Hockey Book Reviews.com

Attention all Toronto Maple Leafs fans, especially those old enough to remember the last time the Leafs won the Stanley Cup. You will want to keep your eyes out for this 2010 release. Toronto Maple Leafs: Diary of a Dynasty, 1957--1967 remembers the Leafs glory days. It is put together by no fewer than four leading experts. Kevin Shea is no stranger to Leafs fans as he's penned more than a few best selling books over the years. Paul Patskou is, in my estimation, one of the top five hockey historians out there today. He has the largest collection of hockey on video in the world, and enabled the authors to re-watch all of the Stanley Cup games. Roly Harris and Paul Bruno, known as "The Statsman," also contribute. Buy The Book - Amazon.ca - Chapters - Amazon.com When I first heard of this project, I admit I was skeptical. Another book about the Leafs glory years from forever ago? But I was pleasantly surprised in this book's uniqueness. The book is thoroughly...

The top hockey book of 2009 is now out in paperback just in time for Christmas 2010. Theo Fleury's amazing story and courage to share it combined with Kirstie McLellan-Day's masterful writing ability made Fleury's autobiography Playing With Fire the obvious choice as the HockeyBookReviews.com Hockey Book Of The Year award for 2009. Fast forward to 2010 where Playing With Fire is now available in soft cover complete with a new chapter covering Fleury's attempted come back to the NHL and life after stepping forward as a victim to Graham James. Fleury's autobiography will go down as one of the top hockey books of our time. If you haven't already read it, pick up the paperback at nearly half the price of the hardcover. Buy The Book: Amazon.ca - Chapters

Last year I featured a cute set of hockey books called Thanks To My Hockey Dad and I Love My Hockey Mom . The charming little books were written and illustrated by the 7 and 8 year old boys and girls on the Flyers Novice AE Team, with a little help from coach Jason Howell, teacher/hockey mom Jennifer Sutoski and the support of none other than Don Cherry! What a great idea, and what a great way to say thank you to mom and dad for all their efforts to let their kids play hockey. The books were a tremendous success, reaching bestseller status thanks to magnificent distribution and a low price point. At some point along the way the gang realized they forgot to say thank you to coaches and volunteers. So, the gang is back in 2010, this time with Thanks to My Hockey Coach . As before t he kids all contributed with their own thank yous and drawings. The reasons are varied, all touching and honest, some surprising and some down right hilarious. The drawings are equally telling and ente...

In 2009 former NHL player turned author Bob Sirois made headlines when he released his book Le Québec mis en échec (Quebec Bodychecked). The book, released only in French (available here: Amazon.ca - Chapters ) asserts that hockey players from Quebec are being discriminated against by English Canada at the NHL and various national team levels. Now the book is coming to English bookstores across Canada and beyond with the release of Discrimination in the NHL: Quebec Hockey Players Sideline . It is translated by Jacqueline Snyder.  Buy The Book - Amazon.ca - Chapters - Amazon.com The book's allegations made big headlines last year, as many questioned Sirois' analysis and motives. Of course, many of those critics never read the book because of the language barrier. Instead they reacted with the historic divide that plagues Canada. With the book now available in English, hopefully these critics give the book a second chance with an open mind. Given the historic Fren...

Like Vern Buffey , Bruce Hood , Ron Finn and Ray Scapinello before him, Kerry Fraser is leaving the ice as an official and heading straight to the bookstore shelves as an author. His autobiography Final Call: My Life as an NHL Official hits the stores in October 2010. Buy The Book: Amazon.ca - Chapters - Amazon.com Fraser talks about the famous "missed call" when Gretzky infamously got away with high-sticking Doug Gilmour in Toronto. He talks about breaking out in hives before calling Game 7 of the Battle of Quebec in 1985, the death threat he once received in St. Louis and the Marty McSorley illegal-stick incident. And of course he talks about his famous hair, and the tragic day when the NHL forced all on-ice officials to wear a helmet. Fraser's book is a fun read, full of behind-the-scenes stories. Fraser must have enough stories to fill five books. After all, his career lasted 30 years and 2165 games. While books by hockey referees tend to be quite form...

Today I have the great opportunity to talk pucks and books with Todd Denault, author of The Greatest Game: The Montreal Canadiens, the Red Army, and the Night That Saved Hockey . Buy The Book: Amazon.ca - Chapters - Amazon.com - E-Book On the surface, this game appears to be a lopsided contest where Montreal was unfortunate not win yet no winner was decided. Why is this game considered by so many to be the greatest game ever played? There are a few answers to that question. The December 31, 1975 game between the Montreal Canadiens and the Central Red Army was eagerly anticipated. Keep in mind that the Summit Series was only three years in the past at that point and that this game represented the first encounter between the Russians and the stars of the NHL since that epic encounter. This game was held at a pivotal time in the history of the sport. In fact, Canadian hockey was under siege on two separate fronts. Facing the threat presented by Soviet hockey, there were many ...

Strach is back. Al Strachan, who suddenly found himself with a lot of free time during the 2009-10 season, is releasing a new book called I Am Not Making This Up: My Favorite Hockey Stories . This should be good. For a guy with a terrible reputation for thinking up the most absurd rumors in hockey, that is quite the loaded title! You can probably sense the rolling of my eyes as I typed this. Buy The Book - Amazon.ca - Chapters - Amazon.com I confess - I am not a fan of Al Strachan. I think he's a weaselly, beady-eyed fink who contributes a whole lot of nothing to the world of hockey prose, let alone journalism. That being said, I quite enjoyed his new book I Am Not Making This Up: My Favorite Hockey Stories . Strach copies the wildly successful format he used when writing Don Cherry's Hockey Stories And Stuff , just telling stories in no particular order, as if you are sitting around a table at your favorite sports bar just listening to him tell his stories. There ...

TSN's entertaining hockey host James Duthie has two books hitting store shelves in 2010. First there is the rip-roaring The Day I (Almost) Killed Two Gretzkys , and, the focus of this article, the Brian Kilrea autobiography They Call Me KILLER: Tales from Junior Hockeys Legendary Hall-of-Fame Coach Buy The Book: Amazon.ca - Chapters - Amazon.com - E-Book Brian Kilrea of course is the former NHL player turned into Hockey Hall of Fame junior coach with the Ottawa 67's. In his book he allows us a fascinating look at both of his careers. His playing days are full of great stories, especially his minor league exile in Springfield with legendary coach Eddie Shore. Yet when NHL expansion finally gave Kilrea a chance to play in the big leagues, he would ask the Los Angeles Kings to send him back to Springfield. He then goes on to talk about his lengthy coaching career - including his short stint as Al Arbour's assistant with the New York Islanders and his decision to t...

It is the most popular hockey movie of all time - a cult classic on it's own. Now, thanks to author Jonathan Jackson and publisher Wiley, we get a behind the scenes look at the making of the movie in The Making of Slap Shot: Behind the Scenes of the Greatest Hockey Movie Ever Made Buy the book - Amazon.ca - Chapters - Amazon.com - E-Book   Absolutely everything you need to know and then some about Reggie Dunlop, the Hanson brothers and goalie Denis Lemieux can be found in these nearly 300 pages. For instance, did you know it was Al Pacino, not Paul Newman, who was originally considered for the lead role? Jack Nicholson was also briefly considered for the role. Or that Ned Dowd, who played Ogie Ogelthorpe, also acted in The Last of the Mohicans and Apocalypto? The Making of Slap Shot reveals the improbable, hilarious, behind the scenes story about the crazy and wildly popular film from 1977. Personal interviews with over 50 cast members, production staff and others off...

Scheduled for paperback release on October 26th is Stephen Brunt's Gretzky's Tears: Hockey, Canada, and the Day Everything Changed . - Buy The Book: Amazon.ca - Chapters -  Amazon.com Brunt takes a look at the day Wayne Gretzky was traded and the continuing aftermath over 20 years later. Here's the original book review . The paperback release features a whole new chapter, focusing on the whole Phoenix Coyotes bankruptcy case and Gretzky's tangled involvement with the franchise. Gretzky's golden touch is finally, through now real fault of his own, tainted and he all but disappears into hockey's shadow. But when Gretzky reappears at the 2010 Olympics as the final torch bearer, Gretzky instantly resumes the role Canada needs him to be in, so says Brunt. Gretzky is Canada's favorite son, and no matter what he does, we will always hold him in a necessary heroic vision. Just like Bobby Orr before. Just like, it certainly appears, Sidney Crosby now. That ...

Ken Dryden has accomplished a lot in his life. He graduated from Cornell, enjoyed a successful career as a lawyer and businessman, was a three-time Olympic broadcaster and currently is Member of Parliament in Ottawa. Oh yeah, and he had a Hall of Fame hockey career where he won 6 Stanley Cups in 8 seasons and is considered one of the greatest goaltenders in the history of the game. He also somehow found the time to write 5 books, including The Game , universally regarded as the best hockey book ever written. Since losing out on a Liberal Party leadership bid in 2006 he has been somewhat quiet, at least on the national political scene. But he's back making headlines, thanks to the release of his new book. Calm down hockey fans. Dryden's new book has little to do with hockey. Becoming Canada: Our Story, Our Politics, Our Future . Buy The Book: Amazon.ca - Chapters - Amazon.com Becoming Canada is very much about politics. Dryden lays out his vision of a new nationalism,...

My long time followers already know I am a big fan of the children's sports series Brady Brady . Author Mary Shaw and illustrator Chuck Temple have a new title out for 2010 - Brady Brady and the Missed Hatrick Buy The Book - Amazon.ca - Chapters - Amazon.com - BradyBrady.com Aimed at kids aged 4 through 8, this is the 11th installment in the Brady Brady hockey series (2 baseball and 1 football titles also exist). I love the beautifully illustrated glossy pages, certain to capture the imagination of any youth. The stories are always entertaining, and more importantly possess a positive moral. In "The Missed Hatrick" Brady's love for playing street hockey with his friends starts to create some problems, as he is so single-focused on rushing off to his hockey games that he forgets to do his chores and to help his mom and dad. But Brady gets the lesson of a life time when he absent-mindedly leaves his best pal - pet dog Hatrick - tied to a lamp post in winter...

Out today is the paperback release of 2009's I'd Trade Him Again: On Gretzky, Politics and the Pursuit of the Perfect Deal As is industry norm, the 2010 soft cover edition includes bonus material. There is an additional chapter looking at Peter Pocklington's current troubles with the legal system down in California. The chapter made headlines in the Edmonton Journal today as it was revealed that it was actually current Oilers owner Darryl Katz, not former Oilers general manager Glen Sather, who posted Pocklington's bail lin connection with the 2008 bankruptcy case. Katz, somewhat of a hero in Edmonton for saving the team, claims to have no connection with Pocklington. He did it as a favor for mutual friend Sather. Here's the Edmonton Journal story . And here are the sale links for Pocklington's paperback release: Amazon.ca - Chapters -  Amazon.com

Formed in 1917, the Regina Pats (originally known as the Patricia, named after a famous Canadian military unit) are the oldest major junior hockey team in the world. Over those 90-plus years the Pats have appeared in 14 Memorial Cup tournaments, winning three Canadian junior hockey titles. Obviously fans in Regina have a tremendous history to celebrate. That is exactly what authors Darrell Davis and Ron "Scoreboard" Johnson are doing with their new book: Junior Hockey's Royal Franchise: The Regina Pats. The book is a complete history of the great franchise, with a well written text honouring the great moments, teams and players over the years. The list of great players who played for the Pats over the years is downright amazing. Clark Gillies, Doug Wickenheiser, Dale Derkatch, Fran Huck, Dennis Sobchuk and more recently Jordan Eberle are the true legends in Regina. In total 145 Pats have made it to the NHL (Murray Balfour, Eddie Litzenberger, Terry Harper, Red Beren...

Coming to bookstore shelves in the coming few days is the updated Kevin Shea classic Barilko: Without a Trace - the triumphant and tragic story of Toronto Maple Leafs legend Bill Barilko. Barilko: Without a Trace - Bill Barilko's short life was laden with Canadian lore, and in Barilko: Without a Trace , Kevin Shea recounts it wonderfully. He became a Toronto Maple Leaf legend, and a Stanley Cup hero. The world was his oyster, and then it all came to shocking end. The plane carrying Barilko and his fishing friends disappeared, not to be found for over a decade. Note: This book was originally published in 2004, and is an excellent read.The reissued edition has a new chapter that chronicles a return to the site of the plane crash for the first time since 1962, and newly released and exclusive photos. This book originally came out in 2004. It is truly a treat to read, one of the best biographies available on any hockey subject. Kevin Shea is one of the best hockey author...

Back in 1997, The Hockey News, celebrating their 50th anniversary, put together an expert panel to definitively identify the Top 50 hockey players of all time. Famously, Wayne Gretzky edged out Bobby Orr and Gordie Howe to be named the best of all time. A year later the magazine was re-released as a coffee table book, expanded to include The Top 100 NHL Players of All-Time . That list has since served as the definitive list of hockey's all time greats. Jump to 2010. In the last 13 years we've seen many players add to their resumes to improve their rankings or deserve inclusion. Martin Brodeur, Scott Niedemayer, Sidney Crosby, Alexander Ovechkin, Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg, and Nicklas Lidstrom are among many greats in that time frame. With that in mind, The Hockey News is back with an updated Top 100 list. Sort of. This time around THN put together a 10 member panel to judge players only since 1997. Those results are then mixed together with original list results to upda...