Hockey Card Stories

Hockey Card Stories reveals what was really going on in your favourite old hockey cards through the eyes of the players depicted on them. Some of the cards are definitely worth a few bucks, some a few cents—but every story told here is priceless. Sportsnet’s Ken Reid presents the cards you loved and the airbrushed monstrosities that made you howl, the cards that have been packed away in boxes forever, and others you can’t believe ever existed. Whether it’s a case of mistaken identity or simply a great old photo, a fantastic 1970s haircut and ’stache, a wicked awesome goalie mask or a future Hall of Famer’s off-season fashion sense, a wide variety of players—from superstars like Bobby Orr, Denis Potvin, and Phil Esposito to the likes of Bill Armstrong who played only one game in the NHL—chime in on one of their most famous cards.

A follow-up to the 2014 national bestseller Hockey Card Stories, Ken Reid’s new offering presents 59 more stories about your favorite hockey cards from the players themselves. Hockey Card Stories 2 will take you all the way back to the 1960s and right up to the Hockey Card Boom of the 1990s. How did Eric Lindros handle being at the center of the 1990s rookie-card craze? Ever wonder why one tough guy’s Upper Deck card looks more like a High School yearbook picture than a sports card? Of course, once again, there are glorious mullets, errors, and broken noses. There’s even the story of how a rhinoceros and a Hall of Famer ended up on a card together. And as a special bonus, Ken Reid reveals the story behind the chase for his greatest hockey card.

Grade level: 1, 2, 3, k, p, e.

Featuring more than 396 colour images, The O-Pee-Chee Hockey Card Story "90th Anniversary Edition" features an expanded history to O-Pee-Chee's hockey legacy as well as a year-by-year guide from 1933-34 to 1994-95 and vignettes for more than 70 important rookie cards from the 1960s through 1980s. With stops and starts in the 1930s and early 1940s, then a continuous five-decade run starting in the 1950s, O-Pee-Chee deeply established themselves as the annual collecting favourite of every young Canadian hockey fan.

"Hockey Card Stories" reveals what was really going on in your favourite old hockey cards through the eyes of the players depicted on them. Some of the cards are definitely worth a few bucks, some a few cents -- but every story told here is priceless. Sportsnet's Ken Reid presents the cards you loved and the airbrushed monstrosities that made you howl, the cards that have been packed away in boxes forever, and others you can't believe ever existed. Whether it's a case of mistaken identity or simply a great old photo, a fantastic 1970s haircut and 'stache, a wicked awesome goalie mask or a future Hall of Famer's off-season fashion sense, a wide variety of players -- from superstars like Bobby Orr, Denis Potvin, and Phil Esposito to the likes of Bill Armstrong who played only one game in the NHL -- chime in on one of their most famous cards.

Terry Ryan was poised to take the hockey world by storm when he was selected eighth overall by the Montreal Canadiens in the 1995 NHL draft, their highest draft pick in a decade. Expected to go on to become a hockey star, Ryan played a total of eight NHL games for the Canadiens, scoring no goals and no assists: not exactly the career he, or anyone else, was expecting. Though Terry's NHL career wasn't long, he experienced a lot and has no shortage of hilarious and fascinating revelations about life in pro hockey on and off the ice. In Tales of a First-Round Nothing, he recounts fighting with Tie Domi, partying with rock stars, and everything in between. Ryan tells it like it is, detailing his rocky relationship with Michel Therrien, head coach of the Canadiens, and explaining what life is like for a man who was unprepared to have his career over so soon.

An in-depth look into the origins of how each NHL team was named, received their logo and design, with interviews by those responsible. Written by those most knowledgeable, you'll learn why every hockey team to every play in the National Hockey League looks the way it does. Nothing unites or divides a random assortment of strangers quite like the hockey team for which they cheer. The passion they hold within them for the New York Rangers, Toronto Maple Leafs, Montreal Canadiens, or Boston Bruins allows them to look past any differences which would have otherwise disrupted a perfectly fine Thanksgiving dinner and channels it into a powerful, shared admiration for their team. We decorate our lives with their logos, stock our wardrobe with their jerseys, and, in some cases, even tattoo our bodies with their iconography and colors. They’re so ingrained in our lives we don’t even think to ask ourselves why Los Angeles celebrates royalty; why Buffalo cheers for not one, but two massive cavalry swords; or why the Broadway Blueshirts named themselves for a law enforcement agency in Texas (or why they even wear blue shirts, for that matter). All that and more is explored in Fabric of the Game, authored by two of the sports world’s leading experts in team branding and design: Chris Creamer and Todd Radom. Tapping into their vast knowledge of the whys and hows, Creamer and Radom explore and share the origin stories behind these and more, talking directly to those involved in the decision processes and designs of the National Hockey League’s team names, logos, and uniforms, pouring through historical accounts to find and deliver the answers to these questions. Learn more about the historied Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks, as well as the lost but not forgotten Hartford Whalers and Quebec Nordiques, all the way to the lesser-known Kansas City Scouts and Philadelphia Quakers. Whichever team you pledge allegiance, Fabric of the Game covers them in-depth with research and knowledge for any hockey fan to enjoy.

Get to know the men who fulfilled their childhood dream From the beer league to the minor league, hockey players from coast to coast often say theyÍd give anything to play just one game in the NHL. One Night Only brings you the stories of 39 men who lived the dream „ only to see it fade away almost as quickly as it arrived. Ken Reid talks to players who had one game, and one game only, in the National Hockey League „ including the most famous single-gamer of them all: the coach himself, Don Cherry. Was it a dream come true or was it heartbreak? What did they learn from their hockey journey and how does it define them today? From the satisfied to the bitter, Ken Reid unearths the stories from hockeyÍs equivalent to one-hit wonders in the follow-up to his bestselling Hockey Card Stories.