GearGeek is the world’s first online NHL equipment database.See what every active NHL player is using on the ice right now – sticks, gloves, pants, skates and helmets. You can sort by brands, teams, positions, stat leaders and more.GearGeek is free to …
Drill:1. Place O in each corner with a puck2. D starts in front of net and skates toward one of the O3. When he stops and transitions, the O drives the net and they play 1 on 1 until a score, puck freeze or D clears the puck4. D then picks another O an…
I’ve been asked a lot over the years what I look for in a player during evaluations. After watching my son during various AA & AAA Ice try-outs, I’ve been thinking more about this topic and wanted to share a bit of what I look for and some ot…
Apparently there is a whole new genre of hockey books for 2012: Hockey Smut.
Yes, the rushed world of romance/smut novels is crossing over to the hockey world, hoping to score (pun intended) with titles like Taking a Shot
It turns out this is not entirely new. Deirdre Martin has put out (no pun intended) several hockey themed romance novels in the past, including Body Check
And smut world leader Harlequin’s mass produced titles include Body Check
Michael Buma offers us the academic release: Refereeing Identity: The Cultural Work of Canadian Hockey Novels
Hockey novels in Canada have emerged and thrived as a popular fiction genre, building on the mythology of Canadian hockey as a rough, testosterone-fuelled bastion of masculinity. However, recent decades have also been a period of uncertainty and change for the game, where players and teams have been exported to the US and traditional gender assumptions in hockey have increasingly been questioned.
In Refereeing Identity, Michael Buma examines the ways in which the hockey novel genre attempts to reassure readers that “threatened” traditional Canadian and masculine identities still thrive on the ice. In a period of perceived crisis and flux, hockey novels offer readers the comforting familiarity of earlier times when the game was synonymous with Canada and men were defined by their physical strength.
This comprehensive study of Canadian hockey novels draws on history, sport sociology, and literary criticism to challenge assumptions and stereotypes about identity. With the return of the Winnipeg Jets refuelling hockey nationalism and the public debate over hockey violence intensifying,
Refereeing Identity is a timely and incisive account of how the game is represented – and misrepresented – in Canadian society.
Buy The Book: Amazon.ca
Released in April 2012 by the University of Toronto, Stickhandling through the Margins: First Nations Hockey in Canada
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
This book is an academic release.
This is a book that I am very much looking forward to.
Tal Pinchevsky’s Breakaway: The Untold Story of Hockeys Great Escapes
Buy The Book – Amazon.ca
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 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
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.
This a long over due book. Sudden Death: The Incredible Saga of the 1986 Swift Current Broncos
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
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.
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
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
The popular and mulleted Barry Melrose is releasing an autobiography in 2012. Dropping the Gloves: Inside the Fiercely Combative World of Professional Hockey
Buy The Book: Amazon.ca –
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.
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
Hockey Hall of Fame defenseman Marcel Pronovost is releasing his autobiography (written with Bob Duff) in 2012. Marcel Pronovost: A Life in Hockey
Buy The Book: Amazon.ca
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.
