5 comments about Yzerman: The Making of a Champion.

1. Douglas Hunter's subtitle "The Making of a Champion" tells the prospective reader what the author's focus is, as does the introduction. He sticks within those parameters and does a fairly good job of relating Yzerman's growth as a player throughout his career. I won't reiterate previous reviewers' listing of some factual errors. Those errors were annoying and caused me to subtract a rating star. I wasn't too bothered by the lack of information on his family because they were obviously a portion of Yzerman's maturation. Overall it's worth reading, although you may want to avail yourself of your local library's resources to obtain it because it's not a keeper for rereading, as Boys of Summer is.



2. Yzerman by Douglas Hunter is a revealing portrait of how an individual star player becomes a champion by transforming his game to a more defensive all around skilled player. He sacrifices his personal time to achieve team-based success and improves the players and organization around him. The book is packed with detail on the draft and how the organization built the team around him. Yzerman gets in depth on how the star changed from a goal scoring all about points man, to the captain who would do the checking or dice in front of a puck. Hunter talks about his off ice experience that Yzerman has throughout his career.
   
   Douglas Hunter has never met or even talked to the famous Stevie Y while he writes this book and probably from my take on the book never even saw him play. As I read Yzerman I found the book was very bland. It was hard to keep reading and picking it up because it was just packed with detail and a bunch of nonsense that had really nothing to do with Yzerman too much. The book just doesn't grab your attention the way watching Steve Yzerman play does. That kind of took the excitement from the book. Yzerman is a great star today and he doesn't really show off his talent but just makes hockey look so easy. He sacrifices his body often and will pass before he ever shoots. I think the book kind of takes away Steve's relaxed playing style. I wouldn't really recommend this book unless you're a die-hard Yzerman fan or a detail wiz.



3. Let's see, what can I say that might actually be helpful. Let me preface this by saying that I'm a die-hard Detroit sports fan, and have been ever since I moved to Michigan in 1984. I love the Tigers more than anything, but Yzerman is my favorite athlete of all time.
   
   In doing research for any book, a competent author would usually have pages and pages of notes. Through careful editing, only the most important and relevant details would actually be placed in the book itself. However, in this book, Hunter's laziness is evident. It looks as if he conducted maybe 7 or 8 interviews for this book, and in order to fill space, inserted every mundane detail of every interview into this book. The bibliography is shamefully short. Hunter even has the audacity to use information from his book about Tim Horton and insert it into this book to try and fill space. What does Tim Horton have to do with Steve Yzerman? Nothing. I'm not even going to start on the factual inaccuracies.
   
   In addition, the narrative is lost and directionless. Hunter keeps the narrative jumping around in time, going off on tangents that don't contribute anything but waste the reader's time. Hunter also fails to provide details of Yzerman's on ice career, aside from cumulative season statistics. This makes me think that Hunter did not watch Yzerman play much, because anyone who saw Yzerman in his prime would want to describe Yzerman's electrifying play. There isn't even any satisfactory mention of Yzerman's Game 7 overtime winner against St. Louis.
   
   Bottom line, it looks like Hunter was churning this out to try and fill the vacuum in the market for Yzerman books. Do a couple interviews, surf a couple websites, write a crappy book, make a quick buck. This book is very poorly and lazily written; it might be the worst thing I've ever read. And I read a lot. It is a disgrace to Yzerman, books, authors, and humanity. Do not buy this book.



4. I was ecstatic when I saw a book based solely on Steve Yzerman was finally being published. I was completely misguided. This book wasn't about Steve Yzerman the person/hockey all-star, this book was about all the things that happened around Yzerman over the last 3 decades. I was also horrified that the author never even interviewed Yzerman. Makes me think I should write a book. I know Gerard Gallant would talk to me and I know that I would remember that he coached the Summerside Hemphill Pontiac Western Capitals who won the Royal Bank Cup in 1997. Which leads me to the comment that not only was this book a huge disappointment because it gave us nothing about the real Yzerman, but it was replete with errors. Essentially it is wrong to have this book in the non-fiction section of the bookstore because most of the information is so inaccurate that the novel is fictional. Don't waste your money.



5. I read Hunter's book on Scotty Bowman and thoroughly enjoyed it. Likewise, "Yzerman" is a good book told by this strong storyteller. The factual errors (noted here in other reviews) brought the breezy read to a screeching halt for me, but it didn't prevent me from liking it and sending my copy on to friends. If you're a Detroiter (or a transplant) you'll enjoy the look back on Yzerman's early days with the Wings - which went largerly unnoticed thanks to the Tigers surge in the standings. The factual stuff is the only reason I give it a four-star and not a five. I highly recommend the Bowman book.

5 comments about Gordie: A Hockey Legend.

1. Gordie a Hockey Legend is book is a great book for anyone who knows about hockey and what the sport is and how it has evolved for its early stages with the popular players like Gordie Howe, He really set the bar in hockey back in his days. He held the NHL scoring title with the most goals in his career with 801 goals until "The Great One", Wayne Gretzky passed him in April of 1993.Gordie is really a Hockey legend.
   
   Gordie is really a legend. He was Known for his ability to be tough anytime during a game, and get the goals, and stand up for his team at anytime needed. This Book was really good in my view. It described his great career, and his life leading up to and being in the NHL.
   
   I would recommend this book to a lot of my friends, especially to my friends that like, and or play hockey. This book really shows the meaning for, and how hockey started to become more popular especially in the United States and in Canada. I really liked this book, and it is one of my favorites, and I would recommend it to anyone. This is truly a great book.



2. Gordie Howe: A hockey legend tells about his whole life. From when he was little kid, to when he made it in the NHL. It tells about how he first came upon hockey as a little kid. It tells about his carrer and the NHL. I thought that this book was ok. Not horrible but not excellent. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn about gordie howe, or wants to read about him.



3. This book tells about Gordie Howe, one of the best hockey players ever, and his career in the NHL.In the beginning, it tells about his first couple of seasons, and then tells more about his great career and facts about him toward the end. I learned a lot about him from this book, for example, I learned that he has played for two teams, the Hartford Whalers and the Detroit Red Wings, and that he was considered one of the greatest players of his time.



4. As a lifetime fan of the Detroit Red Wings, I was overjoyed when I found that there is a recent biography of Howe that is much more up to date than many written in the 60's and 70's. This book gives the reader an inside look at what it was like to get into the NHL in the 50's, and what it took to stay there and become a star. Mackskimming is very candid when talking about the front office's team management "politics" The reader also gets an up-close look at other great stars of the era such as Red Kelly, Ted Linsay, Maurice "Rocket" Richard, and coach Jack Adams. A must read for any TRUE hockey fan.



5. The book starts out covering Howe in excellent detail. Several pages cover his first seasons. Then as if the author lost interest, the decades go flying by. My reasons for reading the book was to find out, why Howe was considered great, how Howe compared to Richard, how the game changed over the years and what it was about Howe that enabled him to play for so long. The book only addressed how Howe established his early greatness.

No comments about Maurice "Rocket" Richard.

No comments about Brad Richards: A Hockey Story.

5 comments about Ice Time: A Tale of Fathers, Sons, and Hometown Heroes.

1. I guess I would be a bit bias, but this amazingly discriptive narrative really pulls you in to the book. My older Brother Thom DeZenzo was one the the captains of the Methuen Hockey team in 2000 and I recall the author very vividly. It was at my house that the team died their hair bleach blonde. The author truly captured all aspects of a team that I knew personaly.



2. This is a terrific memoir connecting three threads: the author's youth playing hockey, his work as a volunteer coach for his old high school hockey team, and his efforts to introduce his young son to hockey. The focus rarely leaves these three threads, making this one of the most well-structured memoirs I've read in years. In addition, the prose is lyrical and poetic, often in sharp contrast to the rough-and-tumble sport and the gritty neighborhood settings. (The reviewer who gave this book one star totally misses the point that a memoir *must* include the author as a major character. This is memoir, not journalism.) Highly recommended for everyone, not just hockey enthusiast, because of the great writing, sharp descriptions, connections between past/present/future, and wise reflections.



3. When I first learned about this book, I was more than excited that someone had finally written book about high school hockey. I had already read the great accounts of high school sports in Friday Night Lights, and In These Girls, Hope Is A Muscle. Thirty pages into the book, I was more than impressed with the author's beautiful descriptions of Methuen, hockey, and his growing up in this area of New England.
   
   Suddenly, things began to change, as I was now embedded in the author's autobiography of his past hockey and athletic exploits! He makes a very clear statement in the beginning that he doesn't want to be back in his high school years, but simply remember them. Oh, he does remember everthing and anything, and certainly lets the reader know of his dauntless exploits. Who really cares how many goals he scored on a frozen pond playing against a bunch of kids, or popping in nine goals in a pickup game with a senior group pretty much out of shape, or being one of the three stars in the annual JV intersquad scrimmage! Give me a break.
   
   Atkinson managed to work his way into his old high school with the pretense of collecting background for his book. What he did was to live vicariously through this new Ranger team and maybe better his own team record of 5-15-1. He committed the inexcusable error of a writer; allowing your own life to intermingle and become part of what you were trying to write about.
   
   As for the team, too bad Atkinson created an almost Neanderthal mentality and impression of these boys. The naive reader might think this is what hockey is all about, but what a terrible injustice to a group of athletes. As for the coaches, between the locker room expletives, bench outbursts during games, and the pre-game talks about "mating sperm whales" with your female goalie standing in the doorway, I feel this is a reasonable estimate of inappropiate juvenile behavior and thinking with some of the Methuen coaching staff.
   
   At the end, as I struggled to finish his "memoirs," I had to laugh at his mention that he didn't feel quite the same and welcomed going back to Methuen High School after his year. They were probably happy he was finally gone. Typical of "volunteer" coaches or staff, their impression of what they are doing and accomplishing is usually far from reality. The author may have felt he was imparting "words of wisdom," and valuable pieces of experience to members of the team, but Mr. Bobb you really missed the target here. A sixteen, seventeen year-old boy barely hears the words of his parents, much less his teachers, and certainly nothing from a 42 year-old "want-to-be."
   
   If you know anything about high school sports, and/or hockey, save yourself from this self-indulging book. Oh, by the way, why can I be so critical? I have just finished my 34th season coaching high school hockey, ninety-percent of it as a head varsity coach. Along with this, twenty-five years as a head varsity coach in two female sports, and thirty-six years as a high school classroom teacher have all allowed me to see just about everything. In my career, the players and teams of the past are in the books. Next season, all the pages start to be written again.



4. The author is constantly searching for emotional resonance and relevance, using events and information from the players', coaches and parents' lives, without ever really revealing much about his own life except in relation to his hockey playing. Yes, the absence of mention of Liam's mother is a very big gap and a weakness of the book, because the question is always there for the reader.



5. I don't really know what the Conn Smythe Trophy is- only hear them mention it during hockey highlights on TV. I never played hockey and I'm not a huge fan of the sport. But I am big fan of this book.

   What 40-ish guy hasn't thought that he could go out and still compete with high school athletes? One could say Ice Time is a nostalgic look at the past (Atkinson's HS memories), or a hopeful look into the future (his son's), but I say it is about being present. That is appreciating who and where you are at the moment. Slowing life down an focusing on the present. There's lots of references to memories and how things come back to us, how much happens that seems significant at the time, but we never get the satisfaction of remembering it because it gets wiped from our brains.

   Chapter 25 where J.A. describes a Xmas eve jog around his childhood neighborhood is a great example. This whole chapter is masterful writing. Most of the book is. He slips into vain self-indulgence as he describes all the goals he scores and cheerleaders he dates but the good parts make it well worth it. In many of the hockey game descriptions, I had to skip ahead because I couldn't wait to see if the Rangers won or lost the game. 4 3/4 stars.

1 comments about Guardians: The Secret Life Of Goalies.

1. I've been a fan more and more of goaltenders and wondered how they handle the stresses of their position. This book answered that question and many more as it really showed the mind and people who are behind that mask.

   Interesting superstitions, ritual, and some things that surprised me, are all in this book.

   If you love goaltenders or are fascinated by them in any way and want to know that they truly do opperate differently then the rest of the team, this is the book for you.

No comments about Lord Stanley: The Man Behind the Cup.

5 comments about Sawchuk: The Troubles and Triumphs of the World's Greatest Goalie.

1. For those who can remember "Original Six Hockey" the vividness of the players and teams retains a print on the mind, that may be matched only by very unique sporting events.
   
   At this time in sports history, only four American cities really came to know and love their teams (the other two were Canadian), but it was a worshipful relationship.
   
   The action was picked up by local television stations in these cities, and because the players did not wear helmets, the players were recognizable to the average fan. In Detroit, Gordie Howe was as legendary as Al Kaline, and probably much more so. The relationship between fan and player was intimate, and because the league was so small, he teams played each other, including play-offs, sometimes over twenty times a season. The fans knew their team, and they knew the other teams in the league.
   
   This is the back-drop for the author's elegy to Terry Sawchuk, arguably the greatest goalie in NHL history.
   
   Goalies for some reason have had tortured psyches, and Sawchuk battled through many inner demons to perform brilliantly on ice. Perhaps being the last line of defense, or the "gate-keeper" is what turns these players upside down. Or perhaps it is a certain personality of a player that would make him want to aspire to become a goalie.
   
   This is a question the author does not attempt to answer, however, as the title suggests, he makes no attempt to gloss over Sawchuk's off the ice issues.
   
   Sawchuk was a brilliant warrior on the ice, but he battled demons in his personal life such as alcoholism, spousal abuse, and estrangement of his family. Even his teammates felt as if they didn't really know him.
   
   But he played through pain, and performed superbly into his 40's. He set a record which many people never believed would be broken. He was a unique and elite athlete.
   
   The author brings us back to the seasons, and the key games in which Sawchuk performed. He paints a picture of the teams he matched up against and the urgency of the games. The reader can feel the competition between the goalies on the team, and discern the relationships between the players and the front office.
   
   His death occured as the result of a drunken fight with a teammate, and I remember the shock of the media when it was announced. He was only forty one, and still an active player.
   
   I remember someone once described as a mystery within a conundrum within a paradox. Sawchuk falls into this description.
   
   He is a great subject, and it is a very enjoyable book.



2. I started reading this book because I had heard that Patrick Roy, who passed Terry Sawchuk's record of most winningest goalie, was reading it in order to find out more about the goalie he would be passing in the record books. What I found out as I continued reading was that even if you are just a fan of hockey in general, this is a great read. It is so honest that it is almost surprising that the Sawchuk family would want to release some of the information the reader finds out. It is even more interesting to read if you know someone who was an alcoholic, because Terry goes through many of the same troubles that other alcoholics do. The pictures included in the book are helpful and they give an idea of the people in Terry's life as well as the surroundings in his life. The writing style is easy to follow no matter how good of a reader you are, though sometimes the many statistics and names of other hockey players get confusing and boring. All in all, the Sawchuk book is fun to read and it really lets you in on Terry Sawchuks life on and off the ice.



3. THE AUTHOR DOES A SPECTACULOR JOB SHOWING THE GREAT CAREER OF A HOCKEY LEGEND. FROM HIS CHILDHOOD TO HIS FINAL DAYS, TERRY SAWCHUK WAS A VERY COMPLEX MAN. GOOD VS. EVIL FIGHT ALWAYS GOING ON INSIDE HIM. THE DREADED DEMON ALCOHOLISM IS WELL DESCRIBED AS TO WHY HE HAD SUCH ANGER AND MOOD SWINGS. A GREAT CAREER AND TURBULENT FAMILY LIFE. EVERY ASPECT OF SAWCHUK'S LIFE IS SO WELL DESCRIBED BY MR. DUPUIS. THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST BIOGRAPHIES I HAVE READ. THANKS FOR A GREAT JOB MR. DUPUIS. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.



4. I bought this book as a present for my husband, who is a die hard hockey fan. But, I ended up reading it myself and I really enjoyed it. I get to know more of Terry Sawchuck than just the old NHL goalie whose record was just got broken by Roy. It is not the best written book, but it tells the story that it is suppose to tell. It was an easy and enjoyable reading and I am not even a Red Wings fan.



5. The author's skill in writing indicates that this is a three-star book...as long as you understand that this was written by a fan, for fans. It is not a literary classic. The sentence construction is simple, but that's part of the charm of this book. Interwoven in the book are interviews with Sawchuk's wife, a couple of engaging surviving former teammates, and most obvious, research done in newspaper "morgues". It is written chronologically, highlighting season achievements. Of most interest to me are the tales told by his wife. Sawchuk was a full-blown dysfunctional alcoholic. His wife was most happy when Sawchuk was not around, although the man was around enough to produce seven children.

   The fight/horseplay with teammate Ron Stewart that led to Sawchuk's death was covered in detail. That's mainly why I bought the book. I knew of his career highlights, which you can see on the back of his hockey cards. There weren't enough behind-the-scenes stories regarding each season to hold my interest.

   I understand Jerry Sawchuk, the eldest child, also has written a book about his father. I get the feeling that his book, plus the Dupuis tome, put together could produce a satisfying final product. I need more than Dupuis offers, and finished the book feeling somehow unsatisfied.

2 comments about Hayley Wickenheiser: Born to Play.

1. Rebeccasreads highly recommends HAYLEY WICKENHEISER BORN TO PLAY for whenever you hear someone say "girls can't play ice hockey"!
   
   From her first skates in Shaunavon, Saskatchewan to banging around with her brother & his friends on the ice rink in their back yard. From being the only girl on the Tom Thumb Team to winning the gold medal as a member of the all-girls Blackfoot Cougar Bantams to again being the only girl on the AA Northwest Bruins boys' team. To being picked for Team Canada for the 1998 Winter Olympics, & onwards.
   
   So, suit up & get out on the ice with Canadian Hayley Wickenheiser, & see what determination, skill & grace can do flying in the face of a longtime male-dominated sport.



2. I bought this book for my eleven year old granddaughter after watching an interview of Haley on TV. My granddaughter loved it and was inspired to keep playing hockey. Young kids should have more books like this which challanges them to do their best.

No comments about Hockey Heroes: Jaromir Jagr.