Hockey History Books

[sr edler]

The "less" was with respect to my expectations of more content - particularly historical photos, drawings, construction plans, etc. - of old hockey arenas, which were sprinkled through the book but perhaps were in short supply for the author to use.

Don't know what time period you're looking for but regarding drawings and construction plans of old arenas there's a magazine on HathiTrust called Ice and Refrigeration. It has full view on numbers/editions from 1891 to 1922. It's very in depth regarding technical arena matters and ice/refrigeration stuff (naturally). Could be time consuming to scroll it all, but the site has a search function.

Catalog Record: Ice and refrigeration | Hathi Trust Digital Library

 

[JMCx4]

With stick taps to @ted1971 , I just finished reading Hockey's Glory Days: The 1950s and '60s, by Dan Diamond and Eric Zweig. The first part of the book has season-by-season summaries of the regular season & playoffs, which I found very repetitive and uninteresting beyond the old game play photos. The second part comprises profiles of 100 NHL players from those decades, which provided more interesting content for me. The final part lists player & team accomplishments from the era. This book would be a better read for hockey statistics junkies, with lots of season scoring records & individual career stats inserted throughout. It's an easy read for someone looking to learn about or relive the "Glory Days" of NHL play.

 

[Bondurant]

There's a book about the re-brand era New York Islanders set for release in December. This should be a fun one and I might actually buy new despite my distaste for hardcover.

We Want Fish Sticks by Nicholas Hirshon

We Want Fish Sticks - University of Nebraska Press

 

[Bhrangerfan0809]

There's a book about the re-brand era New York Islanders set for release in December. This should be a fun one and I might actually buy new despite my distaste for hardcover.

We Want Fish Sticks by Nicholas Hirshon

We Want Fish Sticks - University of Nebraska Press

Are there currently any books that cover this topic in much detail?

 

[Cygnusx1018]

Are there currently any books that cover this topic in much detail?

Fish Sticks by Alan Hahn

 

[Bhrangerfan0809]

Fish Sticks by Alan Hahn

Do you know of any places it is being sold for a reasonable price? Lowest I can find is $40.

 

[Tarantula]

Do you know of any places it is being sold for a reasonable price? Lowest I can find is $40.

Forty is a bargain for a book that lasts a lifetime, one that is good enough to read again years later, unless it's a gift for a BIL.

Speaking of books that last for a few decades, stumbled across a copy of a book I bought in 77, likely under two bucks, Hockey In My Blood by Johnny Buyck. Quick flip through had some great bits of Phil Watson as their coach and early Harry Sinden.

 

[Kitty Hawk]

I'm currently reading this book about the WHA. It's very well written and entertaining.

The Rebel League: The Short and Unruly Life of the World Hockey Association

 

[Killion]

I'm currently reading this book about the WHA. It's very well written and entertaining.

The Rebel League: The Short and Unruly Life of the World Hockey Association

Ya, darn good book.

 

[JMCx4]

I'm currently reading this book about the WHA. It's very well written and entertaining.

The Rebel League: The Short and Unruly Life of the World Hockey Association

I seem to be the only hockey story reader who doesn't give high praise to this book. While I did find it a better read than Murray Greig's "Big Bucks and Blue Pucks," I enjoyed Howard Baldwin's WHA insider stories from "Slim and None" far more.

 

[Normand Lacombe]

Full Spectrum is an excellent book about the history of the Flyers though the 1997 season. You don’t have to be a fan of the Flyers to enjoy this book. Fascinating insight about ownership battles in the franchise’s infancy, players that almost became Flyers and some hilarious and sad tales.

 

[kaiser matias]

Finished reading D'Arcy Jenish's The NHL: 100 Years of On-Ice Action and Boardroom Battles the other day, and really enjoyed it. It is more a business history of the league, so not really any talk of games and all that. He really went deep into the Original Six era business dealings, mainly because he was granted access to new archival material for it (including transcripts of board of governors meetings from the era). I will note that Jenish is kind of soft on Eagleson and Ziegler though, and waves away some of the poorer business choices done that have set the NHL back, being more apologetic about it. He also kind of gets less in-depth on modern stuff, which is unusual for most works like this, but considering how much is out there on post-1990 stuff it doesn't hurt the book. However that doesn't detract enough from a well-written book, and definitely something people here would appreciate.

 

[Killion]

Finished reading D'Arcy Jenish's The NHL: 100 Years of On-Ice Action and Boardroom Battles the other day, and really enjoyed it. It is more a business history of the league, so not really any talk of games and all that. He really went deep into the Original Six era business dealings, mainly because he was granted access to new archival material for it (including transcripts of board of governors meetings from the era). I will note that Jenish is kind of soft on Eagleson and Ziegler though, and waves away some of the poorer business choices done that have set the NHL back, being more apologetic about it. He also kind of gets less in-depth on modern stuff, which is unusual for most works like this, but considering how much is out there on post-1990 stuff it doesn't hurt the book. However that doesn't detract enough from a well-written book, and definitely something people here would appreciate.

Yeah, he did a real good job on that & yes, focus is the business side however, for anyone who genuinely cares about the game an absolute must read.

 

[Normand Lacombe]

Three books have caught my attention.

The first is New York Rangers: Broadway Blues by Frank Brown. Has anyone read this? Looking on amazon and it only states the book was published in 1993 and it doesn't describe what the book is about. I'm assuming it's about the Rangers 92-93 season?

Here are the rest of the books I am considering purchasing:

Gretzky's Tears: Hockey, America And The Day Everything Changed by Stephen Brunt

The Breakaway: The Inside Story Of The Wirtz Family Business And The Chicago Blackhawks by Bryan Smith

Any insights into the above books would be appreciated.

 

[Killion]

Three books have caught my attention.

The first is New York Rangers: Broadway Blues by Frank Brown. Has anyone read this? Looking on amazon and it only states the book was published in 1993 and it doesn't describe what the book is about. I'm assuming it's about the Rangers 92-93 season?

Here are the rest of the books I am considering purchasing:

Gretzky's Tears: Hockey, America And The Day Everything Changed by Stephen Brunt

The Breakaway: The Inside Story Of The Wirtz Family Business And The Chicago Blackhawks by Bryan Smith

Any insights into the above books would be appreciated.

Unfamiliar with "Broadway Blues"..... "The Breakaway" excellent, well worth the read as the Norris-Wirtz clan by far the most influential, power brokers atop the mountain peak for most of the 20th & early 21st centuries..... As for "Gretzkys' Tears", I'm rather lukewarm on that one & on the rest of Stephen Brunts' books.

The Boy can write, flowery, flowing prose however I do take issues with a considerable number of his premises in making, selling his cases, opinions, theories. Mixes fact with fiction at times. Makes for a fun read though one shouldnt necessarily take it all as gospel. His insinuations, implications his opinions gleaned through 2nd, 3rd hand sources rather than from the principles who he's writing about. In the case of this book, the insinuation being that Gretzky wasnt really all that upset, gotten what he wanted, crying Crocodile Tears, staged, fake.

Character assassination I can do without unless absolutely warranted. Same thing with his book about Bobby Orr. Certain amount of intellectual arrogance, moralizing, misses the mark, no real understanding or empathy let alone sympathy about Brunts writing I find off-putting. He goes looking for trouble, looking for faults & then presents them as fact when in reality whatever it might be his theory, conjecture, misguided source or one with an agenda themselves in whispering whatever fiction to him he buys into lock, stock & barrel. So either he's a naive' Moron who believes whatever he's told or... card carrying member of the Gutter Press, a manipulator, revisionist...dishing dirt, sensationalizing his "novels" in order maximize sales/profile & that includes his reporting, columns on a daily basis, tv & radio punditry....

 

[JMCx4]

So tell us what you REALLY think of Brunt, Killion.

 

[Killion]

So tell us what you REALLY think of Brunt, Killion.

... hey, I did say "the Boy can write" yes? Obviously loves words & you have to in order to compose, create. craft..... Mr. Brunt however & like many & much of what we read & hear today interjecting his own opinions, theories, conclusions. Moralizes... employs various forms of cybertext, almost ergodic, he's clearly fighting fantasy in what is supposed to be and is both advertised & classified as "non-fiction biographical" or "sports". Mainstream. Yet some of the stuff he comes up with... almost extra-noematic, non-human, like the Doofus is a non-sentient being, AI..... Part of that whole Toronto Sports Media Mafia that has given my former hometown such a bad rep and almost all of them, from out of town. Unsophisticated Hicks from some Podunk backwater with an overarching sense of self importance. Journalism Degree from the back of a pack of matches having failed Shop at the Poly... Man, dont get me started.....

Time & time again in his books, scribblings in the Globe, his Beaver Cleaver Over Eager appearances on TV & radio you have to ask "who's your source here pal? Cuz it sounds to me like yer just makin **** up" (and he almost always refuses to divulge them of course)... and you'll notice the subjects of his books generally slam their doors in his face when he comes a calling. Guttersnipe crafting "Unauthorized Biographies". Yeah Man, on ta ya, see ya. Buh bye. Watch that door doesnt slam you in the ass... But hey, I'm cool with it I guess, thats allowed, its ok, guys gotta make a living, fine, however..... you really do have to take much of whats in an unauthorized biography with plenty of salt as so often so many of them are little more than "hit jobs" & some authors, like Kitty Kelley (Sinatra, Jackie Oh!, The Royals, Oprah etc etc etc) for example very successful at it, some penned sympathetically, others, not so much. And I'm not seeing much sympathy, empathy, references to moldy old newspaper accounts or named sources in Brunts works & words.

Ja, manys the time if possible reached through my screen or read something he's written and

 

[JMCx4]

Feel better now, or do we need to schedule another therapy session?

 

[Killion]

Feel better now, or do we need to schedule another therapy session?

.... good to go, thanks Doc.

 

[Tad Mikowsky]

Down Goes Brown just released a book about the history of the NHL today.

Did pre order so looking forward to reading it

 

[JMCx4]

Down Goes Brown just released a book about the history of the NHL today.

Did pre order so looking forward to reading it

Oughta be a good read if Sean McIndoe wrote it. Looking forward to your impressions. I can't understand, though, how booksellers linked to Amazon are already offering "Used" copies when today was the release date. There must be some VERY quick readers in Hockeyland.

 

[Habsfunk]

Damien Cox wrote a book about the 1992-93 Leafs, calling it The Last Good Year: Seven Games That Ended an Era.

The description is especially dumb and filled with inaccuracies, but I imagine nostalgic Leaf fans will eat it up.

 

[Tad Mikowsky]

Damien Cox wrote a book about the 1992-93 Leafs, calling it The Last Good Year: Seven Games That Ended an Era.

The description is especially dumb and filled with inaccuracies, but I imagine nostalgic Leaf fans will eat it up.

I’d suggest reading Todd Deanault’s A Season in Time. That way you can avoid Damien Cox

 

[Killion]

I’d suggest reading Todd Deanault’s A Season in Time. That way you can avoid Damien Cox

Good advice.

 

[McGuillicuddy]

The Boy can write, flowery, flowing prose however I do take issues with a considerable number of his premises in making, selling his cases, opinions, theories. Mixes fact with fiction at times. Makes for a fun read though one shouldnt necessarily take it all as gospel. His insinuations, implications his opinions gleaned through 2nd, 3rd hand sources rather than from the principles who he's writing about. In the case of this book, the insinuation being that Gretzky wasnt really all that upset, gotten what he wanted, crying Crocodile Tears, staged, fake.

Really? It's been a while since I read that book, but that is not my recollection at all. I remember him squarely laying blame for the slow disassembly of the great 80s Oilers at the feet of Pocklington. Sure, once Wayne heard the mud Pocklington was slinging at him behind his back he got riled up enough to want to be traded, but at no point do I recall the root cause of the trade being attributed to Gretzky himself.