Hockey Books, Part 1

With a whole lot of nothing going on Flyerdom, and across the league for that matter, this summer I have been reading some hockey books.  I have a growing list of books to read, but I've made is through a few so far.

The Game - Ken Dryden
Dryden is not your typical player.  I mean the guy retired at age 31 on a run of 4 straight Vezina trophies and Stanley Cups to be a lawyer.  A lawyer!!  As a fellow lawyer, this seems a remarkably bad decision.  Either way, the result is that you get a reflective book on being a pro hockey player.  I had some trouble getting into the book, as it seems to presume some level of familiarity with the 70s Canadien teams and begins by discussing some Quebecois cultural issues.  Nevertheless, Dryden pontificates on many topics of the life, such as locker room dynamics, blue collar player backgrounds, comparing his career to childhood fantasies, how money affects expectations on players, etc.  It's just a very thoughtful book, and not at all like a typical athlete book.

J.R. - Jeremy Roenick
If The Game was not a typical player book, J.R. is very much so.  Generally a recounting of Roenick's career, it's a quick read.  It took me 2 days to read this book.  Roenick is not out to air dirty laundry, but rather give his side of the story and opinions.  And honestly, Roenick is kind of a dick (more so than I expected going in).  I also didn't totally buy his alibi on the Amonte slash incident, and his mentioning of the Olympic village vandalization by Team USA was simply dismissive.  The good thing is you get an unpolished impression of a player, which is interesting.

Full Spectrum - Jay Greenberg
A third type of hockey book discussed here, this is pure history/chronology.  A detailed history of the Flyers spanning 1967-1996 (their years in the Spectrum), this book is chock full of information and an amazing resource for hardcore Flyers fans.  I'm not sure I'd recommend it to other readers however, as it's long and relatively dry (whereas I read J.R. in 2 days, it was more like 3 weeks for Full Spectrum).  I personally didn't find the backroom boardroom intrigue discussions in the book all that interesting, but reading the book as a whole you really can track the development of the team, the players, the coaches, the management...  At times I felt I should be taking notes and outlining the key points of each season.  I certainly know a lot more about that Flyers from pre-1994, before which I was too young to understand.


My to-read list has ballooned and I've read a few non-hockey books in the meantime, but soon I hope to read Journeyman by Sean Pronger, The Final Call by Kerry Fraser, Jonesy by Keith Jones, and Wayne Gretzky's Ghost by Roy MacGregor as well.  I'll post thoughts on those when I get to them.