The book is organized into six chapters, one for each of the original six (Montreal Canadians, Toronto Maple Leafs, Detroit Redwings, Boston Bruins, New York Rangers and Chicago Blackhawks). There a couple of cases where a story comes up twice when two teams were heavily involved in the event, but for the most part the stories are original and largely specific to each team. McFarlane goes back into the 1930's and into the early 1970's, but stays within years of the original six.*
The stories are invigorating and exciting. McFarlane is a great storyteller and he has the benefit of having been around for many of the events he describes. That experience adds noticeable vividness to the stories. The best stories came with the section for the Montreal Canadians. The Canadians are the most successful franchise in terms of Stanley Cup victories** which provides a rich soil for exciting stories. Among my favorites are those involving the legend Maurice "Rocket" Richard. In one story, Richard spent all day moving furniture into his new house on game day. He was unsure of his ability to play that night; the coach was not particularly happy about it considering it was the playoffs. As it turns out, Richard scored a whopping 5 goals in the game.
The Detroit Redwings history came with a number of exciting stories. One story, which involved Redwings great Gordie Howe, actually occurred after Howe had moved to the WHA*** later in his professional career. While playing for the Houston Aeros with his sons Mark and Marty, a brawl broke out in a game. One son was pinned to the ice by a larger player for the other team. When one teammate skated over and instructed the player to "let him up", the larger player ignored him. Gordie Howe came over and gave the same instruction, but was met with a string of obscenities. Howe removed his glove and inserted his fingers into the fella's nostrils. The player responded immediately.
There are a number of similar stories that fill the pages and are all exciting, minus a few duds. While I liked the layout of the book, going through each team. The stories seemed random with not a great deal of order to them. Each story was a "sub chapter" of sorts and some appear to have been written in another publication and merely added to the book without any editing. Some sort of order to the stories along with some language to transition between stories would have made the book even better. I think leaving out a few stories and tying the rest together more cohesively would make the storytelling more meaningful. The book lacks a chronology reference, which would have been a nice addition to the book. McFarlane included some great pictures. I wish there could have been more, but what he includes is a good collection and he has shots of the most important players of the era; Rocket Richard, Booby Orr, and Gordie Howe.****
This is a great book for any hockey fan. I found it hard to put down and I recommend it to anybody interested in hockey history.
* Technically the original six era spans 25 years from about 1942-1967. 1942 represents the last year teams folded (the New York Americans being the last team to fold) and the league was left with six teams. In 1967 the NHL finally added six new teams (California Seals, Los Angeles Kings, Minnesota North Stars, Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins, and St. Louis Blues). Three of which have since moved from their original city. Not all of the original six began with the start of the NHL, but there are the ones that were able to survive the financial difficulties of the Great Depression.
** In all the Canadians have won the Stanley Cup 24 times, nearly double second place Toronto with 13 victories.
*** Howe's career lasted 26 years in the NHL plus several years in the World Hockey Association, an attempt in the 1970's to compete with the NHL for fans. The WHA folded in 1979 and several of the teams moved into the NHL including the Wayne Gretzky's Edmonton Oilers.
**** The photos allow me to educate Ryan on his hockey history. He now knows Rocket Richard, Bobby Orr and Gordie Howe. So far Rocket Richard is his favorite, which is mainly because his nickname is Rocket and what kid doesn't like rockets. He even picks up the book to look at the picture of the Rocket.
