Ice Hockey Books

In the grand tradition of Bill James' Baseball Abstracts comes this wonderful book. A knowledgable, thought-provoking trip through the history of hockey. Structured much like the James Abstracts (the authors acknowledge his influence), "Ultimate Hockey" provides anecdotes, player profiles, stats and serious comparisons of great teams and players from the 1880's to the dawn of the 21st century. Fun to read and hard to put down, if one were to own this book and maybe "Total Hockey", it would not be a great exaggeration to call the reference section of one's hockey library complete.

Do you want to know how hockey was played when there was no forward passing? Do you want to know how strategies developed? You won't find it here. The Weirs and Chapman have compiled a book that is filled with interesting tidbits, and their work in reconstructing who were the best players of the earliest eras of the game of hockey is clearly a labor of love, and their conclusions about the best players seem well founded and carefully considered. It's a good book to have on your shelf. But you won't really learn that much about the development of hockey, and the book is therefore not really in the tradition of Bill James at all. For example, in the player sections at the end of each chapter, the authors sometimes make comparisons between earlier players and contemporary players. In the case of Bill James, these comparisons are based on meticulous research. In the case of Ultimate Hockey, well, it seems to be more impressionistic. Still, the book is worth owning, if only for the story of how the Dawson City Nuggets got to Ottawa in 1905.

I don't really know what to say ezxcept that I love Ultimate Hockey and want to know more about how the book came about and where it popped out of. I've been an avid sports book reader for many years now and have all the titles out there ... well, almost. I';d have to rank Ultimate Hockey as one of the finest i've ever invested in. Total Hockey was awesome too, but I didn't really have any *fun* reading through it ... it's too big and kind of expensive. Ultimate Hockey gave me and is still giving me alot of enjoyment. Even Total doesn't go back as far as these guys (125 years) in any depth. And to go all the way to Y2K? Well worth the money. good job guys.

A truly wonderful, well-thought out book, with writing that is both witty and fun to read. It is evident that the writers are extreme hockey enthusiasts, due to the plethora of facts presented in a very entertaining manner. This is not just another stat book...the authors provide many interesting tidbits throughout, including anecdotes, player profiles, births, deaths, and nicknames, as well as all the stats you could ever hope for. The chapters cover a decade at a time, which makes it very easy to look up specific information. Plus, each decade has it's own stats and player profiles. I never imagined that I would purchase a hockey history book and be unable to put it down. Kudos to the authors. I highly recommend this book for personal reading or as a gift to any hockey fans you know.

Dick Irvin's book makes you a a priviledged listener to the stories of great and not so great NHL coaches. You read the thoughts and

philosophies of Mike Keenan, Harry Neale, Barry Melrose, Jacques Demers, and of course, the inimitable Don Cherry. Read how some of these coaches struggled with acceptance from players, fans and management; victory and, ultimately, defeat. A must read for hockey fans with a knowledge of the game and interesting to those

who are new to it.

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Dick Irvin's book makes you a a priviledged listener of the stories of great and not so great NHL coaches. You hear the thoughts and philosophies of Mike Keenan, Harry Neale, Barry Melrose, Jacques Demers, and of course, the inimitable Don Cherry. Read how some of these coaches struggled with acceptance, victory and, ultimately, defeat. A great read for hockey fans with a knowledge of the game and interesting to those who are new to it.

Irvin's anecdotal style serves the subject well, but the true authors are the coaches themselves. The book allows the coaches tell their tales, some tall, most of them funny and occasionally a dark one as well. If you are looking for a book on strategy, forget it, this book is about coaching in the NHL from a more stylistic perspective. In many cases, this is a study of the psychology of the men behind the benches and the cast of characters that they have stumbled across over the years. If you like a good yarn about how the game is played at the professional level, this book will be a favorite

I loved this book. It was not only entertaining, but it gave a lot of insight into the workings of the legal field in pro sports as well as television and entertainment. I found myself thinking "I'd forgotten all about that" or "Is that how that came about?", and the hockey names from the past that I'd long since forgotten were brought back to the present by the writing of Mr. Swados. This was well worth the time it took to read it!

Hockey fans who are avid followers of the sport will surely recognize the name of Robert O. Swados, who has been a league owner, executive, and franchise builder in the professional hockey world for over forth years. Counsel In The Grease: A Big League Player In The Hockey Wars provides a strong memoir of his encounters with coaches, players, and owners alike, describing the many changes he's observed in the sport since his initial involvement in the 1960s, and his up and down years with the National Hockey League. A lively set of insights on the sports world as a whole makes Counsel In The Grease a highly recommended pick indeed.

Good grief Robert, who was your fact checker?? Understandably this book was written by an aging old employee of the Sabres so a pass is given to him on his recollection of facts but GEEZ somebody at the publishing company should have checked this over before releasing this. Where do I begin? OK, Joe Daley was NOT traded for Roger Crozier...that was Tom Webster, Pat Lafontaine did not suffer his concussion against the Bruins, it was the Penguins, the Atlanta Flames entered the NHL in 1972 not 1974, the Capitals entered in 1974 not 1972, Floyd Smith was not the coach when Tony McKegney was drafted, Swados says he attended a game at the Copps Coliseum in Hamilton in 1981 and then in the next paragraph he says the building didn't exist in the early 1990's, which is it? Gil Perreault was not drafted in the Fall of 1969, Willie O'Ree was long out of the NHL (1960-61) when the Knox's had Oakland Seals ties, the Sabres did not play their first game in 1969, Dave Forman died in 1987 so how did you call him and ask for advice in the 1990's? The Buffalo Braves did not make the playoffs in the first 3 years etc. Facts like this should have been checked by SOMEBODY! All this and I'm only half way through the book. I'm all for telling the TRUE story of the Buffalo Sabres but find somebody who knows what's going on. What's Paul Wieland doing these days? John B.

I was very pleased, item was as described and it made my husband very happy when I gave it to him!
Thank you

This book is necessary for all true hockey fans. The book tells the stories of some of the great stars of the game from today and yesterday. The best part of the book is that it is written in their own words.

This is a great book for us hockey fans. The stories are short and interesting. Notable players from the history of hockey as well as current players are featured. Let's face it, we want to know everything about our favorite players, some of these stories are surprising.

It should have been clear to me from the other reviews, but I was somewhat disappointed at the beginning-level orientation of this book, and the overall sparseness of material. It is well-written, has a few wonderful Olympic anecdotes and some terrific Nagano pictures, but is clearly written for a young reader who is a complete novice in hockey. It's too young for my 12-year-old daughter (and me), in that there is just not enough content to make it hold our interest, even though we are die-hard women's hockey fans in this household. A keeper if one must have everything written about women's hockey, and a good book if it's for a new player or younger girl interested in ice hockey. I do wonder how many readers there are who BOTH need such a basic introduction to hockey AND will appreciate the Olympic info. Maybe this book was trying to do too much.

I really enjoyed reading this book. Since I already knew a lot of the basic hockey information from playing, my favorite parts were when Katie and Tricia told about their first hand experiances growing up as female hockey players, and winning Olymipic gold! Although I didn't need the info on the basics of hockey, they were writen in a very easy to understand way. If you want to learn how to play, definatly read that part of the book. I found this to be a very inspiring book. The pictures were great, and they showed how amazing it is to be a part of a team, something they focused on in their book. I hope anyone who sees this book buys it right away and reads it.

Tricia and Katie have written this based more towards the beginner type player. There are many great tips on both playing and equipment. Each player (Tricia and Katie) shares her thoughts throughout the book on various subjects such as the way they play and approach the game and the type of equipment preferred. Perhaps the best feature in the book, in my opinion, is the references to their fellow Olympic teammates and the insert pictures. That alone made the book worthwhile to me. :-) Overall, the book is well worth the asking price. You can't go wrong with something written by TWO gold medalists! :-)

I'd recommend this book to all beginners and general fans of Team USA.

I haven't read many books about hockey coaching, but after recieving this book, I'm pretty happy with it. It teaches you the basic shooting principles and spends some time on each type of shot. Then it goes into sections about buildings skills for each type of offensive play your team might need to work on: 1-1's, setting up plays, etc. A good variety of drills are offerred in this book and the nice thing is you can photocopy them out one by one because they are restricted to facing pages - so that you don't have to carry the whole book around. I'll be using these drills with my kids roller-hockey team and I think it will help.

Santa dropped this one in my stocking. It's great, particularly if you are searching for half-ice drills -- about half of the 75 drills are designed for half-ice. The strength of this book is its emphasis on puck movement to create scoring chances. The corollary is also true -- by emphasizing movement on the attack, goaltenders also improve their positioning and mobility. The drills are well-suited to kids aged 9 and up. I have shared the book with other coaches and, perhaps the strongest endorsement --my house league hockey association has ordered copies for all of our coaches!

Not only does this book provide you with detailed drills , it backs it up with specifics on what areas the drill works on , and highlights. It also has well written introductions on individual areas and the skills needed to to become a better offensive player , well worth the time to read and digest the knowledge it provides .

awsom

i read it and it taught me every thing about hocke

Cam Neely does a good job of explaining the basics of hockey for the beginning fan. He shares his enthusiasm for the game well with the reader, and the book is very easy to follow. The plentiful photos and diagrams help explain all of the concepts and rules of the game. He discusses the basic positions and strategies, describes the NHL in detail and gives a good history of the league, and gives guidelines for learning to play. The writing style is simple and straightforward, but also a little redundant. I would definitely recommend this book for someone who is just discovering the game of hockey and wants to learn more about it. If you're already a fan and want to learn more about strategies and other aspects of the game, pass this one by. I've been following hockey for several years and wanted to learn more details about the game, but I was somewhat disappointed by the lack of depth in this book, as I already knew most of the information. But as I said, it's a great guide for new fans.

I read this whole book and was suprised at the accuracy that it possesed. I enjoyed finding info including weaknesses and streangths, stats, and predictions on all my favorite players. This is a definite must buy if you love hockey, which i do. There is no chance that i will pass up the next edition of this.

After getting into hockey I found this book to be a great addition to my television viewing. The reports on players are great and the player predictions are also well researched and accurate. I look forward to every new seasons addition and have found this to add to my enjoyment of this wonderful game. This book is highly recommended.

Good concept and well written book. The author has an excellent overall understanding of both the game and the players. The layout of each player's analysis is simple to follow and easy to read. Why only three stars, then? Because a lot of the material was written some time ago. Some of the comments about the player's teamates were when they were with another team and didn't get caught in the editing. The author needs to completely re-write the book instead of writing what appears to be an edit of last year's version which appeared to be an edit of the prior year's version, etc.

I've bought about 7 or 8 books on various aspects of hockey over the past few weeks, and each has taught me something, but I really needed one that could tell me *how the game is played* -- where I'm supposed to be and what I'm supposed to be doing in different situations. This book did just that by explaining the basics of offense and defense with both text and easy-to-follow diagrams. I have a good overall sense of the game now, as well as specific admonishments to keep in mind (like not to chase a puck carrier behind the goal, and not to follow crisscrossing forwards when backchecking). I plan to read this book again in a month (after I've played a few games on an organized team), and I fully expect to absorb even more.

This book is truly a very good book for learning how to play the wonderful game of hockey both at the beginner level and advanced level. At the beginner level it shows and tell you how to skate, stop turn, foward and backward crossovers. It also has rules of the game which are especially helpful for the beginner level. It has drills that one should perform to get better. For the intermediate through advanced level it has even more drills and techniques that even the beginners should get to know. It shows how to shoot the puck defensive, offensive and even goalie tactics. It has a conditioning with nutrition chapter, pregame stretches and even the mental game. And finally at the end it even tells you how to build a rink and how to organize and coach a team. Even if you think you know everything about hockey I can almost guarantee you there is something in this 220 page hockey-training masterpiece. I've been playing for only two years and I have learned a ton from this book and you will most definitely too.

My team, the San Francisco Earthquakes, has several beginner players. Most of them had been to beginner hockey classes, but they still didn't know many of the basics. I set out to find a book that would provide these basic lessons and answer many of the new players' questions. I looked at several books, but this one had the best fit. It is written for beginners, but will also serve experienced players who need to review the basics. What to do, where to be, how to shoot, when to pass? These questions and many more are all answered clearly and simply. This is a book for beginners. Intermediate and advanced players may be looking for more insight than this book provides. My teammates now know what to do most of the time. If they'd only skate a little harder...

Inside Hockey by Gary Miles is 155 pages long and was published by Metro Books in 1998. This a non-fiction book about the history of the game of hockey. Inside Hockey tells about the game, its players, rules, and coaches.
It tells great Stanley Cup stories such as the Penguins back to back wins in 91' and 92' and the great players that have played the game. Guys like Wayne Gretzky, Jarri Kurri, Sergei Federov, Terry Sawchuk, and Eric Lindros re just a few that talked about they're playing careers. Many other unheard stories re told by players and coaches.
The nice thing about this book is it is very easy two read and very informative. If you have a strong passion for hockey you wont be able to put this book down for a second. Inside Hockey was a great book by Gary Miles. I haven't read a better book about hockey facts in my life and if you want to learn more about hockey and its history you should check out this book.

I am a huge and avid fan of this sport and received from my sister in law and my brother christmas 2004. Even though it is quite old and most players play for other teams now, the book is filled with cool anectdotes, tidbits and such. The photos are top of the line sports photography and stories. I love it and so will all hockey fans....

An excellent overview of the history and rules of the game of hockey. This walks through the creation of the game as well as biographies of the greatest players of all time. Even though the target of this book may be for the true fan, those who are merely interested in the game will find enjoyment as well.