Playing Pro Hockey

To play professional hockey, you need plenty of grit and determination?it's a physically and emotionally punishing job. Millions of people are expecting you to give your all, connect on your checks, outskate your competitors, and do whatever it takes to score goals. To perform at that level, you must be in impeccable shape all year round. You'll spend hundreds of hours practicing skills, working with teammates, and watching video. Plus you'll need to cope with constant media attention and all of the travel that goes with the 82-game season. But for those who reach the pros, the long hours and hard work are totally worth it. This book, which was reviewed by 12-year National Hockey League (NHL) veteran Mark Parrish, offers an authentic look at what life is like as a pro hockey player. You'll learn: ? How players climb the ranks to reach the NHL ? The types of workouts and dietary plans NHL players use ? How NHL players prevent and treat injuries Go behind the scenes and see what it's really like to be an NHL star!

Offers complete player and team statistics, 1996 top draft picks, in-depth analysis of players and teams, and hockey pool draft advice.

Many professional athletes begin their journey as children. Hockey players are no different. Wayne Gretzky learned to skate when he was 2½ years old! However, hard work and practice are what allow those with talent to make it to the next level. Readers are introduced to the common paths to becoming a pro hockey player, from youth leagues all the way to the NHL. Each chapter focuses on one step of the necessary training for pros, including full-color photographs and information about hockey superstars. Aspiring players can learn a lot about what it takes to excel on the ice!

Hockey Plays and Strategies features a variety of plays, systems, and strategies for game play in the offensive, neutral, and defensive zones. Special situations such as the power play, penalty kill, and face-offs are also featured.

Drawing on decades of combined experience in hockey at all levels, Ken Campbell and Jim Parcels pull back the curtain on hockey to show just how far our national game has strayed from its roots. What they reveal is a system driven by unrealistic expectations of a financial windfall, where minor-hockey fees and new sticks for kids are deemed “investments”— and where there is no shortage of entrepreneurs more than happy to take money from starry-eyed parents. Always informative, often shocking, Selling the Dream is not only a guidebook for legions of hockey parents across the country, its a defence of the game we all love, and of childhood itself.

After a year spent documenting the working life and daily routines of players for an American Hockey League team, Michael Robidoux found that most peoples' perceptions of hockey players' lives as romantic and glamorized are unrealistic. The majority of professional hockey players work in a closed and discriminatory environment in the lower tiers of hockey on semi-professional teams.

Since 1917, professional hockey has been a hit in the United States and Canada. Learn about each pro hockey team, including its history, greatest coaches and players, and interesting trivia. Discover everything you ever needed to know about the Stanley Cup and which teams come out on top!