Five Most Important Hockey Books Of All Time

A reader asked me recently to name the top 5 hockey books of all time. Here's my response, ranked in order of importance according only to me.

Our Life With The Rocket: The Maurice Richard Story by Roch Carrier. This book is neither a biography nor a memoir of Quebec's greatest hockey player. No, in fact it is in many ways a thoroughly researched and infectiously proud all grown up version of The Hockey Sweater. It's about what it was like to be French Canadian at a time when the Rocket was hockey's most dynamic player.

Game Misconduct: Alan Eagleson and the Corruption of Hockey by Russ Conway. Investigative reporting by small-town sports editor Russ Conway brought down hockey's most powerful man, Alan Eagleson. The author's legwork uncovered how Eagleson, working as both an agent and as head of the players' union, cheated players out of a small fortune.

The Hockey Sweater by Roch Carrier. Carrier's most famous story is about a young boy who orders a Montreal Canadiens sweater from the Eaton's catalogue, but receives a Toronto Maple Leafs jersey instead. Brilliantly capturing the cultural tensions between English and French Canada, it is considered to be one of the most important works of Canadian literature ever written.

The Game by Ken Dryden. The enduring classic, Dryden's incredible memoir are brilliantly captures what it is like to be a NHLer, including everything from fame and glory to failure and disillusionment.

The Hockey Handbook by Lloyd Percival. Simply put this has to be the most important hockey book of all time. The Russians treated Dr. Percival's original text as the bible, and used it to transform the game into that we know today.

Night Work: The Sawchuk Poems

It is only March, but I have found the 2008 hockey book of the year.

It's too bad I just can't sit down and read it cover to cover.

Author/university English professor Randall Maggs (brother of former NHL/WHA defenseman Daryl Maggs) and publisher Brick Books have combined to give us Night Work: The Sawchuk Poems. It is a book that will undoubtedly win countless of industry literary awards and should go down as one of the best hockey books of all time.

"Poems," as I call it, is just that. Nearly 200 pages and over 70 individual pieces of poetry that combine to create one long, narrative piece of literary beauty.

Yes, poetry. Hockey books don't tend to rank as literary gems because they're not intended to be. Almost without fail they follow the same formulaic approach, to appease the supposed lower end of the reading public spectrum. The stereotype of a hockey book reader is of the "dumb jocks" theory, more likely to read Slash's autobiography or Hitman by Bret Hart than to read Eckhart Tolle's latest contribution to Oprah's Book Club.

So putting a book of poetry may really test some sports readers, and therefore the book might have trouble catching commercial success. Especially since most of the lines don't even rhyme! ;o)

Yes, I had trouble reading this book. I could only read a couple of poems at a time, and could never sit down and read the whole thing from cover to cover. Yet I thoroughly enjoyed this book. One poem at a time. Some poems more so than others. But by the end not only did I have favorite poems but I realized the whole collection really captured one of hockey's most intense and contradictory characters.

It is obvious that "Poems" was exhaustively researched, but the beauty is how the author then thoroughly re-imagined Terry Sawchuk, arguably the greatest goalie of all time. For all his factual research, Maggs openly admits to taking liberties and using poetic license by getting into the long ago deceased's head. The book is based on the real, but has been masterfully re-envisioned.

Despite the combination of fiction and non-fiction "this may be the truest hockey book ever written" suggests , Stephen Brunt, Globe and Mail sports columnist. "It reaches a level untouched by conventional sports literature. His Sawchuk is real."

The book is primarily about Sawchuk, of course, complete with sporadic photos. The author delves into the goalie's childhood, glory years and tragic demise. Interestingly the book opens with a snippet from Sawchuk's actual autopsy report.

But the book also looks at several other characters, notably goalies, and the Original Six era. More importantly it looks at the game of hockey back then, and particularly examines the game's place in our society.

Do yourself a favor hockey book fans - check out Night Work: The Sawchuk Poems. Keep it by your bed stand and read a poem every night. Before you know it you will have greatly enjoyed the best hockey book of the year.

King Leary is King of Canada

I am pleased to tell you, the winner of the 2008 Canada Reads has been announced, and it is Paul Quarrington’s King Leary!

Percival Leary was once the King of the Ice, one of hockey’s greatest heroes. Now, in the South Grouse Nursing Home, where he shares a room with Edmund “Blue” Hermann, the antagonistic and alcoholic reporter who once chronicled his career, Leary looks back on his tumultuous life and times: his days at the boys’ reformatory when he burned down a house; the four mad monks who first taught him to play hockey; and the time he executed the perfect “St. Louis Whirlygig” to score the winning goal in the 1919 Stanley Cup final.

Now all but forgotten, Leary is only a legend in his own mind until a high-powered advertising agency decides to feature him in a series of ginger ale commercials. With his male nurse, his son, and the irrepressible Blue, Leary sets off for Toronto on one last adventure as he revisits the scenes of his glorious life as King of the Ice.

King Leary was successfully championed by Dave Bidini of the Rheostatics. You can catch the full story at the Canada Reads website.

Our Life With The Rocket

Roch Carrier is a successful novelist and playwright but he is famous (and undoubtedly rich!) for his quintessential children's hockey book The Hockey Sweater.

But if you ask me, his most important title has to be Our Life With The Rocket: The Maurice Richard Story.

This book is neither a biography nor a memoir of Quebec's greatest hockey player. No in fact it is in many ways a thoroughly researched and infectiously proud all grown up version of The Hockey Sweater. It's about what it was like to be French Canadian at a time when the Rocket was hockey's most dynamic player.

In many ways it is more a story of Carrier's youth than Rocket's exploits. But Carrier's youth is mirrored by countless other Quebecers who experienced the same social and political circumstances. Richard was the bigger-than-life albeit inadvertent super hero who came to symbolize Quebecers plight.

This is what the back of the book says:

"Roch Carrier captures a world in which a brooding, taciturn athlete, who hated to speak publicly and rarely expressed opinions on anything, became a powerful, enduring symbol for French Canadians at a time when they felt painfully vulnerable amid Canada's English majority."

The Vancouver Sun nailed the book review when they said:

"In orchestrating the saga of Rocket Richard, (Carrier) composes the epic of his people's and his own coming of age, interpolating these refrains so ingeniously that they become a single."

But no one said it better than the Montreal Gazette:

"...this is much deeper than a hockey book - it's a profound social and political history, a study of a turbulent time as much as a game and one of its most charismatic players...."

Unless you were French Canadian and grew up in the era, it is almost impossible to truly appreciate the transcendent legacy of Rocket Richard. This book comes as close as possible.

If anyone wonders why more than 100,000 people filed through the Molson Centre to see the Rocket lying in state, this book should explain everything.

This book should even be read by non-hockey fans who are seeking a better understanding Quebec, the Quiet Revolution, and the separatist movement.

Bottom line - it is incredibly rare that a hockey book could be termed as important and essential.
Carrier's Our Life With The Rocket is perhaps the only one.

The Little Book Of Hockey Sweaters

This is Mark Napier. Napier is a long forgotten goal scoring wizard. He was as feared of a sniper ast there was in junior and in the WHA in the late 1970s. He would join the Montreal Canadiens and by the early 1980s it was Napier who assumed the offensive reigns after Guy Lafleur slowed down.

Interestingly, Napier finished his career with a stint in Buffalo, wearing jersey #65 back when such NASCAR numbers were not so common place. Since his favored #9 was already in use courtesy of Danny Gare, Napier chose 65 because of his involvement with the charitable Cystic Fibrosis Foundation where he was an honorary chairman. The terrible disease is often mispronounced by its youngest victims as Sixty Five Roses, leading to the annual fundraising and awareness campaign by the same tagline. Napier brought further attention to the cause by donning the jersey number.

That is just one of the many jersey number oddities I unearthed when I recently picked up the book The Little Book of Hockey Sweaters by Andrew Podnieks and Rob Hynes with the illustrations of Anthony Jenkins.

Podnieks and Hynes look at the personal reasons why NHLers chose the jersey numbers they did. There is about 100 NHLers of various eras featured, each with a caricature by the talent Jenkins. The book came out in 2005 and now sells around the $16 mark for a brand new copy.

That's a pretty good price. I had initially held off from buying that book because I felt if I waited a couple of years I could find it in a used book store. I LOVE used book stores. I had hoped to find for $10.00, or if lucky less.

I guess you could say I won the lottery of used books then when I picked this up at donated used book charity book sale at a local grocery store for the princely sum of $0.25! I got three others too even though I already had them. But at $0.25 each who could resist.

Well I'm obviously very pleased with the $0.25 purchase price, the book is well worth getting even at $16. The caricatures by Jenkins are funny and enjoyable, and many of the stories of why jersey numbers are quite fascinating. There's a lot of stories of number reversals or some other reincarnation because original favorite numbers were already in use, but plenty of great stories like Napier's.

Here's some more examples:

Eddie Shack wore 23 because in a mirror 23 looked like his initials, ES.

Neil Sheehy wore 0 because his family's original name was O'Sheehy.

Steve Heinze and Shawn Heins both wore 57 in reference to the famous sauce.

Bobby Clarke always wore 16, except for one game when he wore 36. His jersey was stolen and 36 was the only jersey available for the road game.

Ace Bailey was so impressed with the play of Ron Ellis that he asked the Leafs to unretire his jersey #6 so that Ellis could wear it.

Theo Fleury and Martin Rucinsky are the only two known players to wear two different jerseys numbers in the same game. In both cases their original jerseys were destroyed. Fleury came back wearing 74, but only after referees refused to let him borrow a fan's autograph-covered 14 jersey. Rucinsky returned wearing #41.

Rocket Richard chose 9 because his first daughter was born at 9lbs.

Gordie Howe chose 9 because in those days players with the lower numbers got the lower bunk bed on the long train rides for road games.

Doug Gilmour wore 93 because that was his softball number while in Calgary.

Jaromir Jagr chose 68 to honor the year the Soviet tanks invaded his country.

Alexander Ovechkin chooses #8 because that is the number his mother Tatiana wore #8 in two gold medal winning Olympiads with the Russian basketball team.

Night Work: The Sawchuk Poems

From The London Free Press:

Night Work: The Sawchuk Poems recounts the life, in and out of hockey, of arguably the best goaltender who ever played the game. He also was one of hockey's most tragic figures, dying in 1970 at the age of 40 after fighting with teammate Ron Stewart in the off-season. He suffered from untreated depression.

Maggs is a professor in Newfoundland. His book is being published by Brick Books in London and will be released during the next few weeks. It's a unique look at Sawchuk's thoughts and fears and by extension, looks at the world of hockey in a much different light.

The book brings Sawchuk back to life for long-time hockey fans, and introduces him to a new generation. Sawchuk's name will surface more often as New Jersey Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur closes in on Sawchuk's record for most shutouts. Sawchuk had 103 regular-season shutouts. Brodeur is at 96.

Read the full article by Morris Dalla Costa, including a sample poem.

Hail Cesare by Jason Farris with Cesare Maniago

Author Jason Farris, a goalie at heart, set out to take a fresh approach to writing a hockey book. He certainly accomplished just that in his homage to his favorite hockey player since childhood - Cesare Maniago.

Perhaps homage is not quite the right word. He has created an absolute shrine to goalie best remembered for his days with the Minnesota North Stars and the Vancouver Canucks.

This book is an interesting undertaking, as it hints at several formats all in one. In doing so the book is visually appealing though quite unconventional.

Maniago was a very popular player in both Minnesota and Vancouver, as well as his many minor league stops where he served as arguably the best goalie outside of the 6-team NHL. His unique name and his valiant efforts made him the fan favorite of some real weak teams. He was at times as spectacular as his teams were bad.

Because he played on so many weak teams, he never received many accolades or notable success. He quite literally was these teams' saving grace, and Farris created this book partly to revise history's dismissal of this cult hero.

Through in-depth statistical analysis and comparison Farris argues Maniago was a far better goalie than history remembers him as. His case is compelling. Farris uses statistical analysis far deeper than hockey's primitive measuring sticks such as wins and losses and goals against average. In doing so Farris makes a good case that we should hold Maniago in the same esteem we remember Gerry Cheevers, Tony Esposito, Rogie Vachon and Gilles Meloche.

This book really comes alive courtesy two features.

First off, the use of scrapbook-like imagery in this book is a real treat. The vivid mixture of memorabilia and action photography is superb. It really is like flipping through someone's album of memories.

Secondly Cesare Maniago contributes his own commentary provides fascinating insight into a unique goalies in a unique era. Through these interviews the book teases of an autobiography.

I think my favorite Maniago insight was the time he and Boston's Eddie Johnstone pretended to fight in order to give the fans something to cheer about.

"I never really got into a fight with a goalie. Eddie Johnstone and I once pretended a bit for the fans that really loved it when the goalies met at center ice curing an altercation. He and I dropped the gloves and were hanging onto each other asking about each other's family. We'd let the other assholes go at it, mind our own business and just talk to each other. Then we'd tell each other to pretend to be mad as hell. he'd tell me to get my right arm up like I was going to whack him and he'd do the same with his arm so we'd give the fans something to roar about."

The book challenges many publishing standards. Though it is unconventional, it works, albeit with some constructive notes of criticism.

The book is a little thin at just 56 pages, many of them full of only photos or statistics. Some more written text, either in the form of Maniago's own comments, Farris' memories or perhaps reflections from Maniago's peers could really provide much needed bulk to this project otherwise full of interesting side features.

The book also features awkwardly over sized pages which I'm not a big fan of. This is one industry standard that did not need to be challenged.

All in all, this book is absolute must have if you were ever a fan of Cesare Maniago. It is an interesting project for fans of hockey in the 1960s and 1970s. It is also worthy of perusal for younger fans curious about the great era of hockey gone by.

You can buy the book via the Hockey's Best Books website.