal Canadiens Books

2009-12-01T02:27:00.015-05:00

Here's a visual look at some of the lesser known books on the Montreal Canadiens:

2009 Hockey Book Of The Year

2009-11-27T00:04:00.018-05:00

It should come as no surprise that the HockeyBookReviews.com 2009 Hockey Book Of The Year is Theoren Fleury's tell-all autobiography Playing With Fire.

Buy The Book: Amazon.ca - Chapters - Amazon.com

Tell-all is right. Fleury talks about all of his demons - the drugs, the alcohol, the gambling, the promiscuity - and finally reveals the sad truth behind it all. He was sexually abused by infamous junior coach Graham James.

In a weak year for hockey books, nothing really came close to Fleury's book. It has been a Canadian best seller for weeks, drawing the most attention from media across North America. No book rivaled that attention.

Fleury has won over fans all around the world, which was not easy given he was one of the most hated hockey players of his era. He has earned everyone's respect for the bravery he has shown with this book, and with the progress he has made in his life. Once again we are all cheering for the little underdog in the biggest fight in his life.

Co-author Kirstie McLellan Day deserves full credit for her role writing the book, keep the darkness of Fleury's life very evident in the pages of this book. Her expert touch gives the reader an idea of the emotion and anger of Fleury's life.

Other Nominees

In deciding the HockeyBookReviews.com 2009 Hockey Book of The Year I shortlisted the following four titles:

Gretzky's Tears: Hockey, Canada and The Day Everything Changed by Stephen Brunt. Canada's leading sports columnist gives us a detailed look back at the Wayne Gretzky trade then and now. In addition to giving us a fascinating behind the scenes look at the mechanics of the trade, Brunt gives us an interesting look at the key players, perhaps even changing the reader's paradigms concerning Gretzky and Pocklington.

Buy The Book: Amazon.ca - Chapters - Amazon.com

Hockey Dad: True Confessions From a (Crazy) Hockey Parent By Bob McKenzie - This was not the hockey book everyone was expecting from the hockey insider Bob McKenzie when he finally got around to writing a book. Instead of a book about the inside dealings of the NHL, he talks about his private life as a hockey dad and minor hockey coach. In doing so he comes across as the most likeable character of the 2009 hockey book season.

Buy The Book - Amazon.ca - Chapters - Amazon.com

Jacques Plante: The Man Who Changed The Face Of Hockey by Todd Denault. The best 2009 biography was an easy choice, as Todd Denault's amazing research and eloquent writing gave us an amazing look at one of hockey's most important - and most misunderstood - figures in goaltender Jacques Plante. Denault provides the ultimate text on Plante, while he secures the commentary of the likes of Jean Beliveau and Henri Richard to bring him back to life.

Buy The Book: Amazon.ca - Chapters - Amazon.com

Warriors of Winter by Sheldon Kannegeisser - This book is essentially the autobiography of former NHL journeyman Sheldon Kannegeisser, or as he refers to himself as, the Blueline Balladeer. That's because this book is an interesting collection of poetry that weaves together to form the story of one life in hockey. Kannegeisser has a pretty limited audience and small distribution, but he also has the most innovative project of 2009.

Buy The Book: warriorsofwinter.com

The hockey book class of 2009 has something for everyone, including books on the upcoming Olympics and hockey books for kids. Here is the full listing of 2009 Hockey Books. Click on the links for my full book reviews. Also be sure to check for the 2009 paperback and re-releases list.

Gabby: Confessions of a Hockey Lifer by Bruce Boudreau

2009-11-26T23:33:00.003-05:00

Bruce Boudreau's autobiography Gabby: Confessions of a Hockey Lifer is full of entertaining and engaging stories about a minor leaguer who finally makes it to the NHL.

Buy The Book - Amazon.ca - chapters.indigo.ca - Amazon.com

Boudreau of course was a minor league hockey player who never could stick in the NHL, largely because he was not (or did not know how to be) dedicated enough to do what it takes. He eventually figured it out, becoming a very good minor league coach. With a little luck, he was in the right situation at the right time when he was asked coach Alexander Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals.

Boudreau has never looked back. He is now known as the very likeable Caps coach, an overnight success story 50 years in the making.

Bottom line - it's a typical hockey biography. If you are a fan of Bruce Boudreau or of the Washington Capitals (who he talks about with the greatest affection) or of the minor leagues, you will find some interesting stories here. It's far from a classic otherwise, with Boudreau's minor league run-ins with Sean Avery as the only extraordinary story for readers with no particular attachment.

Tim Leone deserves a word of praise. As the co-writer he did a great job at keeping this book obviously in Boudreau's voice. And Kudos to Boudreau and the publishers for keeping this book "PG-13." The minor leagues can be a dirty place, but Boudreau keeps it clean.

I particularly like Boudreau's message of regret, and how he wants readers to never have that regret in their lives: "Here's a personal message for young players: Use Bruce Boudreau as an example of what not to do so you don't have to live with the regrets that have haunted me. My priorities were wrong, and I wasn't serious enough about the game. That's strange in light of how serious I am about the game now; my whole life is the game."

Making It In Hockey by Mark Moore

2009-11-26T23:32:00.001-05:00

Looking for an instructional book for the aspiring player or perhaps his or her parents or even coaches on your Christmas shopping list? You will want to consider HB Fenn's Making It in Hockey: What You Should Know from the Experts and Pros.

Buy The Book: Amazon.ca - Chapters - Amazon.com

The book is written by Mark Moore, a Harvard graduate known the "smartest man in hockey" as suggested by his almost perfect SAT score (1590 out of 1600). He was drafted by the Pittsburgh Penguins though injuries ended his career before he really got started.

Oh yeah. He also happens to be the brother of well known NHL names Steve Moore and Dominic Moore.

It sounds like the perfect person to write a book on making it in hockey.

Moore does go into all of your typical drills of skating, puck control, passing, shooting and checking, all brilliantly illustrated. He goes into the expected training exercises, both on the ice and off, and both physically and mentally.

But what sets this book apart is Moore's attention to details that most how-to hockey books don't even think of.

He teaches the reader that it is okay to dream and to pursue your dream with passion and spirit. He talks about developing character and how to be a good teammate, and how to avoid the social and political pitfalls.

He guides you through some of the common issues encountered by players and parents in youth hockey and higher levels, allowing you to be prepared and educated. He also teaches the importance of fall back plans just in case a career in hockey is not in the cards.

The book is beautifully laid out, and instantly attracts the reader, which is very important. If you are going to invest yourself and your dreams to this book, you need to be instantly drawn to it. There is plenty of interesting extras throughout the text, such as Inside Stories and PRO-files looking at some of the most famous names in hockey. It is an inviting, easy read. Great job by Moore and by HB Fenn.

If you have serious aspirations of going far in the game (not necessarily the NHL but perhaps college or lower pro levels), this book certainly would be a highly recommended pick up.

And perhaps the best thing about this book is even if hockey is not your future, Moore teaches principles and foundations that are easily transferable to any aspect of life, including school and careers. If you embrace these fundamentals on the ice, you will also apply them in many other aspects of your life, setting you up to become a success at whatever you choose to do. So I highly have to recommend this book to parents for that particular reason.

Of course the player reading this book is mostly interested in it to become a hockey player. Purchasing the book also will get you free access to bonus content online at www.sportsmaster.tv, which includes interactive tools to see concepts in action and to manage your progress.

Interview With The Author - Todd Denault

2009-11-24T22:01:00.003-05:00

I recently had the opportunity to sit down and chat with author Todd Denault about his fantastic biography called Jacques Plante: Man Who Changed Face of Hockey.

In addition to reading the interview below, you can read my full book review and read an exclusive book excerpt, courtesy of McClelland & Stewart.

What drew you to write a biography on Jacques Plante?

A little over two year's ago, I was watching a hockey game one night on TSN. After the opening introduction, the camera zoomed in on that night's panel and there sitting right in the middle of the commentators was this little, brittle-looking mask.

The host quickly mentioned that this was the 48th anniversary of the night that Jacques Plante first donned the mask and there sitting on the desk was the actual mask. Later that night they discussed Plante and the mask and it occurred to me that I would like to read a book on Plante.

As a long-time fan of the Canadiens I've always been aware of Plante, but what I found when I went looking for the Plante book dismayed me. Here was a goalie who is maybe the most decorated in hockey history and unquestionably the most important and yet there was a dearth of books on the man, especially when compared to his contemporaries. For example, the past twenty year's have brought us three books on Terry Sawchuk, as well as autobiographies by Glenn Hall and Johnny Bower, yet nothing substantial on Plante.

Now keep in mind, that I had always had it in my head to write a book but like most aspiring writers I had always searched in vain for the ideal subject. Now as I was looking into the specifics of Plante's life, the light bulb went off and I began my journey.

Plante of course is known as the man who quite literally changed the face of hockey, by becoming the first to regularly wear a mask. What surprised you the most about his fight to wear the mask?

As I researched that part of the Jacques Plante story, the one thing that struck me the most was how Plante's fellow members of the goaltending fraternity were amongst the majority who condemned his decision.

Plante took a lot of abuse from those in management and in the media at the time but none was more scathing than that heaped upon him by "Gump" Worsley, and to a lesser extant Glenn Hall and Terry Sawchuk. Of course, all of them before they retired took to wearing a mask.

Plante revolutionized hockey. There are very few people you can say that about in any sport. Is Plante the most important innovative figure in hockey? In all of sport?

When we watch a hockey game today, at any level, on any given night, we see Plante's influence on the sport. It's hard to find somebody else in the history of hockey whom we could say the same of.

The closest comparison in baseball might be a Babe Ruth, a player who forever changed the dynamic of his sport for all those who followed.

Goalies are known for their quirks and Plante was no exception. Tell us about his.

Even amongst goalies it would be tough to find one quirkier than Plante. Of course, the most famous of these was his propensity for knitting. And while most people are aware that Plante was a knitter, they don't know the true extant of it. Throughout his life, Plante knitted all of his undergarments, socks, t-shirts, scarfs, mitts, toques, etc...

But beyond the knitting, Plante was a man of routine. Such was the extent of his devotion to his craft, that he only had his skates sharpened once a year - exactly at the halfway point of the season. He even had a specific timetable, which he followed religiously, for his personal grooming habits such as cutting his fingernails and toenails.

Why do you think Plante was such a misunderstood character?

Jacques Plante was the ultimate individual in the ultimate team sport. He was very outspoken and media savvy in an age where most of his contemporaries preferred to let their play do the talking.

He also preferred to keep his own company, avoided spending time in the bar with his teammates, didn't play cards on the long train rides, amongst many other things that differentiated him from his teammates. Jacques Plante was his own man and sometimes that put him at odds with the hockey establishment.

For all their success together, coach Toe Blake was not exactly a big fan of Plante. Why is this?

Toe Blake was the biggest fan of Jacques Plante the goalie. However, Blake found himself often at odds with the man. During the season's in which the Canadiens won five consecutive Stanley Cups their relationship was for the most part harmonious. However, in the three seasons that followed their relationship slowly disintegrated to the point of no return.

Toe Blake was an old-school hockey man and he didn't tolerate distractions and for him Plante eventually became too much of a distraction, hence his trade to the New York Rangers in the summer of 1963.

The research invested into this book is nothing short of amazing. How long did you work on this book?

The research and writing of the book took a little over a year with the last four months being the most intense. From the very start I had set as my goal the finding of anything and everything ever written or said on Jacques Plante. Between that and trying to interview as many people who knew Plante as I could, the whole point was to paint the fullest portrait possible.

Was Plante's family receptive to your biography?

Plante is survived by his oldest son and his second wife, who resides in Switzerland. I made numerous attempts to contact each of them. His widow declined my request as she now does with all media requests and I was never able to make contact with his son.

Hopefully, they will be receptive to the book and the portrayal of their father/husband.

After a life in the NHL, both on and off the ice, Plante relocated to Switzerland. Why Switzerland?

Switzerland was the home of his second wife.

Aside from wanting to begin a life with her in Switzerland I think that Plante enjoyed the atmosphere that the country provided. The climate did wonders for his asthma and he was also able to enjoy a little anonymity. He used to enjoy sitting outside the cafe's of Sierre in the morning, drinking coffee and reading the newspaper. It's hard to imagine him doing the same in Montreal or Quebec City.

He continued to engage with the game in Europe. Is his impact still being felt over there?

I think Jacques Plante's impact is still felt wherever the game of hockey is still played.

Six months after Plante's death, his widow established the Jacques Plante Foundation, the purpose of which is to aid in the development of young, prospective, Swiss goalies. The foundation also has sponsored clinics for minor-league goalies and those less fortunate.

In the Swiss National League the award for the best goaltender is named after Plante.

In 2006 at the Turin Olympics, Switzerland defeated Canada 2-0 in what was the biggest victory in Swiss hockey history. A few days later his widow received a postcard signed by the entire Swiss team.

Who is the greatest goalie in hockey history? Where does Plante rank in your opinion?

I think there is no doubt that Jacques Plante is the most important goalie to ever play the game.

As for the greatest, it would be tough to rank anyone ahead of him.

Seven Vezina trophies, seven times leading the league in goals against, ten appearances in the Stanley Cup finals, six Stanley Cup championships ... all of them tops amongst goalies.

And to top it all off Plante may have had his best year in 1970-71 with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Named to the second All-Star team, finished fifth in voting for the Hart Trophy, he led the league in goals against, and led all goalies with a save percentage of .942 - the highest single season number ever recorded in NHL history.

And all of it accomplished at the age of 42.

Orange Black and Blue by Chuck Gormley

2009-11-21T19:53:00.004-05:00

Chuck Gormley's Orange, Black & Blue: The Greatest Philadelphia Flyers Stories Never Told represents a life time of work.

Award-winning beat reporter Chuck Gormley has been following the Philadelphia Flyers for over two decades, and has followed them for as long as he can remember. Now he's put the best of the best into his new book.

He takes you down Broad Street for the Flyers’ victory parades; guides you through the tumultuous Mike Keenan Era; and allows you to be the judge and jury in the heated confrontations between Eric Lindros and Bob Clarke. All the while, he takes you into the hearts, minds and souls of some of the most colorful characters in NHL history.

Buy The Book - Amazon.ca - Chapters - Amazon.com
Author's Website - http://www.chuckspuck.com

What a fantastic book! Gormley pieces together the Flyers' colorful history through countless short stories from each era. Some of the stories you may have heard before, many you definitely will not have, and all are entertaining.

My favorite so far - the story of the Flyers very first parade in the city of Philadelphia. No, not their Stanley Cup parades, but their "Welcome Parade" prior to their inaugural season, introducing the players and the team to the city.

"We were all in convertibles and there was no one at the parade except us," Flyers owner Ed Snider tells Gormley.

"There were more people in the parade than there were watching," added original Flyer Joe Watson.

From that inauspicious beginning the Flyers turned Philadelphia into one of the greatest hockey towns in the world!

Everything is covered through Gormley's "greatest Flyers stories never told," from Bobby Clarke's tenacity to Ron Hextall's exuberance to Kate Smith's warbling to Stanley Cup championships to near misses decades later. It is a uniquely done, highly entertaining chronicle of one of the most storied franchises in team sports.

If you are a Flyers fan, there is no debate - you must own this book. You can not bleed Flyers' orange and not have it. It's that good!

Best Hockey Books For Kids

2009-11-19T18:03:00.000-05:00

Christmas is coming, and we all have some hockey crazed youth on our shopping list. So why not get him or her a hockey themed book? Give them the gift of hockey and reading, usually in the $10 range.

Here's my recommended list, based on entertainment value, readability and message.

Just One Goal by Robert Munsch, Illustrated by Michael Martchenko.
HockeyBookReviews.com Full Review

Perhaps the world's most prolific children's author has dreamed up an amazing story about a little girl who loves hockey. She builds the community a rink on the frozen river, but her team never wins. She's determined to score her team a victory, even as the thawing rink presents great danger

It does not get better than this - Hockey and Robert Munsch!

Amazon.ca - chapters.indigo.ca - Amazon.com

The Hockey Tree By David Ward, Illustrated by Brian Deines
HockeyBookReviews.com Full Review

This highly acclaimed book from 2006 makes it's paperback debut in 2008. The Hockey Tree is a great story about a father, son and daughter enjoying Canada's great game on a frozen lake. But they run into a problem when their puck falls into an ice fisherman's hole. Have no fear, dad has a plan to keep the hockey going, but he needs the kids to help him find the perfect tree - The Hockey Tree

It's a great story folks, but the illustrations really make this book perfect. Using soft tones illustrator Brian Deines perfectly captures the great Canadian dream of hockey in it's purest form.

Buy The Book - Amazon - Chapters - Amazon.com

Brady Brady hockey series by Mary Shaw, Illustrated by Chuck Temple
HockeyBookReviews.com Full Review

The kid in me was instantly taken by the cartoonish illustrations and the brilliant use of colour. It is sure to catch anyone's eye. And better yet I was then wowed by the fun story telling complete with strong moral messages. Fun plus a good message is the necessary equation for any kid's title that I am going to endorse, and Brady Brady tops the list!

Buy The Books - Amazon.ca - Chapters - Amazon.com

Dino-Hockey by Lisa Wheeler
HockeyBookReviews.com Full Review

Written by veteran children's book author Lisa Wheeler and beautifully illustrated by Barry Gott, this book, aimed at ages 4 to 9, is a fun read that can be enjoyed by both kids and parents. The rhyming text had me chuckling, aided nicely colorful paintings of exaggerated expressions of dinosaurs trying to play hockey.

The premise of the book is of a a hockey game played between opposing dinosaur teams: the Meat-Eaters and the Veggiesaurs. The scowling T. Rex redefines intimidation on ice, while the slap stick humor of the pterodactyl twins keep things light. My favorite characters are the overlooked Dodo bird referee, and the concession stand operator selling various forms of prehistoric delicacies to the crowd - meat and plants, of course.

Buy the book: Amazon.ca - Chapters - Amazon.com

The Rocket by Mike Leonetti and Greg Banning
HockeyBookReviews.com Full Review
Interview with Mike Leonetti

Leonetti tells the story of Rocket Richard through an aspiring young hockey player named Andre. Andre loves the Rocket, and he loves to play hockey. But he gets tired of always being compared to his big brother, the real hockey star of the family. Then one day Andre and his father are lucky enough to attend a Montreal Canadiens game and watch the Rocket score no less than 5 goals.

Sitting beside Andre that night at the game is the star of Andre's hockey league. He discovers that as good as this other kid is, he too constantly has to put up with comparisons to his big brother. I won't give too much away, other than to say Andre learns the other kid's name is Henri.

Buy the book: | Amazon.ca - Chapters - Amazon.com |
The book is also available in Canada in French: | Amazon.ca - Chapters|

Home Ice: Canada's 2010 Men's Olympic Hockey Team Guide by Lorna Schultz Nicholson
HockeyBookReviews.com Full Review

Officially licensed by Hockey Canada complete with a foreword by Steve Yzerman and an introduction by Bob Nicholson, the book features profiles of all 46 NHL players invited to Team Canada's Olympic orientation camp back in August 2009. 23 of those players will comprise Canada's Olympic team. The other 23 will be after-thoughts, making this title a bit unnecessary. A book of this quality featuring only the 23 players who do make the team would make for a nice keep-sake. With Canada not naming the actual Olympic team until December 31st, publishing deadlines makes that almost impossible. No doubt there will be spectacular magazine releases and tons of television and online coverage to commemorate the team well before the Olympics.

Perhaps that's why this book is aimed more at the juvenile market. Schultz-Nicholson is a veteran youth writer, offering excellent biographies. The team at HB Fenn put together a beautiful book with glossy pages and color action photography throughout, as well as statistical compendiums for kids to devour.

Buy The Book: Amazon.ca - Chapters - Amazon.com

Howling Timberwolves Series by Sigmund Brouwer

2009-11-18T16:16:00.004-05:00

I received a pleasant surprise in the mail today. Leslie at Orca Book Publishers sent me a package of hockey themed children's titles you should be made aware of before you complete your Christmas shopping.

Orca Book Publishers is a Canadian children's book publisher out of Victoria, putting out approximately 60 new books each year, including some great hockey series.

Perhaps the most successful line is The Howling Timberwolves series by best selling author Sigmund Brouwer. The books are all early chapter books for beginning readers, ages 7 through 9. The plots all revolve around the Timberwolves hockey team in the tiny town of Howling.

The series is perfect for the hockey loving youth in your life, especially if they are reluctant readers. The books are easy to read and fun and full of humour that kids will love, but also full of positive messages parents will love.

There have been two new additions to the series in 2009. Book 6, Timberwolf Tracks, was released in the spring, while Timberwolf Rivals has just been released here in November.

Previous releases in the series include Timberwolf Revenge, Timberwolf Chase, Timberwolf Hunt, Timberwolf Trap, and Timberwolf Challenge.

It should be noted the original five titles were all illustrated by Dean Griffiths, while Graham Ross has picked up the line without missing a beat beginning with book six.

Buy The Books - Amazon.ca - Chapters - Amazon.com

Teachers and school librarians should note that the author is available for school visits. He loves talking to children about reading and writing with his high energy presentations aimed at getting children dreaming big and reading lots.

These books should be in every youth library collection in Canada. If you have a child in the 7-9 age range who likes hockey and may be a bit of reluctant reader, these books should be on your Christmas radar. The jacket price is just $7.

Oil King Courage by Sigmund Brouwer

2009-11-18T16:15:00.004-05:00

Attention all young fans of the Edmonton Oil Kings!

Orca Book Publishers Orca Sports series has a new book aimed at you: Oil King Courage by best selling author Sigmund Brouwer. The book is written in a fast-paced style and at a comfortable reading level that will attract even the most reluctant readers.

This is a story about Edmonton Oil Kings popular player Reuben Reuben. It is soon revealed that he has a hockey game as unforgettable as his name and his Inuit heritage. Life changes in a hurry for him and his best friend Gear when a wealthy businessman sponsors a three-on-three pond-hockey tour across the western Arctic. Reuben and Gear find out more than they ever bargained for about teamwork, about the North and about a dangerous family secret.

The Orca Sports series is aimed a youth ages 10 and up. This is Brouwer's 15th title in the entertaining mystery series, and his 9th focusing on hockey. Each of his hockey titles feature fictional characters on actual WHL teams. Previous titles headlined the Red Deer Rebels (Rebel Glory), Medicine Hat Tigers (Tiger Threat), Kamloops Blazers (Blazer Drive), Spokane Chiefs (Chief Honor), Portland Winter Hawks (Winter Hawk Star), Seattle Thunderbirds (Thunderbird Spirit) and the WHL in general (All-Star Pride).

Buy The Books - Amazon.ca - Chapters - Amazon.com

Brouwer has also offered titles concentrating on football, basketball, soccer, track and field and car racing.

Bottom line - if you're looking for a book of high interest but an easy reading level to entice reluctant readers, the Orca Sports series is a great place to look, especially if you are in a WHL city. All books are under $10.

The Trail Less Travelled by Don Reddick

2009-11-18T12:43:00.000-05:00

Don Reddick is an award-winning author of historical fiction, whose books include Dawson City Seven and Killing Frank McGee.

In his new book he returns to the famous story of the famous Stanley Cup challenge from the Yukon, more specifically the re-enactment nearly 100 years later, in The Trail Less Traveled.

On December 18, 1904, the upstart Dawson City Klondikers began their 4,000-mile trek to wrest the Stanley Cup from the Ottawa Silver Seven. Twenty-four days later, after trudging 350 miles behind their dog teams, lurching and rolling down the inside passage, and whiling away endless days on the CPR, the rubber-legged, travel-worn players staggered into Ottawa’s Union Station. In less than thirty-six hours they would meet their fate against the greatest hockey team ever assembled, creating the most enduring legend in hockey history.

Ninety-two years later a team of oldtimer hockey players from Dawson City re-created that epic journey, inviting Don Reddick to accompany them. As the team wends its way once again through the Yukon wilderness, down Alaska’s panhandle, and across the vast Canadian shield to face the Ottawa Senators alumni, Reddick weaves his way through the history of the original games, the backdrop of the Klondike gold rush, and the characters of today’s Yukon.

The book is available at DonReddick.com

Home Ice by Lorna Schultz Nicholson

2009-11-17T03:48:00.000-05:00

The Canadian Olympic hockey team dominates hockey discussion in this country (well, at least outside of Toronto), and that is going to into overdrive with 2010 Winter Olympics coming to Vancouver in February 2010.

Publishers and authors are all over this, knowing Team Canada and Olympic titles will be hot sellers this Christmas season. HB Fenn and veteran author Lorna Schultz Nicholson are offering a solid title for kids and young adult hockey fans with Home Ice: Canada's 2010 Men's Olympic Hockey Team Guide.

Buy The Book: Amazon.ca - Chapters - Amazon.com

Officially licensed by Hockey Canada complete with a foreword by Steve Yzerman and an introduction by Bob Nicholson, the book features profiles of all 46 NHL players invited to Team Canada's Olympic orientation camp back in August 2009. 23 of those players will comprise Canada's Olympic team. The other 23 will be after-thoughts, making this title a bit unnecessary. A book of this quality featuring only the 23 players who do make the team would make for a nice keep-sake. With Canada not naming the actual Olympic team until December 31st, publishing deadlines makes that almost impossible.No doubt there will be spectacular magazine releases and tons of television and online coverage to commemorate the team well before the Olympics.

Perhaps why this book is aimed more at the juvenile market. Schultz-Nicholson is a veteran youth writer, offering excellent biographies. The team at HB Fenn put together a beautiful book with glossy pages and color action photography throughout, as well as statistical compendiums for kids to devour.

Perhaps the most interesting inclusion in the player profiles is a black box of fast facts for each player, where we can learn fascinating facts about them. Did you know that Sidney Crosby's favorite band is Great Big Sea, or that Vincent Lecavalier's favorite tv show is Dexter or that Jason Spezza appeared in a Minute Maid commercial at the age of 5?

If you're looking for some Team Canada/2010 Olympic material for a youth on your Christmas shopping list, this would be good title. For an older and more sophisticated fan, you may want to consider Canada's Olympic Hockey History, 1920-2010

Pelle Lindbergh: Behind The White Mask by Thomas Tynander and Bill Meltzer

2009-11-16T18:50:00.003-05:00

If I told you one of the best books of 2009 was about a fascinating goaltender with his distinctive mask, you would no doubt think of Todd Denault's excellent title Jacques Plante: Man Who Changed Face of Hockey.

Well 2009 has at least two such books, because Thomas Tynander's excellent book Pelle Lindbergh: Behind the White Mask has been translated into English by Bill Meltzer.

Buy The Book: Amazon.ca - Chapters - Amazon.com

Lindbergh was on the fast track to NHL superstardom, leading the NHL with 40 wins, winning the Vezina trophy, and leading his Flyers to the Stanley Cup finals in just his second full NHL season. With his bright white Bernie Parent style mask, he was easily one of the league's most popular players on both sides of the Atlantic ocean.

Unfortunately he was also on the fast track of life, and then death. Early in the 1985-86 season Lindbergh died after crashing his Porsche 930 Turbo in a drinking and driving accident. He was kept on life support only so that his father could come from Sweden to say good bye.

As a young fan back then, it was hard to deal with. How could someone who was on top of the world have lost it all so quickly?

That is the background story behind this compelling book by Tynander. The book was first released in Sweden in 2006, and became a best seller. Bill Meltzer, a NHL.com journalist who taught himself Swedish, translates the book for English audiences.

The authors give us a great look into the life of Lindbergh, from his youth as a hockey-crazed boy to his obsession with speed. They do a great job of painting Lindbergh as a genuine and wonderful person who loved life. It is in many ways more about Lindbergh the human being as it is about Pelle Lindbergh the NHL star.

The authors do not try to hide the inevitable truth that Pelle Lindbergh's story is a very sad one, even an angry one, especially given that his demise was so preventable.

Much like the real life story, this book is split into two distinctive stories - a celebration of a wonderful life, and the tragedy of a heart wrenching death. The book jumps back and forth between the two stories a bit, but what it lacks in flow it makes up for in emotion and insight.

Unpublished NHL Books

2009-11-13T02:14:00.002-05:00

I had a good chuckle when I saw this Twitter conversation: The best unpublished NHL hockey books.

2009 Hockey Books

2009-11-10T20:33:00.001-05:00

I spend a lot of time reviewing hockey books here at HockeyBookReviews.com. Making your online purchases via my links offsets costs of running my free websites. Look at it this way: If you like my work, and you think it's worth buying me a cup of coffee, then shop Amazon or Chapters via my links. I'm going to keep doing my work for free because I love doing this, but I'd greatly appreciate your support!

Here's a look at the class of 2009 hockey books.

100 Rangers Greats
Biggest Book of Hockey Trivia
Blue Ice
Canada's Game: Hockey and Identity
Canada's Olympic Hockey History, 1920-2010
Coast to Coast: Hockey & WWII
From The Broadcast Booth: Brian McFarlane
Gabby: Bruce Boudreau
Goaltenders: The Expansion Years
Good, Bad, Ugly: Detroit Red Wings
Gretzky's Tears: Stephen Brunt
Hat Trick: Harley Hotchkiss
Hockey Dad: Bob McKenzie
I'd Trade Him Again: Pocklington
Jacques Plante: Man Who Changed Face of Hockey
Leafs Abomination
Le Québec mis en échec
Let's Talk Hockey
Let The Games Begin
NHL Guide & Record Book
Now Is The Winter
Pick Up Hockey
Playing With Fire: Theo Fleury
Puck Funnies
Reflections 2009
7 Pre-Game Habits of Pro Hockey Players
Squaw Valley Gold
Team Canada 2010: An Official Guide
The Hockey Goalie's Complete Guide
The Pursuit of Hockeyness
The Rangers, Bruins & End Of An Era
The Rocket: A Cultural History
TSN: 25 Years
The Year of the Penguins
Warriors of Winter
Women On Ice
World Class Hockey Trivia

Children/Young Adult
-----------------------
2009-2010 Hockey Superstars
Big Train
Dino Hockey
Fever Season
Fighting For Gold: Sledge hockey
Hockey Hero
Hockey Night Tonight
I Love My Hockey Mom
Making It: Guide for Players, Parents, Coaches
On This Day In Hockey
Polar Bears On Ice
Rebel Power Play
Thanks To My Hockey Dad
The Sterling Seven
The Rocket: Mike Leonetti
Tough Guys

2009 Paperbacks and Re-Releases

Thanks To My Hockey Dad/I Love My Hockey Mom

2009-11-10T09:55:00.001-05:00

There is a pretty charming pair of hockey books that will melt the heart of any parent. Especially hockey parents.

Jason Howell is the head coach of the Flyers Novice AE Team. With the help of teacher/hockey mom Jennifer Sutoski, he had his group of seven and eight year olds write down why they loved their hockey dad and hockey mom, complete with an accompanying crayon-drawn picture.

The results were compiled into two similar books - Thanks to My Hockey Dad and I Love My Hockey Mom. None other than Don Cherry even writes the book's foreword.

The reasons are varied, all touching and honest, some surprising and some down right hilarious. The drawings are equally telling and entertaining.

This would be an excellent book for one hockey parent to give to the other hockey parent under the Christmas tree on behalf of the child. Perhaps an idea for future editions would be to leave a couple of blank pages for our children to personalize the book with their own note and drawing.

Jacques Plante: The Man Who Changed The Face Of Hockey by Todd Denault

2009-11-07T16:15:00.006-05:00

Folks, I've finally found a true contender for the 2009 Hockey Book of the Year award.

Jacques Plante: The Man Who Changed the Face of Hockey by Todd Denault is worthy of mention in the sentence as Theo Fleury's autobiography Playing With Fire. Stephen Brunt's Gretzky's Tears and Bob McKenzie's Hockey Dad will also get consideration.

Read An Jacques Plante Exclusive Excerpt
Buy The Book: Amazon.ca - Chapters - Amazon.com

Todd Denault has penned an amazing biography of Jacques Plante, the man I have long considered to be the greatest goalie in hockey history. Moreover, I would easily rank him as the most important and influential goalie, perhaps player of any kind, in the game's long history.

Plante is obviously one of the greatest goalies of all time. The seven time all star won six Stanley Cups, seven Vezina trophies as top goalie and one Hart trophy, a true rarity for a goalie, as league MVP. He still ranks as the 6th winningest goalie in NHL history.

More importantly he was also incredibly influential. Of course you know he popularized the use of the mask. Did you know he also greatly influenced it's evolution. He was also the first goalie to wander the ice to play the puck. He developed communication symbols with his defensemen. Many of the duties goalies do nowadays that we take for granted were started by Plante. Simply put, he is one of the most innovating figures in the history of hockey.

But he was also a great misunderstood character. He was mysterious and complex, and often kept to himself. He was outspoken and defiant, often clashing with a dismissive and narrow-minded hockey establishment.

Denault does an amazing job with this biography, redefining the term exhaustive research in the process. With Plante dead for over 20 years of stomach cancer, Denault was forced to thoroughly investigate newspaper and other printed archives to piece together this jigsaw puzzle. Denault was every bit as meticulous with his craft as Plante was with his.

The result is an amazing biography, although it has a bit of an academic text book feel to it. Denault offers us his years of research, but does not quite take the next step and draws the reader in emotionally from cover to cover, a la Jack Falla.

That's alright, because in between the many facts there are some great stories in here, thanks to interviews with the likes of Jean Beliveau, Henri Richard, Dickie Moore and Scotty Bowman.

My favorite story comes in the book's prologue. Plante insisted that for quite some time the nets in three of NHL's six cities were 2 inches lower than the other three. When the NHL measured the nets, they were shocked to find out the nets in New York, Boston and Chicago were all smaller!

Then there was the many examples of Plante's eccentricities, from his frugalness to his passion for knitting.

As a goaltending coach later in life, how he predicted Patrick Roy would never make it to the NHL. Ironically it was Roy who would take goaltending to the next level of evolution. Plante, who had to fight the establishment to make his progressions, was now the dismissive establishment.

And then there was early death at the age of 57. He was living in Switzerland by that time, and had just been diagnosed with an untreatable and aggressive form of stomach cancer. When his coffin was carried from the church following the funeral mass, it passed under an arch of hockey sticks held high by a team of young hockey players from Quebec, visiting Switzerland for a tournament.

After just a few pages into this book it was obvious Todd Denault had written an instant classic. I can not recommend this book enough. Plante was one of the game's true great players. He is sadly unknown to many of today's generations of fans. He is truly worthy of such a fine commemoration.

Dino Hockey by Lisa Wheeler with Barry Gott

2009-11-07T15:20:00.003-05:00

I was snooping around the book section in a local pharmacy this morning and I discovered a kid's hockey book I guarantee the young hockey fan on your Christmas list will enjoy.

What do all kids love? Dinosaurs! So what will your little puckster enjoy reading? Dino-Hockey!

Buy the book: Amazon.ca - Chapters - Amazon.com

Written by veteran children's book author Lisa Wheeler and beautifully illustrated by Barry Gott, this book, aimed at ages 4 to 9, is a fun read that can be enjoyed by both kids and parents. The rhyming text had me chuckling, aided nicely colorful paintings of exaggerated expressions of dinosaurs trying to play hockey.

The premise of the book is of a a hockey game played between opposing dinosaur teams: the Meat-Eaters and the Veggiesaurs. The scowling T. Rex redefines intimidation on ice, while the slap stick humor of the pterodactyl twins keep things light. My favorite characters are the overlooked Dodo bird referee, and the concession stand operator selling various forms of prehistoric delicacies to the crowd - meat and plants, of course.

The book was originally published in 2007, and re-released in paperback in September. The paperback release coincides with the release of a new Dino title by Wheeler and Gott, Dino-Soccer. Since the soccer title is hinted at quite promisingly in the back of the hockey title, both books would go good together. By the way, Dino Baseball is tentatively scheduled for release April 2010.

Bottom line - I'm a huge proponent of getting kids into books early, and this fun and funny Dino series by Wheeler and Gott easily attracts kids. Kids will enjoy the books on their own, but it is also a great way to spend some time with mom, dad or an older sibling.

Big Train by Richard Brignall

2009-11-05T02:41:00.002-05:00

This is Lionel Conacher. The man they called "The Big Train" is truly a Canadian sporting legend. Lionel Conacher is arguably "Canada's Greatest Athlete" and is often referred to as "Canada's Jim Thorpe."

He is also the subject of Richard Brignall's new book Big Train: The Legendary Ironman of Sport, Lionel Conacher.

Buy The Book: Amazon.ca - Chapters - Amazon.com

He was a charter inductee in the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame (1951), and has been inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame (1963), the Hockey Hall of Fame (1994), and the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame.

In football, Conacher played for the Toronto Argonauts (1921-22) and won the Grey Cup in 1921. The previous year, he had won hockey's Memorial Cup as a member of the Toronto Canoe Club Paddlers. Conacher went on to a 12-year career in the NHL (1925-37), mostly with the Montreal Maroons, where he was a second-team all-star defenseman in 1932-33, and played on the Stanley Cup winning team of 1934-35. He first played on a Stanley Cup winner in his one season with the Chicago Blackhawks (1933-34), where Conacher was also a first-team all-star.

As a hockey player, not only was Conacher a solid defenseman, he was also known for his hard hitting and aggressive defense. He was always among the penalty-minutes leaders.

Conacher was a member of the Toronto Maple Leaf baseball team that won the Triple-A championship in 1926. And, in addition to being one of the greatest lacrosse players in the country, he was also an undefeated light-heavyweight boxer (and fought an exhibition bout against Jack Dempsey in 1922).

As an amateur wrestler, Conacher won the Ontario championship in the 125 pound weight class as a 16 year old in 1916. According to The Ring Magazine, he became a pro wrestler in Toronto in 1932, and toured Canada and USA and never lost a match. Lionel even boxed a 4 round exhibition fight with the legendary Jack Dempsey

After retiring from sports, Conacher was elected as a member of the Liberal party to the Ontario legislature in 1937 and to the Canadian House of Commons in 1949. He died in 1954, suffering a heart attack while playing in a softball game.

Conacher was voted Canada's Athlete of the Half Century by the Canadian Press in 1950 and is a top candidate for Canada's athlete of the 20th century when that poll is taken.

All in all, it makes for an amazing story, nicely written for the intended audience by Richard Brignall. The 112 book is put out by James Lorimer & Company as part of their RecordBooks series. The intended audience is young Canadians, with a recommended reading level of 4.8.

Sometimes I wonder how these books about long ago heroes connect with today's young readers, but I have no doubts that this book will inspire all of it's readers. The Lionel Conacher story is of a Canadian sports super-hero, something everyone can be proud of.

Brignall has previously released similar titles with Small Town Glory: The story of the Kenora Thistles' remarkable quest for the Stanley Cup and Forever Champions: The Enduring Legacy of the Edmonton Grads Women's Basketball Team. Also in 2009 he is releasing Fearless: The Story of George Chuvalo, Canada's Greatest Boxer

Minor Hockey To NHL: Parents Survival Guide by Paul Valliant

2009-11-05T01:34:00.000-05:00

I really enjoyed Bob McKenzie's book Hockey Dad. He talks of his own life as a hockey parent and youth coach, sharing what he's learned and how he grew as a parent and a person. As I read the book parts of the book I kept seeing myself or other sporting parents in the story. It was a real through provoking read on how parents are impacting their kids, and not always positively.

That got me thinking. The coaches of youth sports teams get to go clinics and seminars on how improve their coaching skills. The referees get to go to their own clinics and of course the players do, too. But there is no such education program on how to be a hockey parent. (Actually, just as I write this comes news of an education program for parents now existing for hockey parents in Calgary.) Maybe that is why we are doomed to repeat the "crazy" parent trend that can sometimes hurt our kids.

Enter Dr. Paul Valliant. He has a new book out called Minor Hockey To NHL: Parents Survival Guide. Through his own experiences, and through his insights as a psychologist, he informs hockey parents how to best assist their kids in the minor hockey system.

He gives parents an honest evaluation of many aspects of minor hockey. By doing so he gives parents an understanding of the rules, both written and unwritten, of minor hockey. With that understood, the parents can help their kids enjoy the game and take so much from it, both on and off the ice.

The book teaches parents to evaluate personality traits of players and coaches so you can best maximize the child's progression. With this knowledge you understand your impact and your coach's impact on young hockey players, and how to best motivate your child. Parents will know how to create a positive, rewarding environment for their children.

By reading Valliant's insights into the world of minor hockey, parents will also be able to maximize the highly rewarding experience of being a hockey parent. It is a great way to spend time with the kids and watch them grow, but also as a way for you to grow as a person and as a member of the community. By being proactive enough to identify the pitfalls Valliant identifies you will be prepared to be the best hockey parent you can be.

Amazon's New Kindle and Hockey e-Books

2009-11-04T00:42:00.000-05:00

The new Kindle Wireless Reading Device has been released by Amazon. The e-book reader remains available in the United States, but not Canada, but for American hockey fans there are lots of hockey titles available for the Kindle.

Amazon.com has recently opened up the Kindle Store, including a number of hockey books. Here's a look at what is available:

Notable Titles:
The Game by Ken Dryden

The Boys of Winter: The Untold Story of a Coach, a Dream, and the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team by Wayne Coffey

Ballad of the Whiskey Robber by Julian Rubinstein

Brodeur: Beyond the Crease by Martin Brodeur with Damien Cox

Between the Lines: Not-So-Tall Tales From Ray Scapinello by Ray Scapinello

Splendid Is The Sun: The 5,000 Year History of Hockey by George and Darill Fosty

Hockey Stories On And Off The Ice by Dan Diamond and James Duplacey

Eleven Seconds: A Story of Tragedy, Courage & Triumph by Travis Roy with E.M. Swift

Here are the other titles available:

Pucks and Sticks and Dirty Tricks by Robert Fennell
Seahawk: Confessions of an Old Goalie by Bruce Valley
The Official Book of Team Canada from Eh to Zed: The World Junior Championships by Kevin Gibson
The Canada Cup of Hockey Fact and Stat Book by H.J. Anderson
The Hockey Drill Book by Dave Chambers
Hockey Tough by Saul Miller
Hockey's Most Wanted: The Top 10 Book by Floyd Connor
Hard Core Hockey by Rand Pecknold and Aaron Froeste
Hockey Legend Myth & Verse by Artica Burr
Hockey - A Game of Passion by Martin Lambert
The Chums of Scranton High at Ice Hockey by Donald Ferguson
Gross Misconduct by Erik Cagle
Open Ice by Pat Hughes
Heart and Spirit - The Toronto Maple Leafs of 2001-2002 - A Fan's Journal by Doug Magwood
50 Mission Cap by Adrian Brijbassi
Wayne Gretzky by Matt Doeden

I'd Trade Him Again by Peter Pocklington, Foreword by Wayne Gretzky

2009-11-03T00:01:00.000-05:00

One of the biggest hockey books of 2009 is without doubt Stephen Brunt's Gretzky's Tears: Hockey, Canada, and the Day Everything Changed.

Canada's leading sports journalist digs deep to recreate the events of the day Wayne Gretzky was traded from Edmonton to Los Angeles in 1988. He leaves almost no stone unturned as he expertly looks at what may be the most important event in the past 20 years of hockey history.

I say almost no stone unturned because there were two people Brunt was not able talk to about that infamous day - the Edmonton Oilers owner - the man who traded Wayne Gretzky - Peter Pocklington, and Wayne Gretzky himself.

Why is that? Pocklington would not talk, to no surprise, because he has his own book out now about his life and specifically about hockey, the Oilers and Gretzky. It's confrontationally called I'd Trade Him Again: Peter Pocklington on Gretzky, Politics and the Pursuit of the Perfect Deal.

Gretzky would not talk to Brunt claiming after 2 decades he had nothing left to say. Well it turns out Gretzky does have something more to say, because he curiously writes the foreword for Pocklington's book!

Buy The Book: Amazon.ca - Chapters - Amazon.com

It turns out Gretzky and Pocklington are still friends, having patched things up over the years. This in itself probably shouldn't be a big surprise, as Gretzky has always been unfailingly loyal to his friends in the past. When Bruce McNall, the other important figure in the Gretzky trade, was in jail, Gretzky remained his friend, even visiting him in the slammer. And for a good portion of Wayne's life Pocklington was a very big part of his success, and vice versa.

But why Gretzky would choose to publicly re-align himself with the most hated hockey man in Alberta if not all of Canada is downright strange. Gretz has always been fiercely protective of his own squeaky clean image, although that sure has taken a beating with this whole Phoenix Coyotes bankruptcy case, hasn't it? Chumming it up with Peter Puck won't do his image any favors.

It's just odd, almost as odd as the foreword itself.

Gretz has written a number of forewords and afterwords for various books, including books by Jean Beliveau, Cassie Campbell, Roy MacGregor, Ron Finn, Bob Costas and even Theo Fleury's new book Playing With Fire. Now Gretzky likely has someone actually write it for him and he just approves it and puts his name to it. After all, when does he have time to write forewords, until recently that is. But they all have a certain genuine sincerity to them. For this book, either Gretzky has a new writer or Pocklington has a strange control over him. Maybe it is just my own prejudices, but it reads more like something Pocklington wants Gretzky to be saying.

After all it is Gretzky's comments that in many ways sell this book. Only his words adorn the back of the book. It seems all preordained to benefit book sales.

Enough about Gretzky and the book's foreword. Let's get down to the author/subject of this book - Peter "Puck" Pocklington.

Pocklington does not so much write this book, as he contributes to it. It is actually written by Terry McConnell of the Edmonton Journal and J'Lyn Nye of Global Television. You get the feeling though that Pocklington has strong editorial control.

The authors present the story, but certainly not in the same hard-hitting fashion Stephen Brunt would have. They mostly set the scene as Pocklington sees it. They then let him fill in the blanks with his own commentary. The book is careful to tell only the story that Pocklington wants told, which is fine but disappointing. When forced to cover controversial material such as bankruptcy fraud charges or the Gainer's strike, he seems to conveniently leave issues aside, or at least discuss them with a revisionist twist.

Of course Pocklington's reputation in Canada is pretty much ruined. He insists the press and politics did a great smear job on him, but I'm sure he'd admit he didn't always do himself any favors. And again reader prejudices come into play here. Regardless, he is regarded in this country as a ruthless, greedy, scheming businessman always after the next big pay day. I think he has more of a heart than his reputation suggests, but he is far from trustworthy in Canadian eyes. Certainly not after all the controversies and now legal charges against him regarding bankrupty frauds.

So when in the book he says he almost traded franchises with Harold Ballard's Maple Leafs, or that he could have had a NBA team in Edmonton for just $6 million, I do not believe him. I believe there was probably something to it, but certainly nothing imminent as he lets us believe. Pocklington is a great story teller that way.

As for Pocklington's commentary on the Gretzky trade itself, the reason most people would be picking up this book, he comes across as quite believeable. He and the authors do a good job of recounting his lifelong business acumen to the point that he is actually quite admirable. He simply sums up the Gretzky trade as a necessary business transaction to keep the Oilers alive in Edmonton.

Now there is going to be a lot of belly-aching on that point, as a lot of Edmonton fans hate Pocklington to no end. But if you read the book with an open mind, especially with a mind shaped in the past 20 years where the Gretzky trade changed hockey for everyone - including fans - from a sport to a business, you will see Pocklington's point. It was necessary to trade Wayne Gretzky. Grabbing all that cash certainly didn't look good, but Pocklington was a smart enough visionary to see the coming hockey landscape. He knew salaries were about to explode, and that the Oilers dynasty could not survive.

Of course, Pocklington probably could have eased his problems over the years in Edmonton had he been able to swallow his pride and bring in business partners with the necessary cash infusion. But he was vain to do that. He wanted to be the star of the show, and though he brought the Oilers to the NHL and did his best to keep them there, he was unable to bring himself to do what he ultimately had to do.

It's funny. After putting this book down I do have more respect for Peter Pocklington as a businessman and as a hockey man. And I think that is all Pocklington was after in doing this project, you know, plus the money grab. Some things never change.

I also have a slightly different vision of Wayne Gretzky. I don't think it is this book that changed my impression so much as the recent tarnishing of Gretzky's reputation in Phoenix as well as Stephen Brunt's painting him with a shade of greed.

I guess ultimately that is why Gretzky and Pocklington are still good friends - they both love hockey, and they both love the pursuit of the perfect deal.

Tough Guys by Eric Zweig

2009-11-03T00:00:00.001-05:00

Last week I looked at Eric Zweig's new book Fever Season. In a very timely release, Zweig offered a novel based loosely upon actual events of 1919, specifically a deadly flu epidemic that cancelled the Stanley Cup finals and claimed the life of Bad Joe Hall.

Well it turns out Zweig has a second young adult release based upon that flu season. Through Lorimer Publishers Zweig has also released Tough Guys: Hockey Rivals in Times of War and Disaster.

Buy The Book - Amazon.ca - Chapters - Amazon.com

Unlike Fever Season, Tough Guys is not a fictional piece. It is the actual story of Bad Joe Hall and Newsy Lalonde, two of the game's earliest superstars. The two had a fierce rivalry, drawing fans to their epic matches. World War I would force the bitter enemies to become teammates. Yet just when the fighting overseas comes to an end, the world is devastated by the Spanish Flu. The virus even effects the Stanley Cup and ultimately claims Hall's life.

It is a compelling story, but told with a young audience in mind.

"I can barely remember a time when I wasn't intrigued by this hardly known fact," says the author. "It was about 1973 when I first learned that the 1919 Stanley Cup final had been cancelled. I decided to write about the story behind the cancellation because I know my ten-year-old self would have loved this book."

Zweig adds "We like to think of our sports heroes as invincible, but Lalonde and Hall could not escape the suffering caused by Spanish Influenza which actually killed more people than the war. The book shows how strong the human spirit is and how rivalries, and even the cancellation of the Stanley Cup playoffs, become trivial in the face of human suffering.

Zweig is an experienced youth writer. He now has 10 kids or young adult titles published.

Exclusive Excerpt From Jacques Plante: The Man Who Changed The Face Of Hockey

2009-10-30T17:12:00.013-04:00

The following is an excerpt from Todd Denault's new book Jacques Plante: The Man Who Changed The Face Of Hockey. Thanks to Jessica from McClelland & Stewart for granting permission to run this special.

Buy The Book: Amazon.ca - Chapters - Amazon.com

THE SEEDS OF THE MAN

By Todd Denault

Located on the Saint-Maurice River, almost halfway between Montreal and Quebec City, at the turn of the century Shawinigan Falls (as it was known then; in 1958, the city dropped the Falls from its name) was a thriving town that was the first in the country to produce aluminum and employed thousands in the pulp and paper, chemical, and textile industries.

In the 1930s, with the onset of the Depression, many of those factory jobs disappeared under the weight of the economic downturn. In an effort to help families hit by the loss of employment, the city council enacted a variety of public works programs that included building a hockey arena.

Bolstered by their new arena, Shawinigan was granted a franchise in the nascent Quebec Senior Hockey League in the fall of 1945. A semi-professional league that operated in the area between the junior league and the National Hockey League, the QSHL, then made up of seven franchises, produced a high quality of hockey that gave many players overlooked by the professionals a chance to continue playing for money while keeping their NHL dreams alive. Overnight, the Cataractes became the toast of the town, a source of civic pride, and gave the youngsters a team of players to idolize.

That same fall, a teenage boy, full of dreams and self-assurance, stood in front of the newly built arena and asked if the Cataractes needed any help.

"I was standing outside the door of the rink in the Shawinigan Arena where the Shawinigan team in the Quebec Senior Hockey League played its home games," remembered Jacques Plante many years later. "I noticed that they had only one practice goalie and asked the trainer whether I could help out. Although I was fifteen years old by this time, he told me to 'go away. You're still wearing a diaper.'"

The name of that condescending trainer has been lost to history. What this trainer had no way of knowing was that in fifty years this young man's name would be emblazoned over the door when the arena was named in his honour.

Jacques, the oldest child of Xavier and Palma Plante, was born in a wooden farmhouse near Mont Carmel in Mauricie, Quebec, on January 17, 1929. Soon afterwards, Xavier moved with his wife and baby to Shawinigan Falls, where he had secured employment with the Aluminum Company of Canada Limited.

"Dad was a machinist who had to work hard – harder than any man I have ever known," Jacques later said. "He even got a temporary job during his holidays while working for the aluminum company – just to raise a bit more money. He had a bicycle to get him to and from work, two miles each way. I can't recall him taking a single day off. Whenever I won an award in the NHL, I thought of my father and the pride he would get in reading about it and having people mention it to him."

Jacques was not an only child for long. Over the next thirteen years, he would be joined by five brothers and five sisters. With a burgeoning family, Palma Plante found her time at a premium, so as they got older each of the children was expected to help with the household chores. Being the oldest in such a large family meant that Jacques was given responsibilities rare for many his age. His chores included scrubbing floors, cooking, and changing diapers. With not much in the way of extra money, most of the children's clothing was handmade, and Jacques became proficient with a needle, some thread, and yarn. These were skills he carried into his adulthood and contributed to his legend.

With such a big brood and only one income, everyone in the Plante house was required to sacrifice some of the things that others better off were able to enjoy. This was most apparent to little Jacques in the hot summer months, when he was allowed to wear shoes only for Sunday Mass or the odd special event. Most times he went barefoot.

"The shoes proved everything is relative," Plante wrote later. "All of us kids in the neighbourhood had to go shoeless for the same reason – all except the landlord's son, because his father had more income."

Years later, when his hockey career had taken him away from his impoverished beginnings, many teammates as well as members of the press were taken aback by Plante's habit of knitting his own undershirts, socks, toques, and scarves. But he would always speak with pride of his ability to knit a pair of socks in a day and a toque in a mere three and a half hours. Throughout his life, Plante used knitting as a form of relaxation, oblivious to the reaction of those around him; this was his way to unwind after being the target of onrushing pucks. However, typical of the man, there was also a practical side to his needlework.

"I can't get what I want in the stores," Plante explained of his choice in undergarments, "so I knit [them]. I use four-ply wool. They must not be too warm. I use larger needles because small ones produce a thicker weaving and the holes are too small."

As an adult, Jacques Plante was misunderstood by many around him. They questioned why he continued to knit, why he was so frugal with his money, and why he kept his distance from those closest to him. The answers to many of these questions lay in his childhood.

"He grew up poor and was very proud of it," explains sportswriter Frank Orr. "He learned a lot of good lessons from it. He was deprived because there was no money around, but it taught Jacques the value of a dollar."

"He was very careful with money," confirms his former teammate Dickie Moore. "He came up poor and he grew up the right way. He didn't spend what he didn't have and he saved what he had. I admired him for that – he was an individual. There's a reason he kept his money. He wanted to end up with something, and that's what he did."

Plante never forgot his impoverished roots. It's what drove him, what motivated him to always reach higher. It instilled in him selfconfidence, and a belief that he alone could shape his destiny. And despite the poverty, Plante always retained a certain fondness for his childhood.

In the early 1970s, when Plante was plying his trade with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Frank Orr, a writer with the Toronto Star, was commissioned by his editor to write a special Christmas column. Orr was given the assignment of asking each player to share a remembrance of their most cherished Christmas memories.

Plante told Orr how his father would buy two bottles of ginger ale on his way home from work every Christmas Eve. This was the only day when the Plante children would taste a carbonated beverage.

"We'd have soft drinks then and I can still taste them," Plante told Orr. "Would you believe that the champagne I have drank on six occasions out of the Stanley Cup didn't have the same tang? Being poor doesn't necessarily mean no enjoyment from life."

Another source of enjoyment for young Jacques was the outdoors. He and his friends played games at every spare moment, whether during recess at school or on the weekends. Sports provided an escape from hard reality.

Baseball was extremely popular with many, and Plante always felt that this may have been the sport he was best at. But for any child growing up in Quebec at that time, all other sports took a back seat to one overriding passion: hockey.

Jacques Plante couldn't tell you when he began playing hockey. He was told by others that he started playing a form of the game, with a ball and without skates, at the age of three, the same age he learned to skate. "Growing up, Shawinigan was a big hockey town," recalls Marcel Pronovost, a childhood friend of Plante's. "We organized and managed a lot of the games ourselves. In all the schools we had an hour and a half for lunch and every class had a team and we played at noon. Every school had an outdoor ice rink then."

Like most children, Jacques was naturally curious about goaltending, but he quickly discovered that a frozen tennis ball hurt, and that a puck hurt even more. Besides, he found that he had an affinity for skating.

And then at the tender age of five, something happened that would forever alter Jacques' path in life. He was climbing up the ladder of the playground slide when suddenly he lost his balance and fell hard to the ground, breaking his left wrist. However, the real damage took place in the ensuing weeks and months when the wrist didn't heal properly, leaving Jacques unable to turn his left palm outward, which made it especially difficult to catch pucks.

Jacques had quickly fallen in love with the game of hockey. He enjoyed skating, but when he skated hard, he had trouble getting his breath. He was soon diagnosed as being asthmatic. Unlike his wrist, which was surgically healed decades later, asthma was a constant companion throughout his life.

"If it wasn't for my asthma," Jacques said later, "I would certainly have remained on defence and possibly never gotten beyond school hockey."

When it became clear that Jacques had no choice but to play in net – where no fast skating was required – his supportive father presented his five-year-old son with his first goal stick, carved from a big tree root. When he was seven, his father bought him a proper goalie stick for Christmas. That same year, Xavier stuffed potato sacks into wooden panels to give Jacques his first set of goalie pads.

It was during these early days spent outdoors that Jacques developed one of his most enduring trademarks. Standing alone in the net in those bitterly cold winters, bare-faced and bare-headed, Jacques soon found himself frantically knitting toques to cover his frostbitten ears. The toque would become a staple and would be worn indoors and outdoors right up until his professional debut.

During this time Plante also discovered that he didn't always fit in with the other children. "Looking back I know it began when my father gave me my first real goaler stick for Christmas," Plante told reporter Andy O'Brien years later. "Although I was only 7 years old that stick got me invited to play with kids 11 and 12 years old. But after we played they didn't want me around. I was left alone off the ice. I didn't resent it because I didn't know any better."

When it came to goaltending and the game of hockey, Plante demonstrated a seriousness about the game not found in many others his age. "For me to be the best possible goalie, I had to learn as much about the game as I could," Plante later explained. "Nobody ever taught me the way to play goal. I was never coached at the position. The skills I developed were learned from personal experience and from studying the mistakes made by other goalies. Of course, hockey is a physical game, and maintaining the best conditioning is important. But playing goal is really a very scientific thing, and that's the approach I tried to take."

Such was Jacques' talent and confidence that at the age of 12, while attending Ecole St. Maurice, he managed to land the goaltending position on the high-school team, which consisted of boys 17 and 18 years of age.

"I still remember the day as if it were yesterday," reflected Plante. "Cold? It was really cruel and the team was practicing on the outdoor rink. What happened between the coach and the goalie wasn't quite clear but the only thing that interested me was the empty net. The goalie had been bawled out, didn't like it and left. I offered to take his place. There was nobody else available. The coach looked around before agreeing with some reluctance to allow a 12-year-old between the posts. But I skated into the net and stayed there – not only that day but for the rest of the season."

Being the goalie on the school team was the first step towards Jacques' ultimate goal: manning the nets for the Montreal Canadiens. Hockey had always been a passion; now he dreamed of making it his livelihood.

"It was the dream of every boy growing up in Quebec in the thirties and forties to one day put on the uniform of the Montreal Canadiens," Plante's future teammate Jean Béliveau wrote later. "I was no different from anyone else who loved playing hockey during that era. We would practice for hours after school in the rink we had in our backyard. By playing outdoors we learned to stickhandle and develop other skills that might one day allow us to play for the Canadiens."

"We couldn't afford a radio," Plante recalled, "but, luckily the man upstairs used to turn up the hockey broadcasts real loud. By standing on the bureau in the girls' room I could hear the broadcasts through the ceiling. In the spring of 1944, when the Canadiens beat the Black Hawks for the Stanley Cup, I listened to those exciting Canadien names coming down through the ceiling – Rocket Richard – Toe Blake – Elmer Lach – Butch Bouchard. When Bill Durnan made a big save in goal, I would try to 'help' him by sticking out a leg or a hand. Believe me, all of those Canadiens seemed to be 10 feet tall!"

Soon afterwards Jacques Plante was so rudely dismissed by a trainer at the entrance of the Shawinigan Arena. This rejection would have shattered a less self-assured 15-year-old, but Jacques, even at this young age, was bursting with confidence. He disregarded the trainer and went straight to the coach of the Cataractes and boldly asked if the team required a practice goalie. Expecting Jacques to fall flat on his face, the coach inserted the boy into a practice of semi-professional players, but was stunned when Jacques not only held his own but shone. Jacques, who had never skated in the Shawinigan Arena before, now found himself the centre of attention. The manager of the arena, in awe of Plante's play, told him that from this point forward he was always welcome at the arena.

Suddenly, at the age of 15, Jacques Plante was in demand. In addition to being the practice goalie for the Senior League Cataractes, he was playing goal in three other age levels simultaneously: midget, juvenile, and junior. "We played together in midget category for Quebec schools," Marcel Pronovost remembers. Plante "was in the nets when we won the Quebec provincial championship."

Unlike many of his classmates, who dropped out of school to chase their hockey dreams, Jacques stayed in school to get the high-school diploma that his parents desperately wanted him to receive. Not that the offers weren't tempting.

The word on Jacques Plante started to spread beyond the local rink and the boundaries of Shawinigan. The wooden benches at the Shawinigan Arena were now filling up with people eager to see the local prodigy, who almost always seemed to be patrolling the goal no matter who was playing. He received an offer to play in England with the pay starting at $80 a week. He was offered a tryout with the Providence Reds of the American Hockey League. His parents stood firm and refused the offers; Jacques Plante had to finish high school first. However, there was one offer he did accept. The local factory team, which played once a week, asked the 15-year-old to join them.

Soon after Jacques started with the factory team, his father pointed out to him that he was in a unique position. All the other players worked at the factory and were paid accordingly. Having watched a few games, Xavier Plante knew that his son was the factor in the team's newfound success, and since he didn't work at the factory, he also was aware that his son was playing for free. Perhaps there was some way that Jacques could be financially compensated? It didn't take long for Jacques to approach the coach, who quickly accepted the weakness of his own bargaining position and capitulated.

"It wasn't my best contract," Plante laughed years later, "but it looked big at the time. I would receive fifty cents a game on the condition that I didn't tell the other players. Fifty cents a week is important money when you're part of a family where soft drinks were only served at Christmas."

Plante may have missed out on his best offer, however. "I grew up in Shawinigan with Marcel Pronovost. We were close friends and played a lot of hockey together. I almost ended up going to Detroit with him. What happened was, a Detroit scout from Quebec City came to Shawinigan to look at four players: Marcel, the Wilson brothers, Johnny and Larry, and me. I wasn't there that night so he signed up the other three and went back home. It was lucky for me that I didn't sign with them. Their regular goalie was Harry Lumley and they had young guys like Terry Sawchuk and Glenn Hall in their system at the time and I might not have gotten a chance to play. I would have disappeared somewhere, especially in Ontario where they had their farm clubs and I didn't speak a word of English. I would have been lost."

And so Jacques Plante stayed behind, and while his friends followed their dream, he continued on with his studies, and graduated from high school at age 18 in the spring of 1947.

He immediately took a job as a factory clerk alongside his father to help the family. But it was apparent to everyone in town that his future lay elsewhere. He had been given a brief taste of semi-professional hockey that year when he played in one game for the Cataractes. Now when he wasn't working at the factory, he was working on what he considered his true profession – goaltending. Spending up to four hours each day in the nets, he kept himself sharp for the opportunity that he was sure would present itself.

Excerpted from Jacques Plante by Todd Denault Copyright © 2009 by Todd Denault. Excerpted by permission of McClelland & Stewart. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

Interview With Don Weekes

2009-10-29T22:57:00.004-04:00

Our interview today is with Don Weekes, the legendary trivia king. He has two new books this autumn, The Biggest Book of Hockey Trivia and World Class Hockey Trivia.

How many books does this make for you over the years now Don?

I have been writing hockey trivia and statistic books every year since 1992. On a few occasions two per year and once three trivia books in one season, including the Great Gretzky Trivia Book in 1999. The number must be close to 30, if you count the books I've co-authored with Kerry Banks.

Do you have a favorite book out of that collection?

Not one book, because they were all fun to research and write in their own way, but a few held something special, particularly The Unofficial Guide series of three books that looked at hockey's most unusual records and the best and worst firsts in the game.

You must be banned from playing in all those hockey trivia contests at bars and on radio stations. Have you ever tried to enter one of those anonymously and just clean up the winnings?

Actually, my mind doesn't think that way. I could hold my own in a contest, but I write trivia so that I can tell stories about the history of hockey. I write about both the big and little events of the game, both the heroes and zeroes.

How often are you stumped by trivia questions?

I could tell you who won the 1935 Stanley Cup, but not who scored the Cup winner. So, I do get stumped.

What made you decide to get into the hockey trivia book business in the first place?

I always enjoyed local history more than world history. It's closer and more relevant to me and where I live. And I love the game. So it was natural and easy for me to be interested in hockey history, especially in Montreal. This city breathes hockey.

You live in Montreal and must have met many players over the years. Which players really know their hockey history?

In my experience, older players tend to know more about the history of the game. I remember producing a television documentary on the Canadiens move from the Forum to the Molson Centre (the name at that time) in 1995. We interviewed many Habs (Maurice Richard, Bob Gainey, Ken Dryden, etc.) and a few opponents, including Bobby Orr, Vladislav Tretiak, Red Kelly, Ted Lindsay and Bobby Hull. From this perspective, Hull was very impressive. He knew all the Flying Frenchmen dating back to the 1920s, the significance of the Canadiens's dressing room and the mural of players on the wall. His knowledge went beyond his era, both prior to and since.

Generally speaking, do players really know much hockey history, or are they just too busy focusing on the present?

I'm not sure. But I think you are right. They are focussed on the here and now. At one time I was a producer on Dick Irvin's Hockey Magazine, a syndicated TV show in the 1980s and 1990s. On one visit by Eric Lindros, Dick had to explain who his dad was to Eric. Of course, Dick Irvin Sr. was the legendary coach of the Canadiens and the first captain of the Chicago Blackhawks. Eric was about to get drafted by the Nordiques, so I guess he had other things on his mind. And in the end he created a little history of his own.

Have you ever thought about writing hockey books outside of the trivia realm?

I have written a few hockey books that depart from the Q&A concept. Because I work fulltime in television, my research and write time is limited. Although I collect material all year long, when I get down to the job, the trivia in my books is quite compact. And now that you ask, I have a couple of really good ideas, but they are much bigger projects that would demand big chunks of time.

As we said earlier, you have two new books out this fall. Lets talk about The Biggest Book of Hockey Trivia. At 576 pages it is huge? Are these stumpers all new, or a collection of your best over the years?

GreyStone's publisher Rob Sanders had been asking me for years to produce a "best of" book of my work and I said no. Trivia by its very nature changes, sometimes game by game; and I didn't want to go over old work. I wanted to write fresh material. But Rob convinced me that it would be fresh because everything would be updated. He was right and it was a huge seller. That first Big Book came out in 2005 and was reviewed favourably in Sports Illustrated. And this was before I ever had a review for any of my books in The Hockey News. So that was kind of cool. Then, they wanted another Big Book for 2009 and this time I said maybe. The trivia had to sustain 800 questions and, as it turned out, I believe it worked very well. There are a lot of great stories and facts that are all together now in one volume. And I have a bunch of new questions, so it's the real deal with puzzles, games and quizzes.

You also are bringing out World Class Hockey Trivia, a very timely release about international hockey trivia with the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver coming real soon.

My hockey history was really limited to pre-NHL and NHL. I had written a little about the world game, maybe a hundred questions or so on the Summit Series, Canada Cup and the Olympics. With the Winter Olympics at Whistler, I liked the idea of writing something timely and relevant. The process gave me a much broader reference of the game. And the stories are fascinating.

Hockey trivia books are not your only gig. You have a pretty fascinating day job. Tell our readers about that.

I produce advertising for CTV Montreal. That includes TV promos for our news shows, retail sales campaigns, print and radio campaigns. Television allows you to combine words with pictures and sound. Its a compelling medium, especially if you are a creative person.

Since you work with CTV and are so well known in the hockey world, will you be working the Vancouver Olympics in any way?

I was hoping to, but I expect my work will keep me in Montreal. Wherever I am, I will be watching every minute of every game.

Okay, give me your best trivia stumper you've got.

That's tough. How about an easy one and a hard one.

1) Who scored the most goals without winning the NHL scoring title in one NHL seasons?

2) Who is the only player to score 200 career goals without having at least one 20-goal season?

I have no idea! What are the answers?

1) Brett Hull scored 86 goals (35 more than his closest rival) but had only 45 assists. Wayne Gretzky out-pointed Hull 163 to 131.

2) Larry Robinson. As of 2008-09, only the Big Bird has done it. And it not as easy as you might think.