So guys, what are some good hockey books to read? Anyone read that Hockey Confidential book by Bob McKenzie yet?
Theo Fleury's book was really, really good. Cannot recommend it enough. I got into hockey a few years after he retired and didn't know much about his career. But that book made me like him more than pretty much any current player. Had a lot of cool stuff about his young life, his budding career, and the personal problems he went through toward the middle and latter portion of his career. Very, very insightful and very well written.
Ken Dryden's was pretty darn boring. I only got through about half of it before putting it down. From what I remember, it is just him going through his pre-game routines leading up to some big conference rivalry game or something. Was not very entertaining. Pretty sure I still have it somewhere but I have no desire to go back to it.
Mike Babcock's book was terrible. You know those dumb 'Murica things people say? Like fuck yeah America, we're the best, all that? Babcock's was 'Nada or something. Just barrages and barrages of "hockey is our game. Canada created hockey. We own hockey. It is our right to win everything. Canada is the best. We deserve to win because we are Canada". Came off so damn entitled and condescending to literally anybody not from Canada. I read the first 15 pages and saw some variation of 'hockey is Canada's birthright' on every other page. If you're Canadian, go ahead and check it out. If not, go ahead and skip it. The way the book is formatted made me struggle to read it anyway, but it was just terrible content-wise as well. I was so happy to dump it at a used book store and use the money to buy some books I actually wanted.
I plan on getting Hockey Confidential at some point. Probably around Christmas.