Take Your Eye Off the Puck: How to Watch Hockey By Knowing Where to Look by Greg Wyshnski
Best Quote: “hockey is actually the perfect marriage of strategy and ingenuity; of preparation and improvisation; and of wisdom and will.”
Summary: This is a terrific book for kids, or anyone new to the game and who wants to gain a deeper understanding of the way hockey is played in today’s era. Often, the average spectator watches a game in the way mites or squirts play the game, by focusing on the puck, or the player with the puck. However, hockey is a game of rapid and continual movement by all players. Indeed, like in soccer, it is the players who don’t have the puck and move to the right space that put their teams in a position of relative advantage.
The Science of Hockey: The Math, Technology, and Data Behind the Sport by Kevin Snow and John Vogl
Best Quote: “that black slab of vulcanized rubber was the greatest thing he’d ever seen”
Summary: An interesting book that describes the details of the game on the ice, off the ice, and on the details of the ice itself. Indeed, the authors tell us how thick most rinks keep the ice sheet which often depends on how often the ice is used. Other interesting notes include how teams approach the draft, injury prevention and recovery, and how NHL teams are adapting to sports science.
Most Valuable: How Sydney Crosby Became the Best Player in Hockey’s Greatest Era and Changed the Game Forever by Gare Joyce
Best Quote: “In hockey’s first century the NHL provided jobs to hundreds of players who would have told you that hockey was a game; for the most deeply invested, a passion. Now, however, for those who are even reasonably aspiring to the NHL, hockey must be pursued with a professional rigor.”
Summary: A terrific book that looks at the hockey life of Sidney Crosby, from his time growing up in Cole Harbour to his multiple Olympic Gold Medals, World Championships, Stanley Cups, and unfortunately concussions. While Crosby serves as the central character of the book, Gare goes beyond the biography aspect to detail the inner workings of hockey from the junior levels through the NHL. There are the behind the scenes details such as providing a description of how the Canadian team was able to defeat the Americans in the 2010 Olympic finals (Crosby’s Golden Goal). Moreover, Gare provides insights into the evolution of the game since the 2005 lockout year. The game is faster and values speed, skating, an skill over size and toughness. Stars of today stand up for themselves, because keeping an enforcer or a fighter on the roster puts a team at a disadvantage.
Draft Day: How Hockey Teams Pick Winners or Get Left Behind by Doug MacLean and Scott Morrison
Best Quote: “There is life after hockey, but hockey will always be a part of my life.”
Summary: One of the great hockey coaches and gerneral managers Doug MacLean provides his thoughts and insights on what it takes to build a hockey team through the draft. More than simple ideas, MacLean takes the reader on a history of the NHL draft that looks at the hits and misses over the years. Every year ther are first round busts and late round bloomers underscoring how it’s hard to make predictions on the future path of teenagers.
The Art of Scouting by Shane Malloy
Best Quote: “All the work that goes into making great moments are decidedly less glorious and less glamorous.”
Summary: A solid book that details the hockey scouting profession, from the types of scouts for each level and what scouts look for when they evaluate talent. The book provides insights into how scouts evaluate talent, what they look for, what matters to them, and what doesn’t.
Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years in NHL History by Evan Dowbiggin and Bruce Dowbiggin
Best Quote: “Despite NHL’s Central Scouting Bureau designating him as merely the fourth-best Quebec goalie and 14th-best goalie available overall, Roy was reportedly tickled just to be considered for drafting at all.”
Summary: This book, written by a father and son combination is a close up look at the NHL entry draft. The authors try to explain how organizations come to choose their future stars, and how the success or failure of those picks is never certain. The authors select six distinct years to conduct their analysis which includes 1971, when the Canadians chose Guy Lafleur over Marcel Dionne, and 1989 when European players, especially Russians were looked at much more favorably. Other years include 1979, 1984, 1991, and 2005.
The Devil and Bobby Hull; How Hockey's Original Million-Dollar Man Became the Game's Lost Legend by Gare Joyce
Best Quote: “Hell begins on the day when God grants us a clear vision of all that we might have achieved, of all the gifts which we have wasted, of all that we might have done which we did not do.” —Gian Carlo Menotti
Summary: Another terrific book by one of the best sports writers and authors in the business. Gare Joyce looks at the career of Bobby Hull through the lens of his defection to the World Hockey League. Hull’s departure to Winnipeg and his record breaking contract opened the path for for other players to commit to the WHA. Indeed, Hull’s signing with the Jets legitimized the WHA as a rival league, and had the effect of raising salaries for professional hockey players in all leagues. Joyce contrasts what Hull achieved for the game of hockey against what he ultimately gave up, often not of his own choosing, including being blackballed from the 1972 Summit Series against the Soviet Union, and being unable to effectively move back to the NHL when the WHA folded and the NHL accepted 4 of the teams. Hull comes off as a complicated figure, as Joyce describes his on ice success with his off-ice personal, ethical, and moral failures. Hull was the NHL goal scoring champion, and probably ranks in the top 10 of all-time greatest hockey players, but he was also a womanizer, and a man who had a long and documented history of domestic abuse. Joyce’s book is probably the best, and most even-handed account on the life and career of Bobby Hull.
Of Ice and Men: Of Ice And Men : The Craft of Hockey by Bruce Dowbiggin
Best Quote: "In hockey, goaltending is 75 percent of the game. Unless it's bad goaltending. Then it's 100 percent of the game, because you're going to lose."
Summary: A terrific book that looks at how hockey was evolving at the time of it’s writing in the late 1990s. The way the author breaks down the book is through three players and a coach (Yzerman, Chelios, Hasak, and Sather). Chelios is the example of how the position of defense is was changing, and the descriptions moved back to Bobby Orr and Paul Coffey, players who helped turn defenseman into offensive threats. Yzerman is the example for the examination of leadership on the team, and how locker room dynamics can influence play on the ice. Hasak of course is looked at to describe the mechanics of goaltending while Sather is the prime example of a coach and later general-manager. Of course the book expands and includes interviews with other players and coaches to gain a comprehensive vantage point on the intricacies of the game. A terrific example is this passage where the author is commenting on how players can’t rely on coaches for motivational speeches:
"Remember there are 82 games in a season," says Watt. "That's 82 pre-games, 82 first intermissions, and 82 second intermissions. Plus overtimes. Harry Sinden had a great line. When he was coaching in Boston, he said he ran out of things to say by Christmas. You really have to pick your spots. There is a time to let it all hang out, but you can do it only so often."
Future Greats and Heart Breaks: A Year Undercover in the Secret World of NHL Scouts by Gare Joyce
Best Quote: “Those who play and those who played see a different game than even the most dedicated spectator…It is proven every year.”
Summary: If there is a writer who comes in a distant second to Ken Dryden, it’s Gare Joyce. In this book Joyce travels the world watching high level junior hockey tournaments throughout Canada, the U.S., and Europe. He comes across a multitude of future NHL stars to include Patrick Kaine, Phil Kessel, and Sidney Crosby in their teenage years. What’s fascinating about the book is the details about the game and about players Joyce picks up by talking to other players. In a sense, the best scouts aren’t the ones who sit in the stands, it’s the ones who sit in the locker rooms and skate on the ice with their peers. But for every future star spending their youth in junior hockey, away from their parents, and away from a normal childhood, Joyce comes across scores of others who will never play in one game in the NHL.
One of the more interesting aspects of the book is when the author sits down in different prospect interviews, and realizes his skills as a journalist in asking the right questions is perhaps better than many of the scouts. Moreover, his investigative skills, including the ability to pick up a phone and call a former coach or teacher is sometimes beyond the efforts made by hockey scouts.
Business the NHL Way: Lessons from the Fastest Game on Ice by Norm O’Reilly and Rick Burton
Best Quote: “In the NHL, as Richard consistently showed his teammates, the absence of words, of meaningless chatter, was used to motivate or make clear the need for intense focus.”
Summary: The basis of this book is to use the NHL as a case study for business and corporate strategy, crisis management, and brand evolution. It is combination business book and sports book. The authors provide case studies in how the NHL dealt with the COVID-19 crisis, and the lessons business leaders can absorb from that time. Moreover, the authors see a culture of innovation such as the Outdoor Winter Classic and Stadium Series that has boosted revenue and enhanced the NHL brand. Further, the authors detail how inclusivity can be good for business, highlighting historical events such as Willie O'Ree breaking the color barrier and Manon Rhéaume playing in an NHL exhibition game. At times, the book does come off as an ode to the NHL, but it does provide the reader an inside look on the broader aspect of professional hockey off the rink.
The Code : The Unwritten Rules of Fighting and Retaliation in the NHL by Ross Bernstein, Marty McSorley, and Tony Twist
Best Quote: “Hockey is a character game. It is all about one team trying to get its opponent to play out of character, to be undisciplined and take stupid penalties that put them at a disadvantage. There are many ways of going about this, and the code has rules for all of them.”
Summary:
One Night Only: Conversations with the NHL’s One-Game Wonders by Ken Reid
Best Quote: “Hockey is, after all, a fast-paced meditation — there can be no distractions, only an intense, burning focus on a sequence of events — where the game plays you as much as you play it.”
Summary: There are a limited number of roster positions in the NHL. Even less so in the past. For example during the original 6 era, there were 120 roster slots. 18 players at each position, so getting called to the League, even if for one game only meant that you were one of the top players in the world. In One Night Only, the author takes the reader through a series of discussions with players who only played one NHL game, and the impact it had on them for the rest of their lives. Most names are not recognizable, but they do include the likes of famous coach and broadcaster Don Cherry.
