To some, March 23, 1996, may have just been another Saturday, but for 26 National Hockey League teams, more than 600 professional hockey players, countless men and women behind the scenes and millions of fans, March 23 will be forever remembered as A Day in the Life of: The National Hockey League. During the heat of pre-playoff competition, 80 of the world's best sports and lifestyle photographers set out to create images depicting the thrill and excitement of the National Hockey League. Beginning at 12 a.m., these renowned photographers sought out the essence and spirit of "the Coolest Game on Earth," not only through the players but also through the fans, officials, families, media, past NHLers and the countless others for whom NHL hockey is more than just a game. They captured the mounting excitement as the ice was prepped, the sticks taped, the microphones checked and as 18 teams prepared both mentally and physically for nine games across North America: They also covered the eight other teams as they traveled, practiced and prepared for their games in days ahead. The resulting visual celebration, with over 300 photographs created both on and off the ice, presents a never-before-seen look at A Day in the Life of: The National Hockey League. In addition to dramatic photographs of game action, A Day in the Life of: The National Hockey League features candid portraits of some of hockey's current superstars, including Wayne Gretzky, Pavel Bure, Brett Hull and Mario Lemieux. Also featured are coaches, such as Mike Keenan and Scotty Bowman, former hockey greats such as Denis Potvin and Henri Richard as well as a look into the NHL offices as they prepare for A Day in the Life of: The National Hockey League. These captivating photographs are accompanied by essays written by some of North America's foremost sports writers. With a foreword by NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, A Day in the Life of: The National Hockey League is a tribute to NHL hockey throughout North America, both in words and pictures.

Terry Ryan was poised to take the hockey world by storm when he was selected eighth overall by the Montreal Canadiens in the 1995 NHL draft, their highest draft pick in a decade. Expected to go on to become a hockey star, Ryan played a total of eight NHL games for the Canadiens, scoring no goals and no assists: not exactly the career he, or anyone else, was expecting. Though Terry's NHL career wasn't long, he experienced a lot and has no shortage of hilarious and fascinating revelations about life in pro hockey on and off the ice. In Tales of a First-Round Nothing, he recounts fighting with Tie Domi, partying with rock stars, and everything in between. Ryan tells it like it is, detailing his rocky relationship with Michel Therrien, head coach of the Canadiens, and explaining what life is like for a man who was unprepared to have his career over so soon.

Get to know the men who fulfilled their childhood dream From the beer league to the minor league, hockey players from coast to coast often say theyÍd give anything to play just one game in the NHL. One Night Only brings you the stories of 39 men who lived the dream „ only to see it fade away almost as quickly as it arrived. Ken Reid talks to players who had one game, and one game only, in the National Hockey League „ including the most famous single-gamer of them all: the coach himself, Don Cherry. Was it a dream come true or was it heartbreak? What did they learn from their hockey journey and how does it define them today? From the satisfied to the bitter, Ken Reid unearths the stories from hockeyÍs equivalent to one-hit wonders in the follow-up to his bestselling Hockey Card Stories.

Sean McIndoe of Down Goes Brown, one of hockey's favourite and funniest writers, takes aim at the game's most memorable moments--especially if they're memorable for the wrong reasons--in this warts-and-all history of the NHL. The NHL is, indisputably, weird. One moment, you're in awe of the speed, skill and intensity that define the sport, shaking your head as a player makes an impossible play, or shatters a longstanding record, or sobs into his first Stanley Cup. The next, everyone's wearing earmuffs, Mr. Rogers has shown up, and guys in yellow raincoats are officiating playoff games while everyone tries to figure out where the league president went. That's just life in the NHL, a league that often can't seem to get out of its own way. No matter how long you've been a hockey fan, you know that sinking feeling that maybe, just maybe, some of the people in charge here don't actually know what they're doing. And at some point, you've probably wondered: Has it always been this way? The short answer is yes. As for the longer answer, well, that's this book. In this fun, irreverent and fact-filled history, Sean McIndoe relates the flip side to the National Hockey League's storied past. His obsessively detailed memory combines with his keen sense for the absurdities that make you shake your head at the league and yet fanatically love the game, allowing you to laugh even when your team is the butt of the joke (and as a life-long Leafs fan, McIndoe takes the brunt of some of his own best zingers). The Down Goes Brown History of the NHL is the weird and wonderful league's story told as only Sean McIndoe can.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER Rick Vaive sets the record straight as he tells his story of turmoil in Toronto's Ballard years (and with Don Cherry's Mississauga Ice Dogs), growing up in an environment filled with alcohol and alcoholism, and his own struggles and battles. In the storied history of the Toronto Maple Leafs, no player scored fifty goals in a season until Rick Vaive in 1981-82--and he did it three years in a row. So why isn't his number 22 hanging from the rafters of the Leafs' rink and his name as revered in Leafs lore as more recent stars like Gilmour, Sundin and Clark? You could blame it on a team that lost far more than it won. You could blame Harold Ballard and his erratic ownership. You could blame the fans, the media... but Rick Vaive doesn't blame anybody. Sometimes, life just doesn't go your way. Growing up in a household plagued by alcoholism, the gifted young hockey player took shelter in the company of his grandmother and a blind and severely disabled uncle. Rick learned quickly that there are more valuable things in life than hockey. Even after his promising coaching career stopped dead when it ran into Don Cherry in Mississauga--one of the worst seasons in Ontario junior hockey history--he still doesn't point fingers. Life is too sweet for regrets, but learning that lesson can be one hell of a ride.

Read this hilarious and touching biography about legendary coach and announcer Glen Sonmor. He dishes about everything from his playing days to coaching. Sonmor talks candidly about his career-ending eye injury, how he overcame alcoholism and more.