~~ A cross-country best-seller upon release in 1993, Last Minute of Play, was the author’s second book, and a breakthrough title, receiving positive critical acclaim, more for its story-telling writing style rather than the admitted celebrity of the players, coaches, GM’s, and owners  depicted in the book. To underscore that premise, here is the author’s favourite quote of many from those early days after the release. It came from the Toronto Star’s revered columnist, the late Ji...

Leafs and Sabres in the final round of the Eastern Conference playoff ! The Toronto Maple Leafs have breezed through the first two rounds of the Stanley Cup playoffs, and await the Buffalo Sabres as their next opponent for a chance at the Stanley Cup. Led by third-season centre, Randy Logan, the Leafs are a team in turmoil. With tycoon owner Frank Conder, embattled GM Phil Stevenson, negative and  bombastic coach Ernie Taylor, the front-office is a war zone of sub-plots and ...

~~Into the Empty Net was the much-anticipated sequel to the best-selling Last Minute of Play. Its 21 chapters takes the reader through the lives of those who played in the NHL as our hockey heroes, and illuminates their varying views of the game. Rollicking with humour, sometimes poignant and sad in its down-times, always brutally honest and occasionally shocking in the re-telling of their stories, Into the Empty Net originally came out in October of ’94, e...

Terry Ryan was poised to take the hockey world by storm when he was selected eighth overall by the Montreal Canadiens in the 1995 NHL draft, their highest draft pick in a decade. Expected to go on to become a hockey star, Ryan played a total of eight NHL games for the Canadiens, scoring no goals and no assists: not exactly the career he, or anyone else, was expecting.Though Terry’s NHL career wasn’t long, he experienced a lot and has no shortage of hilarious and fascinating revelat...

If you’re a sports fan, you know James Duthie.The biggest games, the biggest trades, the juiciest rumours—chances are Duthie is the guy you tuned in to hear talk about them. There are other experts and insiders, stats guys and analysts, but no one else who can talk about sports with the humour, the knowledge, and the charisma Duthie brings to every event he covers. He also makes the best spoof videos.The Guy on the Left tells the story of Duthie’s ...

Hockey is the lens through which we see our lives—how we measure right and wrong, how we understand our hopes and fears. So it was for Dave Bidini in 1974, the last year Dave Keon played in Toronto. In a new grade in a new school, Bidini found himself the victim of a bully—a depredation he could understand only by thinking about what the Leafs dauntless captain went through game after game.Throughout his twenty-two-year career, Keon was only in one hockey fight, in his last game as...

Hundreds of thousands of hockey fans around the world are addicted to Down Goes Brown, and with good reason: Sean McIndoe is the funniest writer in hockey. His often insightful, always entertaining posts have made the site one of the top hockey blogs in the world—and definitely the most amusing. From shrewd observations to tongue-in-cheek commentary, Down Goes Brown manages to capture the essence of hockey while exposing the frequently funny side of the sport. Now, in

One of the greatest sports figures of all time at last breaks his silence in a memoir as unique as the man himself.Number 4. It is just about the most common number in hockey, but invoke that number and you can only be talking about one player -- the man often referred to as the greatest ever to play the game: Bobby Orr.From 1966 through the mid-70s he could change a game just by stepping on the ice. Orr could do things that others simply couldn’t, and while teammates and o...

“It’s hard to believe Fleury survived his own life.”— The Globe and MailTheo Fleury, who had walked away from hockey in 2003, leaving millions of dollars on the table and thousands of fans asking why, was determined to redeem himself. But how? With a comeback. Six years after his last NHL game, at age 41, weighing 215 pounds and with 25 per cent body fat, he had only seven months to get ready for the Calgary Flames training camp. His chance for redemption came in a ...

After almost two thousand games and thirty years of wearing the Stripes, legendary NHL official Fraser dropped his final puck at the end of the 2009/2010 season and relives his colourful career officiating hockey in his candid book.After thirty years in the NHL, legendary referee Kerry Fraser has decided to hang up his skates and enjoy the game from the other side of the boards. Never shy about offering his opinion, nor afraid to step in and separate an on-ice figh...

"Nobody enjoys the full kaleidoscope of the game quite like Kenny, from banana blades and '70s staches to air-brushed, mistake-laden hockey cards." —Jeff Marek, Sportsnet Hockey host and Marek vs. Wyshynski podcast co-hostHockey Card Stories reveals what was really going on in your favorite old hockey cards through the eyes of the players depicted on them. Some of the cards are definitely worth a few bucks, some a few cents—but every stor...

**#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLERFirst he rewrote the record book. Now, to mark the NHL's ninety-ninth anniversary, Wayne Gretzky has written the story of our game.**In 99: Stories of the Game, Gretzky looks back on the last ninety-nine years and tells us, from his point of view, about the NHL’s most memorable moments. We already know what he means to the game. Now he shows us what the game means to him.From hockey's fierce early battles on natural ice; through its ...