The Home Team: Fathers, sons and Hockey

By Roy MacGregor

Penguin, $16.00, 407 pages

-AND-

The Greatest Hockey Stories Ever Told: The Finest Writers on Ice

Edited by Bryant Urstadt

The Lyons Press, $14.95, 269 pages

 

There is truly only a short list of fine books that chronicle the magic of hockey and capture the essence of what the game means to its players and fans.  For example, “The Hockey Sweater,” by Roch Carrier presents a humorous and sensitive interpretation of the love of the game, as seen through the eyes of a nine-year old boy. And in “The Game” Ken Dryden vividly details the dressing rooms, the rinks, and the day-to-day life of the Montreal Canadiens hockey team when Dryden was a goaltender for the team. Unfortunately, books that interpret hockey are few and far between.

Happily, we can add two more books that leave us pondering the importance and meaning of hockey. Roy MacGregor’s “The Home Team” is a both a criticism and a celebration of hockey. And, “The Greatest Hockey Stories Ever Told: The Finest Writers on Ice,” is a fabulous collection of hockey stories – mostly factual – edited by Bryant Urstadt.

MacGregor writes for the Toronto Globe and Mail and has written a number of stories, features and books about hockey, including his popular children’s series “The Screech Owls.” In “The Home Team” he traces the love of the game as it is passed down from fathers to sons. MacGregor shows us how Wayne Gretzky’s father Walter helped develop his son into an NHL superstar. The kid was a willing learner and a talented athlete who signed a professional hockey contract in 1978, when he was only 17 years old. By the time he retired in 1999, he had won The Stanley Cup, the scoring title and every trophy that could be won in the NHL by a forward. He`d also scored more than 2000 career points.

When the NHL locked out the players in 1994-95, Wayne Gretzky organized a European tour with his friends and teammates called ``The 99 All Stars,`` but the first non-player  he asked to go with him was his dad. Many other players brought their fathers too, and at the end of the very last game of the tour, in Germany, both players and fathers had tears in their eyes. That lock-out year gave the ``99 All Stars`` the chance to show their fathers how much they had gained from them. In every case it strengthened the relationship between fathers and sons.

Sometimes, MacGregor writes, the love of game passes on to the next generation, despite the best efforts of fathers to get the sons interested in some other activity. Such would be the case of Gretzky`s friend and Edmonton Oilers teammate Mark Messier, whose father thought he would do better in life by attending a U.S. college. Mark Messier went to other way, also heading into professional ranks at age 17.

MacGregor`s details are well researched and documented. He shows an amazing knowledge and understanding of Canada, its regions and its history. His tale of the love of hockey proves to be a thoughtful treatment of why this game is much more than just a game, and such a powerful part of Canadian culture.

Bryant Urstadt’s collection of stories in “The Greatest Hockey Stories Ever Told: The Finest Writers on Ice,” are all fun to read. They range from old chestnuts such as George Plimpton’s tale of playing goal for the Boston Bruins in a five minute pre-season game against the Philadelphia Flyers, to Brian Fawcett’s fanciful yarn where he  drops in to the Toronto Maple Leafs dressing room, is allowed to practice with the Leafs, and then gets an invitation to join the team. Wayne Gretzky is in the spotlight again, as well known Canadian writer Peter Gzowski tries to figure out why Gretzky is such a magician on ice.

Not all stories here are about the gloriousness of hockey. Jeff Greenfield`s look at New York Ranger fans is incredibly accurate, brutally honest and raucously comical.  Guy Lawson`s look at the grimy realities of junior hockey include the 15-hour bus trips, the fight-at-all costs mandated by the coaches, and the players` mistreatment of girls, who are often derisively called puck-bunnies or bikes.  

To little kids, hockey is a game – fun and fast, and filled with heroics and magical moments. To the adults who are not on the ice, hockey is a way of overcoming adversity and having the grit and gumption to get beyond the seemingly endless, numbing cold of the northern winter.   

Roy MacGregor’s “The Home Team” and Bryant Urstadt`s compilation “The Greatest Hockey Stories Ever Told: The Finest Writers on Ice,” show us that hockey is really the story of life itself, with both high points and low moments.

Mike Gange is a journalist and a media studies teacher in Fredericton N.B.