If you are a fan of hockey and want to dive into the micro history of one season, this is a great book for you. The book focuses on the 1966-1967 season, the last NHL season before expansion and what made it so special. The author is an unabashed Leaf's fan but does not get caught up in cheerleading, which would have tarnished the book in my eyes. I suppose it wasn't necessary to hype up the Maple Leaf team; they did, after all, win the Cup that year. The writing is balanced throughout and all teams are shown warts and all.
In this last, pre-expansion season, the NHL consisted of six teams, Toronto, Montreal, New York, Detroit, Chicago, and Boston. Four teams qualified for the playoffs and the two that missed (Detroit, Boston) are given the least amount of coverage and back story. If you are a Bruin or Red Wing fan, there's not much here for you. But the other four teams are given a thorough review, including detailed game scoring and player recollections of specific games.
As much as I enjoyed the book, it did get tedious at the end. All scoring opportunities started sounding the same. I've seen my share of professional hockey games and can remember a goal or two banking in off the post. In this book, it seems to happen every game. Since the author was re-creating events from interviews, other books, and newspaper clippings, it stands to reason that some liberties were taken with the goal scoring descriptions, which is why I think they started sounding so similar.
Given the final outcome, it would help if the reader was either a fan of hockey from this era or a Leaf's fan. That said, there's much insight to gain for fans of Montreal and Chicago as well, namely, insight into why these teams did not capture the cup in the 66-67 season.
I was only six years old when the season covered in the book concluded. I really didn't get into hockey until the early 1970's, so I wanted to get a sense of the game and the players from the era. If you're like me, you'll find this in "The Last Hurrah."
In this last, pre-expansion season, the NHL consisted of six teams, Toronto, Montreal, New York, Detroit, Chicago, and Boston. Four teams qualified for the playoffs and the two that missed (Detroit, Boston) are given the least amount of coverage and back story. If you are a Bruin or Red Wing fan, there's not much here for you. But the other four teams are given a thorough review, including detailed game scoring and player recollections of specific games.
As much as I enjoyed the book, it did get tedious at the end. All scoring opportunities started sounding the same. I've seen my share of professional hockey games and can remember a goal or two banking in off the post. In this book, it seems to happen every game. Since the author was re-creating events from interviews, other books, and newspaper clippings, it stands to reason that some liberties were taken with the goal scoring descriptions, which is why I think they started sounding so similar.
Given the final outcome, it would help if the reader was either a fan of hockey from this era or a Leaf's fan. That said, there's much insight to gain for fans of Montreal and Chicago as well, namely, insight into why these teams did not capture the cup in the 66-67 season.
I was only six years old when the season covered in the book concluded. I really didn't get into hockey until the early 1970's, so I wanted to get a sense of the game and the players from the era. If you're like me, you'll find this in "The Last Hurrah."
