A History of Hockey in Canada

by J. Alexander Poulton

When British soldiers began settling in early Canada, their sporting traditions blended with a Mi'kmaq game to create a new sport that evolved into hockey. A History of Hockey in Canada traces hockey's roots from those first steps on the frozen ponds of eastern Canada to the modern game we know and * Games that were the precursors to modern hockey were oochamkunutk (Mi'kmaq), shinty (Scottish), hurling (Irish) and bandy (English) * From the ponds of Windsor, Nova Scotia, to Kingston, Ontario, and Montreal, Quebec, a new game evolved, and in March 1875, the first organized game of hockey was played in Montreal * The Mi'kmaq of Nova Scotia were the first popular craftsmen of sticks; their MicMac brand was the stick of choice for professional hockey players until the early 20th century * Referees first used cowbells to call plays, and only switched to whistles when people began bringing their own cowbells to games * Goalie Jacques Plante was the first to use a mask regularly after taking a puck to the face on November 1, 1959 * A must for the hockey fan. Anyone fascinated by Canada's sports history will want to have this book.

Genres: Hockey, Canada

256 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2012

Reviews

[Kevin]

An enjoyable but not very critical history of hockey in Canada. It covers all the significant events and gives some great insights into the background of the game, teams, and many of the players in Canadian hockey and does a decent job of bringing the American teams into the mix. I learned quite a bit about things I only had a cursory understanding of before (Pacific Hockey League, origins of the game, the history of the Montreal Canadians, and Toronto Maple Leafs specifically).
Fun read.

[Erin Bookishness · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was surprisingly interesting considering I know nothing about hockey and care even less. I only read it because a reading challenge I’m doing includes the prompt “a book with hockey” and I really really really didn’t want to read a hockey romance which I’m sure is what the prompt was driving towards considering they are all the rage right now.

So yeah, this has a really plain and simple writing style that makes it easy to engage with the text, it’s educational if you know absolutely nothing about hockey, probably a bit simplistic if you can actually already name Canadian hockey teams, and I appreciated that it included indigenous games in the history of the formation of hockey and had a chapter about BIPOC players and eventual integration in the NHL.

[Dave Cottenie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The funny part of "A History of Hockey in Canada" is that it is fairly uncertain. Unlike basketball where there is a specific narrative and origin, hockey has a bunch of possibilities. The early stories of the possible origins of hockey were interesting, however the narrative fell off when it got into specific sections on specific teams. An okay read.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you like hockey in Canada this book is a good one. it has some nice microfocuses. I enjoyed the part about the Dawson folks going to the stanley cup.

I also felt like the history of the Canadiens which entailed doing the stanley cup finals during the flu pandemic in 1919 was really important to read.

My number one takeaway is that it seems pretty clear that the Habs and the Leafs are big rivals and the Bruins are only secondary to the Habs which is wow. it totally influenced my experience of this years stanley cup finals

[Peter Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was perfect for my goal of getting a cursory overview of Ice Hockey in Canada. The book spends some time explaining the origins of ice hockey and then starts on the history. The book diverts a couple of times to discuss minorities in Ice Hockey, Lord Stanley, equipment used in hockey, stadiums, teams, and NHL expansion.

Getting ready to visit Canada for the first time, this book really helped me to be conversant in perhaps the biggest sport in Canada, Ice Hockey. The only thing I really knew before this book was that Ice Hockey was invented in Canada.

[bailey · Rating 3 out of 5]

kind of bland in its execution most of the time, but if it had gone into more detail it would’ve been like 600 pages. so i get it. but i would have read 600 interesting pages!!