Hockey Book Reviews.com

My buddy Lucas Aykroyd over at Hockey Adventure interviewed Ed Willes about his new book Gretzky to Lemieux: the Story of the 1987 Canada Cup , published by McLelland & Stewart . Here's just an excerpt: What were the most surprising and enjoyable discoveries you made during your research for Gretzky to Lemieux ? What stayed with me is the impact this event had on the players and coaches who took part, and that includes Gretzky, Lemieux, Mike Keenan, Igor Larionov–everyone. James Patrick was a fringe player on Team Canada, but he told me about sitting on the bench for over an hour in Game Two, then getting thrown out in overtime and facing a two-on-one against Larionov and Krutov. I checked it out against the tape and, sure enough, that’s exactly what happened. Gretzky could recall individual moments from those games with remarkable clarity. Rick Tocchet told me he’s kept tapes of the games, and when he needs a confidence boost, he watches t...

Ed Willes has gone down a road that I am very familiar with. Willes, hockey journalist extraordinare of the Vancouver Province daily newspaper, revisited his youthful memories of the 1987 Canada Cup only to find that the hockey he may have mythologized in his own memories was even more spectacular, more special and more impacting than even he realized. He captures it all nicely in his new book Gretzky to Lemieux: the Story of the 1987 Canada Cup I know the road Willes has travelled all too well. In 2002 co-author Patrick Houda and I released our first book World Cup of Hockey: A History of Hockey's Greatest Tournament , sort of an encyclopedic history of all the Canada Cup/World Cup tournaments. This project allows me to give a real unique review of Willes' new title. Firstly, I can attest Willes' book is incredibly thorough and well researched. I've always considered myself to be more of a researcher than writer, and I have exhaustively researched the 1987 Canada Cup. ...