From the NHL's most unexpected All-Star MVP comes a sports memoir unlike any other. Hilarious, candid, and reflective, A Guy Like Me recounts the heartwarming story of John Scott: an average joe who became a sports icon overnight. Known as a willing-and-able fighter and bruiser in the league, John Scott was a surprising and tongue-and-cheek nominee for the 2016 NHL All-Star Game. He'd been in the league for over eight NHL seasons, playing for teams such as the Wild, Blackhawks, Rangers, Sabres, and the Sharks. Scott's best attribute as an NHL player was dropping his gloves--never the best player, he did become the most feared fighter in the NHL, racking up extensive penalty minutes. In order to prevent him from playing in the game, his current team--the Phoenix Coyotes--traded Scott to the Montreal Canadiens, who demoted him to the AHL team in an attempt to disqualify him from playing in the All-Star Game. Fans were outraged and Scott was devastated. He'd been downgraded in his job--forced to relocate while his wife was pregnant with twin girls. But the fans wouldn't back down and insisted the NHL let Scott play in the game. What followed was an inspiring and unforgettable Cinderella story. Detailing his life growing up and with plenty of his signature humor, A Guy Like Me is a moving, witty, and remarkable memoir that you won't be able to put down.

In late 1975 and early 1976, at the height of the Cold War, two of the Soviet Union’s long-dominant national hockey teams traveled to North America to play an eight-game series against the best teams in the National Hockey League. The culmination of the “Super Series� was HC CSKA Moscow’s faceoff against the reigning champion Flyers in Philadelphia on January 11, 1976. Known as the “Red Army Club,� HC CSKA hadn’t lost a game in the series. Known as the “Broad Street Bullies,� the Flyers were determined to bring the Red Army team’s winning streak to an end with their trademark aggressive style of play. Based largely on interviews, Ed Gruver’s book will tell the story of this epic game and series as it lays out the stakes involved: nothing less than the credibility of the NHL. If the Red Army team had completed its series sweep by defeating the two-time Stanley Cup champion Flyers, the NHL would no longer have been able to claim primacy of place in professional-level hockey. Gruver also describes how the game and series affected the styles of both Russian and NHL teams. The Soviets adopted a more physical brand of hockey, while the NHL increasingly focused on passing and speed.

The Pittsburgh Penguins have captured the Stanley Cup five times since 1991-more than any NHL team during the same period. Joining the NHL in 1967 as an expansion team, they waddled their way through years of heavy losses both on and off the ice-bad trades, horrible draft picks, a revolving door of owners, general managers and coaches, and even a bankruptcy. Somehow, they hung on long enough to draft superstar Mario Lemieux in 1984 and eventually claim their first championship, attracting a large fanbase along the way. Packed with colorful recollections from former players, reporters and team officials, this book tells the complete story of the Penguins' first 25 years, chronicling their often hilarious, sometimes tragic transformation from bumbling upstarts to one of hockey's most accomplished franchises.

The tragic death of hockey star Derek Boogaard at twenty-eight was front-page news across the country in 2011 and helped shatter the silence about violence and concussions in professional sports. Now, in a gripping work of narrative nonfiction, acclaimed reporter John Branch tells the shocking story of Boogaard's life and heartbreaking death. Boy on Ice is the richly told story of a mountain of a man who made it to the absolute pinnacle of his sport. Widely regarded as the toughest man in the NHL, Boogaard was a gentle man off the ice but a merciless fighter on it. With great narrative drive, Branch recounts Boogaard's unlikely journey from lumbering kid playing pond-hockey on the prairies of Saskatchewan, so big his skates would routinely break beneath his feet; to his teenaged junior hockey days, when one brutal outburst of violence brought Boogaard to the attention of professional scouts; to his days and nights as a star enforcer with the Minnesota Wild and the storied New York Rangers, capable of delivering career-ending punches and intimidating entire teams. But, as Branch reveals, behind the scenes Boogaard's injuries and concussions were mounting and his mental state was deteriorating, culminating in his early death from an overdose of alcohol and painkillers. Based on months of investigation and hundreds of interviews with Boogaard's family, friends, teammates, and coaches, Boy on Ice is a brilliant work for fans of Michael Lewis's The Blind Side or Buzz Bissinger's Friday Night Lights. This is a book that raises deep and disturbing questions about the systemic brutality of contact sports-from peewees to professionals-and the damage that reaches far beyond the game.

No sport is as important to Canadians as hockey. Though there may be a great many things that divide the country, the love of hockey is perhaps its single greatest unifier. Before the latest labour unrest in the National Hockey League (NHL), however, it was easy to forget that hockey is also a multi-million dollar business run, not by the athletes or coaches, but by corporate boards and businessmen. "The Lords of the Rinks" documents the early years of hockey's professionalization and commercialization and the emergence of a fledgling NHL, from 1875 to 1936.

As the popularity of hockey grew in Canada in the late nineteenth century, so too did its commercial aspects, and players, club directors, rink owners, fans, and media had developed deep emotional, economic, and ideological interests in the sport. Disagreement came in the ways and means of how organized hockey, especially at the elite level, should be managed. Hence, some coordination, by way of governing bodies, was required to maintain a semblance of order. These early administrative bodies tried to maintain a structure that would help to coordinate the various interests, set up standards of behaviour, and impose mechanisms to detect and punish violators of governance. In 1917, the NHL held its first games and by 1936 had become the dominant governing body in professional hockey.

Having performed extensive research in the NHL archives ? including league meeting minutes, letters, memos, telegrams, as well as gate receipt reports ? John Chi-Kit Wong traces the commercial roots of hockey and argues that, in its organized form, the sport was rarely if ever without some commercial aspects despite labels such as amateur and professional. "The Lords of the Rinks" is the only truly comprehensive and scholarly history of the league and the business of hockey.

"Blue Ice" relates the tale of the University of Michigan's hockey program--from its fight to become a varsity sport in the 1920s to its 1996 and 1998 NCAA national championships.
This history of the hockey program profiles the personalities who shaped the program--athletic directors, coaches, and players. From Fielding Yost, who made the decision to build the team a rink with artificial ice before the Depression (which ensured hockey would be played during those lean years), to coaches Joseph Barss, who survived World War I and the ghastly Halifax explosion before becoming the program's first coach, to Red Berenson, who struggled to return his alma mater's hockey team to prominence in the 1980s and 1990s. Players from Eddie Kahn, who scored Michigan's first goal in 1923, to Brendan Morrison, who upon winning the 1996 national championship with his goal said, "This is for all the [Michigan] guys who never had a chance to win it."
"BlueIce" also explores the players' exotic backgrounds, from Calumet in the Upper Peninsula to Minnesota's Iron Range to Regina, Saskatchewan; how coach Vic Heygliger launched the NCAA tournament at the glamorous Broadmoor Hotel; and how commissioner Bill Beagan transformed the country's premier hockey conference.
In "Blue Ice," fans of hockey will learn the stories behind the curse of the Boston University Terriers, the hockey team's use of the winged helmet, and the unlikely success of Ann Arbor's home-grown talent.
Unlike other sports at the collegiate level, the hockey players at Michigan haven't been motivated by fame or fortune; rather, they came to Michigan get an education and to play the game they loved.
John U. Bacon has won numerousnational writing awards and now freelances for "Sports Illustrated," "Time," "ESPN Magazine, "and the "New York Times," among others.

The Chicago Blackhawks’ 2015 postseason run culminated in the team’s third Stanley Cup since 2010, the sixth championship in the Original Six franchise’s history. The road to hoisting the Cup was the bumpiest of Chicago’s three titles under head coach Joel Quenneville. The Blackhawks finished third in the NHL’s Central Division following a season in which key players, including Patrick Kane and Corey Crawford, missed time due to injury. But the Hawks stormed past Nashville, Minnesota and Anaheim to set up a Stanley Cup Final matchup against a young, fast Tampa Bay Lightning team.  With new heroes emerging throughout the postseason, the Blackhawks battled through a tough, six-game first round series against Nashville before sweeping the Minnesota Wild to reach the Western Conference Final. In an epic series that featured three overtime contests, the Blackhawks overcame a 3-2 deficit to defeat the Ducks in seven games to advance to the Stanley Cup Final.  Packed with one of a kind analysis and stunning photography from the Chicago Tribune, Hawks Dynasty takes fans through the Blackhawks’ journey, from the crushing loss to the Los Angeles Kings in Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals in 2014 through the final seconds against Tampa Bay. This commemorative edition also includes profiles of Kane, Crawford, Jonathan Toews, Duncan Keith, Brandon Saad and Scott Darling.

The Hartford Whalers were a beloved hockey team from their founding in 1972 as the New England Whalers. Playing in the National Hockey League's smallest market and arena after the World Hockey Association merger in 1979, they struggled in a division that included both the Boston Bruins and Montreal Canadiens-but their fans were among the NHL's most loyal. In 1995 new owners demanded a new arena and, when it fell through, moved the team to North Carolina, rebranding as the Hurricanes. Unlike fellow franchises that have folded or relocated with little fanfare, the Whalers' fan base stayed with the team, which remains as popular as ever. Even though more than two decades have come and gone since Connecticut's only professional sports team moved, nobody has truly forgotten the Whalers, their history, and their unique-and still highly profitable-logo. And while the NHL continues to thrive without them, their impact stretches far beyond the ice and into an entirely different cultural arena. Christopher Price grew up in Connecticut as a diehard Whalers fan, experiencing firsthand the team's bond with the community. Drawing from all aspects of the team's past, he tells the uncensored history of Connecticut's favorite professional sports franchise. Part sports history and part civic history, Bleeding Green shows vividly why the Whalers, despite an inglorious past and a future that unexpectedly vanished, remain firmly embedded in the American milieu and have had a lasting impact on not only the NHL but the sports landscape as a whole.

In Blood Feud, Colorado Avalanche beat writer Adrian Dater not only submits that the Red Wings-Avalanche rivalry was the most feverish match-up in recent years, but also that there was none better played. No fewer than twenty players have or will eventually make it to the Hall of Fame; the best scorers were matched up against the best goalies; brilliant coaches could be found on both benches; and two of the league's smartest general managers ruthlessly tried to one-up each other at every NHL trade deadline. Blood Feud is a rollicking story of a fierce, and often violent, rivalry.

Hockey Grit, Grind, & Mind is for all those who are serious about becoming an elite player and reaching their full potential. Hockey is a tough sport and not everyone will develop the passion and perseverance it requires. Yet, honing one's skills, experience, and mental toughness is essential for becoming the best player possible. Performance and sports specialist Kevin Willis helps players, coaches, and parents understand the grit necessary to rise through the ranks and play hockey at the highest levels. Readers will learn how to increase the consistency of their game, step up in pressure situations, play with more confidence, create a reserve of energy to tap into when things are tough, persevere when other players are giving up, crystalize their vision of success, and stand out on the ice in both games and practices. Kevin provides the tools, insights, and strategies to help players train and compete like the pros and take their game-and their grit-to a whole new level.

For Canadians, hockey is the game. Shared experiences and memories-lacing up for the first time, shinny on an outdoor rink, Sidney Crosby's historic goal, or the one scored by Maurice Richard-make hockey more than just a game. While the relationship between hockey and national identity has been studied, where does the game fit into our understanding of multiple, diverse Canadian identities today? This interdisciplinary book considers hockey, both as professional and amateur sport, and both in historical and contemporary context, in relation to larger themes in Canadian Studies, including gender, race/ethnicity, ability, sexuality, geography, and reflects upon all aspects of hockey in Canadian life: play, fandom, sports broadcasting, and community activism. This interdisciplinary scholarly collection is an extension of the "Hockey in Canada: More Than Just a Game" exhibition presented by the Canadian Museum of History. This book is published in English. Includes one chapter in French. - Le hockey est le sport des Canadiens Les experiences et les souvenirs que nous partageons - lacer ses patins pour la toute premiere fois, jouer une partie de hockey de rue, le but historique marque par Sidney Crosby, ou celui de Maurice Richard - font du hockey bien plus qu'un sport. Bien que le lien entre hockey et identite nationale ait ete etudie, il faut s'interroger sur la place qu'occupe ce sport dans notre comprehension des identites canadiennes diverses et multiples d'aujourd'hui. Cet ouvrage interdisciplinaire explore le hockey tant comme sport professionnel qu'amateur, depuis une approche tantot historique, tantot actuelle, en lien avec des problematiques en Etudes canadiennes, dont le genre, la race et l'ethnicite, la competence, la sexualite, la geographique, et lance une reflexion sur les divers aspects du hockey dans la vie des Canadiens : le jeu, les supporters, la radiodiffusion, l'activisme communautaire. Cet ouvrage complete l'exposition de " Hockey : Plus qu'un simple jeu ", presentee par le Musee canadien de l'histoire. Ce livre est publie en anglais. Comprend un chapitre en francais.

Entering the 1978-79 season, the Boston Bruins had been one of the best teams in the National Hockey League for more than a decade-but they could not shake the infuriating jinx the Montreal Canadiens held over them in postseason play. Against all odds, the Canadiens had ousted the Bruins in 13 consecutive playoff series dating back to the 1940s. In 1979, the Bruin veterans and their passionate fans wanted one more shot at their nemeses after coming up short in both the 1977 and 1978 Stanley Cup finals. Colorful but embattled coach Don Cherry's coterie of lovable, selfless, hard-working, team-oriented players got their desired chance in the semifinal round. The underdog Bruins battled the Habs in seven heart-stopping games, and sweet victory seemed within their grasp-only to have it snatched from them in the cruelest fashion imaginable: an untimely penalty for too many men on the ice in the dying minutes of Game #7. This book looks back at the Boston Bruins' 1978-79 season from Opening Night at Boston Garden to the catastrophic conclusion seven months later at the Montreal Forum. It is prefaced by the history of the Bruins' frustrating playoff jinx versus the Canadiens that dated back to 1930, the tribulations and events that marked Boston's 1978-79 regular season, and a recap of the team's quarterfinal playoff victory over Pittsburgh. Along with detailed accounts of all seven of the Boston-Montreal semifinal games, it also contains a post-mortem of what caused the infamous bench penalty and provides glimpses of all the Bruin personnel who made that season so memorable and heartbreaking.

The fun and easy way to coach youth hockey - no experience required

Hockey is growing in leaps and bounds around the world, but the demand for qualified coaches far outstrips availability. Moms and dads are being recruited to step in and assume the role of coach even with nothing more than feigned interest for credentials. "Coaching Hockey For Dummies" is ideally suited to meet these growing needs: its message is clear, the information thorough and user friendly, and it brings along a great attitude.

For anyone new to coaching, "Coaching Hockey For Dummies" will provide an invaluable reference. Unlike other coaching books, which only cover what happens on the ice, "Coaching Hockey For Dummies" covers every aspect of hockey coaching, from what equipment a coach needs, to holding player-parent meetings, to the perfect drills to develop individual and team skills.

Early in their lives, Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson and Monique Lamoureux-Morando chose ice hockey to be the sport they wanted to pursue. They didn't let the absence of girls hockey teams get in their way-they just played on boys teams. Nor did they let competitive adversity on the ice stop them on their way to a thrilling gold-medal victory at the 2018 Olympics, the United States' first gold medal in women's ice hockey in 20 years. They also did not allow roadblocks and discrimination off the ice deter them from taking on the big business of elite international and Olympic sports. The success of Monique, Jocelyne, and their team thrust them into the center of the fray in the struggle for gender equity, whether for women in hockey and in sports in general, or in society at large. In Dare to Make History, the Lamoureux twins chronicle their journey to the pinnacle of their sport, the challenges of competing as elite athletes while becoming new mothers, their efforts along with almost 150 other hockey players to start a new professional women's hockey league, their training to come back for the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing, and their contributions as role models championing the dreams of future generations of girls in sports, education, and the workplace. This is their inspiring story-the story of all girls and women, as well as boys and men, who simply want a level playing field.

For many, being a Toronto Maple Leafs fan has become a curse from cradle to grave. False hope, hollow promises, and a mind-numbing lack of success - these words describe the Toronto Maple Leafs and the hockey club's inexplicable mediocrity over much of the past decade. Author Peter Robinson has attended some 100 games over the past six seasons and has little to show for it except an unquenched thirst that keeps him coming back. Why does a team that hasn't won a Stanley Cup since 1967, long before many of its followers were even born, have such a hold on its fans? Robinson tries to answer that question and more while detailing what it's like to love one of the most unlovable teams in all of professional sports. Being a Leafs fan requires a leap of faith every year, girding against inevitable disappointment. This book tells what that's like, how it got to be that way, and what the future holds for all who worship the Blue and White.

Forever Faithful celebrates the history of Cornell hockey, focusing on twenty-four memorable games played by the men's and women's teams since the opening of Lynah Rink in 1957. The foreword was written by Ken Dryden (Cornell '69), who led the Big Red team to its first NCAA championship in 1967, won six Stanley Cups with the Montreal Canadiens, and is a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame. The narrative begins with an early history of the program, when games were played outdoors on Beebe Lake, and moves on to chapters celebrating the rituals and traditions of the Lynah Faithful and the key rivalries of both the men's and women's teams. Game accounts follow, each one featuring insights from coaches and players who were involved and illustrated by many color and black-and-white photographs of the players and game action. The book concludes with an appendix that lists key statistics and accomplishments of the men's and women's programs.

Book in slipcase. Before the NHL, and even before the Pacific Coast League, British Columbia was a land of vibrant hockey. Now Craig Bowlsby has uncovered and revived the old legends and given us a rink-side glimpse into this exciting past. He has included never-before published photos, paintings and drawings, plus new stories of the famous Patrick brothers in Nelson before they launched the Pacific Coast League. The book is highly detailed, including every known BC player at the time, women's teams and team and goalie records.

Journeyman is a first-person biography of Ojibwe rightwinger Jamie Leach, son of the legendary NHL superstar Reggie Leach. Follow the fascinating hockey trajectory from his childhood years watching his father play for the Philadelphia Flyers, to Jamie’s first goal in the NHL.Journeyman touches on Jamie’s summers on Lake Winnipeg, the World Junior Hockey Championships, his life in the minor leagues, and his eventual draft into the NHL as a Pittsburgh Penguin. Discover how some of hockey’s biggeststars such as Bobby Clarke, Jaromir Jagr, and Mario Lemieux influenced Jamie’s life.Written in close consultation with Jamie and his mother, readers will learn about the struggles Jamie conquered, including his father’s alcoholism and his own crippling self-doubt.A story of determination, heartbreak and perseverance.

They are motivators, key strategists, tough bosses, and choreographers. They can be branded as heroes, ousted as scapegoats, quietly valued as friends, and everything in between. It's all in the job description for an NHL head coach. In Behind the Bench, ESPN's Craig Custance sits down for film sessions and candid conversations with some of the game's most notable modern luminaries—names like Mike Babcock, Joel Quenneville, Dan Bylsma, Todd McLellan, Ken Hitchcock, and Claude Julien—all of whom share their singular views on topics ranging from leadership secrets to on-ice game plans. Dissect some of hockey's greatest moments with the men who set the pieces in motion. Go straight to the source on what it's like to manage a dressing room full of the league's top stars or execute line changes with everything at stake. Signature games, including Stanley Cup finals, Olympic gold medal clashes, and World Championship contests—both wins and losses—are reflected upon and broken down in detail, making this essential reading for current and aspiring coaches, players, and hockey fans alike.

Once upon a time, they taught us to believe. They were the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team, a blue-collar bunch led by an unconventional coach, and they engineered perhaps the greatest sports moment of the twentieth century. Their "Miracle on Ice" has become a national fairy tale, but the real Cinderella story is even more remarkable. It is a legacy of hope, hard work, and homegrown triumph. It is a chronicle of everyday heroes who just wanted to play hockey happily ever after. It is still unbelievable.
"The Boys of Winter is an evocative account of the improbable American adventure in Lake Placid, New York. Drawing on hundreds of hours of interviews, Wayne Coffey explores the untold stories of the U.S. upstarts, their Soviet opponents, and the forces that brought them together.
Plagued by the Iran hostage crisis, persistent economic woes, and the ongoing Cold War, the United States battled a pervasive sense of gloom in 1980. And then came the Olympics. Traditionally a playground for the Russian hockey juggernaut and its ever-growing collection of gold medals, an Olympic ice rink seemed an unlikely setting for a Cold War upset. The Russians were experienced professional champions, state-reared and state-supported. The Americans were mostly college kids who had their majors and their stipends and their dreams, a squad that coach Herb Brooks had molded into a team in six months. It was men vs. boys, champions vs. amateurs, communism vs. capitalism.
Coffey casts a fresh eye on this seminal sports event in "The Boys of Winter, crafting an intimate look at the team and giving readers an ice-level view of the boys who captivated a country. He details the unusual chemistry of theAmericans--formulated by a fiercely determined Brooks--and he seamlessly weaves portraits of the players with the fluid, fast-paced action of the 1980 game itself. Coffey also traces the paths of the players and coaches since that time, examining how the events in Lake Placid affected and directed their lives and investigating what happens after one conquers the world.
But Coffey not only reveals the anatomy of an underdog, he probes the shocked disbelief of the unlikely losers and how it felt to be taken down by such an overlooked opponent. After all, the greatest American sports moment of the century was a Russian calamity, perhaps even more unimaginable in Moscow than in Minnesota or Massachusetts. Coffey deftly balances the joyous American saga with the perspective of the astonished silver medalists.
Told with warmth and an uncanny eye for detail, "The Boys of Winter is an intimate, perceptive portrayal of one Friday night in Lake Placid and the enduring power of the extraordinary.

"From the Hardcover edition.