books discussed in this essay:
Roger’s World: The Life and Unusual Times of Roger Neilson
By Wayne Scanlan
McClelland & Stewart (2004) 240 pp., $35
Grace Under Fire: The State of Our Sweet and Savage Game
By Lawrence Scanlan
Penguin (2002) 320 pp., $35
The Game, 20th Anniversary Edition
By Ken Dryden
John Wiley & Sons (2003 /1983) 288 pp., $35
Hockey Town: Life Before the Pros
By Ed Arnold
McClelland & Stewart (2004) 368 pp., $35
In hockey’s winter of discontent, the season held hostage to intransigent owners and players, we are left with the literature. This fall, worshipful biographies (Yzerman: The Making of a Champion, Triple Crown: The Marcel Dionne Story, and Roger’s World: The Life and Unusual Times of Roger Neilson) were released, as well as reliable nostalgia (Hockey Town: Life Before the Pros, The Best of Hockey Night in Canada). Hockey is our mythic game, as almost every hockey book states somewhere. It sings in our blood. Yet, unlike boxing or baseball, it has not produced a mythic literature.
