Eddie Shore and that Old-Time Hockey

Eddie Shore and that Old-Time Hockey
Author: C. Michael Hiam
Publisher: McClelland & Stewart
Total Pages: 343
Release: 2010-10-12
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 0771041306

Eddie Shore was the Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb of hockey, a brilliant player with an unmatched temper. Emerging from the Canadian prairie to become a member of the Boston Bruins in 1926, the man from Saskatchewan invaded every circuit in the NHL like a runaway locomotive on a downgrade. Hostile fans turned out in droves with a wish to see him killed, but in Boston he could do no wrong. During his twenty-year professional career, the controversial Shore personified "that old time hockey" like no other, playing the game with complete disregard for his own safety. Shore was one of the most penalized men in the NHL, and also a perennial member of its All Star Team. A dedicated athlete, Shore won the Hart Trophy for the league’s most valuable player four times — a record for a defenseman not since matched — and led Boston to two Stanley Cups in 1929 and 1939. In 1933, Shore was the instigator of hockey’s most infamous event, the tragic "Ace Bailey Incident," and during his subsequent sixteen-game suspension the fans chanted, "We want Shore!" After retiring from the NHL in 1940, Shore’s passion for the game remained undiminished, and as owner and tyrant of the AHL Springfield Indians, he won championship after championship. This is an action-packed and full-throated celebration of the "mighty Eddie Shore" — and also of the sport of hockey as it was gloriously played in a bygone age.

Open Net

Open Net
Author: George Plimpton
Publisher: Little, Brown
Total Pages: 220
Release: 2016-04-26
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 031632678X

George Plimpton takes to the ice with the Boston Bruins in this memorable portrait of the rough-and-tumble world of professional hockey, repackaged and featuring a foreword from Denis Leary and never-before-seen content from the Plimpton Archives. In Open Net, George Plimpton takes to the ice as goalie for his beloved Boston Bruins. After signing a release holding the Bruins blameless if he should meet with injury or death, he survives a harrowing, seemingly eternal five minutes in an exhibition game against the always-tough Philadelphia Flyers. With reflections on such hockey greats as Wayne Gretzky, Bobby Orr, and Eddie Shore, Open Net is at once a celebration of the thrills and grace of the greatest sport on ice and a probing meditation into the hopes and fears of every man.

Grapes:

Grapes:
Author: Don Cherry
Publisher: Avon
Total Pages: 274
Release: 1999-04-06
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 9780380651771

A Wild Look at Life in Hockey...To millions of Canadians, Don "Grapes" Cherry is the irascible co-host of "Molson Hockey Night's Coach's Corner," whose controversial, candid and highly spirited commentary has endeared him to hockey fans throughout the provinces. A larger-than-life figure in the annals of hockey, Cherry has done it all-from minor league player to head coach of the Boston Bruins to gregarious commentator. His is a story that only he could tell-because no one else could do him justice. BY THE MAN WHO'S SEEN IT ALL! Favorite of the fans, players and press, Cherry takes you battling through the bush leagues, where the stick-swinging defenseman put up with the bus rides and burgers-while the NHL live like kings. You'll relive his glory days in Boston, where he clicked as coach until teh Bruins blew the Stanley Cup-and Cherry got blamed. You'll find out why he had to say :no" to teh dream chance of coaching the Maple leafs. You'll meet players like Bobby Orr and Wayne Gretzky...the managers and owners who blackballed him...and Blue, the white bull terrier reputedly the brains behind his coaching success. Undoubtedly the most colorful character who ever laced up a pair of skates, Cherry offers a no-holes-barred account of his triumphs, his defeats and his remarkable comeback.

Kooks and Degenerates on Ice

Kooks and Degenerates on Ice
Author: Thomas J. Whalen
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 239
Release: 2020-05-13
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1538110296

Celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Boston Bruins’ 1970 Stanley Cup championship season by reliving all the moments in Kooks and Degenerates on Ice. While the United States seethed from racial violence, war, and mass shootings, the 1969-70 “Big, Bad Bruins,” led by the legendary Bobby Orr, brushed off their perennial losing ways to defeat the St. Louis Blues in the Stanley Cup Finals for their first championship in 29 years. In Kooks and Degenerates on Ice: Bobby Orr, the Big Bad Bruins, and the Stanley Cup Championship That Transformed Hockey, Thomas J. Whalen recounts all the memorable moments from that championship season. Behind the no-nonsense yet inspired leadership of head coach Harry Sinden, the once laughingstock Bruins became the talk of the sporting world. Nicknamed the “Big, Bad Bruins” for their propensity to out-brawl and intimidate their opponents, the team rallied around the otherworldly play of Bobby Orr and his hard-hitting teammates to take the NHL by surprise in a season to remember. Kooks and Degenerates on Ice brings to life all the colorful personalities and iconic players from this Stanley Cup-raising team. In addition, the season is placed into its historical context as the United States struggled with issues of war, race, politics, and class, making this a must-read for sports enthusiasts, hockey fans, and those interested in twentieth-century American history.

Best of the Bruins

Best of the Bruins
Author: Jonathan Weeks
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 204
Release: 2021-01-12
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1476642257

Among the "Original Six" National Hockey League clubs to survive the Great Depression, the Boston Bruins have a vibrant history. Entering the 2019-2020 campaign, the team ranked fourth all-time, with six Stanley Cup championships. Some of the most gifted players in NHL history have skated for the Bruins over the years. This detailed survey tells the individual stories of the players and coaches, past and present, who have helped make the Bruins perennial contenders for close to a century.

Slap Shot Original

Slap Shot Original
Author: Dave Hanson
Publisher: Triumph Books
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2013-10-01
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1623687012

More than 30 years after its cinematic debut, Slap Shot remains one of the most popular sports movies of all time, and this book is actor Dave Hanson’s firsthand account of its making. Starring the legendary Paul Newman, the movie was based on the hilarious and outrageous antics of the fictitious Charlestown Chiefs, a tough-as-nails minor league hockey team in the early 1970s. In financial trouble and due to fold at the end of the season, they bring in the Hanson Brothers—three of the toughest hockey players around—in a desperate bid to sell tickets. What ensues is pure comic genius. Here, Dave Hanson—who played ringleader Jack Hanson in the film—not only opens the vault and dishes the dirt on the making of the movie, from the bench-clearing brawls and the practical jokes on set to the legendary partying that went on during filming, but also explores how the movie changed his and many of the cast and crew’s lives forever.

Bench Bosses

Bench Bosses
Author: Matthew DiBiase
Publisher: McClelland & Stewart
Total Pages: 546
Release: 2015-10-27
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 0771025092

Bench Bosses celebrates the greatest NHL Coaches in the history of the game. Bench Bosses is filled with compelling biographical narrative, innovative analysis, historical allusion, hockey folklore, humour, heartbreak, and tragedy. By introducing a creative new method for evaluating coaching success, professional historian and hockey columnist Matthew DiBiase settles many a debate. His hard-hitting prose and cogent analysis covers key aspects of coaching and definitively identifies the greatest offensive and defensive coaches, expounds on the best penalty-killing or power-play coaches and delves into statistics to determine the nastiest squads on the ice. His unique assessment method determines his selection of the top fifty head coaches of all time. DiBiase's in-depth hockey research delivers a powerful, gripping and informative look at the game's best of the best. This seminal book tells the story behind the story of coaching success. It removes subjectivity and bias and provides a comprehensive overview of each coach's major career achievements and the contributions each has made to the game. In the writing of this book, the author personally interviewed many of the game's best known coaches and their players to get the most accurate and complete perspective of the sport and its coaching elite. Readers will enjoy hearing from such names as Scotty Bowman, Al Arbour, Jean Beliveau, Dick Irving Jr., and more.

Hitch, Hockey's Unsung Hero

Hitch, Hockey's Unsung Hero
Author: Pam Coburn
Publisher: Pamdre Publishing Inc.
Total Pages: 298
Release: 2019-04-02
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1999029712

Distinguished sportswriter Elmer Ferguson called him the “greatest defensive” defenseman of his day. The NHL’s revered chief referee Cooper Smeaton ranked him ahead of his defense partner, Eddie Shore. Legendary manager of the Boston Bruins, Art Ross, wouldn’t sell him “at any price.” And yet he goes unrecognized by the Hockey Hall of Fame. Lionel Hitchman, or “Hitch,” played 12 seasons in the NHL. First with the Ottawa Senators, helping them to a Stanley Cup win, and then with the Boston Bruins for ten years. As the Bruins’ captain and first “money player,” Hitch led them to their first Stanley Cup championship and to the NHL’s best winning point percentage of all time. His hockey stats belie his real contribution to the success of the Boston Bruins. Hitch was the last original Bruin and the first to have his sweater retired. After his playing career, he went on to coach in the Boston system for several years before parting ways with the franchise. Hitch, Hockey's Unsung Hero, is the story of an unheralded “superstar,” the times he lived through and the fascinating people who helped shape his character and life choices. It is told through the “scribes” of the day with interjections by some notable people who knew him well. A few family tales are revealed, including one that helps explain Hitch’s absence from hockey’s highest shrine.

Don't Call Me Goon

Don't Call Me Goon
Author: Greg Oliver
Publisher: ECW Press
Total Pages: 290
Release: 2013-09-01
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1770410384

Professional hockey enforcers—popularly known as “goons”—finally get their due in this rollicking look at the players who have perfected the art of making mayhem. Whether they are called upon to duke it out with a fellow troublemaker or intimidate an opponent’s top scorer, these are the men who get the crowds to their feet, the sports radio shows buzzing, and the TV audience spilling their beers in excitement. Old timers like Joe Hall and Red Horner are profiled here, along with legendary heavy hitters Tiger Williams, Stu Grimson, and Bob Probert, fan favorites Tie Domi and Georges Laroque, and contemporary hockey stars Arron Asham and Brian McGrattan. The book also delves into the intense debate over the issue of violence on the ice as well as the personal and professional dramas of the NHL’s bad boys: the suspensions, the concussions, and the constant controversy of their role in the game.

They Call Me Killer

They Call Me Killer
Author: Brian Kilrea
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 274
Release: 2011-09-19
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1118096096

An intimate, humorous look at Brian Kilrea's 60-year career in junior hockey With more wins than any coach in junior hockey history, and a personality as large as his winning record, Brian Kilrea is more than a hockey legend, he's one of the most beloved figures in the game. With veteran sportswriter, James Duthie, Kilrea gives fans a rink-side view of his twenty-nine plus seasons as head coach and now general manager of the Ottawa 67s. With stories and comments from famous NHLers who played for Killer, readers will get a taste of Kilrea's hardnosed coaching style, the gritty often humorous reality of his life as a coach, riding on buses and in the locker room, as well as the knowledge and dedication that has made him last so long. They Call Me Killer sheds light on Kilrea's early life as a centre for the Red Wings, what it was like to score the first-ever goal in the history of the L.A. Kings, and his two years with the New York Islanders. Loaded with anecdotes from a true hockey insider, the book offers fans an unvarnished look at the world of junior hockey—as it's played and lived, including its brutal practices, broken curfews, trades, and tirades. Details Kilrea's role as a coach for the Ottawa 67s, how they won the Memorial Cup twice, and how he's been a mentor to young stars of the future Includes anecdotes and interviews from coaches, trainers, and general managers, and NHLers like Bryan Trottier, Dennis Potvin, Mike Peca, Gary Roberts, Doug Wilson, Brian Campbell, Darren Pang, and many others Brian Kilrea was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2003 James Duthie is best known for his work on TSN's The NHL on TSN and his coverage of the World Junior Championships With a Foreword by lifelong friend, Don Cherry, They Call Me Killer is a fascinating, unforgettable look at the world of junior hockey and the man known as the most successful coach in junior hockey history.