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The NHL: 100 Years of On-Ice Action and Boardroom Battles
The National Hockey League -- born in a Montreal hotel room on November 26, 1917 -- has much to celebrate as it approaches its centenary. Millions of fans from Montreal to Miami and Edmonton to Anaheim attend NHL games leach year, millions more watch on TV and the league pays its best players multi-million annual salaries.
Over the course of its first century, the NHL's fortunes have ebbed and flowed. It has experienced setbacks and triumphs and innumerable crises. The league has awarded many franchises only to see some of them falter, fail and fold. The board of governors - which has included rich eccentrics and at least one future convict - has sometimes been fractured by men who loathed each other. How on earth has the NHL survived? The answer lies in the remarkable fact that it has had only five presidents and one commissioner. Two of these chiefs were stop-gaps. For the balance of league's ninety-plus years, four men have shaped and guided its fortunes and controlled the tough, hard-nosed, sometimes unruly owners who constituted the board of governors.
This is the story of two perpetual struggles -- the one on the ice and the one going on behind the scenes to keep the whole enterprise afloat. D'Arcy Jenish was granted unprecedented access to previously unpublished league files, including revelatory minutes of board meetings, and conducted dozens of hours of interviews with league executives, including commissioner Gary Bettman and former president John Ziegler, as well as well as owners, coaches, general managers and player representatives. He now reveals for the first time the true story behind some of the most significant events of the contemporary era.
This is a definitive, revelatory chonicle that no serious hockey fan will want to be without.
Over the course of its first century, the NHL's fortunes have ebbed and flowed. It has experienced setbacks and triumphs and innumerable crises. The league has awarded many franchises only to see some of them falter, fail and fold. The board of governors - which has included rich eccentrics and at least one future convict - has sometimes been fractured by men who loathed each other. How on earth has the NHL survived? The answer lies in the remarkable fact that it has had only five presidents and one commissioner. Two of these chiefs were stop-gaps. For the balance of league's ninety-plus years, four men have shaped and guided its fortunes and controlled the tough, hard-nosed, sometimes unruly owners who constituted the board of governors.
This is the story of two perpetual struggles -- the one on the ice and the one going on behind the scenes to keep the whole enterprise afloat. D'Arcy Jenish was granted unprecedented access to previously unpublished league files, including revelatory minutes of board meetings, and conducted dozens of hours of interviews with league executives, including commissioner Gary Bettman and former president John Ziegler, as well as well as owners, coaches, general managers and player representatives. He now reveals for the first time the true story behind some of the most significant events of the contemporary era.
This is a definitive, revelatory chonicle that no serious hockey fan will want to be without.
416 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 2013
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183 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
July 13, 2014
This book is great if you are at all interested in the business end of the National Hockey League. Jenish provides a lot of information about the comings and goings of franchises and owners during the league's history.
Some of the highlights for me:
1) The league was formed in part because four owners didn't want to have to deal with a guy they didn't like, so they made a new league and excluded the guy.
2) There were only four teams when the league started and in just three cities (Montreal, Toronto, and Ottawa)
3) Eventually U.S. teams joined up, but the only one that was ever consistently any good was Detroit
4) The "Original Six" era and the nostalgia for it seems to stem from mostly from the desire of Canadian fans to like a time when Montreal and Toronto ruled the league. (As well as Detroit.)
5) The league's expansions have often been rather slapdash.
Jenish's narrative peters out a little bit after his section on John Ziegler's presidency of the league. Ziegler gave Jenish a lot of information. Gary Bettman cooperated, but not to the same extent, probably because he still has to deal with all the owners.
The NHL is a fun league, but it is not always the most profitable one. It will never be loved in the U.S. as it is in Canada, but it is likely going to stick around having survived some horrible labor problems in its recent history.
I think the book tends to lean in favor of ownership against the players in these matters, but the book is written about the owners. The players are just background material here.
Some of the highlights for me:
1) The league was formed in part because four owners didn't want to have to deal with a guy they didn't like, so they made a new league and excluded the guy.
2) There were only four teams when the league started and in just three cities (Montreal, Toronto, and Ottawa)
3) Eventually U.S. teams joined up, but the only one that was ever consistently any good was Detroit
4) The "Original Six" era and the nostalgia for it seems to stem from mostly from the desire of Canadian fans to like a time when Montreal and Toronto ruled the league. (As well as Detroit.)
5) The league's expansions have often been rather slapdash.
Jenish's narrative peters out a little bit after his section on John Ziegler's presidency of the league. Ziegler gave Jenish a lot of information. Gary Bettman cooperated, but not to the same extent, probably because he still has to deal with all the owners.
The NHL is a fun league, but it is not always the most profitable one. It will never be loved in the U.S. as it is in Canada, but it is likely going to stick around having survived some horrible labor problems in its recent history.
I think the book tends to lean in favor of ownership against the players in these matters, but the book is written about the owners. The players are just background material here.
August 29, 2017
When this book first came out I wasn't in a rush to buy it. I have read so many books on the history of the NHL I wasn't sure if I would learn anything new. But this book takes an angle of looking at NHL history I had never seen before. It focuses on the behind the scenes, off-ice action in the board rooms and offices of the NHL. With access to board of governors minutes never previously made public, Jenish provides some interesting insight into the inner workings of the NHL, along with sketches of many personalities who served as league presidents, governors, agents, etc. I found most interesting the insights John Ziegler provided in his interview with the author concerning the NHL of the 1908s and early 90s. Jenish challenges some conventional wisdom about certain events, and good overall insight behind expansion, the player's association, strikes and lockouts, and the rationale behind decisions the league has made over the last century. A unique look at hockey history.
June 7, 2019
This looks at the business history of the NHL. It doesn't focus on the games themselves, but rather the owners and how the league was founded and grew to what it is. Jenish makes business meetings into a compelling story, though at times he is almost too sympathetic too certain notorious characters, like Allan Eagleson and John Ziegler. But it gives much needed context to how the league developed, and uses new material previously unavailable, to allow for much needed insight into how the league acted, especially throughout the 1950s and 1960s. A little more into the more modern era (post-1995) would have been nice, but as that is covered in other books that should not be seen as a major strike against the book.
October 1, 2019
I ran across this book at the great Powell's in Portland. After a small amount of personal debating, I went ahead and purchased - and a worthy investment it was! Janish takes the reader through hockey's first century - as the title suggests, not just on the ice, but off of it as well. Unknown-to-me details underlying why franchises moved or didn't move were revealed.
The book did go by fast, perhaps a bit too fast - certainly it seemed as if the author was trying to beat a deadline but realized he'd only progressed through 1965. Definitely room for a second edition.
The book did go by fast, perhaps a bit too fast - certainly it seemed as if the author was trying to beat a deadline but realized he'd only progressed through 1965. Definitely room for a second edition.
February 1, 2019
The first part, pre-Original 6, is the most interesting. It's solid the rest of the way but not nearly as interesting. A few chapters seem more like isolated articles Jenish wrote (eg Eagleson), but a nice history.
March 16, 2017
D'arcy Jenish attempts to provide a grand history of ice hockey in a streamlined 385-page narrative.
Although wide in scope, this book fails to achieve depth in critical aspects and overstates the roles of some in the game's development, enhancement and growth.
Chief among oversights by Jenish is his failure to recognize the wider repercussions that the season-ending suspension of Maurice "Rocket" Richard had in 1950's Quebec. Superficially, Richard's suspension cost his Montreal Canadiens a Stanley Cup, as the team succumbed to the Detroit Red Wings without their prolific scorer. While Jenish highlights the rioting that inflamed Montreal within and outside of its hockey cathedral, The Forum, in the immediate wake of Richard's suspension, he fails to spotlight the undertones that boiled into that conflagration. Richard was the French-speaking hero to the Canadiens French-speaking fan base, who felt vicitimized by Canada's wider Anglo population. As such, the suspension was an affront to those French-speaking Quebecois by the English-dominated league.
Much dispute has been waged about the significance of this moment and weather Richard's suspension actually inspired a movement, a quiet revolution of separatist resistance in Quebec. Nonethless, Jenish completely missed the narrative when describing this episode.
That trend happens throughout this non-encyclopedic history of the NHL. Although labor strife, expansion, franchise relocation, free agency and league turmoil are all explored in detail, the author fails to present duality in his perspective. Most of his first-person sources are league officials, including an over-reliance on the comments and perspectives of former league president John Ziegler. Jenish fails to present the same authenticity of perspective from the player side.
He presents some commentary from player reps involved in collective bargaining negotiations, but overall, this book could have been much richer, if more sources were mined. The publishers tout recently uncovered NHL Board of Governor meeting minutes as the blow-by-blow hook for this historical exploration. But the human cost of building NHL capital would have best been measured by having in-depth discussions with a wider variety of players, referees, arena officials and those behind the scenes who could tell the story from unique, non-authoritarian perspectives. Instead Jenish relies on official-speak, which significantly undermines the credibility of his conclusions.
Although wide in scope, this book fails to achieve depth in critical aspects and overstates the roles of some in the game's development, enhancement and growth.
Chief among oversights by Jenish is his failure to recognize the wider repercussions that the season-ending suspension of Maurice "Rocket" Richard had in 1950's Quebec. Superficially, Richard's suspension cost his Montreal Canadiens a Stanley Cup, as the team succumbed to the Detroit Red Wings without their prolific scorer. While Jenish highlights the rioting that inflamed Montreal within and outside of its hockey cathedral, The Forum, in the immediate wake of Richard's suspension, he fails to spotlight the undertones that boiled into that conflagration. Richard was the French-speaking hero to the Canadiens French-speaking fan base, who felt vicitimized by Canada's wider Anglo population. As such, the suspension was an affront to those French-speaking Quebecois by the English-dominated league.
Much dispute has been waged about the significance of this moment and weather Richard's suspension actually inspired a movement, a quiet revolution of separatist resistance in Quebec. Nonethless, Jenish completely missed the narrative when describing this episode.
That trend happens throughout this non-encyclopedic history of the NHL. Although labor strife, expansion, franchise relocation, free agency and league turmoil are all explored in detail, the author fails to present duality in his perspective. Most of his first-person sources are league officials, including an over-reliance on the comments and perspectives of former league president John Ziegler. Jenish fails to present the same authenticity of perspective from the player side.
He presents some commentary from player reps involved in collective bargaining negotiations, but overall, this book could have been much richer, if more sources were mined. The publishers tout recently uncovered NHL Board of Governor meeting minutes as the blow-by-blow hook for this historical exploration. But the human cost of building NHL capital would have best been measured by having in-depth discussions with a wider variety of players, referees, arena officials and those behind the scenes who could tell the story from unique, non-authoritarian perspectives. Instead Jenish relies on official-speak, which significantly undermines the credibility of his conclusions.
September 16, 2017
Much more to the NHL before the Original Six.
February 4, 2021
I remain unconvinced that the world needed a history of the NHL where the owners are the heroes
December 22, 2013
Fascinating history of the leagues tumultuous and difficult growth. So many things make more sense now that I understand the history of the league going back to World War I. Scandals, foreclosures, big money, back room deals, success, and some of the greats of the game make this my favorite holiday read so far this year. It will change the way I watch hockey and how I feel about several teams. If you only have a passing interest in hockey this book may be a bit long for you, but if you are a hockey fan you have to read this. Merry Christmas everyone, feeling a little better after a long post surgery December. Better your life by reading more.
March 18, 2014
This was a good, though occasionally dry history of the NHL. Being published in 2013, it seems to preemptively jump the gun on a "Centennial" history, which will actually happen in 2017, but it also seems to be a first draft of a book to ultimately be published in 2017. There were editing and typo errors throughout. However, the content itself was quite good and well written.
April 21, 2015
Great chronicle of the history of professional hockey. Insightful with well informed research. Reads akin to an epic drama then a historical account.
May 18, 2015
3 1/2 stars - Only for those interested in the history of hockey, especially the business side of hockey.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews