Hockey Talk

Selected as the 2008 CBC Canada Reads Winner! "A dazzling display of fictional footwork… The author has not written just another hockey novel; he has turned hockey in a metaphor for magic." Maclean's Percival Leary was once the King of the Ice, one of hockey's greatest heroes. Now, in the South Grouse Nursing Home, where he shares a room with Edmund "Blue" Hermann, the antagonistic and alcoholic reporter who once chronicled his career, Leary looks back on his tumultuous life and times: his days at the boys' reformatory when he burned down a house; the four mad monks who first taught him to play hockey; and the time he executed the perfect "St. Louis Whirlygig" to score the winning goal in the 1919 Stanley Cup final. Now all but forgotten, Leary is only a legend in his own mind until a high-powered advertising agency decides to feature him in a series of ginger ale commercials. With his male nurse, his son, and the irrepressible Blue, Leary sets off for Toronto on one last adventure as he revisits the scenes of his glorious life as King of the Ice.

Put on your bucket, pick up your twig, and put the biscuit in the basket! Learn the lingo of the coolest game on earth in Hockey Talk. Created with Sports Illustrated Kids, this nonfiction book presents the secret language of hockey players. Explore the origin of these words and phrases--from five-hole to face wash--and discover how collegiate and NHL players use them on and off the ice. With action-packed photos and rapid-fire text, hockey fans will be cheering for more!

This is another book about hockey. But this one is unique. It contains many stories by and about individuals who broadcast play-by-plays of major junior and provincial junior A games from arenas across Canada. There are even a few chapters about broadcasters from teams in the United States that play in Canadian leagues. There are major junior chapters from the Western Hockey League (WHL), the Ontario Hockey League (OHL), and the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL). Chapters from provincial junior A leagues include British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, and the Maritimes. Some of the contributors for this book wrote their own chapters. Others preferred to be interviewed. In all cases, the final version of each chapter was approved by the contributor. The chapters include many descriptions of broadcasters experiences. They describe their early experiences with hockey. Some played, while others listened on the radio, watched on TV, or attended games. The stories include how they became involved as play-by-play broadcasters and who were direct or indirect mentors. Each broadcaster recounts their memories of the first game they called. They also describe some of the notable players, coaches, and color commentators. Where possible, there are even some bus stories. Each chapter concludes with a comment about what the experience of broadcasting play-by-play has meant to each individual.

From the leader in sports writing comes a collection of stories that examine just about every aspect of the game: the players, the league and what it means to the fans. For true hockey fans, there is no sport as great, as fast, as competitive, or as important as their beloved hockey game. The teams, the organizations, and the players are a part of their family and Saturday night is better known as hockey night. As children, we hockey fans would wake at 6am, jump into the back of a cold station wagon and head off with Dad or Mom at the wheel to our hockey games. Sleep deprived, cold and tired - it didn't matter how low we felt because as soon as those skates were laced, it was game-on! We traded the cards, we followed the players, and we watched as our team fought through the regular season to earn their rightful place in the post season. There is nothing like the feeling of seeing your team go all the way, seeing them hoist that cherished Cup that Lord Stanley so kindly gifted to the Dominion of Canada, seeing the tears in the eyes of these grown men, these ice warriors. We love this game of ours, and we can't get enough, so thank you Sports Illustrated for bringing us more. In this book, Sports Illustrated's most prolific hockey writers give us the honest goods on hockey. They tell us about the players, the infractions, the best series, the most contentious of battles and the most glorious of victories. This is hockey in its truest form. This is hockey writing for hockey lovers and with an array of Sports Illustrated photos throw in for added benefit. This is just about the best damn book available on hockey, anywhere, period.

They can resist their attraction…until their hearts rocket them across the blue line. Hunter Timing. Hockey careers are made or broken on it, and mine has taken exceptionally broken road. I’m not a star. I’m a grinder, I work hard, and I’m finally at the point I can put the past behind me and get the fat, long-term contract I deserve. But my agent—the man who stuck by me through every crash and burn—has had a heart attack. I need another agent now, or my one chance for the good money will slip through my fingers. Kate’s a rookie, but she loves the game like I do, so I pick up the phone. And I wonder if she remembers that one night in Cancun as vividly as I do. Kate Hockey. All my life I’ve lived it, breathed it, played it. Now it’s my business. As an agent, I’m tied to my phone at all hours, but nothing prepared me to hear Hunter’s voice. The last time I saw him—three years ago—there was a lot of bare skin and horny hormones involved. I’ve handled it all in my short career—sexism, harassment, being broke, being laughed at. Resisting the attraction between us should be easy. Until it isn’t. And Hunter’s past shakes his confidence hard enough that he could make the worst decision at the worst possible time…

Those who have been lured by the sound of skate blades slicing into fresh ice, by the incomparable speed, split-second decisions, and everything-or-nothing attitude of the game know that hockey can seem like its own world. It's all-consuming and exhilarating, boasting its own language and complex morality code. Yet in another light, that tight community can turn insular; the values of teamwork and humility can manifest as collective silence in the face of abuse and discrimination, issues which have been brought to the forefront of the sport as many share their stories for the first time. In Game Misconduct, reporters Evan Moore and Jashvina Shah reveal hockey's toxic undercurrent which has permeated the sport throughout the junior, college, and professional levels. They address the topic with a level of passion that comes from being rabid hockey fans themselves, and from experiencing its exclusivity first-hand. With a sensitive yet incisive approach, this necessary book lays bare the issues of racism, homophobia, xenophobia, bullying, sexism, and violence on and off the ice. Readers will learn about notable players and activists fighting for transformation as well as those beyond the spotlight who are nonetheless deeply affected by hockey's culture of inaction. Both a reckoning and a roadmap, Game Misconduct is an essential read for modern hockey fans, showing the truth of the sport's past and present while offering the tools to fight for a better future.

In "Hockey Talk", readers will find all kinds of expressions that come from hockey's history: famous names, famous places, events that have become part of hockey lore, technical terms and jargon.

It seemed as though nothing could stop Jordin Tootoo on the ice. The captain of Canada’s Under-18, a fan favourite on the World Junior squad, and a WHL top prospect who could intimidate both goalies and enforcers, he was always a leader. And when Tootoo was drafted by Nashville in 2000 and made the Predators out of camp in 2003, he became a leader in another way: the first player of Inuk descent to suit up in the NHL. The stress of competition in the world’s top hockey league, the travel, the media, the homesickness—and the added pressure to hold one’s head high as a role model not only for the young people of his hometown of Rankin Inlet but for the culture that had given him the strength and the opportunities to succeed—would have been more than enough to challenge any rookie. But Tootoo faced something far more difficult: the loss of his brother in the year between his draft and his first shift for the Predators. Though he played through it, the tragedy took its inevitable toll. In 2010, Tootoo checked himself into rehab for alcohol addiction. It seemed a promising career had ended too soon. But that’s not the way Tootoo saw it and not the way it would end. As heir to a cultural legacy that included alcohol, despair, and suicide, Tootoo could also draw on a heritage that could help sustain him even thousands of miles away from Nunavut. And in a community haunted by the same hopelessness and substance abuse that so affected Tootoo’s life, it is not just his skill and fearlessness on the ice that have made him a hero, but the courage of his honesty to himself and to the world around him that he needed to rely on others to sustain him through his toughest challenge. All the Way tells the story of someone who has travelled far from home to realize a dream, someone who has known glory and cheering crowds, but also the demons of despair. It is the searing, honest tale of a young man who has risen to every challenge and nearly fallen short in the toughest game of all, while finding a way to draw strength from his community and heritage, and giving back to it as well.