Behind the Mask: A Revealing Look at Twelve of the Greatest Goalies in Hockey History

by Randi Druzin

A dozen incredible stories about hockey’s legendary goalies, on and off the ice—including Carey Price, Marc-André Fleury, Roberto Luongo, and Henrik Lundqvist.

“Hockey goaltenders have forever been thought of as unique, eccentric, weird and wacky. Also misunderstood. Randi Druzin’s Behind the Mask is a fascinating examination of a dozen of those who have played the position at the highest levels. This well-researched and well-written book is revealing and delightful at the same time.”—Roy MacGregor

While his teammates rush up the ice in a coordinated attack, the goalie is alone in his net. And when the play turns back toward him, he's prepared to step in front of a frozen rubber disc traveling 100 miles an hour. He's the last line of defense in a pitched battle. The goalie stands apart, on and off the ice. Like the relief pitcher in baseball and the place kicker in football, he is a maverick.

Behind the Mask profiles 12 legendary NHL goalies, emphasizing the traits that make each one unique. It blends accounts of the goalies on-ice exploits with anecdotes about their lives off the ice information gleaned from archival research as well as interviews with teammates, family members and the goalies themselves.

The careers here cover the last half-century of professional hockey from the personal struggles of Roger Crozier and Ed Giacomin on their way to stardom in the 1960s, to the recent brilliance of Carey Price, whose character blends stoicism with a deep warmth and pride in his Indigenous background.

Told with author Randi Druzin’s trademark mix of knowledge and wit, Behind the Mask has all the insight and color to make it a bestseller like her previous book on NHL goalies, Between the Pipes.

Hockey goalies profiled
Roger Crozier, Detroit Red Wings / Buffalo SabresRogie Vachon, Los Angeles KingsGerry Cheevers, Boston BruinsEd Giacomin, New York RangersTony Esposito, Chicago Black HawksVladislav Tretiak, Soviet Red ArmyMike Palmateer, Toronto Maple LeafsGrant Fuhr, Edmonton OilersRoberto Luongo, Vancouver CanucksMarc-André Fleury, Pittsburgh Penguins / Vegas Golden KnightsHenrik Lundqvist, New York RangersCarey Price, Montreal Canadiens

Genres: Hockey, Sports, Nonfiction

280 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 24, 2023

Reviews

[Patrick Robinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Saying that the 2021 Toronto Maple Leafs “fought hard to force a game 7” against the Canadiens is genuinely journalistic malpractice

[Paul Sutter]

The hockey goalie is literally the last line of defense when it comes to opposing teams trying to score. They face onslaughts of puck traveling sometimes over 100 miles per hour, standing firm and tough against the most wicked of slapshots. In her book BEHIND THE MASK, Randi Druzin honors twelve such goaltenders who definitely excelled in their field.
In a previous book BETWEEN THE PIPES, she looked at many goalies who were more in my fan base, when I watched hockey in the sixties. Here though, there are a couple of older school-type goalies, along with many who are toward modern day.
She begins with Roger Crozier, the net minder for the Detroit Red Wings. She titles the chapter, The Nervous Wreck. He had just played four years for the Red Wings, when he called it a career, heading into the world of carpentry. A teammate went up to Bracebridge Ontario four months after he left the Wings, begging him to come back to hockey.
He told the teammate, “If I bend a nail up here, I don’t have 12,000 people booing me.” But he did return almost two months later, back into the nets, even though he suffered often from ulcers and pancreatitis. He then played for several teams over the years, returning to the Wings before retiring officially when he was placed on waivers, and played for a short time with the Boston Bruins.
Randi Druzin has certainly chosen a most interesting group of goalies in the book, twelve quite notable people, who definitely had their time in the sun, leading their teams to strong finishes in the standings and also Stanley Cups.
Gerry Cheevers was another interesting goalie, who was in the Toronto Maple Leafs organization. They liked him and saw great things for him except at the time as Druzin notes, the Leafs had two great goaltenders at the moment, Johnny Bower and Terry Sawchuk. Toronto wanted to keep him, but League rules specified a team could not protect more than two goaltenders in the draft.
The Leafs listed him as a foreword, but NHL President Clarence Campbell noticed that and made Cheevers be listed as goalie. Toronto lost him to Boston Bruins in the draft, which did not excite Cheevers, but still he joined them, and went on to become a fan favourite and team favourite as well.
The author’s tells the story of many other goalies who changed the way goalies were perceived, such stars as Grant Fuhr, Carey Price, Tony Esposito, Vladislav Tretiak, Mike Palmateer and many others. She tells of every player’s trek into the NHL, often working through the minor leagues before the big time, then having explosive debuts in the nets.
Hockey fans will enjoy the book totally, bringing action from the ice right into their hands.

[Natalie ℧ · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was interesting, informative, and inspiring. I enjoyed Druzin’s writing style and she adds funny and sarcastic comments that lighten the book. The format of the book is great, each chapter focuses on one goalie and there are headings describing the time period and at the end of the chapter there’s a table with the goalie’s career stats. As a goalie myself, I was very inspired by each goalie’s comebacks and demeanor. I found myself playing games and getting upset about letting in a goal, and I would tell myself to be calm like Carey Price. Another aspect of this book I enjoyed was the pictures. In each chapter, there’s a great photo of the goalie mentioned, and because the people featured are from different times, you can see goalie gear evolve and the goalies’ playing styles. Personally I hardly read nonfiction, so for me this book was a little too realistic in that the goalies’ highlights were given as much attention as their lowlights. I wish their successes outweighed their failures in the book so you’re left with the impression of how great they all were/are. That’s kind of just my preference though, so overall this was a great book that I would recommend to the biggest hockey nerds and fellow goalies looking for inspiration. Ages 12+.

[Mark Rzeszutek · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a cool book that does what its subtitle says with briskness and efficiency. Its short length means there's only room for so much detail per chapter, so hockey brainiacs may not find anything they don't already know here. This book might have the most value to a reader who is currently a casual hockey fan but is moving in the direction of getting in depth.

I'm too young to remember some of the Old Thyme NHL days described in some of these biographies. For more recent events, reading the section about Roberto Luongo facing Boston's Tim Thomas in the 2011 Cup Final put a nostalgic smile on my face, especially their exchange about "pumping each others' tires", which got a lot of airtime commentary on Boston sports radio. Similar was the memory of Sidney Crosby's 2010 Olympics gold medal goal versus Team USA, also covered in this book.

Randi Druzin's writing has just the right dash of stylistic flair here and there, enough to show that she knows her way around a compound sentence but never getting in the way of the content. All in all, it's a book that has a laser-focused goal and gets its job done with aplomb.

[Chris Schaffer · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s a good book, probably aimed at younger readers. Has a formulaic style in chronicling each goalies career. You get to learn about a couple old school goalies like Eddie Giacomin, Tony Esposito, Mike Palmateer, and’80s legend in Grant Fuhr and ones of more recent vintage like Lundqvist, Fleury, Price.

There’s just this one annoying factual mistake in the Grant Fuhr section. While with the Blues he did get some time in the 1996 playoff series vs. Toronto before getting injured…but the author states that Toronto won the series in six games when in reality the Blues won in 6 (and would go on to play Detroit in a classic 7 gamer ended by the famous Yzerman OT slap shot.). A small error, and Fuhr couldn’t even play vs. Detroit so nothing missed there thankfully, but still an easily avoidable mistake.

[Ryan Wu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing too revealing but a few good stories!

[Garrett J · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great insight into some of the best goalies the NHL has ever seen. Definitely learned something new about them.