Blood Feuds by The Hockey News

The Hockey News has put out a couple of books each year for the past few years. One of their new 2010 titles is Blood Feuds: Hockey's Best-Ever Rivalries

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Here's the specs:
October 2010
Paperback
224 pages
Cover Price: $19.99 

From the Transcontinental Press:

Blood Feuds: Hockey's Best-Ever Rivalries is the perfect guide to the confrontational passion that makes hockey one of the most exciting sports in the world. Through the voices of the players, coaches and owners who made the history, Blood Feuds delves deep into the game's best rivalries, detailing the history and making the stories come alive once again. From marquee player matchups (Sidney Crosby vs. Alex Ovechkin, Rocket Richard vs. Gordie Howe) to hated owners, battling fan bases and venomous coaches, the entire hockey timeline and teams from all major levels are covered off.

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I would also recommend:

• We are the Champions: The Greatest Hockey Teams of All Time - THN (2010)
• The Ultimate Book of Hockey Lists - THN 
• Puck Funnies: Hockey Humour, Hilarity and Hi-Jinx - THN

Stole This From A Hockey Card by Chris Robinson

On a recent wet and cold camping trip I snuggled up in my sleeping bag and tried to ignore the wind by reading one of my many hockey books I brought with me. I picked the right book, as, completely oblivious to the chilling wind, I breezed right through Chris Robinson's 2005 offering Stole This from a Hockey Card: A Philosophy of Hockey, Doug Harvey, Identity and Booze.

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The book, often written in a series of vignettes, is an effortless read and very well written. It is part biography of Doug Harvey, and part memoir of our narrator, who we assume is the author Chris Robinson. He sees his life as comparable to Harvey's, and this book is in many ways his discovery not only of Harvey and of hockey, but of himself.

Harvey, of course, is one of the greatest hockey players ever, though he was doomed by alcoholism and depression. This drew in our author. Tragedies make for good stories, and we get a double dose here. Fortunately for our author he seems to have overcome his demons. That's something Harvey never seemed to have accomplished.

Now I know what you are thinking. Why would I care about the author's troubles. Well, even if you don't, this book still serves as an excellent insight into the life of Doug Harvey, at least as assumed by our author. And the majority of the book is about hockey anyways. But, like me, I think you will be drawn into the life of the author. While reading of the author's childhood love of all things hockey I certainly was left nodding, knowing exactly how he felt. I can't relate to his adult addictions, but by then I saw enough of myself to be pulling for his recovery.

Besides, in contrasting his own life with Harvey's the author thoroughly explores his philosophies, and that is what makes this book so good. He has lots to say about family and growing up, as well as hockey and, by extension, Canada. The book is very well written, with the author using very raw and often expletive language. He also seems to narrate with emotions matching his own time line - angry as a kid, drunk as a young adult, and finally with a calm clarity as a middle aged recovering alcoholic. It comes across as honest and genuine.

This is one of the most unique hockey biographies you will ever read. I highly recommend it for your own cold camping trip, or wherever else you want to read it. This book has so much more to offer than most hockey books.

Six Hockey Hall of Fame Books Coming

Firefly Books Ltd. is pleased to announce that it has signed a contract with the Hockey Hall of Fame to produce six books over the next three years. The first two books will appear in Fall 2010.

“I’m delighted to partner with the Hockey Hall of Fame,” says Michael Worek, Associate Publisher of Firefly Books. “Working with the Hockey Hall of Fame is a dream come true for us – they have all the resources we could ask for and they are as passionate about hockey as we are.”

The first book to appear will be Official Guide to the Players of the Hockey Hall of Fame (September 2010, $19.95 paperback, 400 color photos). Induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame is the greatest individual honor that can be bestowed upon a professional hockey player. Since the first class of 1945, 244 players have been inducted to its hallowed halls. Official Guide to the Players of the Hockey Hall of Fame features every player who has been so honored. Each Hall of Famer is profiled, complete with stats, facts, quotes, and other interesting snapshots from the star’s career. Also included are personal accounts from Andy Bathgate, Pat LaFontaine, Luc Robitaille and Bryan Trottier on what it means to be a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame.


The second book – Hockey Hall of Fame Book of Goalies (October 2010, $35.00 hardcover) is a comprehensive illustrated reference and will be the definitive book on the topic. All 33 goaltenders enshrined in the Hockey Hall of Fame are profiled, and a photo collection captures the Hockey Hall of Fame’s impressive goaltending artifacts. It also includes a history of the NHL’s two goal-tending trophies, essays on the pioneers and trailblazers (including international and women’s hockey), the history, lore and evolution of goalies equipment, an analysis of the goal-tending position and more. There are contributions by goalie historian Bob Duff, Michael Farber of Sports Illustrated, Brian Costello of The Hockey News, and former NHL goaltender Brian Hayward among others.

Canada's Game by Andrew C. Holman

I finally got a chance to read through editor Andrew C. Holman's compilation of essays in the book Canada's Game: Hockey and Identity .

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The work is a very eclectic collection of academic offerings that, as the subtitle suggests, looks at for the elusive definition of Canadian identity through the game of hockey.

Ten wide-ranging subjects are broached - from the impact of the 1972 Summit Series to hockey in literature to violence on the ice to the commercialization of the game - but with no real tying theme. You can take what you want from each topic - some more than others - but in the end you may not find a satisfactory, all-encompassing conclusion.

Part of that problem might be due to a lack of an academic background when it comes to hockey. Holman even points it out in his introduction, spending lots of time applauding the first real academic hockey literature offering - Richard Gruneau and David Whitson's Hockey Night In Canada from 1993. That was a truly ground breaking book that has encouraged a few new titles over the years. The problem is those subsequent texts - Holman's included - are all of higher value if you - like the authors - have the same background offered by Gruneau and Whitson.

In other words, invest in Gruneau and Whitson's Hockey Night in Canada first. Then you will be better able to find the valuable gems hidden inside Holman's Canada's Game: Hockey and Identity.

That's not to say Holman's text is not a good stand-alone book. Anytime our obsession with the game is placed under a microscope is always a good thing. And it is a lot easier to read than Gruneau and Whitson's; the writers obviously took that into consideration. It's not as overly academic that us average hockey fans can read it chapter by chapter.

A Trail Less Traveled by Don Reddick

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.

This book is not fiction. It is an amazingly true story where the author lives out his own story. The book is part history, part adventure story, part travelogue, and a whole lot hockey. It all adds up to one of the most unique contribution to the great Canadian game!

On December 18, 1904, the upstart Dawson City Klondikers began a 4,000-mile trek to wrest the Stanley Cup from the Ottawa Silver Seven. Twenty-four days later, after trudging 350 frozen miles by foot, bicycle and dog sled, steaming their way down the famed inside passage, and long days crossing the country by train, the 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 a 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 author Don Reddick to accompany them. They traveled more or less the same route, surviving the frigid Yukon and Alaskan winter in order to play against the Ottawa Senators alumni team.

It is a great read, combining the history of the original event with the introduction of fascinating characters who are recreating the journey. There is much history to be learned, about hockey and Canada but especially about the Yukon, Dawson City and the Klondike gold rush.

The book is available at DonReddick.com. It is a very enjoyable read that even non-hockey fan will enjoy.

The Montreal Canadiens - 100 Years Of Glory by Darcy Jenish

The Montreal Canadiens are unquestionably hockey's most celebrated team, including in the literary world. Over the years there are several significant volumes that have not only captured the Canadiens mystique, but contributed to it.

I'm thinking of books like The Montreal Canadiens by Claude Mouton, or Lions In Winter by Allan Turowetz and Chris Goyens or The Habs by Dick Irvin. And the absolute best of the best - The Game by Ken Dryden, My Life In Hockey By Jean Beliveau and The Hockey Sweater and Our Life With The Rocket, both my Roch Carrier.

Can this oncoming onslaught of Canadiens books really offer us anything new?

We will have to judge each book on it's own merits. But I can confidently say that The Montreal Canadiens: 100 Years of Glory by D'arcy Jenish does a great job of telling us the story of the Montreal Canadiens. And in doing so he offers us a new look at that history.

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Update: Publisher has provided two free excerpts: This Is Hockeytown  & A Team Like No Other - enjoy!

Jenish is an exhaustive researcher, spending four years souring through literally miles and miles of microfilm at archives and libraries. Why? Because he believes that too much of Montreal's glorified history has been passed on has been retold and skewed by wonderful nostalgia. By accessing the long forgotten work of the sports journalists who were reporting the moment history actually happened Jenish believes, rightfully, that his book captures the spirit of history as it unfolded.

By doing so Jenish captures the true history of the Montreal Canadiens, warts and all. He looks at the team's formation and near failing 100 years ago. He looks at how the team survived two World Wars and the Great Depression, barely, before becoming, some 40 years later, the greatest hockey team ever. He carries us through the glory years of the 1950s through the end of the 1970s, when the team unthinkably won 15 Stanley Cups in 23 seasons. Jenish then looks at the past 30 years of relative quiet, where fans have had to learn to be patient and have lowered expectations.

Along the way Jenish, a personal friend of Montreal Canadiens boss Bob Gainey, writes about many key figures in Montreal's history, correcting nostalgic misconceptions about many while remembering some of the more overlooked.

And he does this all largely through the work of the talented newspaper writers of yesteryear.

The book, published by Doubleday Canada, is a great read, and certainly a must for any true fan of the bleu, blanc et rouge. If you don't rush out and get it right away, make sure Santa knows it is on your Christmas list.

D'Arcy Jenish: This Is Hockeytown

The Montreal Canadiens: 100 Years of Glory
Written by D'Arcy Jenish
Format: Trade Paperback, 384 pages
Publisher: Anchor Canada
Book Website
ISBN: 978-0-385-66325-0 (0-385-66325-0)
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This is Hockeytown

Other cities may lay claim to the title, says Pierre Boivin during an animated discussion in his corner office on the seventh floor of the Bell Centre, home of the Montreal Canadiens. Then, with a sweep of his arm, he gestures at the city beyond his windows. “Make no mistake about it, this is Hockeytown.”

Montreal is Hockeytown by dint of history and the citizenry’s enduring passion for the sport. It is where a raw and ragged game – shinny played on the icebound creeks and rivers and lakes of a wintry nation – came indoors and became hockey, the world’s first arena sport. It is where the first rules were written, where the first team was formed – the McGill University Redmen in 1877 – and where the sport’s most hallowed prize, the Stanley Cup, has come to rest thirtynine times since it was first awarded in 1893, a prize captured by the Canadiens, Maroons, Wanderers, Shamrocks, Victorias and the Winged Wheelers of the Montreal Amateur Athletic Association.

In the 1890s, when the sport was young and the Stanley Cup brand new, the Winged Wheelers, Victorias and Shamrocks and their rabid followers were hockey’s hottest rivals. A few decades later, in the Roaring Twenties and Dirty Thirties, English Montreal had its team, the Maroons, and French Montreal had its standard-bearer, the Canadiens, and games between them produced war both on the ice and in the stands.

For seven decades now, ever since the demise of the Maroons, Montreal’s sporting public has worshipped at one altar, that of the Canadiens, and the passage of time has done nothing to diminish the ardour of the citizenry. “When we win on Saturday night, you get on the subway Monday morning and threequarters of the people are smiling,” says Boivin, president and CEO of the Canadiens. “If we lose a couple and Toronto’s ahead by a point, Montrealers are very unhappy. If we don’t make the playoffs, spring is hell. To some degree, the city’s productivity is influenced by the team’s performance. Hockey is part of what makes this city tick.”

And yet, in the first years of the current century, hockey in Montreal was in jeopardy. Le Club de Hockey Canadien was grievously ill and in danger of folding. The team was mediocre and missing the playoffs more often than not. Attendance was declining. Financial losses were mounting. Furthermore, there appeared to be no way out. The Canadiens were damned by circumstances beyond their control. Player salaries had risen to untenable levels, owing to the freespending ways of wealthier rivals, most of them in the United States. The Canadiens, like the five other NHL teams based in this country, were paying their athletes in U.S. dollars but earning their revenues in a domestic dollar worth about twentyfive percent less. On top of all this, the Canadiens were saddled with over eight million dollars per year in municipal taxes, whereas the league average was less than a million per team.

“We were losing a ton of money year in, year out,” Boivin recalls. “There was no way we could make money because of structural economic and competitive disadvantages. We had no hope of surviving.”

The Canadiens and their Coloradobased owner, George N. Gillett Jr., solidly supported the lockout of the players that cost the NHL its entire 2004—05 season. The NHL Players’ Association eventually capitulated and accepted a new collective bargaining agreement with a yearly salary cap, initially set at $39 million (U.S.) per team. This drastic measure trimmed the Canadiens’ payroll by about $12 million annually and helped save the franchise.

“Toronto was the only Canadian club that could have survived long-term and been competitive under the old regime,” Boivin adds. “We would have seen the relocation or the demise of the other five teams, and Montreal was no exception.”

Hockey returned to the city in the fall of 2005. The Canadiens played their first home game against the Ottawa Senators on the evening of October 10, a Tuesday. About ninety minutes before the puck dropped, the main doors of the Bell Centre opened and a crowd several hundred strong surged into the lobby. Boivin was there to welcome them. So were Gillett and general manager Bob Gainey and former players Henri Richard, Yvan Cournoyer and Réjean Houle. By game time, they had greeted several thousand people, a slice of the sellout crowd of 21,273.

The return of the NHL was cause for jubilation in the city that gave birth to the game. The league’s financial foundation had been restored and the future of its oldest and greatest franchise seemed assured. And the Canadiens had something else to celebrate: the onehundredth anniversary of Le Club de Hockey Canadien – formed on December 4, 1909.

That fall, the Canadiens launched their centennial celebrations. The first significant public event occurred prior to a Saturday night game on November 12, when the Canadiens retired jersey number twelve. Left winger Dickie Moore, a two-time scoring champion, wore that sweater from 1951 to 1963, and right winger Yvan Cournoyer from 1964 to 1979. In the runup to 2009, the team also retired numbers worn by Bernard Geoffrion (five), Serge Savard (eighteen), Ken Dryden (twenty-nine), Larry Robinson (nineteen) and Gainey (twenty-three). These joined numbers already taken out of circulation to honour Jacques Plante (one), Doug Harvey (two), Jean Béliveau (four), Howie Morenz (seven), Maurice Richard (nine), Guy Lafleur (ten) and Henri Richard (sixteen).

Two major events were planned for the centennial year. The league awarded Montreal the 2009 AllStar Game and scheduled the contest for January 25, the onehundredth anniversary of the first match to go into the books as part of the Canadiens’ official record. The league also named Montreal as host of the 2009 Entry Draft.

Amid this prolonged centenary, a remarkable transformation was taking place. Gillett, who was seen as an interloper when he acquired the club and its building in January 2001, was proving to be a good owner, and he was winning the respect of Montrealers. Boivin and his executive group were overhauling the Canadiens’ business organization, while Gainey and his staff in the hockey department were rebuilding the team through trades, freeagent signings and, above all, the draft.

As the Canadiens completed their nintyninth season, these efforts were beginning to yield results. Le Club de Hockey Canadien had reclaimed its status as one of the best in the sport. The Canadiens were contenders again, and another Stanley Cup – a twenty-fifth for the team and a fortieth for the city – seemed a distinct possibility.


Excerpted from The Montreal Canadiens by D'Arcy Jenish Copyright © 2008 by D'Arcy Jenish. Excerpted by permission of Anchor Canada. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

D'Arcy Jenish: A Team Like No Other

The Montreal Canadiens: 100 Years of Glory
Written by D'Arcy Jenish
Format: Trade Paperback, 384 pages
Publisher: Anchor Canada
ISBN: 978-0-385-66325-0 (0-385-66325-0)

A Team Like No Other

When we think of the Montreal Canadiens, we think of many things, some obvious, some less so. There’s the Stanley Cup, of course, which was awarded to the Canadiens for championships won in 1916 and 1924, in 1930 and ’31, in 1944, ’46 and ’53, in fifteen of twentythree seasons between 1956 and 1979, in 1986 and again in 1993. We think of longevity, because the Canadiens have been playing for a hundred years, longer than any professional hockey team.

We think of the gods of hockey: Plante in goal, Harvey and Robinson on defence, the Rocket, Béliveau and Lafleur for the offence. And a host of lesser deities: the Pocket Rocket, Boom Boom Geoffrion, Cournoyer and Moore; Dryden, Savard and Gainey. Stars from the edge of living memory: Elmer Lach, Butch Bouchard, Ken Reardon and Bill Durnan. Stars from an era beyond memory: Newsy Lalonde, Aurel Joliat and George Hainsworth, the Cleghorns, Didier Pitre and Jack Laviolette. And those who went from the rink to hospital beds to their graves: Bad Joe Hall in 1919, Georges Vézina in 1926 and Howie Morenz in 1937.

We think of stern and demanding coaches: Dick Irvin, Toe Blake and Scotty Bowman, each of whom was the best of his day. Shrewd managers: Tommy Gorman, Frank Selke and Sam Pollock, who ran the team for a total of thirtynine years and won eighteen Stanley Cups. Owners who spanned the spectrum from aristocratic to flamboyant: George N. Gillett Jr. and the Bronfmans; the Molsons and Senator Donat Raymond; Ernest Savard, Colonel Maurice Forget and their partners in the depths of the Great Depression; Léo Dandurand, Joseph Cattarinich and Louis Létourneau (the three musketeers of the 1920s and early 1930s); George Kennedy, who named the team, created the logo, guided the Canadiens to their first Cup, led them into the NHL, died prematurely in 1921 and fell into obscurity; and Ambrose O’Brien, one of the founders, the original financier and the nominal proprietor for the first twelve months.

We think of a team that has had five homes: the Jubilee Rink, deep in the city’s Frenchspeaking east end; the Westmount Arena, Montreal’s premier hockey venue until fire devoured all but its brick walls in January 1918; the Mount Royal Arena, which replaced the Westmount; the Forum, which was erected on the site of an outdoor roller skating rink of the same name and was the most famous hockey stadium in the world by the time the Canadiens played their final game there on March 11, 1996; and the Bell Centre, which, with its seating capacity of 21,273 is the biggest arena in North America, and which acquired a heart, according to the Frenchlanguage journalists who cover the team, on the night of April 9, 2002, when Canadiens captain Saku Koivu skated onto the ice after six months of chemotherapy treatments for cancer and received an eightminute standing ovation from the fans.
  
Excerpted from The Montreal Canadiens by D'Arcy Jenish Copyright © 2008 by D'Arcy Jenish. Excerpted by permission of Anchor Canada. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.