It's Hockey Time
PWxyz
November 14, 2013
I don’t think it’s just because I spend six days a week on the ice playing hockey or coaching my son’s travel league, and am therefore more aware of hockey books—but this season I’ve seen many more than usual.
Here’s a rundown:
The Game by Ken Dryden, Montreal Canadiens goalie of the 1970s iconic team, is one of the best books written on the sport (I don’t say that simply because I’m a diehard Habs fan). This season, Triumph books released the 30th anniversary edition of the book, with an additional chapter and new photos.
Without a doubt, Canadian publishers are in on the action: ECW Press in September published Don’t Call Me Goon: Hockey’s Greatest Enforcers, Gunslingers, and Bad Boys by Greg Oliver and Richard Kamchen; and in last month they came out with Heart of the Blackhawks: The Pierre Pilote Story by L. Waxy Gregoire, David M. Dupuis, with Pilote himself.
Canada’s big book is by Canada’s prime minister Stephen J. Harper. The title is A Great Game: The Forgotten Leafs & The Rise of Professional Hockey, and Jeff Z. Klein gave it some nice attention in the New York Times. It’s a well-written, solid history—and, yeah, I say that even though it’s about the great Canadiens rival.
This season’s most popular book, of course, is Bobby Orr’s memoir, called simply, Orr: My Story. The Bruins defenseman of the 1960s and ’70s is loved by all, and his book debuted at #10 on our bestseller list. Also on Orr, McClelland & Stewart released the collected articles from Sports Illustrated in Number Four Bobby Orr.
Of course, it really just could be me.