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[GWTLAH]

'Back in the Bigs' by Randy Turner

BACK IN THE BIGS

HOW WINNIPEG WON LOST AND REGAINED ITS PLACE IN THE NHL

Randy Turner

When the Jets flew south in '96, victims of a nose-diving Canadian dollar and the NHL's new sun belt philosophy, “Winnipeg didn't just lose a hockey team. It lost history. It lost prestige. It lost civic pride. It lost Keith Tkachuk” writes Randy Turner in the opening pages of Back In the Bigs. Now, in 2011, as the Jets finally return to Manitoba and an entire country revels in the glorious resurrection of one of Canada's most beloved NHL franchises it's time to look back on the history of professional hockey in Winnipeg.

From the record breaking contract that brought the Golden Jet to the frozen north, from Nilsson to Hawerchuck to Byfuglien, from the WHL to the NHL to the AHL and back again, Turner chronicles the thrilling triumphs and heartbreaking defeats of a city's proud hockey history in this richly illustrated commemorative keepsake for fans across the country. This is the story of an underdog team, once a regional passion, which has become a national obsession. It's an epic, emotional rollercoaster ride from Portage and Main to the barren Phoenix desert and the deep American South, finally returning home to a whiteout in Canada's hockey heartland.

Randy Turner is a National Newspaper Award-winning sportswriter. He was born and raised in Manitoba and has covered sports for the Winnipeg Free Press for twenty years. He's a hockey reporter and columnist for the Winnipeg Free Press.

[GWTLAH]

'Thirty Years of the Game at its Best' by Gare Joyce

THIRTY YEARS OF THE GAME AT ITS BEST

Gare Joyce

The season’s must-have gift book

Some sports seem to have a natural home. Soccer in Brazil, rugby in New Zealand, cricket in India. And Canada’s game? Why hockey, of course.

But it wasn’t always that way. By 1982, the Soviets had won every World Junior Hockey Championship except one, while Canada had earned only a single bronze medal.

And then Hockey Canada launched the Programme of Excellence, a national development system designed to help put together teams that would be able to square off against the Soviets. The result was immediate. To everyone’s surprise, when Canada took gold in 1982 the American hosts didn’t even have a copy of “O Canada” to play during the championship ceremony. But after that, no one would be surprised by a Canadian win.

This Boxing Day will mark the thirtieth anniversary of the program that brought hockey fans many glorious memories and made household names of several of our players. Richly illustrated, Thirty Years of the Game at Its Best takes readers on a year by-year retrospective, with each tournament’s story told from the perspectives of the players, coaches, and journalists who were there.

This book is an extraordinary keepsake, published just in time for the 2012 World Junior Hockey Championships. Contributors include Mike Babcock, Brendan Bell, Murray Costello, Damien Cox, Sheldon Ferguson, Gare Joyce, Terry Koshan, Roy MacGregor, Steven Milton, Frank Orr, Donna Spencer, Jesse Wallin, Tim Wharnsby and Ed Willes.

G.B. JOYCE is the author of six books of sports non-fiction, most recently The Devil and Bobby Hull

. He has worked for ESPN since 2003 and before that was a sports columnist at

The Globe and Mail

. He lives in Toronto with his partner, Susan Bourette.

[Holliday]

I want this book...



http://www.nhlgms.com/


.... but not for $100. YIKES!

[GWTLAH]

I want this book...



http://www.nhlgms.com/


.... but not for $100. YIKES!

Try eBay!

[Left Wing Loner]

I'm hoping to score Stan Mikita "Forever a Blackhawk" in the next few weeks.

[GWTLAH]

'The Code' by G.B. Joyce
This book has a video to introduce it:

For fans of Elmore Leonard and Robert B. Parker, meet hockey scout turned private detective Brad Shade.

"Part CSI, part L.A. Law, part Hockey Night in Canada" ... say the critics.

[Vader]

Just read (most of) "My First Goal: 50 Players And The Goal That Marked The Beginning Of Their NHL Career" Woulda finished it too, but it was due back at the library.

It is an interesting (and pretty easy) read. Brophy talks to players and gets their recollections of their first goals. I found it kind of interesting for guys who scored hundreds of goals that they remembered so many details about one specific goal.

This point has been edited by Vader: 03 March 2012 - 08:48 PM
putting the right link in

[GWTLAH]

The Instigator: How Gary Bettman Remade the NHL and Changed the Game Forever by Jonathon Gatehouse

Publication Date: October 1, 2012

Two decades of lockouts, soaring ticket prices, and on-ice tinkering have convinced many hard-core fans that the NHL’s long-time commissioner Gary Bettman is the devil in disguise, but this book examines his motivations, peels back his often prickly demeanor, and explains how he manages to lead, confound, and keep order. It details the unlikely ascension of a fatherless Jewish kid from Long Island—who never played hockey and can barely skate—to the sport’s biggest job. The seven-fold increase in gross revenue during Bettman’s 20-year tenure as NHL commissioner makes him a business success story, and on his watch, professional hockey has also expanded far beyond its regional strongholds. By taming the NHL’s famously fractious owners, all but busting its players’ union, and enforcing a lawyerly discipline even on trash talk, Bettman has become a figure of almost unrivaled power in the business of sports, and this biography delves into how his influence shapes rival leagues in other countries, dictates the schedule of the Olympic Winter Games, and spills onto the ice itself.

Source: http://www.amazon.co...r/dp/1600788157

[GWTLAH]

JOURNEYMAN - THE MANY TRIUMPHS (AND EVEN MORE DEFEATS) OF A GUY WHO'S SEEN by Sean Pronger

Every young hockey player dreams of one day playing in the NHL, of skating on a line with his hero and drinking champagne in the dressing room after winning the Stanley Cup. But kids should watch what they wish for.

They may make it to the pros, like Sean Pronger, only to end up playing for sixteen teams over eleven seasons. They may end up on a team with a guy like the Great One, but skate on his line only in practice when the bona fide first-line centre has the flu. And they may end up drinking champagne only because their little brother wins the Stanley Cup.

Anyone who's gotten to the NHL the hard way has a story to tell.

No one knows the game better than the guys on the fourth line who fight for their jobs every night. They know all too well what it's like to watch from the press box or, worse, to be sent to the minors or traded. Sean Pronger has seen it all. He's played for legendary coaches like Pat Burns and gone head-to-head with guys such as Doug Gilmour and Steve Yzerman in the faceoff circle. He was on the ice for perhaps the most notorious violent attack in recent hockey history. While playing in the minors in Winnipeg, he guzzled beer in an ice-fishing hut with grizzled veterans like John MacLean, and while playing in Europe, he caused international incidents with guys such as Doug Weight.

Full of hilarious stories and self-deprecating jokes, Journeyman is a story not only about achieving a dream, but about realizing you've achieved it.

Source: http://www.penguin.ca/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780670065912,00.html

[GWTLAH]

Selling The Dream by Ken Campbell

His new book, Selling the Dream, presents the darker side of our national pastime, while also attempting to explain our eternal obsession with it. We caught up with the Hockey Newscolumnist and all-around puck nut to discuss post-lockout play, Don Cherry’s big mouth, and why your kid is not, repeat not, the next Wayne Gretzky.

In the intro to your book, you say that hockey in Canada needs to be saved from itself. Can you explain?

We’ve seen a real change in the whole landscape of minor hockey. It’s less about enjoying yourself and having fun. It’s more about creating elite players, and about pressure, and a lot of money. It’s really become a very exclusive club. I find that a little bit troubling.

You talk about how Bobby Orr spent his childhood playing hockey for fun on frozen lakes in his hometown, whereas today that kid would have a personal trainer, an agent, and tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars invested in him by the time he reached his tweens.

Exactly. The career that Bobby Orr had—I’m not sure if it’s few and far between now or totally non-existent. If he were playing in this era, he’d have teams from the Greater Toronto hockey leagues trying to recruit him; he’d have agents trying to recruit him. People would have been talking about him from the time he was 13 years old.

With all of the obsessing over training and dedication and investment, are people forgetting about the concept of pure talent?

Talent is still an enormous factor, but people have been conditioned to believe that if you just put in the hours, it’s going to happen. Some of this stems from Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliersand his 10,000 hours theory—that if you spend 10,000 hours doing something, you’re going to be an expert. When it comes to hockey and most sports, I think that’s a lot of rubbish. Some people have natural gifts that just make it easier or more conducive for them to have a career. And if you lack certain physical gifts, no amount of hard work is going to allow you to overcome that.

I’m always surprised by how many people you hear saying that they have a son or a nephew or a kid in their neighbourhood who is “the next Gretzky.”

Right. And the people who are telling you that—the odds that that kid will play even a single game in the NHL are astronomically infinitesimal. Wayne Gretzky is the greatest player ever to play the game. For anyone to think that their kid, or someone they know, is going to duplicate his ability is beyond absurd.

Is there someone feeding them this idea, this next-Gretzky myth?

I don’t know if it’s next-Gretzky, but there are definitely people who stand to gain a lot by keeping the dream alive and by convincing parents that all they have to do is spend the money and do the hard work and good things will happen.

Do you see a lot of parents forcing their own dreams on their kids? You know, some dad whose own NHL dreams fell through?

It’s not something you can put a number on, but when you’ve got a seven- or eight-year-old kid on a skating treadmill, or taking 2,000 shots a month, let’s just say I can’t imagine it’s the kid who is coming up with those things.

Interview continues here: http://www.thegridto...-hockey-scribe/