Stickhandling Through The Margins: First Nations Hockey in Canada

Released in April 2012 by the University of Toronto, Stickhandling through the Margins: First Nations Hockey in Canada offers an inside look at hockey in Canada’s Native communities.

Some of hockey’s fiercest and most passionate players and fans can be found among Canada’s First Nations populations, including NHL greats Jordin Tootoo, Jonathan Cheechoo, and Gino Odjick. At first glance the importance of hockey to the country’s Aboriginal peoples may seem to indicate assimilation into mainstream society, but Michael A. Robidoux reveals that the game is played and understood very differently in this cultural context. Rather than capitulating to the Euro-Canadian construct of sport, First Nations hockey has become an important site for expressing rich local knowledge and culture.

With stories and observations gleaned from three years of ethnographic research, Stickhandling through the Margins richly illustrates how hockey is played and experienced by First Nations peoples across Canada, both in isolated reserve communities and at tournaments that bring together participants from across the country. Robidoux’s vivid description transports readers into the world of First Nations hockey, revealing it to be a highly social and at times even spiritual activity ripe with hidden layers of meaning that are often surprising to the outside observer.

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

This book is an academic release.

Breakaway: The Untold Story of Hockey’s Great Escapes

This is a book that I am very much looking forward to.

Tal Pinchevsky’s Breakaway: The Untold Story of Hockeys Great Escapes tells the story of many of hockey’s famous players who had to defect from behind the Iron Curtain to play in the National Hockey League. These brave souls left behind their families to come to a completely foreign world to chase a dream.

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

Here’s more from the publisher, Wiley:

The incredible true story of the trailblazing men who risked everything to pass through the Iron Curtain and become NHL superstars, Breakaway is a thrilling look at the untold stories that changed hockey forever. From midnight meetings in secluded forests, to evading capture by military and police forces, this is the story of the brave players whose passion of the game trumped all.

Featuring exclusive interviews with the legends of the ice who put everything on the line just for the chance to play on the world’s greatest stage, many of them speaking about their experiences for the very first time, the book looks at how Peter Stastny, Igor Larionov, Petr Klima, Petr Nedved, Sergei Fedorov, Slava Fetisov, Alexander Mogilny, and other hockey superstars captured the imaginations of fans around the world.

The remarkable true story of some of the true pioneers of hockey, told for the very first time, often in the players’ own words A fascinating look behind the Iron Curtain and the trials these brave men endured for a taste of freedom, through their love of the game.

As much a tale of espionage and social history as a gripping hockey chronicle, Breakaway sheds light on the untold stories of some of the sports’ most inspiring heroes.

Sports Illustrated: The Great One: The Complete Wayne Gretzky Collection

Sports Illustrated continues to search through their enormous archives to churn out more and more books. The latest hockey entry is The Great One: The Complete Wayne Gretzky Collection.

Buy The Book: Amazon.ca – Chapters – Amazon.com – Kindle

Sports Illustrated is no group of fools. Gretzky books sell. Especially in Canada. And SI has a huge collection of Gretzky articles in it’s collection. Enough to fill 324 pages. Every article ever published is in this book, creating one of the more unique biographies the hockey book world has ever seen.

Here’s more from SI:

Sports Illustrated followed The Great One’s career right from the very beginning. Starting in 1978, when Gretzky was a young phenom playing for the Soo Greyhounds, they had their best writers cover his rise to fame and subsequent dominance of the sport. His staggering career stats tend to overshadow the struggles he faced in his career — the early days in Edmonton, when he was establishing himself as the greatest player, but could not lead his team to a cup. The years after the trade that shook the hockey world he spent years trying to lead a new team to glory, only managing to reach the final once more, in 1993, and losing in five games. Covered as well are his forgotten goal-droughts, the thoughts that he had lost his touch in the early nineties. His struggles with injury and playing though his father’s near death. The Great One reads not like a sports book, but a biography of one of the greatest athletes of all time.

Sports Illustrated’s greatest writers all contribute articles, EM Swift, Michael Farber, Jack Kalla, to tell the complete story of Wayne Gretzky’s career.

Sudden Death: The Incredible Saga of the 1986 Swift Current Broncos

This a long over due book. Sudden Death: The Incredible Saga of the 1986 Swift Current Broncos tells the story of heartbreaking tragedy that shook a Canadian town and the whole hockey world to it’s core.

On December 30, 1986, the Swift Current Broncos set out for Regina to play the Pats. A few kilometres east of Swift Current, their bus left the highway and four players died in the crash. Trent Kresse, Scott Kruger, Chris Mantyka, and Brent Ruff (younger brother Buffalo Sabres legend Lindy Ruff) were killed. The rest of the team, led by future NHL star Joe Sakic, played out the season despite the loss. In a move to memorialize the fallen players, the WHL now awards the Four Broncos Memorial Trophy to the league’s Player of the Year.

Two seasons later the Broncos won the 1989 Memorial Cup. Graham James, general manager and head coach, was the hottest thing in hockey. But few were aware of what was going on behind the scenes. In 1996, having moved on to the Calgary Hitmen, James was charged with sexual assault when Sheldon Kennedy, who had been in the crash and was part of the Memorial Cup–winning team, brought forth allegations.

This book tells the stories of those involved in the crash, in the championship, and in all that followed.

 Buy The Book – Amazon.ca – Chapters – Amazon.com The book, published by Dundurn, has three authors with unique perspectives.

Leesa Culp was one of the few witnesses to the crash of the Swift Current Broncos. She has been published by The Hockey News, the Penticton Herald, and the Sudbury Star.

Gregg Drinnan has been a sports journalist for 40 years and has been sports editor at the Kamloops Daily News since 2000. I have interacted with Gregg numerous times and I can tell you few know the WHL better than him.

Bob Wilkie played three seasons with the Swift Current Broncos and was on the team bus when it crashed in 1986.

Team Canada 1972: The Official 40th Anniversary Celebration of the Summit Series

Andrew Podnieks has put together the new commemorative book Team Canada 1972: The Official 40th Anniversary Celebration of the Summit Series

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

Podnieks, who has put together over 50 hockey books now, offers a comprehensive text “complete with in-depth interviews of every surviving player and a remarkable cache of colour photographs. Team Canada 1972 is the definitive look at the Summit Series 40 years later, still powerful, still resonating, still remarkable. With every living player contributing to the book with personal memories and thoughts of the series, this official publication provides fans with the most detailed and exciting picture of the series.

Brian McFarlane put out a similar book for the 30th anniversary. At 304 pages, Podnieks’ version promises to be more in depth.

Barry Melrose: Dropping The Gloves

The popular and mulleted Barry Melrose is releasing an autobiography in 2012. Dropping the Gloves: Inside the Fiercely Combative World of Professional Hockey is set to hit store shelves in October.

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

Here’s more from the publisher, Fenn/McLelland and Stewart:

Dropping the Gloves candidly tracks Barry Melrose’s career in hockey – a road that has not changed substantially for today’s aspiring players. Not many have Melrose’s credentials or his breadth of experience in professional hockey. He’s played and coached in Junior Hockey, the American Hockey League, and the NHL. As he says, he’s been hired and fired, and had his share of disappointments and failures. He’s also had successes at every level. Now an ESPN broadcaster and one of the most respected NHL analysts on television. With his trademark hair, custom suits and energetic style, Melrose is applauded for offering fans his honest – tell it like it is opinion.

Written in Barry’s voice and style, the narrative follows his career in hockey, from its start in Kelvington, Saskatchewan, through his years in Junior, the WHA, and finally, the NHL. Along the way, Barry muses on the state of the game, what makes some teams work and other fail, and how he worked to instill a winning attitude in all the teams he coached.

Filled with behind-the-scene stories of all the legendary players Barry played with or coached – Gretzky, Yzerman, Messier, Bobby Hull, and Brad Park – Dropping the Gloves is a true to life, insiders account of the world of professional hockey and an absolute must read for fans of the game.

Wayne Gretzky provides the foreword. The book is co-written with Roger Vaughn.

Journeyman by Sean Pronger

Some players, such as the great defenseman Chris Pronger, are blessed with the opportunity to turn their great physical abilities into a Hockey Hall of Fame career.

Most players are nowhere near as fortunate. They spend their careers riding buses in the minor leagues, spending their meal allowances at McDonalds and staying in a no-name motel. If they are really lucky they get a chance to play in the NHL, often with a weak, new expansion team where they experience more losing than winning. Maybe they can parley that into appearances with a stronger NHL team, though more likely serving as a healthy scratch than not.

Those players are affectionately termed as journeymen. Players such as Chris Pronger’s brother, Sean Pronger.

In 12 professional seasons Sean Pronger played with 16 different teams in 5 different leagues spanning 3 countries and 2 continents. In fact, in only 3 of those seasons did he stay with the same team for the entire season.

The older Pronger personifies the term “journeyman” but he was one of the lucky ones. He got into 260 NHL games, mostly with Anaheim and Columbus in their early days.

Through it all Sean Pronger has seen pretty much everything and anything in the world of hockey. He has been penning a well received column for The Hockey News’ website about what it is like to be a hockey journeyman. Now, with the help of Dan Murphy, he is taking his stories to bookshelves everywhere in his autobiography, Journeyman

Pronger’s tales promise to be a popular hit this hockey book season. True hockey fans will love this inside look into what life is really like for most pro hockey players. And the collection of hilarious stories will entertain everyone from page one through page 320.

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

Marcel Pronovost: A Life In Hockey

Hockey Hall of Fame defenseman Marcel Pronovost is releasing his autobiography (written with Bob Duff) in 2012. Marcel Pronovost: A Life in Hockey is scheduled to be released in November.

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

Marcel Pronovost was a fantastic defenseman in the 1950s and 1960s. A hard hitting, physical defender, he paid dearly with many trips to the hospital. But he was steady defensively and at times spectacular with his rushes out of his own zone. I compare him favourably to a young Ed Jovanovski.

Here’s more from the publisher, Biblioasis:

Hockey Hall-of-Famer and 8-time Stanley Cup Champion Marcel Pronovost has spent more than a half-century in the National Hockey League, and in his career has worked or played with with a who’s-who of game greats: Gordie Howe, Ted Lindsay, Jack Adams, Punch Imlach, Terry Sawchuk, Johnny Bower, and more. He has served the game as a player, coach, and talent scout.

Between his time with the Detroit Red Wings in the 1950s, the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 1960s, and his days as a scout with the New Jersey Devils, Marcel Pronovost has earned eight Stanley Cup rings and enjoyed one of the longest NHL careers of all time. Encounters with game greats and a thirty-two-page photo spread punctuate this compelling life story.

Hockey Hall-of-Famer Marcel Pronovost has spent more than a half-century in the NHL, and presently works for the New Jersey Devils.

How to Install the Sniper’s Edge Indoors

Here’s a Quick Tutorial on Installing the Sniper’s Edge Indoors

A few weeks ago I published a detailed review on the Sniper’s Edge, which is a shooting tarp that can fit in the opening of any standard two-car garage. The product is fantastic, and I had a blast putting that review together. You can check it out here: FULL SNIPER’S EDGE REVIEW.

Since then, I’ve relocated to a bigger house (Weiss Tech HQ), and the new house has a pretty big unfinished basement… perfect for my new hockey training facility!

Benefits of the Indoor Installation
After getting everything moved in, one of the first things I did was install my Sniper’s Edge in the basement. As much as I liked it outdoors, I must admit, the indoor install has been even nicer! I prefer the indoor install for a few reasons:

• No need to roll and unroll to make the garage usable
• No worries about weather – the tarp is weather proof, but I was concerned about snow and ice weighing it down in the winter
• More level surface – my driveway was slightly slanted as you can see in my previous video. This was throwing off my vertical aim

Indoor Installation Process (The Harder Way)
The Sniper’s Edge doesn’t come with any of the necessary hard-ware to install it. So you’ll need to pick up the following items from Home Depot or Lowe’s to install your Sniper’s Edge the same way I did it (NOTE: THERE IS AN EASIER WAY TO DO It… DETAILS FURTHER DOWN):

• One 16x2x4
• Four 2×4′s long enough to connect the top of the Sniper’s Edge to your rafters
• Screws
• Washers
• 16′ wooden dowel

Here’s how I did it… Unbox the Sniper’s Edge and screw the top of it into the 16x2x4. Screw each of your smaller 2x4s into the 16x2x4, evenly spread – MAKE SURE YOU MEASURE FIRST. You want the measurements such that after it is hung, the bottom of the Sniper’s Edge just barely touches the ground. Screw or nail the entire unit into the rafters.

This method seems easy enough in theory (at least it did to me…), but it was actually quite difficult to make it come together properly! One of our YouTube subscribers suggested a more effective way… READ ON!

An Easier Way to Install the Sniper’s Edge

After posting this video on YouTube, flyers10az (one of our subscribers) suggested a MUCH easier way. If you get a sec, shoot him/her a thank-you note… this could save you TONS of time.

Here’s what you do:

• Screw the Sniper’s Edge into the 16x2x4 as in the first method
• Buy 8 metal hooks and 4 lengths of chain
• Screw 4 hooks into your rafters or ceiling, and 4 hooks in corresponding locations on the top of your 16x2x4
• Attach the hooks on the 16x2x4 to the corresponding hooks in the ceiling using the chain

Isn’t that brilliant? I wish I had thought of it before doing it my way. Since the chain is adjustable, you don’t need to be as exact on your measurements either. I haven’t tried it… but it seems like a WAY better way of doing it.

Conclusion
Having this in my basement has been awesome. We use it all the time and the kids love it. It works really well for indoor use because it’s virtually impossible for a puck to take a bad ricochet off it into a window, or light, or something breakable. I definitely recommend this targeting system for your home!

Technorati Tags: Aim, Car Garage, Fit, Hockey Training, Home Depot, Hq, Hung, Level Surface, Lowe S, Measurements, No Worries, Rafters, Screw, Screws, Sniper, Snow And Ice, Tarp, Unfinished Basement, Weather Proof, Wooden Dowel

2012 Summer Camp

The Weiss Tech Hockey Summer Camp provides a fantastic opportunity for world-class training, at a world class facility

Weiss Tech Hockey: History

We started Weiss Tech Hockey back in 2004 as a high-quality summer camp for local players in the Salt Lake area. Over the years, Weiss Tech Hockey has evolved, becoming very involved in the online hockey community. With a world-wide following, we have been receiving an ever-increasing number of requests from hockey folks wanting us to put forth a camp format that would would be more accessible for players from out of state (or out of country).

Summer Camp: New Format

We decided that this was the year to accommodate those requests, and we have put together a camp that could be considered a “Hockey Vacation.” This a camp where you will receive world-class instruction, at world class facilities, and the rest of the family will have a blast at the same time!

You see, Utah is really the perfect location for a camp like this. It’s a central location for hockey in the Western United States, and we will be running the camp out of the Olympic Oval, a venue from the 2002 Winter Olympics. Utah is also a fantastic vacation spot for the outdoor enthusiasts with tons of stuff for the family to do while the players are on the ice.

Camp Overview

The camp runs July 30 through Aug. 3 at the Olympic Oval in Kearns, UT. The daily schedule consists of the following:

• 2.5 hours of ice
• 45 min dryland conditioning
• 45 min off-ice skill development (sponsored by HockeyShot.com)
• 30 min classroom session (chalk-talk/video training)

Needless to say, this will be an intense week of hockey training, and a ton of fun as well!

Your Invitation

We would love to have you attend our Summer Camp this year. Please feel free to give me a call or shoot me an email if you have any questions at all. Cheers!

Jeremy Weiss
801-687-0273
[email protected]

Technorati Tags: 2002 Winter Olympics, Central Location, Chalk Talk, Classroom Session, Email, Hockey Community, Hockey History, Hockey Summer Camp, Hockey Training, Kearns Ut, Local Players, Olympic Oval, Outdoor Enthusiasts, Salt Lake Area, Skill Development, Vacation Spot, Video Training, Western United States, Winter Olympics, Winter Olympics Utah