Eleven Posted August 4, 2011 Report Posted August 4, 2011 So Doohickie's post in the Isles thread has me thinkin': What's the best hockey book that you recently have read? Mine is The Art of Scouting, by Shane Malloy. It is not particularly artfully written, and I think an average reader gets through it in a couple of days, but it is full of interesting anecdotes (especially about life on the road as a scout) as well as the information suggested by the title: what NHL scouts look for in a prospect.
darksabre Posted August 4, 2011 Report Posted August 4, 2011 I read Gordie back during the winter and now I'm working on Boys of Winter, about the 1980 team. I thought Gordie was excellent and I'm enjoying BoW so far. I need to read The Game by Ken Dryden next, it's supposed to be the quintessential hockey book.
Eleven Posted August 4, 2011 Author Report Posted August 4, 2011 I read Gordie back during the winter and now I'm working on Boys of Winter, about the 1980 team. I thought Gordie was excellent and I'm enjoying BoW so far. I need to read The Game by Ken Dryden next, it's supposed to be the quintessential hockey book. I'm going to have to add the latter two to my list. As for Gordie, is that a biography of the entire male population of Canada? EDIT: Just ordered Boys of WInter and The Game. Had some Amazon points to use.
darksabre Posted August 4, 2011 Report Posted August 4, 2011 I'm going to have to add the latter two to my list. As for Gordie, is that a biography of the entire male population of Canada? It's actually about Ranger Gord from the Red Green Show.
Eleven Posted August 4, 2011 Author Report Posted August 4, 2011 It's actually about Ranger Gord from the Red Green Show. They even use it as a last name up there? Is 5 percent of the country named "Gordon Gord" or something? Geez.
Andrew Amerk Posted August 4, 2011 Report Posted August 4, 2011 Then Perreault Said To Rico was the last hockey book I read. I will have to check out the others suggested here...
darksabre Posted August 4, 2011 Report Posted August 4, 2011 I'm going to have to add the latter two to my list. As for Gordie, is that a biography of the entire male population of Canada? EDIT: Just ordered Boys of WInter and The Game. Had some Amazon points to use. Nice! Also, apparently Gauthier is like the Smith of Quebec.
deluca67 Posted August 4, 2011 Report Posted August 4, 2011 Does the instruction manual for the first EASports NHL game count?
JKB1646 Posted August 4, 2011 Report Posted August 4, 2011 Bob McKenzie " True Confessions of a Crazy Hockey Dad" was a fantastic read if you play hockey, coach or have kds that play. Arm chair quarterbacks won't find many redeaming qualities though.
BetweenThePipes00 Posted August 4, 2011 Report Posted August 4, 2011 The Game by Dryden is every bit as good as its reputation ... I read it every couple of years, it just never gets old. It's very interesting from a Sabres fan standpoint because of the insights it gives into Bowman and how he operated, in addition to how Montreal viewed the Sabres teams and individual players from the late 1970s. And the best thing is he goes into a lot of hockey history, like how the old rules (no forward passing in the offensive zone, etc) shaped the Canadian game and why that hurt them against the Soviets, who never learned the game under the old rules and so developed their own styles and strategies. And a lot of what he says still is relevant today, more than 30 years later, which shows how slow the hockey establishment is to change its ideas. The last hockey book I read was Jacques Plante: The Man Who Changed the Face of Hockey ... really good biography, pretty interesting guy.
Marvelo Posted August 4, 2011 Report Posted August 4, 2011 Thunder And Lightning: A No-B.S. Hockey Memoir by Phil Esposito. I laughed out loud several times, especially when he was describing the debacle that was the early Tampa Bay Lightning. Phil is hands down, for my money, the funniest guy in hockey.
X. Benedict Posted August 4, 2011 Report Posted August 4, 2011 Enjoyed this: Lot's of Rob Ray quotes... The Code. http://www.amazon.com/Code-Unwritten-Rules-Fighting-Retaliation/dp/1572437561
shrader Posted August 4, 2011 Report Posted August 4, 2011 Thunder And Lightning: A No-B.S. Hockey Memoir by Phil Esposito. I laughed out loud several times, especially when he was describing the debacle that was the early Tampa Bay Lightning. Phil is hands down, for my money, the funniest guy in hockey. Does he only talk about his management days with Tampa or does he get into his playing career as well? The title seems like a really poor choice if he talks about his career.
Marvelo Posted August 4, 2011 Report Posted August 4, 2011 Does he only talk about his management days with Tampa or does he get into his playing career as well? The title seems like a really poor choice if he talks about his career. no he talks about his career too. It's a laugh a minute!
JoDo Posted August 4, 2011 Report Posted August 4, 2011 I read Thunder and Lightning a couple years ago. Skip is right, it's a great book and I love Phil. I've called and talked to him a couple times on XM. I currently have two chapters left in Ken Baker's "They Don't Play Hockey in Heaven" it is a very good book. I'm also waiting for "The Game" to arrive from Amazon. It will be my next read.
LabattBlue Posted August 4, 2011 Report Posted August 4, 2011 I started reading Counsel in the Crease last fall. I got bogged down in the early part of the book(pre-Sabres part of his life) and never picked it up again... http://www.amazon.com/Counsel-Crease-League-Player-Hockey/dp/1591023556/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1312466339&sr=1-1
darksabre Posted August 4, 2011 Report Posted August 4, 2011 All this being said, who would you like to see a book by or about? I'd like to read an autobiography by Clint Malarchuk. I think not just his hockey career but his struggles with depression would be an interesting, if not sobering read.
Rico7 Posted August 4, 2011 Report Posted August 4, 2011 Been a while since I read it, but "Heaven and Hell in the NHL-Punch Imlach" was pretty good. And, although I thought it was poorly written, "Rayzor's Edge: Rob Ray's Tough Life on the Ice" was interesting and had some funny recollections in it.
Taro T Posted August 5, 2011 Report Posted August 5, 2011 The Game by Dryden is every bit as good as its reputation ... I read it every couple of years, it just never gets old. It's very interesting from a Sabres fan standpoint because of the insights it gives into Bowman and how he operated, in addition to how Montreal viewed the Sabres teams and individual players from the late 1970s. And the best thing is he goes into a lot of hockey history, like how the old rules (no forward passing in the offensive zone, etc) shaped the Canadian game and why that hurt them against the Soviets, who never learned the game under the old rules and so developed their own styles and strategies. And a lot of what he says still is relevant today, more than 30 years later, which shows how slow the hockey establishment is to change its ideas. The last hockey book I read was Jacques Plante: The Man Who Changed the Face of Hockey ... really good biography, pretty interesting guy. If you liked the hockey evolution bits in 'The Game' you might be interested in 'Home Game' by Dryden and Roy MacGregor. It's essentially a documentary of hockey's role in Canadian life / culture. It was made in conjunction w/ a 6 part mini-series on CBC. An excerpt from the intro describes what Dryden was after. This book is part of a project. About five years ago, some people at CBC asked if I was interested in adapting a previous book, The Game, into a television series. I thought about the suggestion, then decided not to pursue it. Such a series offered the challenge of working in a different medium but otherwise it seemed too much like going back to old familiar ground. As time passed, however, I began to think that hockey might offer some very new ground. Hockey, after all, is people and places. Look at those people hard enough and long enough, listen to them, and they will tell you stories - about themselves, about Canada. What they hope and want and fear; what matters to them and what doesn't. They will tell you about being parents and being kids, about having dreams and fantasies, about growing up and what it takes to make it to the top, to every big league, late in the twentieth century. They will tell you about sport and business and selling pure and simple - tickets, beer, T-shirts, cities, countries, values, ways of life. They will tell you about living and competing in a global world and being changed in the process; and of the need sometimes to escape that world and be someone else, creating your own rules and regulations - about the magic of play. And in so many ways, they will tell you about the joy of getting together, about the need for community. In lives filled with division, by age, income, status, neighbourhood, technology, distance, language, culture, they will tell you about the links they feel, about the feelings that bind us together. I began to think that a careful look at hockey would tell us a lot about life in Canada - how it was, how it is, how it might be. It's been a long time since I read it, but it was a good read. As has been previously mentioned, I'd also highly endorse the 'Then Perreault Said to Rico ...' and 'The Boys of Winter' books. And 'The Hockey Goalie's Handbook' by Jim Corsi and John Hannan is right up there w/ any of the books by Francois Allaire if you want to learn how to be a goalie (or teach a kid how to be one). I've got Ray Scapinello's 'Between The Lines' sitting on my bookshelf. Has anybody read that one? Maybe if I ever get around to reading 'The E-Myth Revisited' I'll put that next on my list. One book that is probably a horrible read (I read it 30 or so years ago and can't recall if it was entertaining in general or not), but would be interesting due to the context is a biography of Brad Park that came out a few months before he got traded to the Bruins (probably published in '75, outside possibility it was '74) in which he couldn't state often enough that he hated the Bruins. As for the unwritten book that I'd want to read, I'd love to see either Bill Daly's or Ted Saskin's diary during the time leading up to and the lockout. Especially Saskin's, as it would be fascinating to me to see an up close and personnal look at how Goodenow overplayed his hand back in '04.
Supersabre Posted August 6, 2011 Report Posted August 6, 2011 I've tried reading "The Game" several times but can never seem to finish it. One of these days maybe.
Barnabov Posted August 8, 2011 Report Posted August 8, 2011 Have only ever bought and read one hockey book (unless you count my 3rd grade book report on Gordie Howe's autobiography) and that was Rob Ray's "Rayzor's Edge" which was good enough.
IKnowPhysics Posted August 8, 2011 Report Posted August 8, 2011 As a adult player, I often become a student of the strategy, tactics, and techniques of the game. I often read the better "how to" books for players and coaches: 1) Hockey Handbook A great explanation of the game and how to develop and implement successful skills and tactics. 2) Coaching Hockey Successfully A great explanation of quality coaching, hockey leadership, and sportsmanship on the coaching level. Also a very good how-to on coaching developmental teams. 3) Hockey Playbook A good reference for different zone systems and fitting them to your team. 4) Hockey Goalie's Handbook (by Jim Corsi) A great guide for developing goaltenders (and probably their parents), including a the often-overlooked mental game. Also recommended for: goal scorers to understand their opponents; defenders to understand how to positionally work with their net minders.
frissonic Posted August 8, 2011 Report Posted August 8, 2011 does neil peart's "ghost rider" count, since he's from canada and likes the leafs?
shrader Posted August 8, 2011 Report Posted August 8, 2011 does neil peart's "ghost rider" count, since he's from canada and likes the leafs? Only if he mentions things from 20+ years ago, when the Leafs actually used to play hockey.
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