puckstruck

the culture of hockey, and vice-versa

Skip to content
  • Home
  • about + contact
  • bookstruck
  • events
  • notes + sources
    • puckstruck sources
    • [p. 141] a slight sneer mantled joliat’s lean bronze face
    • [p. 278] snubbing morenz
    • [p. 87] how to hook-check
    • [p. 327] like an orc chieftain
    • [p. 254] michael cusack
    • [p. 322] dave dryden
  • articles
    • all (hockey) roads lead to peterborough
    • books for troubled times
    • gretzky’s tears
    • gump worsley’s pineapple squares
    • his name is orr
    • under review: no pink tea
    • oh, dear
    • setting the table
    • the secret to hockey gold
    • unshaven
    • wet rice and hockey
    • wheel, knife, sher-wood, in that order
  • gallery
    • blow hard
    • goalie masquerade
    • habs 24/7
    • hockey smokers: dit clapper
    • hockey smokers: cal gardner
    • hc[in]hb: tommy ivan
    • hockey fashions: rod gilbert + bob nevin
    • hp@h: assist to béliveau
    • hp[in]hb: moose vasko
    • hockey players in hospital beds: terry sawchuk
    • leapin’ lou
    • out of sight
    • panoramic protection
    • smoothy smith
    • the great, once
    • the thin man
  • poems
    • a bunch of pukes
    • a red-hot bout with the grim reaper
    • are you afraid of anything?
    • ask the ref
    • billy burch took his skates to bed
    • detests helmets
    • hockey gods
    • it can do much harm
    • one slug
    • our best sticks were made of rock elm
    • the five truths of shovelling
    • the hot refresher
    • twenty-four ways of looking at guy lafleur
Search

twilight of the habs

May 29, 2014March 4, 2019 / puckstruck

hab sunset

(Illustration: Aislin, alias Terry Mosher, McCord Museum)

Share this:

  • Share
  • Email
  • Twitter
  • Print
  • Facebook
  • Reddit

Related

hockey art
Canadiens

Post navigation

← the lightning game
lose →

From Greystone Books. Available in bookstores in Canada and the United States. 2014 Hockey Book of the Year, as per www.hockeybookreviews.com. "Funny, smart, unlike any hockey book I've read," Dave Bidini has said; "Joycean," Charles Foran called it. "It’s rare to find a book that makes me proud to be Canadian," is what Michael Winter wrote: "A funny, myth-busting, life-loving read."

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

index

1936 1972 Ace Bailey Alex Ovechkin Art Ross Aurele Joliat Bill Cook Billy Reay Black Hawks Bobby Hull Bobby Orr books Boom-Boom Geoffrion Boston Bruins Canadiens Carey Price Charlie Conacher Chicago Ching Johnson Clarence Campbell coaches concussions Conn Smythe debris Detroit Dick Irvin Sr. Dit Clapper Don Cherry Eddie Shore Edmonton Elmer Lach Frank Boucher Frank Calder Frank Mahovlich Frank Nighbor George Hainsworth Georges Vézina Glenn Hall goaltenders Gordie Howe Gump Worsley Hap Day head trauma hockey art hospital Howie Morenz Jack Adams Jacques Plante Jean Béliveau Johnny Gottselig John Ross Roach Ken Dryden King Clancy Lester Patrick Lorne Chabot Lynn Patrick Madison Square Garden Maple Leaf Gardens Maple Leafs Maroons Max Bentley Mike Babcock Milt Schmidt Montreal Newsy Lalonde New York Americans New York Rangers Olympics ouch outdoors P.K. Subban Paul Henderson Philadelphia Phil Esposito pond hockey Punch Imlach Red Kelly referees Rocket Richard Roy MacGregor Roy Worters Saskatchewan Sid Abel Sidney Crosby Sprague Cleghorn Stan Fischler Stanley Cup Stan Mikita Stephen Harper Ted Lindsay Teeder Kennedy Terry Sawchuk Tiny Thompson Toe Blake training camp Turk Broda wartime Wayne Gretzky Winnipeg

archives

poem

Thankful that I never
played against
Wayne Gretzky
in an NHL playoff series;
I probably would have had to break his hand.

I would not have wanted to injure Gretzky, mind you;
I loved the guy.
I never touched him on the ice
in a regular season game.
I had too much respect
for how he played
and how he carried himself.

But I can say without question
I would have tried to hurt him
if we had been matched up
in the playoffs.
In my mind,
there are no friends
in a playoff series

I’m not talking about
elbowing someone in the head
or going after someone’s knees.
I’m talking about a strategic slash.
To me, slashing someone’s hand or breaking someone’s fingers was nothing.
It was part of the game.

Broken hands heal.
Fingers heal.
The pain that comes from losing does not.

• from Overtime (2014) by Chris Chelios with Kevin Allen; excerpted, edited, and poemized.

Follow me on Twitter

My Tweets

bandy

“The first thing the student of Darwin learns is that what evolves does not necessarily improve — a truth that might just as well be sensed by considering the modern history of jazz or ice hockey.”

• Adam Gopnik

Recent Posts

  • hands up September 19, 2019
  • it’s easy — all you have to do is win September 18, 2019
  • limbering up on the gymnasium floor September 16, 2019
  • coeur de lion September 15, 2019
  • dear ottawa senators: wash your pants September 13, 2019
Blog at WordPress.com.
Cancel
loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.