In the Crease: Goaltenders Look at Life in the NHL - Softcover

Irvin, Dick

3.98

45 ratings by Goodreads

9780771043628: In the Crease: Goaltenders Look at Life in the NHL

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0771043627 ISBN 13: 9780771043628

Publisher: McClelland & Stewart, 1996

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No one knows hockey like Dick Irvin. Now Canada’s most experienced hockey broadcaster draws together stories by and about the players who catch the rubber, from the giants of hockey’s early years to the superstars of today.

As in his previous best-selling books, The Habs and Behind the Bench, Irvin brings the game alive by combining his own rich store of hockey lore and the words of the players themselves. Here are the giants of the crease: Georges Vezina, whose name is carved on the trophy given annually to the game’s best goalie; Lorne Chabot, the netminder who lost the longest game ever played; and Charlie Gardiner, who died heroically, practically with his skates still on.

Here, too, are the legends of the modern era. Tony Esposito, the great Chicago netminder, explains why he refused to speak to anyone – even his wife – on game days. Glenn Hall, Chicago’s best stopper of the 1960s, admits that he did, indeed, throw up before every game he played. Ken Dryden remembers with special pride the 1976 Stanley Cup finals in which he and the Montreal Canadiens won a furious grudge match against the Philadelphia Flyers. Among current stars Ron Hextall defends himself against his detractors; Patrick Roy admits that controversy over his million-dollar salary affected his play; and Martin Brodeur, once the game’s most underpaid player and now the wearer of a Stanley Cup ring, explains his winning philosophy.

Irvin does not neglect goaltending’s less-exalted practitioners. One chapter is devoted to back-up goalies. Another is given over to good goalies whose fate it was to play for bad teams. Yet another tells the stories of goalies whose philosophical ruminations about the game have led to a career after goaltending.

In the pages of In the Crease, hockey’s goaltending heroes and its merely human practitioners vividly convey their unique view of Canada’s best-loved game.

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From the Back Cover:

“Dick Irvin delivers the goods.”
–Randy Starkman, Toronto Star

“A fascinating read for goaltenders of all ages.”
–Ed Tait, Saskatoon Star-Phoenix

“The strength of In the Crease is Irvin’s ability to put the readers in his place and let them go one-on-one with more than 30 goalies.”
–Jim Bray, Ottawa Citizen

About the Author:

Dick Irvin, long the radio voice of the Montreal Canadiens, was a member of CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada broadcast team for more than 30 years. He covered more than 2,500 NHL games on television and radio. In 1988 he won the Foster Hewitt Award for excellence in hockey broadcasting and was inducted into the Media Section of the Hockey Hall of Fame.

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