Put on your bucket, pick up your twig, and put the biscuit in the basket! Learn the lingo of the coolest game on earth in Hockey Talk. Created with Sports Illustrated Kids, this nonfiction book presents the secret language of hockey players. Explore the origin of these words and phrases--from five-hole to face wash--and discover how collegiate and NHL players use them on and off the ice. With action-packed photos and rapid-fire text, hockey fans will be cheering for more!

They can resist their attraction…until their hearts rocket them across the blue line. Hunter Timing. Hockey careers are made or broken on it, and mine has taken exceptionally broken road. I’m not a star. I’m a grinder, I work hard, and I’m finally at the point I can put the past behind me and get the fat, long-term contract I deserve. But my agent—the man who stuck by me through every crash and burn—has had a heart attack. I need another agent now, or my one chance for the good money will slip through my fingers. Kate’s a rookie, but she loves the game like I do, so I pick up the phone. And I wonder if she remembers that one night in Cancun as vividly as I do. Kate Hockey. All my life I’ve lived it, breathed it, played it. Now it’s my business. As an agent, I’m tied to my phone at all hours, but nothing prepared me to hear Hunter’s voice. The last time I saw him—three years ago—there was a lot of bare skin and horny hormones involved. I’ve handled it all in my short career—sexism, harassment, being broke, being laughed at. Resisting the attraction between us should be easy. Until it isn’t. And Hunter’s past shakes his confidence hard enough that he could make the worst decision at the worst possible time…

This is another book about hockey. But this one is unique. It contains many stories by and about individuals who broadcast play-by-plays of major junior and provincial junior A games from arenas across Canada. There are even a few chapters about broadcasters from teams in the United States that play in Canadian leagues. There are major junior chapters from the Western Hockey League (WHL), the Ontario Hockey League (OHL), and the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL). Chapters from provincial junior A leagues include British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, and the Maritimes. Some of the contributors for this book wrote their own chapters. Others preferred to be interviewed. In all cases, the final version of each chapter was approved by the contributor. The chapters include many descriptions of broadcasters experiences. They describe their early experiences with hockey. Some played, while others listened on the radio, watched on TV, or attended games. The stories include how they became involved as play-by-play broadcasters and who were direct or indirect mentors. Each broadcaster recounts their memories of the first game they called. They also describe some of the notable players, coaches, and color commentators. Where possible, there are even some bus stories. Each chapter concludes with a comment about what the experience of broadcasting play-by-play has meant to each individual.

From the leader in sports writing comes a collection of stories that examine just about every aspect of the game: the players, the league and what it means to the fans. For true hockey fans, there is no sport as great, as fast, as competitive, or as important as their beloved hockey game. The teams, the organizations, and the players are a part of their family and Saturday night is better known as hockey night. As children, we hockey fans would wake at 6am, jump into the back of a cold station wagon and head off with Dad or Mom at the wheel to our hockey games. Sleep deprived, cold and tired - it didn't matter how low we felt because as soon as those skates were laced, it was game-on! We traded the cards, we followed the players, and we watched as our team fought through the regular season to earn their rightful place in the post season. There is nothing like the feeling of seeing your team go all the way, seeing them hoist that cherished Cup that Lord Stanley so kindly gifted to the Dominion of Canada, seeing the tears in the eyes of these grown men, these ice warriors. We love this game of ours, and we can't get enough, so thank you Sports Illustrated for bringing us more. In this book, Sports Illustrated's most prolific hockey writers give us the honest goods on hockey. They tell us about the players, the infractions, the best series, the most contentious of battles and the most glorious of victories. This is hockey in its truest form. This is hockey writing for hockey lovers and with an array of Sports Illustrated photos throw in for added benefit. This is just about the best damn book available on hockey, anywhere, period.

Selected as the 2008 CBC Canada Reads Winner! "A dazzling display of fictional footwork… The author has not written just another hockey novel; he has turned hockey in a metaphor for magic." Maclean's Percival Leary was once the King of the Ice, one of hockey's greatest heroes. Now, in the South Grouse Nursing Home, where he shares a room with Edmund "Blue" Hermann, the antagonistic and alcoholic reporter who once chronicled his career, Leary looks back on his tumultuous life and times: his days at the boys' reformatory when he burned down a house; the four mad monks who first taught him to play hockey; and the time he executed the perfect "St. Louis Whirlygig" to score the winning goal in the 1919 Stanley Cup final. Now all but forgotten, Leary is only a legend in his own mind until a high-powered advertising agency decides to feature him in a series of ginger ale commercials. With his male nurse, his son, and the irrepressible Blue, Leary sets off for Toronto on one last adventure as he revisits the scenes of his glorious life as King of the Ice.

"Emrick loves stories and loves to tell them. Yesterday in broadcasting. Tomorrow in book form." —Steve Simmons, Toronto Sun After nearly 50 years behind the microphone, the voice of hockey in America opens up in a must-read memoir. Mike "Doc" Emrick has seen everything there is to see in a hockey game. Sizzling slap shots. Commitment, courage, and camaraderie. Pugnacious pugilists. Game-winning goals. To hockey fans across the country, his voice—and vocabulary—have become synonymous with the game they love. In Off Mike, Doc takes readers back to the beginning, detailing how a Pittsburgh Pirates fan from small-town Indiana found himself in the wild world of professional hockey, calling games for the New Jersey Devils, Philadelphia Flyers, and finally NBC. He's covered All-Star Games, Stanley Cup Finals, the Olympics, and everything in between, rubbing shoulders with hockey's immortals both on and off the ice. Yet Doc's life has had its share of ups and downs, from almost leaving behind the love of his life to the passing of beloved companions to personal health scares. After years of being welcomed into our homes, in this autobiography Doc welcomes us into his, revealing the stories, wit, and wisdom that have made him one of the most beloved figures in sports.

An uplifting leadership book about a coach who helped transform the nation’s worst high school hockey team into one of the best. Bacon’s strategy is straightforward: set high expectations, make them accountable to each other, and inspire them all to lead their team. When John U. Bacon played for the Ann Arbor Huron High School River Rats, he never scored a goal. Yet somehow, years later he found himself leading his alma mater’s downtrodden program. How bad? The team hadn’t won a game in over a year, making them the nation’s worst squad—a fact they celebrated. With almost everyone expecting more failure, Bacon made it special to play for Huron by making it hard, which inspired the players to excel. Then he defied conventional wisdom again by putting the players in charge of team discipline, goal-setting, and even decision-making – and it worked. In just three seasons the River Rats bypassed 95-percent of the nation’s teams. A true story filled with unforgettable characters, stories, and lessons that apply to organizations everywhere, Let Them Lead includes the leader’s mistakes and the reactions of the players, who have since achieved great success as leaders themselves. Let Them Lead is a fast-paced, feel-good book that leaders of all kinds can embrace to motivate their teams to work harder, work together, and take responsibility for their own success.