Winter Road Hockey

During the winter of 2019 I drove 9,790 kilometers over 49 days to watch 18 junior hockey league games, eat some great food, and enjoy the scenery and the feel of my car on unfamiliar roads. I documented my trip through snowy Quebec and Canada's scenic Maritime provinces. I hope you enjoy this odd little adventure and road trip.

The whole world knows how much hockey is a vital part of Canadian culture. The cold winters, old rinks, and frozen ponds are ubiquitous to millions of Canadians and contextual for countless more across the world. Even for those who didn't play ice hockey, the game still became palpable. In My Road Hockey Obsession, author Curt Solomon tells the story of a group of young friends building their lives, friendships, and adolescence around road hockey. For Solomon, road hockey was much, much more than a pastime. It was the only pastime. When he started playing road hockey, he knew he had found the city of gold, and there was no use looking for or pursuing any other activity. In this unique story built entirely around ball hockey, Solomon shares how he and his friends transformed a simple pastime into the most bonding and durable period of their lives. Road hockey was how they grew up, how they communicated, how they thought, and how they forged life-long memories. My Road Hockey Obsession narrates a joyous story that sparks nostalgia-the days of orange balls, plastic blades, and the hollow sound of wooden sticks on asphalt.

An inspiring volume of stories about Canada’s most beloved sport—hockey—and the everyday heroes who embody the spirit of the game and help shape its future, from the pros who compete in NHL arenas to the dreamers and fans who play on backyard rinks. What does hockey look like today in Canada? Who is changing the game? Canadian broadcasters Bob McKenzie and Jim Lang bring together players, from youth hockey to the NHL, and the people who support them to show us what hockey means to them. Meet Philadelphia Flyer Wayne Simmonds and Paralympian gold medalist Greg Westlake, who wouldn’t be at the top of their sport without the never-ending support of their families and communities. See how they’re giving back to show young hockey hopefuls that anything is possible. Read about players like Ben Fanelli, who overcame catastrophic injury to keep playing the game he loved and is using his story as a platform to help others, or the renowned Canadian neurosurgeon Dr. Charles Tator, who is leading the charge to protect athletes from the dangers of brain trauma and concussion. From hockey commentators Andi Petrillo and Harnarayan Singh, who broke down barriers to be on air, to Karina Potvin, the youth hockey coach welcoming Syrian boys and girls to Canada by introducing them to our national pastime, these are the stories of everyday hockey heroes—those who defy the odds, advocate for inclusion, and champion the next generation of hockey. From small-town rinks to big city arenas across the country, this collection celebrates everyone who loves our great game. Heartwarming and entertaining, Everyday Hockey Heroes is a must-read for every hockey fan.

In the 19th century, the sport of ice hockey was first played in the eastern part of Canada, and by the latter part of the century, the new winter game began spreading to other countries like the United States, Great Britain, and Czechoslovakia. As the 20th century unfolded, Sweden, Finland, and the Soviet Union became fully involved with the game. During that same period, a North American league, the National Hockey League (NHL), and two major international competitions such as the World Ice Hockey Championship, and the Winter Olympics' Ice Hockey Tournament were introduced to the hockey world. Today, in the 21st century, people from all corners of the globe participate in the game, and this book illustrates on how the sport was formed and developed in the some of the top ice hockey nations in the world.

PEARSON PRIZE WINNER 2010 TEEN CHOICE. SIX STORIES, EACH INVOLVING AN NHL HOCKEY SWEATER. STORIES THAT CAN BRING A TEAR TO YOUR EYE, AND YET EACH STORY HAS A HAPPY ENDING. 1)OLD GOALIE SKATES: Chris has never known his father. However through the kindness of a school bus driver and a tattered old CANADIENS hockey sweater, Chris finds a way out of his sadness. 2)THE HOCKEY LESSON: A bitter old black man finds redemption by giving a young black boy hockey lessons and his old BOSTON hockey sweater. This helps the boy from going astray and gives the boy a reason to continue his studies. 3)THE RIVER RINK: A father refuses to let his son play goalie. However through a terrible accident the father becomes much closer to his son. 4)THE STREET HOCKEY TOURNAMENT: A young girl wants to play hockey with the boys. This leads to many problems, however through hockey the girl finds her long lost father.5)THE DREAM OF A TORONTO HOCKEY SWEATER.6)The boy gets the wrong hockey sweater(CHICAGO)for Christma

Tyler Watson and his teammate, the star center for the Portland Winter Hawks hockey team, discover that working with street kids has placed their own lives in danger.

Romantic complications at the tennis club were not on Michael Blooms radar. His plate was already filled with the emotinal upheaval that comes with sharing a home with two adult children and watching an old friend battle cancer. Nevertheless, he is caught in the cross-hairs of two attractive women; one a serial seductress and the other, an eye-catching beauty with a haunting past. Suddenly, like his daughter Rachel, Michael is thrust into the dating scene with all its perils and humiliations. Enticed by the powerful aphrodisiac of sex, Michael learns to his chagrin that Murphys Law is always in play.

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.