Can’t wait until October 12th for hockey season to start Neither can we! Since the season opener can’t come soon enough, these great new hockey books will keep you company in the meantime. Get warmed up before the start of the NHL’s centennial season!
Hockey Abstract Presents... Stat Shot: The Ultimate Guide to Hockey Analytics
by Rob Vollman with Tom Awad and Iain Fyffe
Make the most of this season by getting to know hockey analytics you can actually use. Advanced stats give hockey broadcasters an edge, and now fans can get in on the action. Stat Shot is a fun and informative guide hockey fans can use to understand and enjoy what analytics says about team building, a player’s junior numbers, measuring faceoff success, recording save percentage, the most one-sided trades in history, and everything you ever wanted to know about shot-based metrics. Acting as an invaluable supplement to traditional analysis, Stat Shot can be used to test the validity of conventional wisdom and to gain insight into what teams are doing behind the scenes — or maybe what they should be doing. Understand the game like never before, as Vollman explains analytics so simply, you’ll be showing off your knowledge every Hockey Night in Canada.
Read an excerpt here!
Blue Lines, Goal Lines & Bottom Lines: Hockey Contracts and Historical Documents from the Collection of Allan Stitt
by Greg Oliver
Explore the NHL’s 100-year history by following the paper trail — contracts, notices, bonuses, announcements, scouting reports, letters to GMs, this full-colour book chronicles papers of every kind! Peruse every kind of document, from Wayne Gretzky’s first contract to a scouting report on Mario Lemieux; from Bobby Hull promoting a hair restoration product to Glenn Anderson fighting for his playoff bonuses. And what’s this about baseball Hall of Famer Fergie Jenkins playing with the St. Louis Blues? There is no better way to get excited about the NHL’s centennial season than with this collection of hockey history.
Read an excerpt here!
The Red Kelly Story
by Leonard “Red” Kelly with L. Waxy Gregoire and David M. Dupuis
Cup of Coffee: A Photographic Tribute to Lesser Known Toronto Maple Leafs, 1978–99
by Greg Abel and Lance Hornby
The NHL isn’t the only organization celebrating 100 years this season — the Maple Leafs turn the big 1-0-0 as well! Over the past 100 years, close to 1,000 players have suited up for at least one game with the legendary Toronto Maple Leafs, and more than 250 did so in the most turbulent era of club history, 1978–1999. Unlike NHLers in other cities, the names of Toronto players aren’t quickly forgotten by fans in this hockey town. A stint with the Leafs, no matter how short, carries a certain cachet; the names and sweater numbers — and the compelling stories behind them — live on as trivia talk for years. Featuring 256 players, Cup of Coffee tells these stories with full-colour action pictures shot by veteran Leafs photographer Graig Abel. Celebrate the Leaf’s 100-year anniversary with this book of “Brief Leafs,” all of whom contributed to making Toronto the hockey town it is today.
One Night Only: Conversations with the NHL’s One-Game Wonders
by Ken Reid
From beer leagues to minor leagues, hockey players from coast to coast often say they’d give anything to play just one game in the NHL. One Night Only brings you the stories of 39 men who lived out their childhood dreams by playing one game, and one game only, in the National Hockey League — including the most famous single-gamer of them all: the coach himself, Don Cherry. Inspiring, uplifting, gratifying, and devastating all at the same time, these stories will have you lacing up to play on the outdoor rink the second the ice freezes.
Chasing the Dream: Life in the American Hockey League
by Ted Starkey
If you still can’t get enough hockey, go on the road with the best players not in the NHL. Chasing the Dream puts you in the middle of 3-in-3s with the American Hockey League, North America’s top minor league! As told by dozens of the players, coaches, broadcasters, personnel, and owners who work a grinding schedule every winter, Chasing the Dream goes into the locker rooms and on the buses with seven AHL teams. From young prospects to the veterans who mentor them, hear from AHL players on why today’s minor league is no longer like Slap Shot, what playing three games in under 48 hours can do to a player, and why fighting — once a staple of the minors — is on the decline. As mentioned in Stat Shot, The AHL is a hugely important tool for NHL teams in the salary-cap era, and these are the players behind the scenes of organizations who win the Stanley Cup.
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