Eddie Shore and that Old-Time Hockey


Book Description

Eddie Shore was the Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb of hockey, a brilliant player with an unmatched temper. Emerging from the Canadian prairie to become a member of the Boston Bruins in 1926, the man from Saskatchewan invaded every circuit in the NHL like a runaway locomotive on a downgrade. Hostile fans turned out in droves with a wish to see him killed, but in Boston he could do no wrong. During his twenty-year professional career, the controversial Shore personified "that old time hockey" like no other, playing the game with complete disregard for his own safety. Shore was one of the most penalized men in the NHL, and also a perennial member of its All Star Team. A dedicated athlete, Shore won the Hart Trophy for the league’s most valuable player four times — a record for a defenseman not since matched — and led Boston to two Stanley Cups in 1929 and 1939. In 1933, Shore was the instigator of hockey’s most infamous event, the tragic "Ace Bailey Incident," and during his subsequent sixteen-game suspension the fans chanted, "We want Shore!" After retiring from the NHL in 1940, Shore’s passion for the game remained undiminished, and as owner and tyrant of the AHL Springfield Indians, he won championship after championship. This is an action-packed and full-throated celebration of the "mighty Eddie Shore" — and also of the sport of hockey as it was gloriously played in a bygone age.




They Call Me Killer


Book Description

An intimate, humorous look at Brian Kilrea's 60-year career in junior hockey With more wins than any coach in junior hockey history, and a personality as large as his winning record, Brian Kilrea is more than a hockey legend, he's one of the most beloved figures in the game. With veteran sportswriter, James Duthie, Kilrea gives fans a rink-side view of his early days as a player with the Red Wings and what it was like to score the first-ever goal in the history of the L.A. Kings; as well as his role as a coach for the Ottawa 67s and as a mentor to young stars of the future. With stories and comments from famous NHLers who played for Killer, including Bryan Trottier and Dennis Potvin, as well as coaches, trainers, and general managers, readers will get a taste of Kilrea's hardnosed coaching style, as well as the knowledge and dedication that has made him last so long. Anecdotes from NHLers like Mike Peca, Gary Roberts, Doug Wilson, Brian Campbell, Darren Pang, and many others An inside look at the day-to-day life in the world of junior hockey, including brutal practices, broken curfews, trades, and tirades With a Foreword by lifelong friend, Don Cherry, They Call Me Killer is a fascinating, real-life look at the world of junior hockey and the man who has meant so much to the sport.




Open Net


Book Description

George Plimpton takes to the ice with the Boston Bruins in this memorable portrait of the rough-and-tumble world of professional hockey, repackaged and featuring a foreword from Denis Leary and never-before-seen content from the Plimpton Archives. In Open Net, George Plimpton takes to the ice as goalie for his beloved Boston Bruins. After signing a release holding the Bruins blameless if he should meet with injury or death, he survives a harrowing, seemingly eternal five minutes in an exhibition game against the always-tough Philadelphia Flyers. With reflections on such hockey greats as Wayne Gretzky, Bobby Orr, and Eddie Shore, Open Net is at once a celebration of the thrills and grace of the greatest sport on ice and a probing meditation into the hopes and fears of every man.




Hitch, Hockey's Unsung Hero


Book Description

Distinguished sportswriter Elmer Ferguson called him the “greatest defensive” defenseman of his day. The NHL’s revered chief referee Cooper Smeaton ranked him ahead of his defense partner, Eddie Shore. Legendary manager of the Boston Bruins, Art Ross, wouldn’t sell him “at any price.” And yet he goes unrecognized by the Hockey Hall of Fame. Lionel Hitchman, or “Hitch,” played 12 seasons in the NHL. First with the Ottawa Senators, helping them to a Stanley Cup win, and then with the Boston Bruins for ten years. As the Bruins’ captain and first “money player,” Hitch led them to their first Stanley Cup championship and to the NHL’s best winning point percentage of all time. His hockey stats belie his real contribution to the success of the Boston Bruins. Hitch was the last original Bruin and the first to have his sweater retired. After his playing career, he went on to coach in the Boston system for several years before parting ways with the franchise. Hitch, Hockey's Unsung Hero, is the story of an unheralded “superstar,” the times he lived through and the fascinating people who helped shape his character and life choices. It is told through the “scribes” of the day with interjections by some notable people who knew him well. A few family tales are revealed, including one that helps explain Hitch’s absence from hockey’s highest shrine.




Puckstruck


Book Description

Like many a Canadian kid, Stephen Smith was up on skates first thing as a boy, out in the weather chasing a puck and the promise of an NHL career. Back indoors after that didn’t quite work out, he turned to the bookshelf. That’s where, without entirely meaning to, he ended up reading all the hockey books. There was Crunch and Boom Boom, Slashing! and High Stick; there was Max Bentley: Hockey’s Dipsy-Doodle Dandy, Blue Line Murder, and Nagano, a Czech hockey opera. There was Blood on the Ice, Cracked Ice, Fire On Ice, Power On Ice, Cowboy On Ice, and Steel On Ice. In Puckstruck, Smith chronicles his wide-eyed and sometimes wincing wander through hockey’s literature, language, and culture, weighing its excitement and unbridled joy against its costs and vexing brutality. In exploring his own lifelong love of the game, hoping to surprise some sense out of it, he sifts hockey’s narratives in search of hockey’s heart, what it means and why it should distress us even as we celebrate its glories. On a journey to discover what the game might have to say about who we are as Canadians, he seeks to answer some of its essential riddles.




Grapes


Book Description




Boston Bruins


Book Description

Written by hockey's most authoritative author, this is the definitive collection of Boston Bruins history. In his newly revised edition of Boston Bruins: Greatest Moments and Players, “hockey maven” Stan Fischler examines the storied history of the Boston Bruins from their first game in 1924 to their epic Stanley Cup victory in 2011. Beyond the stats and facts, this veteran sportswriter brings fans off the ice and into the locker room to share a treasure trove of stories and anecdotes from this legendary franchise. Within these pages, Bruins fans will read about all of Boston hockey's most famous names—Phil Esposito, Bobby Orr, Eddie Shore, Milt Schmidt, John Bucyk, and many more.




Don't Call Me Goon


Book Description

Professional hockey enforcers—popularly known as “goons”—finally get their due in this rollicking look at the players who have perfected the art of making mayhem. Whether they are called upon to duke it out with a fellow troublemaker or intimidate an opponent’s top scorer, these are the men who get the crowds to their feet, the sports radio shows buzzing, and the TV audience spilling their beers in excitement. Old timers like Joe Hall and Red Horner are profiled here, along with legendary heavy hitters Tiger Williams, Stu Grimson, and Bob Probert, fan favorites Tie Domi and Georges Laroque, and contemporary hockey stars Arron Asham and Brian McGrattan. The book also delves into the intense debate over the issue of violence on the ice as well as the personal and professional dramas of the NHL’s bad boys: the suspensions, the concussions, and the constant controversy of their role in the game.




The Toronto Maple Leafs


Book Description

A complete oral history of Canada’s most iconic team, compiled from interviews with some of the biggest names in hockey, then and now. Eric Zweig takes readers through the storied history of the Leafs through the eyes of their players, coaches, managers, and fans.




Hockey


Book Description

Now in paperback, updated with a new final chapter! Lavishly illustrated, beautifully designed, impeccably researched, and wonderfully written, Hockey: A People’s History is the altogether irresistible companion book to the CBC-Television series of the same name, airing in Fall 06. A must-have for every fan! Hockey is not just Canada’s national game, it is part of every Canadian’s psyche, whether we like it or not. Watching it, playing it, coaching it, and talking about it are up there with eating on the list of the top ten things Canadians do most. In the first half of the last century it mirrored our increasing confidence as a nation and in the last years of the 1900s, which saw an aggressive but unsettling expansion of the game south of the border, it reflected our growing wariness of American influence on Canada. Hockey: A People’s History, like the ten-part CBC series it accompanies, tells the story of this breathtakingly fast game from its hotly contested origins, and the surge in its popularity after 1875, when it was first taken inside, through the rise and fall and rise again of women’s hockey, the sagas of long-lost leagues, such as the Pacific Coast Hockey League and, more recently, the World Hockey Association, to the present day and the first-ever lockout of players by the one remaining league. In that time, while play has changed only slightly (every generation of Canadians has complained about the growing violence of the game) hockey itself has been transformed from a rough and ready winter sport to a business worth many billions of dollars, played by millionaires. But Hockey: A People’s History is not a business story, rather, it is the story of the men and woman who helped make the game what it is today. It also tells the story of all the great moments in hockey: not just the unforgettable 1972 victory against Russia, but victories no less glorious at the time, such as the Leafs’ previously unheard-of third consecutive Stanley Cup in 1949. Through its lavishly illustrated pages skate the players, the coaches, the owners, many of them still legendary, too many of them almost forgotten. They are the reason why Canadians have stayed true to the game.