Hockey Biographies

Hockey fans get a look into the life and times - both on and off the ice - of legendary eight-time Stanley Cup winner Red Kelly.

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.

Tasked with finding common ground and building friendships between the world's two largest countries and arctic neighbors, a young Canadian diplomat finds himself on his first overseas assignment in Moscow, the Soviet capital. It's the early 1970s and a Cold War between communism and capitalism, the west and the east, is simmering-while the ice rink is just starting to heat up. Smith opts for sports diplomacy, throwing off his embassy black tie dress codes and donning the blue and white sweater of the Moscow Maple Leafs.

Many of us grew up scoring a thousand glorious NHL goals in our minds, and on our streets and corner rinks. We won the Stanley Cup over and over in our imaginations. What happened to those childhood heroics? We packed them in a box with our hockey cards and forgot them. Growing Up Hockey uses the heartwarming and comical exploits of a house-league third-liner to prompt us to re-live our memories of hockey glory.

Men's hockey in Canada may hog the limelight, but interest in women's hockey has never been higher. The Role I Played is a memoir of Sami Jo Small's 10 years with Canada's National Women's Hockey Team. Beginning with her experience as a rookie at the first-ever women's Olympic hockey tournament in Nagano in 1998 and culminating with Canada's third straight Olympic gold medal in Vancouver in 2010, the veteran goaltender gives the listener behind-the-scenes insight into one of the most successful teams in sports history.

“Holy Dirty Dora!” Hector “Toe” Blake would bark while pacing behind the Montreal Canadiens bench, hands thrust into his pockets, jawing at chewing gum before intentionally banging his forehead into the glass that separates players and fans. No lead was safe or sufficient for the lifelong hockey man at the helm of the greatest dynasty in NHL history.

In Philadelphia Flyers orange and black, Chris Therien cut an imposing figure on the ice, a stalwart physical presence for over a decade in the NHL. But by the end of his playing career, he was concealing a much greater battle with alcoholism which bled into his professional and family life. The defenseman-turned-analyst now opens up candidly and completely, reflecting on his life and career with perspective gained from over ten years of sobriety.

Frank Zamboni created the ice-resurfacing machine, and ice-based sports would never be the same!

There are Leafs fans - and there’s the Ultimate Leafs Fan. No one had the time, money, or energy to follow their favorite team to every game of the season until Mike Wilson took a journey most fans can only dream about. These are the humorous, historical, and heart-wrenching stories of Leafs Nation.

One of the most compelling figures ever to lace on a pair of skates, Carl Brewer was a gifted skater and stickhandler, renowned for his ability to control the pace of a game and goad opponents into costly errors. His talents made him an NHL All-Star and one of the cornerstones of a Toronto Maple Leafs dynasty. But he was also a loner playing a team game, a free spirit in an era when players were expected not to make waves. Teammates and management alike wrote him off as an eccentric, an enigma.

In Home Ice, with equal parts humour and anguish, Angie Abdou charts a full season of life as an Atom-level hockey mom, from summer hockey camp to the end-of-season tournament. Her revealing stories and careful research on issues such as cost, gender bias, concussion, and family pressures offer a compellingly honest and complex insider’s view of parenting today’s young athlete in a competitive and high-pressure culture.

Father David Bauer changed lives - at the rink, in the classroom, and at the pulpit. Bauer's dream created the first truly national Canadian hockey team. In 1963 that unique group represented Canada abroad and were committed to both country and to Father Bauer. Whether shepherding the hockey program at St. Michael's College in Toronto or the men's national team out of the University of British Columbia, Bauer was both spiritual leader and trailblazer.

Eishockey ist eine der schnellsten und härtesten Sportarten der Welt, in Deutschland der populärste Mannschaftssport nach Fußball. Ein Millionenpublikum in großen Arenen und vor den Fernsehschirmen liebt die Athletik, Intensität und Geschwindigkeit auf dem Eis. Schlittschuhläuferische Geschicklichkeit und gefühlvolle Puck-Kontrolle gepaart mit harter Zweikampfführung und krachenden Bodychecks machen Eishockey so faszinierend. Neben der sportlichen Dynamik und Komplexität spielt auch die einmalige Stimmung, sei es im Team oder unter den Zuschauern, eine große Rolle.

Bernie Saunders had a passion for hockey. His prodigious talent was on display at all levels. But because he was Black, he was stymied at every turn and experienced nothing but taunting from opponents, spectators, coaches, and even his own teammates. This is a memoir about professional hockey by a player who had the potential to become a star but was blocked at almost every opportunity because of his race. In spite of this, Shut Out is a hopeful and uplifting book about facing adversity, overcoming it, and moving ahead.

Most sports team owners make their money elsewhere and purchase a team as an extravagant hobby—but that is not the story of Ed Snider. One of the few owners in history to start a franchise by mortgaging nearly everything to his name, the Philadelphia Flyers founder would go on to form the billion-dollar empire of Comcast-Spectacor and cement his standing as one of the biggest movers and shakers in the city’s history.

Field hockey is a great outdoor sport if you want to keep fit and agile. In How to Play Field Hockey, you will learn to keep yourself fit and healthy by introducing yourself to the basics, history, and origin of field hockey, learning some excellent hockey techniques like passing the ball, offense, and defense, and learning how to play specialized shots like penalty corner and penalty stroke through a step-by-step process.

Touching on family, forgiveness, sport, and making peace with tragedy, this narrative captures the lives of two unlikely friends from very different backgrounds. Dan Snyder was not a sure thing in professional hockey, but defied expectations by playing for both the minor league's Chicago Wolves and the NHL's Atlanta Thrashers. Dany Heatley, on the other hand, had been tapped for success from the start as a college star and high draft pick.

Boston Globe sports columnist Dan Shaughnessy traces the bewitching story of the curse that has lain over the Red Sox since they sold Babe Ruth to the hated Yankees in 1920. He sheds light on classic Sox debacles, from Johnny Pesky's so-called hesitation throw to the horrifying dribbler that slithered between Bill Buckner's legs. Lively and filled with anecdotes, this is baseball folklore at its best.

The inspiring, unlikely story of the American, Canadian, South Korean, and even North Korean women who joined together to form Korea’s first Olympic ice hockey team.

Nacido en el corazón mismo de Sergio "Cachito" Vigil, Un viaje al interior lleva a los lectores a ese mundo singular donde interactúan personajes muy especiales que son parte de la vida diaria e influyen en las decisiones y acciones, a veces inadvertidamente. De manera magistral y creativa, el autor –legendario técnico de Las Leonas, la multipremiada Selección Nacional de Hockey Femenino– desarrolla un diálogo imaginario entre la Profundidad, la Superficialidad, la Razón y la Vida, instancias todas que conviven en la interioridad de cada ser humano.