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the lonely end of the rink

February 14, 2017February 13, 2017 / puckstruck

nyer50

(Artist: Abe Birnbaum)

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Abe Birnbaum, The New Yorker

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← where gretzkys forge their gifts
pacemaker →

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."

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1972 Ace Bailey Alex Ovechkin Andy Bathgate Art Ross Aurele Joliat bad behaviour Bill Cook Billy Reay Bobby Clarke Bobby Hull Bobby Orr books Boom-Boom Geoffrion Boston Brendan Shanahan Bruins Butch Bouchard Canadiens Carey Price Charlie Conacher Chicago Ching Johnson Clarence Campbell coaches concussions Conn Smythe Dave Bidini debris Detroit Dick Irvin Sr. Dit Clapper Don Cherry Eddie Shore Edmonton Elmer Lach fighting Frank Boucher Frank Mahovlich Gary Bettman George Hainsworth Georges Vézina goalies Gordie Howe groins Hap Day Harold Ballard Harry Sinden head trauma hospital Howie Morenz Jack Adams Jacques Plante Jean Béliveau John Tortorella Ken Dryden King Clancy Lester Patrick Lorne Chabot Lynn Patrick Maple Leaf Gardens Maple Leafs Marc Nadon Mark Messier Max Bentley Mike Babcock Milt Schmidt Montreal Newsy Lalonde New York Americans New York Rangers Olympics ouch P.K. Subban Paul Henderson Philadelphia Phil Esposito Punch Imlach Randy Carlyle referees Rocket Richard Roy MacGregor Saskatchewan Scotty Bowman Sid Abel Sidney Crosby Sochi Stan Fischler Stanley Cup Stan Mikita Stephen Harper Ted Lindsay Teeder Kennedy Terry Sawchuk The New Yorker Toe Blake trainers training camp Turk Broda Wayne Gretzky

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.

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

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