They were the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team, a blue-collar bunch led by an unconventional coach, and they engineered what Sports Illustrated called the greatest sports moment of the twentieth century. Their “Miracle on Ice” has become a national fairy tale, but the real Cinderella story is even more remarkable. Wayne Coffey casts a fresh eye on this seminal sports event, giving readers an ice-level view of the amateurs who took on a Russian hockey juggernaut at the height of the Cold War. He details the unusual chemistry of the Americans—formulated by their fiercely determined coach, Herb Brooks—and seamlessly weaves portraits of the boys with the fluid action of the game itself. Coffey also traces the paths of the players and coaches since their stunning victory, examining how the Olympic events affected their lives.Told with warmth and an uncanny eye for detail, The Boys of Winter is an intimate, perceptive portrayal of one Friday night in Lake Placid and the enduring power of the extraordinary.Also available as an eBook

    But when some guys tell him he doesn't have a chance, Charlie feels he has to stand up for himself. Follow along as Charlie battles, both on and off the ice, for a spot on the team.

    Chris Robinson pushes the bounds of both hockey writing and creative non-fiction in this hard-boiled contemplation of where hockey fits into a man's life--whether he be a casual beer-league player who first embraced the game to avoid a difficult home-life, or one of the most celebrated defencemen in the history of the game.Partly influenced by the life of legendary Montreal Canadiens defenceman Doug Harvey, Stole This from a Hockey Card probes for answers to how one of the game's greatest defencemen could also lead one of the most tragic and mysterious personal lives. The book juxtaposes these investigations with the author's own humble beginnings as a troubled youth who found escape in the cardboard identities put forth by hockey cards and by his own identity as a street-hockey hotshot. Another means of escape for both men became alcohol, a facet of hockey culture thoroughly explored by Robinson's skeptical eye. Informing everything is Robinson's scrappy-yet-meditative, harsh-yet-humorous thoughts on a game that so many Canadians love to hate, or hate to love.

    Shero could not have been more prophetic. Thirty years later, members of those Cup teams are still revered in the city of Philadelphia and throughout the hockey world, for that matter. In Walking Together Forever: The Broad Street Bullies Then and Now author Jim Jackson wants to bring people back to those glorious days of the 1974 and 1975 Stanley Cup championships through the telling of so many of the incredible anecdotes that emanated from the many memorable characters that created the glory: Walking Together Forever: The Broad Street Bullies Then and Now will follow the major principals of the Cup wins, taking readers through the remainder of those heroes' hockey careers, into retirement, and up to the present. Many of the stories of their personal trials, travails, and successes since hoisting Lord Stanley's Cup are as compelling as those from the championship years themselves. In the eyes of hockey fans, members of those teams have indeed "walked together forever."

    and The Puck On The Pond Children's Book

    The Hockey Dad Chronicles is the touching and funny story of one season in the youth hockey career of Ed Wenck’s son, Oliver, when he played for the Indianapolis Junior Ice. Hockey parents spend an inordinate amount of time and money on their child’s sport of choice — considerably more than soccer, football, or basketball parents dish out. They get their children to the ice rink for 7 a.m. ice time, they travel with them to other states for games every other weekend — and if they’re anything like Ed Wenck, they spend a lot of time sitting in bleachers wondering at the absurdity of it all. As youth hockey grows ever more popular, increasing numbers of parents are seeing their lives taken over by their children’s hockey careers. The Hockey Dad Chronicles will be a familiar, amusing, and moving reminder to them — and to all parents who devote themselves to their children’s extracurricular activities, whether they’re sports, drama, or dance — of what it’s all about.

    A tradition begun many years ago by Bump's Grampa and the uncles, the Christmas Classic is the family's annual hockey game played by everyone in the family. Everyone but Bump that is. Even his sister Poodle takes part. When Gramma measures him against the kitchen doorframe, Bump doesn't quite meet the height requirements.Then comes that magical year, when Grampa announces, "Tomorrow, the Christmas Classic welcomes a new player." Bump knows his time has come. Bump prays that he won't make a fool of himself, that he will play as well as he always has in his dreams. Maybe he will even be named the Most Valuable Player and have his name engraved on the Christmas Classic trophy.When the game is finally played, Grampa and Bump combine for the final goal in a moment that Bump will remember forever.But that's not the end of Bump's story. What follows elevates Bump's story to the realm of myth and legend, the cementing of a tradition that will warm the hearts of countless readers and live on forever.