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Gold : how Gretzky's men ended Canada's 50-year Olympic hockey drought / by Wharnsby, Tim,1964-author.;
Includes bibliographical references.""Now after 50 years, it's time for Canada to stand up and cheer. Stand up and cheer everybody! The Olympics Salt Lake City, 2002, men's ice hockey gold medal: Canada!" -Bob Cole, CBC play-by-play broadcaster There was no iconic Paul Henderson moment, nor a Sidney Crosby golden goal, but Canada's 5-2 victory against the rival United States in the men's 2002 Olympic gold medal game wiped out 50 years of frustration for the nation that invented ice hockey. Canadians from coast to coast were whipped into a frenzy, with impromptu celebrations on streets like Granville in Vancouver, Yonge in Toronto, Ste-Catherine in Montreal, and Portage and Main in Winnipeg. Gold is the definitive chronicle of how the men of Team Canada made history. Marking 20 years since the momentous victory, Tim Wharnsby delivers the inside story of how Gretzky built the team and Pat Quinn got them to the gold medal, featuring exclusive interviews with players, coaches, and personnel.Readers will hear directly from Gretzky, Jarome Iginla, Joe Sakic, Steve Yzerman, and more in this thrilling and immersive narrative of Olympic triumph"--
Subjects: Gretzky, Wayne, 1961-; Olympic Winter Games 2002 : Salt Lake City, Utah); Hockey players; Hockey players; Hockey; Winter Olympics;

Us against you : a novel / by Backman, Fredrik,1981-author.; Smith, Neil(Neil Andrew),translator.; translation of:Backman, Fredrik,1981-Vi mot er.English.;
"After everything that the citizens of Beartown have gone through, they are struck yet another blow when they learn their beloved local hockey team will soon be disbanded. Even more galling is the obvious pleasure that all the former Beartown players, who now play for the club in nearby Hed, feel about this news. As tensions between the two rivals rise, it falls to Peter, Beartown Hockey's general manager, to find a way to rescue the Bears. But even as Peter fights to delay the end of the club, someone else is already planning its rebirth. Elisabeth Zackell is a no-nonsense former pro-athlete, handpicked to be Beartown's new hockey coach. Shrugging off the ugly rumors about her, Zackell begins to build a new team around Amat, the fastest player you'll ever see; Benji, the crazed lone wolf; and Vidar, a born-to-be-bad troublemaker. Bringing the team together is a challenge, one that becomes even more difficult when Benji is outed, leaving his friends and teammates feeling betrayed by his having kept his sexuality a secret for years. Old bonds are broken, new ones are formed, and the rivalry with Hed grows ever more intense. As the big match approaches and winter darkness settles across both towns, the not-so-innocent pranks and incidents between the communities grow more dangerous, and hatred grows deeper. When the last game is finally played, one of Beartown's key players will be dead, and residents of both towns will be forced to wonder whether, after all they've been through, the game they love can ever return to something simple: a hockey stick each, two goals, two teams; us against you, in its purest, most innocent form. Us against you is a declaration of love for all the big and small, bright and dark stories that form and color our communities. Compelling and heart-breaking, it's a rollercoaster of emotions, and it is Fredrik Backman at his very best."--
Subjects: Sports fiction.; Hockey teams; Hockey players; Hockey coaches; Communities; City and town life; Sports rivalries; Loyalty;

Before the lights go out : a season inside a game worth saving / by Fitz-Gerald, Sean,author.;
" A love letter to a sport that's losing itself, from one of Canada's best sports writers. Canadian hockey is approaching a state of crisis. It's become more expensive, more exclusive, and effectively off-limits to huge swaths of the potential sports-loving population. Youth registration numbers are stagnant; efforts to appeal to new Canadians are often grim at best; the game, increasingly, does not resemble the country of which it's for so long been an integral part. These signs worried Sean Fitz-Gerald. As a lifelong hockey fan and father of a young mixed-race son falling headlong in love with the game, he wanted to get to the roots of these issues. His entry point: a season with the Peterborough Petes, a storied OHL team far from its former glory in a once-emblematic Canadian city that is finding itself on the wrong side of the country's changing demographics. Fitz-Gerald profiles the players, coaches and front office staff, a mix of world-class talents with NHL aspirations and Peterborough natives happy with more modest dreams. Through their experiences, their widely varied motivations and expectations, we get a rich, colourful understanding of who ends up playing hockey in Canada and why. Fitz-Gerald interweaves the action of the season with portraits of public figures who've shaped and been shaped by the game: authors who captured its spirit, politicians who exploited it, and broadcasters who try to embody and sell it. He finds his way into community meetings full of angry season ticket holders, as well as into sterile boardrooms full of the sport's institutional brain trust, unable to break away from the inertia of tradition and hopelessly at war with itself. Before the Lights Go Out is a moving, funny, yet unsettling picture of a sport at a crossroads. Fitz-Gerald's warm but rigorous journalistic approach reads, in the end, like a letter to a troubled friend: it's not too late to save hockey in this country, but who has the will to do it?"-- Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Peterborough Petes (Junior hockey team); Hockey teams; Hockey;

Life in two worlds : a coach's journey from the reserve to the NHL and back / by Nolan, Ted,1958-author.; Masters, Meg,author.;
"Despite the personal rivalries, lies, bad intentions, and discrimination, Ted Nolan made it from a small northern reservation to the NHL. But after he won the Jack Adams Award as the best coach in the NHL, he didn't work in the NHL again for a decade. Why? Nolan's story is one of succeeding against the odds. He grew up in poverty outside Sault St. Marie, on the Garden River reserve, in a small house that had no running hot water or electricity. He made his own backyard rink and fell in love with the game. That love was enough to take him to the pros. It was the classic Canadian story: small-town kid makes it to the NHL. Nolan was drafted in 1978 by the Detroit Red Wings. But his real talent lay in coaching. Teams always got better when he was behind the bench. As a very young coach, he coached the Sault St. Marie Greyhounds to three consecutive Memorial Cup Finals. When he got his shot in the NHL, Nolan immediately turned around the Buffalo Sabres, earning them the title of "hardest-working team in professional sports." He took them deep into the playoffs. That was enough to convince the league that he was the best coach in the NHL. And yet, the Sabres failed to re-sign their star coach. In fact, Nolan didn't coach in the NHL again for an incredible ten years. This despite coaching the Moncton Wildcats to the Memorial Cup and shocking the hockey world by coaching tiny Latvia to a near-draw with mighty Team Canada. So why wasn't Nolan back behind an NHL bench? "If my skin were white," says Nolan, "I'd be coaching." This is a story then, of succeeding against the odds, and then having success stripped away. It is partly an angry story, a story of injustice, that makes this memoir a story of learning. It is a fierce look at one man's journey as he comes to know the wider world--with the courage to reach for the previously unattained, and the humility to recognize what really matters in the end."--
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Nolan, Ted, 1958-; Hockey coaches; Hockey players; First Nations hockey players;

Conflicted scars : an average player's journey to the NHL / by Davis, Justin,1978-author.; Kilrea, Brian,1934-writer of foreword.;
"An indispensable guide to parents of hockey hopefuls. At a time of great change in hockey, Justin Davis exposes the dark underbelly of the journey from the minors to the big leagues. Hockey culture: it's a commonly used phrase inside the game, glorifying sacrifice, toughness, loyalty, and a sense of identity. Justin Davis viewed this culture as something he was lucky enough to experience. After all, he'd won a Memorial Cup after leading the tournament in scoring, and he'd been drafted by the Washington Capitals. "In my mind," he says, "I was the normal one." Unfortunately, after stepping outside the game, he began to recognize the racism, sexual abuse and bullying that was so deeply ingrained in the sport. And then, as his own children grew into teenagers, the curtain was pulled back, the memories came rushing forward, and he was horrified: "Why was I naked in a bus bathroom for four hours with seven teammates? What happened to my brain, and why can't I remember the simplest things? How did I end up living in a basement where the strangers upstairs were clearly engaged in domestic abuse?" As it navigates the sport's darkest corridors, Conflicted Scars shares the story of the common Canadian player and offers a guide for parents who need to know how and why a typical teenager with NHL dreams, from a small town, now lives anxiously, introvertedly, and battling emotional detachment."--
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Davis, Justin, 1978-; Hockey players;

Home and away / by Sundin, Mats,1971-author.; Stuart, Amy,1975-author.;
"When Mats Sundin was selected first overall by the floundering Quebec Nordiques in 1989, few knew what to make of the selection. The franchise was struggling, finding themselves in last place with the first overall pick three times (Sundin, Owen Nolan, Eric Lindros). How could a Swede, thought to be soft thanks to the media at the time, lead one of hockey's worst franchises out of the shadows? Quebec never found out. Despite a few short stellar years in Quebec, the enigmatic Sundin was shipped off to the Toronto Maple Leafs in a deal that included former captain Wendel Clark. There, the tall, lanky, unpretentious, and warm European found himself immersed in the fiery cauldron of the Toronto faithful. How did Sundin feel about the trade? About his new city? About taking on the mantle of the captainship? The boy from outside Stockholm became a man in Toronto. Here, he shares for the first time what it was like for him to bounce from franchise to franchise until he found his new home with the Maple Leafs. Sundin grew into a superstar, and the humble hero became a fan favourite, always giving his time to the youngest in the crowd. He shares in these pages stories he's never told anyone about his life in hockey, about how the quiet and thoughtful centre became the nucleus of a Leafs team on the verge of a Stanley Cup final appearance that never came. But Sundin's leadership won over a tough team of stars and an even tougher group of fans to become one of the most popular Maple Leafs of all time. What really happened in the dressing room over the years? How did Sundin interact with teammates, foes, and family? What was it like to play with Tie Domi, Gary Roberts, Curtis Joseph, and others? How did he feel about being part of a team with such high expectations? How did he survive in an ecosphere of violence with his game full of finesse? What made Mats Sundin who he was on the ice, and the man he has now become? He talks for the first time about what it was like to leave Toronto for Vancouver and to return "home" to Toronto for the first time, illuminating his backstory and the new story of how he became the reluctant leader. Why did he wear the #13? (You'll have to read the book to find out.) What's it like to be a huge fish in a small pond in Stockholm after his stellar NHL career? What do his kids think of their dad and his success? Sundin tells all with equal amounts of class and humour."--
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Sundin, Mats, 1971-; Toronto Maple Leafs (Hockey team); Hockey players; Hockey players;

Down and back : on alcohol, family, and a life in hockey / by Bourne, Justin,author.;
"For readers of Nine Lessons I Learned from My Father and Hockey Confidential, Down and Back tells broadcaster Justin Bourne's story of following his Hall-of-Fame father into the NHL, only to also follow him into rehab. When Justin Bourne's father stole back the Stanley Cup ring he'd given his son as a graduation present, the younger man was forced to call into question just about everything he thought he knew about two of the most important things in his life: hockey, and his father. Bob Bourne had been a star--an NHL All-Star, a Sports Illustrated "Athlete of the Year," a Stanley Cup champion. He was everything a son wants to emulate. And Justin did follow in those huge footsteps, leading his teams in scoring year after year, and finally garnering an invitation to the New York Islanders' training camp--the same team his father had played for. Though an injury brought to an end his dream of winning a Cup, Bourne found a way to stay in the game. His blog caught the eye of both The Athletic and the Toronto Maple Leafs, and soon he was both coaching and writing professionally. But at the same time, Justin was following his father's footsteps down a darker path. Though he hadn't had his first drink until he was 18, by 30 he was in rehab--his impressive career in the game in peril of being cut short. In an act of brutal self-honesty--which may not have been possible had his father not shown him the consequences of lying--Bourne got help, got sober, and confronted what his father and the game mean to him. That honesty is the backbone of Playing Hurt. It is a frank and sometimes harsh appraisal of the game and of the man in his family who played it: the violence and danger, the booze and drugs, the consequences of fame for the young men who are not prepared for it. But it is also an honest look at what is redeeming about the game, through the eyes of someone who grew up in NHL dressing rooms, who has skated on NHL ice as both a player and a coach, who lives and breathes the game--and who inherited it from a man he can understand only through the game."--
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Bourne, Justin; Bourne, Justin.; Fathers and sons; Hockey coaches; Hockey players; Recovering alcoholics; Sportscasters; Sportswriters;

Undrafted : hockey, family, and what it takes to be a pro / by Kypreos, Nick,1966-author.; Lefko, Perry,author.;
As a child growing up in Toronto, Nick Kypreos lived for hockey and dreamed of following in his idols' footsteps to play in the NHL. Hockey was an important part of the Kypreos household. It was largely through the game that his immigrant Greek parents acclimatized to their new lives in Canada, and from a young age "Kyper" proved he was more than good enough to move through the ranks. But he was never a top prospect-he didn't even attend the NHL draft when he became eligible. And yet, through dedication and constant improvement, he made it to the show. Kypreos built a career on his tireless work ethic and made a name for himself for always having a positive influence on team morale. A medium-weight fighter, he squared off with the league's toughest players, including Chris Simon, Joey Kocur, Tony Twist, and Scott Stevens-anything to give his team an edge. Ultimately, he was brought to the New York Rangers to help them win the Stanley Cup in 1994-their first in fifty-four years-with the legendary Mark Messier. And then he got to live his other dream: playing for his hometown team, the Toronto Maple Leafs. When a concussion forced him to retire early, it changed his life. But the lessons he'd learned on the ice over eight seasons helped him build a new career as a top hockey analyst and personality for Sportsnet. For twenty seasons he provided unique insight on the evolving game, and a player's perspective on the biggest discussions of the day. Revealing, fun, and brutally honest, Undrafted shows the challenges of being a pro player. It's a story of the resilience it takes to prove yourself every night, and how the right attitude can lead to the greatest success, not only in the arena, but in life.
Subjects: Autobiographies.; Biographies.; Kypreos, Nick, 1966-; Hockey players; Sportscasters;

Mind over matter : hard-won battles on the road to hope / by Tootoo, Jordin,1983-author.; Brunt, Stephen,author.;
"For some hockey players, retirement marks the moment when it's all over. But Jordin Tootoo is not most hockey players. Having inspired millions when he first broke into the league, Tootoo continued to influence people throughout his career--not only through his very public triumph over alcoholism, but also his natural charisma. And now, years after hanging up his skates, he is more committed to doing things the right way and speaking about it to others, whether it's corporate executives or Indigenous youth. But the news of unmarked graves on the grounds of residential schools brought back to life many of the demons that had haunted his family. In a moment of realization that left him rattled and saddened, Tootoo fit the pieces together. The years that were never spoken of. The heavy drinking. The all too predictable violence. His father was a survivor, marked by what he had survived. And, Tootoo realizes, his community is marked in the same way. Its joy too often sapped away by alcoholism, its youth all too often cut down by suicide--as his brother had been. As he travels back to Nunavut to try to speak with his father about what haunts him, he encounters the ghosts of the entire community. Still, as Tootoo says, we are continuously learning and rewriting our story at every step. He has learned from his mistakes and his victories. He has learned from examples of great courage and humility. He has learned from being a father and a husband. And he has learned from his own Inuk traditions, of perseverance and discipline in the face of hardship. Weaving together life's biggest themes with observations and episodes, Jordin shares the kind of wisdom he has had to specialize in--the hard-won kind."--
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Personal narratives.; Tootoo, Jordin, 1983-; Fathers and sons.; Hockey players; Inuit hockey players;

The last good year : seven games that ended an era / by Cox, Damien,1961-author.;
"Twenty-five years later, it's still the most talked-about NHL playoff series ever played. We may never again see a series like it. Before Gary Bettman, the lockouts, and the explosion of salaries. Before all the NHL's old barns were torn down to make way for bigger, glitzier rinks. Before expansion and parity across the league, just about anything could happen on the ice, and often did. It was an era when huge personalities dominated the sport, and willpower was often enough to win games. And in the spring of 1993, some of the biggest talents and biggest personalities were on a collision course. The Cinderella Maple Leafs had somehow beaten the mighty Red Wings and then, just as improbably, the St. Louis Blues. Wayne Gretzky's Kings had just torn through the Oilers and the Flames. When they faced each other in the conference final, the result would be the series Gretzky called the best he ever played--a series that fans still talk about passionately 25 years later. Told through the stories of seven central characters, The Last Good Year gives an intimate account not just of an era-defining seven games, but of what the series meant to the men who were changed by it: Marty McSorley, the tough guy who took his whole team on his shoulders; Doug Gilmour, the emerging superstar; celebrity owner Bruce McNall; Bill Berg, best-known checking winger in the world; Kelly Hrudy, the Kings' goalie who would go on to become a Hockey Night in Canada broadcaster; Kerry Fraser, who would become the game's most infamous referee; and two very different captains, Toronto's bull in a china shop, Wendel Clark, and the immortal Wayne Gretzky. Taking us back to that feverish spring, Damien Cox also takes us behind the scenes and into the lives of those who shone brightest during those two weeks: players who made Herculean efforts to spur on the team, from dropping the gloves to spectacular goals and saves when they were most needed, and the referee whose view of one play changed history for a generation of fans. Fast-paced, authoritative, and galvanized by the same love of the game that made the series so unforgettable, The Last Good Year is a glorious testament to a moment hockey fans will never forget."--
Subjects: National Hockey League; Toronto Maple Leafs (Hockey team); Los Angeles Kings (Hockey team);

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