Five Books to Begin the Hockey Reading Journey
1) The Game by Ken Dryden
Best Quote: “Nothing is as good as it used to be, and it never was. The “golden age of sports,” the golden age of anything, is the age of everyone’s childhood.”
The best sports book ever written. Ken Dryden’s first of many books is perhaps the most detailed insider look into the mid of a hockey player. Dryden’s first book takes the reader through his final year on the Canadians, the last year his team would win the Stanley Cup. But more than a memoir of his time on the ice, Dryden exposes the reader to the feelings of hockey players; what they think and why. Moreover, Dryden provides his broader philosophies of hockey and of life.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect to the book is the chapter on the rise of Soviet hockey. Dryden, who played for Team Canada in the 1972 Summit Series understood how the Soviets developed their own way of hockey separate from the Canadian way. This way included training, fitness, player development, and tactics.
Dryden would go onto a longer career in sportscasting, writing, and Canadian politics, further evidence that as an author, Dryden had an understanding of the game matched by few others, especially players during his era. Dryden observes in this season, the last of the Canadian dynasty of the 70s aging players, whose bodies are just as capable, but seem to lose some enthusiasm for the game. The body then follows the mind, and players who were once 30-goal scorers only net 20. Dryden sees how players more and more games are won, not by great plays, but by other’s mistakes, an remarkable insight that is relevant to nearly every sport, and from a military perspective, apt in war.
Dryden sees his fellow players, but also sees the insights of the greatest hockey coach, if not greatest coach in all of sports, Scotty Bowman. Bowman is reflective in his conversations with Dryden, and humble enough to say that his job comes simply comes down to making sure the right players are on the ice.
2) The Hockey Handbook by Lloyd Percival
While Ken Dryden’s The Game is the place to start to understand the people in hockey, Lloyd Percival’s book explains to the reader how to play hockey. Indeed, the famous Soviet Coach Anatoli Tarasov who developed the Soviet National Team used Percival’s book to guide his thinking of the game. Percival is detailed, perhaps more than any other hockey writer before or since his time. The book includes graphics for drills, and plays, both offensive and defensive. Percival discusses how to block shots, and did so before the modern day emphasis on shot blocking.
3) How to Play Hockey by Tom Watt
Like Lloyd Percival, Tom Watt provides the reader an overview of the basics of hockey, and his advice on how to play the game is as relevant now as it was when first published in 1971. Tom Watt spent his lifetime in hockey, having coached at various amateur and professional levels. Watt covers the basics of skating, puck handling, shooting, positioning, and offensive and defensive team play. While the modern game today is faster, and perhaps more skilled, the fundamentals of hockey remain the same.
4) 99 Stories of the Game by Wayne Gretzky and Kirstie Day
Best Quote: “"We weren't just a team; we were a family that happened to play hockey together. We won because we couldn't bear the thought of letting each other down."
Summary: This book came out on the 99th anniversary of the National Hockey League (2016), and also reflects the author’s jersey number. The book reads like an “ode to hockey” mixing the history of the game with personal anecdotes from The Great One. 99 Walks the reader through the original 6, various rivalries, and multiple dynasties including the Islander and Oiler dynasties of the 1980s. Further, 99 tells of the legends of the game such as Gordie Howe, Howie Mortitz, and Willie O’Ree, the latter being the first black player to suit up in the NHL. There are the historic moments such as the 1972 Summit Series, the 1980 Miracle on Ice, and the Canada Cup battles in 1984, 87, and 1991.
5) Pee Wees: Confessions of a Hockey Parent by Rich Cohen
Best Quote: “He can’t skate the cones and doesn’t nail the drills. All he can do is play hockey.”
Rich Cohen takes the time to tell the story of his son’s year in Pee Wee hockey. His son plays in Fairfield Connecticut, a fairly wealthy suburb of New York City. Throughout the book Cohen details some of the insanity that is filling the ranks of youth sports. The pressure cooker of tryouts that tell very little about character, leadership, and work ethic…the most important traits of a hockey player.
Cohen uses his son’s season as a way to provide his own philosophy on youth sports, child and sports development, and life in general. Some gems of his include the observation that you never really want your kid to be the best on the team, in that he or she needs better players on the ice to challenge and develop them in practice. Further, Cohen preaches the value of teamwork, and how hockey teaches those working towards adulthood that rarely in life can you accomplish anything on your own. Teamwork matters more than talent.
Cohen’s book is an invaluable addition to the bookshelf for any parent navigating the world of the modern day youth sports industrial complex. His writings help one to keep youth hockey in the proper perspective.