Hockey Biographies

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.

Once upon a time, they taught us to believe. They were the 1980 US Olympic hockey team, a blue-collar bunch led by an unconventional coach, and they engineered perhaps the greatest sports moment of the 20th century. Their "Miracle on Ice" has become a national fairy tale, but the real Cinderella story is even more remarkable. It is a legacy of hope, hard work, and homegrown triumph. It is a chronicle of everyday heroes who just wanted to play hockey happily ever after.

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.

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.

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 2015, Russia’s Anti-Doping Centre was suspended by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) following revelations of an elaborate state-sponsored doping programme. Involving a nearly undetectable steroid delivery system known as ‘Duchesse cocktail’, tampering and switching of urine samples and a complex state-sanctioned cover-up, the programme was masterminded by Grigory Rodchenkov. The Rodchenkov Affair tells the full, unadulterated story that was first glimpsed in Bryan Fogel’s award-winning documentary and still continues to captivate and shock the world.

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.

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.

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.

This immersive book is your passport to understanding and mastering every aspect of the game, taking you through a meticulously detailed exploration. Discover the origins of ice hockey, tracing its history from pioneering moments to its evolution into a global sensation. Unveil the game's milestones, rule changes, and groundbreaking innovations that shaped the sport into what it is today.

Life Lessons Thru the Lens of Hockey invites listeners to reflect on their own journeys. Ultimately, this book is a heartfelt tribute to the game that shaped the author’s understanding of life. The rink of life, much like the concrete pit of childhood games, is filled with opportunities and obstacles.

Hockey forms the backdrop of our lives. For many Canadians, the big moments - births, deaths, marriages, moves - are all mixed up with the wins and losses of our teams. The voices of Hockey Night in Canada sportscasters are our soundtrack, and visions of skates scraping across the ice lull us to sleep. George Bowering, Canada's former poet laureate, is no different.

Traversing the worlds of politics, business and diplomacy, Joe Hockey's Diplomatic is an insightful, honest and at times hilarious insider's memoir recounting the former Australian treasurer's unique diplomatic style. It chronicles the evolution, depth and complexity of the US-Australian relationship, from the final year of the Obama administration, the triumph and chaos of the Trump presidency and then on to the two nations' shared future under President Joe Biden and beyond.

From humble beginnings in Yorkton, Saskatchewan, to twice winning the Stanley Cup with the Detroit Red Wings, the story of Metro Prystai is one of hard work, camaraderie, and a passion for the game. Set in the golden age of hockey, Frank Block presents Prystai’s life though extensive research and tell-all interviews with the legend himself and several famous contemporaries, including Red Kelly, Emile Francis, and Ted Lindsay. This inside look at the life of one of the all-time greats is a must-listen for every fan of the game.

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.

Sarah Palin, a hockey mom and small-town mayor, thought her dream of making a difference in Alaskan politics was over when she clashed with the state chairman of her Republican Party and went head-to-head with the powerful Republican governor. In 2006 she became a long-shot candidate for governor, demanding a higher ethical standard in state government. Her populist reform message suddenly became front-page news. Alaskans began listening to her, and they liked what they heard.

From our youth, we all remember a piece of clothing that was very special to us. For example, a scarf, a hat, or a sweater that has long been discarded; and yet, from time to time, it comes back to us as a wonderful memory. After many decades, for me, it was the memory of a Chicago Blackhawk sweater. At first, I hated this sweater, but through "the gift of hockey" I learned to love it. That's the gift. We all learn from our wonderful national sport.