The Hockey News: Young Guns 2

I got the latest book from The Hockey News in the mail last week. The Hockey News Young Guns 2 was released in early January 2012, although I am curious as to why they did not release it earlier as it would have been an excellent Christmas choice for fans of all ages.. It is the sequel to Hockey's Young Guns released in 2007

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

When it comes to books released by The Hockey News I find they are either well done or forgettable, with no middle ground. I am far more inclined to include Young Guns 2 in the well done category.

Co authors Ryan Kennedy and Ryan Dixon  provide solid writing as they explore how 25 of the NHL's rising super stars reached stardom. They unearth some amazing stories of the various backgrounds of some of these amazing athletes. Like howe Carey Price's father flew he son to games and practices, or how Erik Karlsson learned the values that lead him through life from a lumberjack, or how Logan Couture hated skating and hockey the first time he tried learning how to skate.

It is stories like that allow us to peek into their world and give us a better appreciation of the sacrifices these players and their families made to accomplish their dream of playing in the National Hockey League.

Other players profiled include Jonathan Toews, Steven Stamkos, Drew Doughty, Taylor Hall, Jordan Eberle, PK Subban, Claude Giroux, Milan Lucic and John Tavares.

The book also rushes to include a "Future Young Guns" section which headlines Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Tyler Seguin and Gabriel Landeskog. Considering the late release date these profiles seem underwritten, rarely talking about what these youngsters have accomplished early in this season.

It is the story telling that makes the book, but The Hockey News also invested wisely into a high quality presentation, which is something they sometimes skimp on. This books is full of brilliant colour photography lining its 185 glossy pages.

Patriot Hearts: Inside The Olympics That Changed A Country

At long last I have read John Furlong's Olympic memoirs. The Vancouver Olympic Committee headman has - with the help of the gifted Gary Mason - penned his autobiography - Patriot Hearts: Inside the Olympics that Changed a Country.

Though the book opens with the game's crowning moment - the men's hockey gold medal game - the book is not really a hockey book. Still, it is a great read for anyone looking to relive the 2010 Olympics, as well as learn how it all came to be.

It is a pretty amazing behind-the-scenes look at "the Olympics that changed a nation." Furlong is an amazing visionary and an amazing leader. Right from the start he led his Olympic Committee team not with the purpose of putting on a show, but with the grander goal of nation building. Despite many challenges, they accomplished their goal magnificently.

This book obviously appeals to Olympic sports fans and proud Canadians. But you almost could include this book in the business section of your favorite book store. The book is an inspirational guide on such topics as leadership, motivation and problem solving. How Furlong managed arguably the biggest project ever undertaken in Canadian history is something MBA students will be studying for years to come, I'm sure.

That is the biggest thing I took from this book, but I enjoy such studies. I really enjoyed the trips down memory lane, but it is Furlong's vision and leadership skills that wow me.

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

Here's more from the publisher, Douglas and McIntyre:

A riveting behind-the-scenes account of the transformative Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games -- an extraordinary story of visionary leadership, love of country and the ability to dream boldly.

When John Furlong emigrated from Ireland in 1974, the customs officer greeted him with "Welcome to Canada. Make us better" -- an imperative that has defined Furlong's life ever since. A passionate, accomplished athlete with a track record of community service, Furlong was a volunteer for Vancouver's 2010 Olympic bid movement when it began in 1996 and then spent the next 14 years living and breathing the Olympics. Furlong and his organizing team, including 25,000 volunteers and many partners, orchestrated a remarkable Winter Games. Patriot Hearts is the story of how they did it.

Working with Globe and Mail columnist Gary Mason, Furlong recounts the lead-up to the Games and describes how he handled seemingly insurmountable setbacks -- such as the death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili, a global recession and the washed-out snow at Cypress Bowl -- to achieve a runaway success and, ultimately, a pivotal moment of nationhood.

Patriot Hearts will be published on February 12, 2011, the anniversary of the 2010 Olympic opening ceremonies. Furlong will donate part of his book royalties to the Own the Podium program.

Ken Dryden Talks The Game

CBC presents

Ken Dryden and The Game

A Canada Reads event with Homerun’s Sue Smith

Thursday, February 2 at 7 PM

At Indigo Bookstore (1500, avenue McGill College)

CBC Radio presents an evening with former Montreal Canadiens’ goalie, Ken Dryden. Join us for an onstage conversation with the hockey legend as host Sue Smith speaks to him about The Game, both then and now.

Widely acknowledged as the best hockey book ever written, The Game is a reflective and thought-provoking look at a life in hockey. Intelligent and insightful, former Montreal Canadiens goalie and former President of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Ken Dryden captures the essence of the sport and what it means to all hockey fans. He gives us vivid and affectionate portraits of the characters — Guy Lafleur, Larry Robinson, Guy Lapointe, Serge Savard, and coach Scotty Bowman among them — that made the Canadiens of the 1970s one of the greatest hockey teams in history. But beyond that, Dryden reflects on life on the road, in the spotlight, and on the ice, offering up a rare inside look at the game of hockey and an incredible personal memoir.

Also joining us will be Lisa-Marie Breton, Captain of the Montreal Stars (CWHL), andDr. Gordon Bloom, Associate Professor of Sport Psychology at McGill University. Both will engage in a discussion with Ken and Sue about The Game, as well as offer their views on the current state of injuries and concussions in the sport.

The discussion will be recorded and segments will air on Homerun on CBC Radio One (88.5 FM in Montreal).

The Game is one of the five books currently in the running for the prestigious Canada Reads prize. The live debates air on CBC Radio One the week of February 6, 2012. For more information on Canada Reads, visit www.cbc.ca/canadareads.

Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/305621696150764/

The Code: A Novel By Gare Joyce

Gare Joyce's first novel is the first hockey book release of 2012. Code, The, which comes under the pen name G.B. Joyce is a 352 page novel from Penguin Books.

Buy The Book: Amazon.ca - Chapters.

Here's the synopsis:

For fans of Elmore Leonard and Robert B. Parker, meet hockey scout turned private detective Brad Shade, from “one of the best sports writers on the continent.

Brad Shade has been just about everywhere hockey is played. He has ridden the buses in the minors, shared dressing rooms with the legends of the game, closed bars with guys destined for the Hall of Fame, and dropped the gloves with journeymen like himself who’ll never get near it.

And even though he’s retired after fourteen years of bouncing around the league with more losses than wins and his net worth eroding, he’s still living out of a suitcase and still taking numbers.

That’s his day job—scout for LA, where someone in management owes him a favour from his playing days.

But when the brutally murdered body of coaching legend Red Hanratty turns up in the parking lot after an old-timers charity game (Shade goes scoreless, again), Shade’s job of scouting the local phenom starts to overlap with investigating the killing of the kid’s grizzled old coach.

When the killer goes after Shade’s girlfriend, he finds out that guys don’t stay in the league because they’re good—they stick around because they’re smart enough to know what needs to get done, and just ornery enough to actually do it.

From small-town rinks to the draft tables in the big league, G.B. Joyce introduces us to a character Canadians already love—the fourth-liner with a self-deprecating sense of humour and an oversized will to win—and weaves a story out of strands of resentment, greed, and fear that span generations and build to a surprising, thrilling conclusion.

The Whiskey Robber Set To Ride Again

The goalie known as The Whiskey Robber is set to be freed from Hungarian prison.

Attila Ambrus, a former goalie who from 1994 to 1999 supplemented his meager income in the Hungarian professional ice hockey league by robbing banks, is set to be released from a jail in Satoraljujhely, Hungary on January 31.

Known in his heisting heyday as the “Whiskey Robber”, Ambrus achieved folk-hero status by pulling off a string of 27 straight robberies of banks, travel agencies and post offices before he was caught on January 15, 1999.

Ambrus, now 44, obtained his famous moniker because he was seen drinking a shot of whiskey at a pub near the site of each prospective caper. His sealed his fame by giving flowers to female tellers, sending bottles of wine to the police and by not harming anybody during his escapades.

You may recognize the nickname from the widely popular book Ballad of the Whiskey Robber written by Julian Rubinstein. Johnny Depp and Warner Brothers bought the movie rights several years ago but nothing has come of that, yet.

Kid Dynamite: The Gerry James Story

Gerry James, aka Kid Dynamite, was not only the youngest player ever to play in the CFL at 17, but he was one of the toughest athletes of his time.

While playing with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in 1954, James was the very first recipient of the CFL’s Schenley Most Outstanding Canadian Award. He won the award a second time in 1957. James led the league in scoring in 1957 and held the record for most rushing touchdowns in one season for forty-three years.

He was on four Grey Cup winning teams. Along with his father, he holds the honour of being a member of the CFL Hall of Fame and the Manitoba Hall of Fame.

Not only did James achieve greatness in football, but after winning a Memorial Cup with the Toronto Marlboros in 1955, he went on to play hockey for the Toronto Maple Leafs for four seasons. James is the only person to play in a Grey Cup and a Stanley Cup final in the same season.

In the 1970s, after coaching in Davos, Switzerland, he embarked on a twenty year career as one of the most successful coaches in Canadian junior hockey history.

All in all, this story of Canada's Bo Jackson is a fascinating tale. Ron Smith does a good job of telling it. If you're looking to learn more about one of Canada's forgotten sporting heroes, Kid Dynamite is for you.

Buy The Book: Amazon.ca - Chapters

The China Wall: The Timeless Legend of Johnny Bower

Johnny Bower, born as John Kishkan, in essence had two outstanding hockey careers: One "riding the bus" in the minor pro leagues for 13 years, and a second enjoying 11 full NHL seasons with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Bower and author Bob Duff tell the amazing story (and many more!) in the book The China Wall: The Timeless Legend of Johnny Bower

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

But before his hockey career had begun, Johnny almost lost his life and/or freedom in Europe due to World War II.

At 15 he lied about his age in order to fight for his country. Johnny was supposed to be a part of the 1942 invasion of Normandy at the port of Dieppe. The 6000 man mission was simply disastrous as about 3400 men lost their lives or were seriously wounded and most of the rest were taken prisoner.

"I'd been all set to go but a day or two before the raid, nine fellas in my company, including myself, got so sick with a respiratory infection, they had to take use of the boat and put us in hospital - we could hardly breathe, " remembered Bower, an 18 year old infantryman at the time. "I guess if I'd gone, I probably would have lost my life. Most of my friends did."

After dodging bullets on the battlefields of Europe, dodging frozen hockey pucks as a long time goaltender must have been a piece of cake for Johnny. That being said it was amazing he was ever able to pursue hockey even at a recreational level. Johnny developed an acute form of arthritis in his hands, a condition which led to his discharge from the army.

"I used to think I'd never be able to hold a goal stick again."

Later on he said "When I was with the Leafs, I'd finish a game, and my stick hand would be locked right up like a claw. Some nights, it was so stiff and sore, it'd take me an hour just to get it open and working."

Despite the battles with arthritis, Johnny became one of the swiftest and most graceful goaltenders ever to play the game, although it took him a long time to crack an NHL lineup.

Johnny bounced around the minors for a long 13 years. He was named the American Hockey League's best goaltender and the league's most valuable player on three occasions. He also played one season with Vancouver in the Western League, and was named top goalie.

Bower had a stint with the New York Rangers, but did not stick in the National Hockey League until 1959 when he became a 35 year old "rookie" with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

It's truly amazing that one of the greatest goalies the game has ever seen took so long to get established, but he was worth the wait for Maple Leaf fans. Of course, back in these "Original Six" days there were no backup goalies and therefore only 6 jobs in the NHL for a prospective net keeper. It wasn't a matter of Johnny not being good enough more than just a lack of an opportunity.

The opportunity to join the Leafs presented itself when Punch Imlach gained power in Toronto. Under Imlach's vision and Bower's goaltending, the Maple Leafs would capture four Stanley Cup championships. He shared the Vezina trophy in 1965 and played in five all star games. He had an amazing 2.52 goals-against average in 552 games, 251 of which were victories.

The Leafs had struggled through much of the 1950s, but upon Bower's arrival the team's outlook improved dramatically. In his first season he guided the Leafs to the Stanley Cup finals, but were ousted by an incredible and seemingly unbeatable Montreal team.

In 1961 he turned his most sensational regular season - posting a league leading 33 wins and 2.50 goals against average. But the Leafs suffered a major setback and made a quick exit from the playoffs.

Bower wouldn't let the setback ruin this team's destiny, and backstopped the Leafs to three successive Stanley Cup championships in 1962, 1963 and 1964. The mask-less wonder who was known for dangerously diving head first into the feet of a skater in order to perfect the poke-check had cemented himself as the toast of Toronto.

To aid in the making of the legend was the television program Hockey Night In Canada. After the first few years Hockey Night firmly established itself as on television and Bower's rise to greatness was literally witnessed by an admiring nation.

The "China Wall" played with the Leafs through 1969. In the years following the "three-peat," the aging Bower found himself splitting the goaltending duties with the great Terry Sawchuk, and then another minor league veteran in Bruce Gamble. Bower counts the opportunity to play with Sawchuk among his career highlights. Even though he was a 40 year old veteran of 20 professional seasons and one of the all time greats himself, Bower found he was learning so much about goaltending while playing and practicing with arguably the greatest goaltender of all time, even if Sawchuk himself was in his twilight also.

Bower and Sawchuk backstopped the Leafs to one last hurrah in the surprise 1967 Stanley Cup championship. That year the Leafs and Montreal Canadiens faced off as the Canada celebrated 100 years of nationhood. The Leafs weren't supposed to win - they were a team of old warriors but they were supposed to be too old to knock off this Canadiens team. Yet somehow, as if it was there destiny, this team of overachievers enjoyed one last championship. It proved to be the last championship, and probably because of that is held in such high regard by Leaf fans of the modern era.

"I never dreamed at my age that I'd even be playing for Toronto so winning the Stanley Cup was just unbelievable," says Bower.

"A lot of guys on that team were way over 30, and a lot of them had never had their name engraved on the Stanley Cup.

"They gave the best effort they possibly could. We played with a lot of injuries, too. Nobody said anything about it at the time. If we had to play one more game against Montreal, we would have lost because of all the injuries we had."

Bower finally retired in 1969 and was rightfully inducted into Hockey's Hall of Fame in 1976. One of the most visible figures from the Leafs much-loved 1967 Stanley Cup championship team, he remains one of the most popular Toronto Maple Leaf in history.