The untold story of hockey's deep roots from different regions of the world, and its global, cultural impact. Played on frozen ponds in cold northern lands, hockey seemed an especially unlikely game to gain a global following. But from its beginnings in the nineteenth century, the sport has drawn from different cultures and crossed boundaries--between Canada and the United States, across the Atlantic, and among different regions of Europe. It has been a political flashpoint within countries and internationally. And it has given rise to far-reaching cultural changes and firmly held traditions. The Fastest Game in the World is a global history of a global sport, drawing upon research conducted around the world in a variety of languages. From Canadian prairies to Swiss mountain resorts, Soviet housing blocks to American suburbs, Bruce Berglund takes readers on an international tour, seamlessly weaving in hockey's local, national, and international trends. Written in a lively style with wide-ranging breadth and attention to telling detail, The Fastest Game in the World will thrill both the lifelong fan and anyone who is curious about how games intertwine with politics, economics, and culture.

The Montreal Canadiens are one of the most successful teams in the NHL, with 24 Stanley Cup victories and stars like Guy LaFleur, Patrick Roy, and Carey Price, who have all left their mark on hockey history. Author Pat Hickey, as a longtime beat writer for the Montreal Gazette, has witnessed more than his fair share of that history up close and personal. Through singular anecdotes only Hickey can tell as well as conversations with current and past players, this book provides fans with a one-of-a-kind, insider's look into the great moments, the lowlights, and everything in between. Habs fans will not want to miss this book.

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.

The NHL's New York Islanders were struggling. After winning four straight Stanley Cups in the early 1980s, the Islanders had suffered an embarrassing sweep by their geographic rivals, the New York Rangers, in the first round of the 1994 playoffs. Hoping for a new start, the Islanders swapped out their distinctive logo, which featured the letters NY and a map of Long Island, for a cartoon fisherman wearing a rain slicker and gripping a hockey stick. The new logo immediately drew comparisons to the mascot for Gorton's frozen seafood, and opposing fans taunted the team with chants of "We want fish sticks!" During a rebranding process that lasted three torturous seasons, the Islanders unveiled a new mascot, new uniforms, new players, a new coach, and a new owner, which were supposed to signal a return to championship glory. Instead, the team and its fans endured a twenty-eight-month span more humiliating than what most franchises witness over twenty-eight years. Fans beat up the new mascot in the stands. The new coach shoved and spit at players. The Islanders were sold to a supposed billionaire who promised to buy elite players; he turned out to be a con artist and was sent to prison. We Want Fish Sticks examines this era through period sources and interviews with the people who lived it.

Reviews of earlier editions: Action shots and formatted with the brightness and gloss of a magazine, this book will be interesting reading for hockey fans. -- Booklist This is a fantastic book for teachers and students alike. It is written in an informative and easy-to-read style and is a definite must-have for any library or classroom. -- Resource Links The greatest players in the NHL... NOW! The Hockey Now! franchise has been thrilling hockey fans for over two decades, and this new eleventh edition will take them rinkside and delight them like no other hockey book. Updated in time for the 2022-23 season, Hockey Now! provides fast-paced and strikingly illustrated profiles of over 65 of the best and brightest of the NHL. Here are just a few of the players featured in Hockey Now! Connor McDavid (Edmonton Oilers) Sidney Crosby (Pittsburgh Penguins) Auston Matthews (Toronto Maple Leafs) Alex Ovechkin (Washington Capitals) Nikita Kucherov (Tampa Bay Lightning) Nathan McKinnon (Colorado Avalanche) Drew Doughty (Los Angeles Kings) Marc-Andre Fleury (Chicago Blackhawks) Victor Hedman (Tampa Bay Lightning). Author Mike Ryan has selected first and second All-Star teams as well as the Black Aces and Milestone Makers for each division (Atlantic, Metropolitan, Central and Pacific), paying special attention to the league's youth movement. Hockey Now! is the most comprehensive and up-to-date guide to the stars of today's fast-paced NHL and the ideal choice for all fans.

The Chicago Blackhawks, one of the NHL’s “Original Six,” have been building their storied legacy for decades. Since their founding in 1926, the Hawks have won six Stanley Cup championships and produced dozens of standout stars, from Hall of Fame goaltender Mike Karakas in the ’30s to Bobby “The Golden Jet” Hull in the ’60s to current team captain Jonathan Toews. And the Chicago Tribune, the team’s hometown newspaper, has been covering it all from the very beginning. Published to coincide with the start of the 2017–18 season, The Chicago Tribune Book of the Chicago Blackhawks is a decade-by-decade look at the city’s 21st-century sports dynasty. Curated by the Chicago Tribune sports department, this book documents every era in the team’s history, from the 1920s to the present day, through the newspaper’s original reporting, in-depth analysis, comprehensive timelines, and archival photos. Each chapter includes profiles on key coaches and players, highlighting the top players from each decade as well as every Stanley Cup championship. Bonus “overtime” material—stats and facts on championships, Hall of Famers, memorable trades, and more—provides a blow-by-blow look at all 90 years of the franchise’s history.

Amanda Lamarches debut collection of poetry is a work of imaginative grace and power. These poems topple the normal hierarchy of everyday concerns, promoting fears unlikely in the normal state of being -- the fear of buttons, of dying to the wrong song, of houses built on corners -- to the same stage and emotional impact as the more common (perhaps more cliched) fears of car crashes and collapsing bridges. The clever combination of explorations emotional and playful carries on. Technical advice for cutting down trees is juxtaposed with the development of ominous personal overtones. The title sequence takes issue with the easy laying down of language by recasting well-worn sayings: giving them back-stories, situating them in real time and real places, and reinvigorating them by providing each its own individual universe from which to draw meaning. Amanda Lamarches refreshing poems refuse at all the right moments to take themselves too seriously. They have the amazing ability to make readers shift from out-loud laughter to profound insight in a gasp of breath.

When the Detroit Red Wings were rebooting their franchise after more than two decades of relative futility, they knew the best place to find world-class players who could help turn things around more quickly were conscripted servants behind the Iron Curtain. All they had to do then was make history by drafting them, then figure out how to get them out. That's when the Wings turned to Keith Gave, the newsman whose clandestine mission to Helsinki, Finland, was the first phase of a of a years-long series of secret meetings from posh hotel rooms to remote forests around Europe to orchestrate their unlawful departures from the Soviet Union. One defection created an international incident and made global headlines. Another player faked cancer, thanks to the Wings' extravagant bribes to Russian doctors, including a big American car. Another player who wasn't quite ready to leave yet felt like he was being kidnapped by an unscrupulous agent. Two others were outcast when they stood up publicly against the Soviet regime, winning their freedom to play in the NHL only after years of struggle. They are the Russian Five: Sergei Fedorov, Viacheslav Fetisov, Vladimir Konstantinov, Vyacheslav Kozlov and Igor Larionov. Their individual stories read like pulse-pounding spy novels. The story that unfolded after they were brought together in Detroit by the masterful coach Scotty Bowman is unforgettable. This story includes details never before revealed, and by the man who was there every step of the way -- from the day Detroit drafted its first two Soviets in 1989 until they raised the Stanley Cup in 1997, then took it to Moscow for a victory lap around Red Square and the Kremlin. The Russian Five did more to bridge Russian and American relations than decades of diplomacy and detente between the White House and the Kremlin. This is their story.