Good read

I finally picked up a copy of Theo Fleury's book, Playing With Fire, last week, and have been devouring it at a rapid pace. The start of Chapter 2, he describes a horrific injury he sustained as a child playing hockey with his hometown team, the Russell Rams. The injury happened in a rink I have very emotional ties to, and as he goes on to describe the trip to the local hospital and then to the hospital in Winnipeg (50 miles west of Winnipeg near the junction of the two main Highways in Manitoba, Hwy 1 and Hwy 16) I couldn't help but picturing all these things in my mind.

I've read a lot of hockey books -- in fact, I intentionally go looking for them whenever I'm visiting a second-hand book store or thrift shop. I've picked up some real gems over the years, and I would have to say my favourite writer of them is Roy MacGregor. In one of the stories in "The Home Team" he wrote, "The dream never dies, it simply begins again each winter." I used to keep this posted on the bulletin board in my old newsroom.

One of the books I've read a million times is called "Crossing The Line" which is about sexual violence in Junior hockey, and talks in great depth about the Graham James/Sheldon Kennedy scenario. I have had Kennedy's book, Why I Didn't Say Anything, on my reading list for a while and hope to get to it soon. Fleury's book details his experiences with Kennedy and James, and proclaims he had his first drink at Sheldon's house. Sheldon comes from the small town of Elkhorn, Manitoba, close to the Saskatchewan border, some hour or so south of where Fleury is from. One of my kids last season was from Elkhorn.

Another one I've read a few times is Eric Lindros's autobiography, which he wrote at the tender age of 18 or so. I read it in high school, when I was fascinated with the Big E, and re-read it again last year and had a good laugh because it reminded me of my junior kids.

A Season of Loss by John Manasso is also an amazing book -- It's the story of Dany Heatley and Danny Snyder. When I was a young pup, the first team I ever cheered for was the Owen Sound Platers, because a kid from my hometown was on the team. He was a rookie, drafted straight out of Midget and played as a 16-year-old in the Ontario Hockey League. His roommate was the team's captain, Snyder. The team went to the final four that year. When Danny passed away, it hit me pretty hard. For Leafs fans, that would be like Mats Sundin dying ... it was a sad time for me. I also still love Heatley -- he was on the first edition of Team Canada I ever watched at the World Juniors. Manasso was the beat reporter at the Atlanta newspaper and had wonderful insight and did a beautiful job telling the story of two best friends named Dan.

Zamboni Rodeo is another beauty -- it's the story of a reporter who follows a Central League team on the road. A lot of my buddies have played in that league, or similar ones, like the new incarnation of the IHL, or the UHL or the SPHL. It's a real eye-opener. Guys riding a bus all over the mid- and south-west US making 500 bucks a week.

I also picked up "Hockey for Dummies" last year, just to see what it was written like. If you're at all interested in learning more about the game, this book is epically useless. It's written by an American, for Americans. But Canadians know everything there is to know about hockey, already, so we clearly don't need an instruction manual anyway, right? ;)

While my technical knowledge is good, and I could easily explain the rule for charging or what a drop-pass is, I'm always a sponge for old hockey stories about the greats and players who were way before my time.

For many of us, this is our off-season and a great time to do some reading. Otherwise, if you're still keeping up with the National Hockey League playoffs, here's to hoping Bobby Lu and the Canucks can get it together.