Ice Hockey Nonfiction

Today February 22nd in 1980, the US Olympic Hockey Team performed a miracle on ice.  It was at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, NY, played between the US and the Soviet Union, 4 time gold medalists.  The SU were the favorites to win and consisted mostly of experienced professional players, while the US team was made up of young amateurs.  The victory became one of the most iconic moments in US Olympic history.  Enjoy 10 books about hockey today!

PS - I did the thing again! Two books by the same author.  Darn!  Leaving it in!

Art Ross: The Hockey Legend Who Built the Bruins by Eric Zweig - Though he last played the game nearly one hundred years ago, Art Ross remains connected with the greatest stars in hockey. Gordie Howe, Bobby Orr, Wayne Gretzky, and Sidney Crosby have all won the award that bears his name, the trophy given annually to the NHL's top scorer. Ross himself managed just one goal during his NHL career; however, in the dozen years leading up to the formation of the NHL in 1917, he was one of the biggest stars in the game.
After his playing career ended, Ross became one of the founding fathers of the Boston Bruins, holding the positions of coach, general manager, and vice president. He was one of the men most responsible for making the NHL a success in the United States, and was integral to the modernization of hockey. All these accomplishments led to him being one of the first players inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Hockey historian Eric Zweig brings to life the early days of hockey. From the mining towns of Northern Ontario to the hallowed halls of Boston Garden, Art Ross was one of the biggest names in hockey over his six decades in the game.

The Boys of Winter: The Untold Story of a Coach, a Dream, and the 1980 US Olympic Hockey Team by Wayne Coffey - Once upon a time, they taught us to believe. They were the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team, a blue-collar bunch led by an unconventional coach, and they engineered perhaps the greatest sports moment of the twentieth 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. It is still unbelievable. The Boys of Winter is an evocative account of the improbable American adventure in Lake Placid, New York. Drawing on hundreds of hours of interviews, Wayne Coffey explores the untold stories of the U.S. upstarts, their Soviet opponents, and the forces that brought them together.

Full 60+ to History: The Inside Story of the 2011 Stanley Cup Champion Boston Bruins by John Bishop - Full 60 to History--The Inside Story of the 2011 Stanley Cup Champion Boston Bruins is just awesome! It details the 2010-2011 season in which the Bruins won the Stanley Cup. It is filled with lots of incredible photographs, including lots of action shots. The words by the management and the players are priceless!

Game Change: The Life and Death of Steve Mantador and the Future of Hockey by Ken Dryden - Bobby Orr. Gordie Howe. Wayne Gretzky. Whether you are a hockey fan or not, these names mean something to you. They show that a single player can, and often has, changed the game for the better. Hockey is now more skilled and more tactful and, like pro football and basketball, the players are bigger, stronger, and faster. This is the game that Steve Montador gave his life to.Steve was never the fastest, the strongest, or the most skilled player on the ice. He was never a star. But yet, he changed the game as we know it when he was found dead at the age of 35, later diagnosed with CTE-the result of multiple concussions he sustained throughout his playing career.With extensive research and insightful interviews with friends and former players such as Rhett Warrener, Marc Savard, Keith Primeau, as well as with leading figures in the fields of neurobiology and sports concussions, Ken Dryden tells the remarkable life story of an unremarkable journeyman NHL defenseman-a life story that brings to the fore the underlying concerns of the way we play hockey at all levels. In the end, Dryden outlines a plan directed to players, fans, parents, and most of all to decision makers at the NHL, that can make the sport safer for everyone, without sacrificing the integrity of the game.

Hockey Hall of Fame Book of Players by Steve Cameron - Profiles, stories, artifacts and archival images of every player in the Hockey Hall of Fame.
The greatest individual honor that can be bestowed upon a professional hockey player is to be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. Hockey Hall of Fame Book of Players celebrates each and every player who has been so honored since the first class in 1945, and all the way to the class of 2013.
Hockey Hall of Fame Book of Players also features artifacts and memorabilia from the Hockey Hall of Fame's extensive archive, including: Bill Barilko's Stanley Cup-winning puck (the last goal he ever scored), Wayne Gretzky's record-setting 802nd goal puck and Mario Lemieux's 1987 Canada Cup jersey.
Complete with more than 300 photos and 100 artifacts -- as well as stats, facts, quotes and other interesting stories and snapshots from each star's career -- Hockey Hall of Fame Book of Players is the definitive book on the stars who have been awarded hockey's most prestigious honor.

Hockey Hall of Fame Treasures by Steve Cameron - The Hockey Hall of Fame was founded in 1943 and was given a permanent home in Toronto in 1961. Aside from honoring those whose outstanding achievements have contributed to the development of the game, the Hockey Hall of Fame exists to collect, preserve, research, exhibit and promote all the objects and images that are significant to the story of ice hockey throughout the world.
The objects in the Hockey Hall of Fame tell hockey's story and capture hockey's personality. Icons, like Wayne Gretzky's tucked-in jersey, Jacques Plante's mask or Bobby Hull's curved stick blade, are recognized the world over. The Hockey Hall of Fame allows the past and present to collide in a mélange of mementos, paraphernalia, photos and videos of hockey's best, brightest and most intriguing moments.
And it is the same in Hockey Hall of Fame Treasures. This lavishly illustrated book is absolutely packed with beautiful color photography, displaying the most interesting, unique, famous and rare artifacts from the Hockey Hall of Fame's collection. Woven through this presentation of artifacts are the words of Adrienne Clarkson, Dave Bidini, James Duthie and Don Gillmor, who share with readers their profoundly personal connection to the game.
Showcasing hundreds of individual items, Hockey Hall of Fame Treasures is the next best thing to being at the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Hockey: A People's History by Michael McKinley - Hockey is not just Canada’s national game, it is part of every Canadian’s psyche, whether we like it or not. Watching it, playing it, coaching it, and talking about it are up there with eating on the list of the top ten things Canadians do most. In the first half of the last century it mirrored our increasing confidence as a nation and in the last years of the 1900s, which saw an aggressive but unsettling expansion of the game south of the border, it reflected our growing wariness of American influence on Canada.
Hockey: A People’s History, like the ten-part CBC series it accompanies, tells the story of this breathtakingly fast game from its hotly contested origins, and the surge in its popularity after 1875, when it was first taken inside, through the rise and fall and rise again of women’s hockey, the sagas of long-lost leagues, such as the Pacific Coast Hockey League and, more recently, the World Hockey Association, to the present day and the first-ever lockout of players by the one remaining league. In that time, while play has changed only slightly (every generation of Canadians has complained about the growing violence of the game) hockey itself has been transformed from a rough and ready winter sport to a business worth many billions of dollars, played by millionaires.
But Hockey: A People’s History is not a business story, rather, it is the story of the men and woman who helped make the game what it is today.

The Official Illustrated NHL History: The Official Story of the Coolest Game on Earth by Arthur Pincus - On a chilly day in 1917, the National Hockey League was formed, and in the years since, it has been a mainstay of American sports. This illustrated reference delves deep into the history of the league to bring out essential information on all the top players, teams, and events. Visually exciting and information-packed, it's the work of an insider who not only looks at today's superstars, but offers a rare glimpse into legends of old-including a trip back to a game during World War II and the Soviet Union's powerhouse "Big Red Machine” teams.

Open Ice: Reflections and Confessions of a Hockey Lifer by Jack Falla - At times funny, often poignant, and occasionally melancholy, Open Ice is one man's witness to fifty years of the game he loves. Reflections on hockey, its great personalities and arenas, and twenty-five years of dedication to his own backyard rink are woven into family memories and other fond remembrances. From the death of Rocket Richard, to skating on the Rideau Canal, memories of being in all Original Six arenas, and more, Open Ice is a reflective and fond look at hockey for people to whom the sport is more than just a game. Selected reviews of Home Ice: The literary hot chocolate that will warm your heart.-- The New York Times While Home Ice may be a book about hockey and the charm of backyard rinks, it is more than that, too. It is a book about relationships--between fathers and sons, husbands and wives--and how the game can bridge the gaps that commonly occur between generations in a family... It's a treasure and one that readers will be happy they searched out.

Stat Shot: The Ultimate Guide to Hockey Analytics by Rob Vollman - Advanced stats give hockey's powerbrokers 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.
Whether looking for a reference for leading-edge research and hard-to-find statistical data, or for passionate and engaging storytelling, Stat Shot belongs on every serious hockey fan's bookshelf.