A Wild Stab for It: This Is Game Eight from Russia by Dave Bidini

Another book dedicated to the 1972 Summit Series’ 40th anniversary is A Wild Stab for It: This Is Game Eight from Russia.

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

Published by ECW Press, the critically acclaimed Dave Bidini offers a brief look at the 1972 Summit Series. I’m not sure how much we can expect out of a book that is only 96 pages long, but you can be sure Bidini will make each and every page worth the purchase price.

For the 40th anniversary of what was arguably the single-most important sporting event in Canadian history, a writer shepherded Canadians of all backgrounds—artists, athletes, politicians, and pundits—shared interviews, anecdotes, and memories of September 28, 1972.

The Summit Series between Soviet Russian and Canadian hockey teams is as much ingrained in Canadian culture as it is Canadian sports history, but its impact is much broader than one nation alone. In this exploration of the eventful “Game 8,” the author recalls the epic struggle of the hockey players from both sides alongside myriad personal accounts.

Fans of the sport from any puck-playing nation will appreciate the examination of the game that many think opened the door to North America for Russian and European hockey players.

Hockey Superstars 2012-13 by Paul Romanuk

Paul Romanuk is back with the latest rendition of his annual Hockey Superstarsseries.

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

Here’s more from the publisher:

Learn about more of the NHL’s greatest stars in this perennial favourite!

More than twenty-five years after this annual”s first publication, kids (and their parents!) still look forward to Paul Romanuk”s Hockey Superstars each season.

Seventeen NHL superstars are profiled with glossy, full-page, full-colour photos, as well as bios, previous-season stats, and pull-out interview quotes.

Hockey Superstars also features fun, interactive fill-in pages so kids can choose and track their favourite players, learn about referee signals, and count down to the Cup!

This all-star collection features Phil Kessel, Steve Stamkos Evgeni Malkin, Marian Hossa, Zdeno Chara, Marian Gaborik… and many more!

A must-have for any hockey fan as they head into the next exciting hockey season!

Angela James: The First Superstar of Women’s Hockey

Angela James: The First Superstar of Canadian Women’s Hockey is a new book offered by Tom Bartsiokas, Corey Long and Three O’Clock Press. Adam Graves contributes the foreword.

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

Dubbed “the Wayne Gretzky of women’s hockey,” Angela James became the most dominant female player on the planet from the early 1980s through the mid 1990s.

Her rise to hockey stardom, however, was a true long shot. During a difficult childhood plagued by near poverty and familial chaos, hockey was James’s escape. Talent and determination eventually took this hockey pioneer from struggling for ice time on boys’ teams to the Hockey Hall of Fame where in 2010, she became the first woman, first openly gay player, and second black athlete to ever be inducted.

Angela James: The First Superstar of Canadian Women’s Hockey charts James’s rise to stardom from learning how to play on borrowed skates to dominating as an international success, from her controversial exclusion from the 1998 Olympic women’s hockey team and its aftermath to becoming the passionate educator, coach and mother that she is today.

This authorized biography features exclusive access to James, as well as one-on-one interviews with those who know her best, including some of the biggest names in women’s hockey such as Hayley Wickenheiser, Cassie Campbell-Pascall, Bob Nicholson, Melody Davidson and Cammi Granato. The book also includes an introduction written by former NHL star and Stanley Cup-winner Adam Graves, a long time friend of James.

Titans of ’72: Team Canada’s Summit Series Heroes

Mike Leonetti combines his love for hockey history with the Harold Barkley photo archives to bring us Titans of ’72: Team Canada’s Summit Series Heroes

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

Here’s more from the publisher:

Phil and Tony Esposito, Paul Henderson, Ken Dryden, Frank and Peter Mahovlich, Ron Ellis, Yvan Cournoyer, Rod Gilbert, Bobby Clarke, Guy Lapointe, Stan Mikita, Brad Park – these are some of the Team Canada heroes who struggled mightily to defeat the Soviet Union’s formidable superstars. For most of September 1972, Canadians were riveted to their television screens in what became one of the most-watched events in Canadian history.

At first, in Canada, the Canadians floundered so badly, losing two games and tying one, that it seemed impossible to overcome the embarrassment of total defeat. But in Moscow, after losing another match, Team Canada turned the tables on the Soviets, winning an amazing three games in a row to take the Summit Series.

Now, in Titans of ’72, bestselling author Mike Leonetti tells the stories behind each Canadian on that fabled Team Canada, including those like Bobby Orr who didn’t actually play. Accompanying Leonetti’s portraits of these genuine Canadian heroes are superb pictures by Harold Barkley, a photographer who pioneered the use of stop-action colour photography in hockey.

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

A Season In Time by Todd Denault

Todd Denault is back with his third book release. A Season in Time: Super Mario, Killer, St. Patrick, the Great One, and the Unforgettable 1992-93 NHL Season is a celebration of the twentieth anniversary of one of the greatest seasons in hockey history. 

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

For many hockey fans, the mere mention of the 1992-93 season and the playoffs that followed elicit both powerful and still-vivid memories, more so than any other NHL season in recent memory. Two decades later that extraordinary season is fondly remembered as the year that Mario Lemieux, the sport’s most dominant player, courageously conquered his greatest opponent yet—cancer—and still emerged as the NHL’s Most Valuable Player. For Wayne Gretzky, the greatest player in hockey history, the 1992-93 season began with him on the sidelines, his unparalleled career in doubt, and ended with him summoning all his skills and prowess for one last glorious run at the Stanley Cup. In Toronto, 1992-93 represented a rebirth, as the Maple Leafs, led by a determined Doug Gilmour, took their long-suffering fans to the verge of the unthinkable. Down the road, the Montreal Canadiens fashioned the most remarkable spring in their incomparable playoff history, on the shoulders of their extraordinary goaltender, Patrick Roy. 

Featuring interviews with Wayne Gretzky, Patrick Roy, Wendel Clark, and more than one-hundred other players, coaches, executives and media members; and based on extensive primary research, Todd Denault, expertly chronicles all the action, the controversy, the record-breaking performances, and the memorable moments that made up the unforgettable 1992-93 NHL season. The story that emerges is of a year quite unlike any other in hockey’s long history, in which the unexpected and the improbable came to pass. A remarkable season that saw greatness confirmed, magnificence affirmed and where legends were born.

Crosby’s Golden Goal by Mike Leonetti

Mike Leonetti is back with yet another in his long line of hockey history inspired children’s titles. This time his work was inspired by and titled with Crosby’s Golden Goal

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A young boy rediscovers the joy of hockey through Sidney Crosby”s famous gold medal goal.

Flyers Lives: Philadelphia Hockey Greats Share Their Personal Stories

Jakki Clarke, the daughter of the Flyers legend Bobby Clarke, is coming out with Flyer Lives: Philadelphia Hockey Greats Share Their Personal Stories.

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

Stretching back to the team’s birth in the National Hockey League expansion of 1967, this record follows the Philadelphia Flyers’ story, starting with the rabid fan base they built during their “Broad Street Bullies” era of the 1970s. The hard-charging Bullies’ back-to-back Stanley Cup victories in 1974 and 1975 are documented, and the team’s status as a perennial contender is illustrated through their 34 playoff appearances. Penned by charismatic superstar and team manager Bobby Clarke’s own daughter Jakki, this account reflects the personal relationships the author established with many of the team’s best skaters. 

Drawn from up-close interviews with more than 30 of the Flyers’ greats regarding their lives, playing careers, challenges, and successes, this compilation is a must-have keepsake that all Philadelphia hockey fans are sure to cherish. Players from all eras are represented—including Billy Barber, Bernie Parent, Mark Howe, Keith Primeau, and more—sharing never-before-told stories about learning to skate, playing pranks in the locker room, enjoying the fruits of victory, and overcoming crushing defeat. Containing valuable advice for both athletes and parents, this is an intimate look at a group of men who have experienced the ups and downs of a demanding sport at all levels.

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

Straight Shooter: The Brad Park Story

The official biography of an NHL legend – Available now!

By the time he retired, Brad Park had surpassed the great Bobby Orr in career assists by a defenseman. Inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame the first year he was eligible, and later named one of the Top 100 NHL players of all time by The Hockey News, Park will forever be remembered as one of the greatest men ever to take the ice. The first and only authorized biography of Park’s life and career, Straight Shooter: The Brad Park Story, delves deeper into his legendary success than any book has before, bringing together exclusive, candid insights from Park himself, as well as interviews with dozens of players, family members, and key figures from the hockey world.

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

The Year of the Los Angeles Kings

The Year of the Los Angeles Kings: Celebrating the 2012 Stanley Cup Champions, is the only officially endorsed and licensed Championship book by the NHL and is the must-have Stanley Cup collectible for all fans of the game!

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

The Los Angeles Kings won their team’s first Stanley Cup after a dominant postseason run that saw them go 16-4 while setting a record for Playoff wins on the road. They started the season as unlikely contenders, built a strong team over the season, and then battled their way through the two-month marathon that is the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

In the end, the Kings’ roster not only looked like a Cup champion, but played like one. Led by American-born captain Dustin Brown, the Kings dominated the postseason. Drew Doughty and Anze Kopitar, complemented by newly acquired forwards Mike Richards and Jeff Carter, formed the core of a team that faced the best in the League, and won. But the emergence of Conn Smythe winner Jonathan Quick was the true key to the Los Angeles victory.

Now On Kindle: Cold War by Roy MacSkimming

One of the best books on the 1972 Summit Series is now on available as an ebook.

Cold War: The Amazing Canada-Soviet Hockey Series of 1972 is newly re-released available on Kindle for just $9.99.

Here’s my original review of the identical traditional release:

Roy MacSkimming is a gifted Canadian writer, as proven in the book Cold War. He attempts to re-capture much of the drama, suspense and symbolism of both the on ice action and off of it. Of course, it is nearly impossible to truly relive the era, especially to audiences that never lived through it in the first place. Even it has become even harder to explain to newer generations as the world in 1972 is as foreign to them as the Soviet players were to us.. Regardless, MacSkimming comes as close as anyone has in reliving the series in it’s original context as anyone has in print.

The book definitely serves as a definitive history of the 1972 Summit Series. Factually the book is very solid. The author also stretches a bit and attempts to reveal the impact on the players, on North American hockey and on Canadian culture in general.

If you are to read only one book on the 1972 Summit Series, make Roy MacSkimming’s Cold War.