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Changing the Game: A History of NHL Expansion
Changing the A History of NHL Expansion celebrates an often-overlooked aspect of hockey history. The book provides comprehensive coverage of the NHL’s spread across the North American market in the 1920s along with the memorable expansions that began in 1967.Relive some great and painful moments from the debut seasons of forgotten teams such as the Montreal Maroons and California Seals along with fan favorites like the Boston Bruins and New York Rangers. Every first-year NHL roster is covered and nearly 100 players share their memories of playing for hard-luck clubs.
- GenresHockeySportsNonfiction
420 pages, Paperback
First published October 14, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
July 1, 2020
It is a neat set-up. Each era is given a short summary of a couple pages, detailing the status of the league and a little bit of the idea towards expansion (why they did, why those locations were chosen), then each team is chronicled. It looks at the background of the team itself, then goes over the first season of the team. A few sentences conclude this section going over how things went after that, and for still-existing teams he notes his thoughts on how they are doing circa 2012-13 (which I didn't really enjoy; I don't need Laroche's thoughts that the Blue Jackets still have no future, or that the Canucks should keep doing well). He then goes through several players on that first-year team, usually a page or so detailing how they arrived on the team and what they did that first year. For more recent teams he was able to talk to a lot of players, so lots of quotes from them. There is also up to 4 photos of players from that first-year team, usually from that year, which is a nice touch.
In summary it was a great way to organize the book, though a few things could have made it even better: there are references to the expansion drafts, but there is no lists anywhere of the full drafts. And something like a full list of stats from each team would be nice to have as well, or any stats really. He also quickly goes through the earlier teams, giving them only a few pages, while the more modern teams get a fuller treatment (understandable of course, but still). And again the commentary is not that productive. He also made at least one glaring issue: Balsillie did not buy the Predators in 2007, despite his best efforts. And while I can't fault Laroche for this, that the book came out right before the most recent expansion is tough, as it would have been nice to have at least Vegas included.
Overall a useful neat book, especially the notes about players on the expansion teams. You won't learn much more about the expansion process otherwise, but to have it all in one book is a really nice thing to have.
In summary it was a great way to organize the book, though a few things could have made it even better: there are references to the expansion drafts, but there is no lists anywhere of the full drafts. And something like a full list of stats from each team would be nice to have as well, or any stats really. He also quickly goes through the earlier teams, giving them only a few pages, while the more modern teams get a fuller treatment (understandable of course, but still). And again the commentary is not that productive. He also made at least one glaring issue: Balsillie did not buy the Predators in 2007, despite his best efforts. And while I can't fault Laroche for this, that the book came out right before the most recent expansion is tough, as it would have been nice to have at least Vegas included.
Overall a useful neat book, especially the notes about players on the expansion teams. You won't learn much more about the expansion process otherwise, but to have it all in one book is a really nice thing to have.
July 15, 2015
Sports figures will tell you that a good idea is more or less worthless unless it is well executed.
That even applies to books. Case in point is "Changing the Game." Stephen Laroche's reach was longer than his grasp in putting together this publication.
The subject, expansion teams in the National Hockey League, is an interesting one. The league was like an accordian in its first 25 years (1917 to 1942 or so), growing or shrinking due to a variety of factors. The league settled at six teams for another quarter-century, and then started growing and growing. The NHL eventually reached 30 teams.
Along the way, most expansion teams suffer severe growing pains. The league record book is littered with numbers of pure futility from these teams - the Capitals and Senators, for example. The stories behind the numbers - trades, coaching changes, ownership problems, etc. - are just as gruesome.
Laroche, who has a book on trading cards to his credit, has a simple format. Each expansion team, which covers almost every team that entered the league in the past 90 years, gets a chapter. There's a brief overview of the team's history, followed by capsule descriptions of players from that first year. Laroche talked to close to 100 people who played on such teams, starting with those in the six-team expansion of '67 and going through the WHA merger of 1979 (there are a few exceptions after that, but not many). The author also poured over plenty of newspapers, including The Hockey News, and web reference sites.
Alas, plenty goes wrong along the way. Let's start with the biggest one, an error that left me a little stunned. There are a variety of quotes included here from what seems like a variety of sources. Some obviously come from newspapers, others from current interviews. There is no attribution on any of them. What's more, there's not even a "he said" in the middle of most of the quotes; it's simply what was said in quote marks.
The legalities of such matters are tough to determine. Clearly, though, the least that should have been done with borrowed quotes is to write something like "Goyette told the New York Daily News after the game" in the middle of it. Otherwise, you can't tell the difference between the quotes you personally obtained and the quotes someone else contained. That's considered plagerism. I've seen people lose their jobs for this - in fact, that just happened to a Florida writer in the past week. Crediting some hockey writers in the acknowledgements isn't good enough. I'm surprised this aspect of the book made it through the publishing process.
Meanwhile, there is one easy way to tell the difference between new quotes and old ones - a few of the new ones contain profanities. While they were said on the record, they feel out of place here. Removing them wouldn't have hurt the book at all. Those are words best saved for oral histories, if that.
There are other, less important issues here:
* Some of the capsules are only a couple of paragraphs long, really too short to be of much use. Since not every player is profiled, why bother? The book is more than 400 pages as it is. And the writing style in them has sort of a "gee whiz" approach. This includes recap of the odd good game for a player, such as a two-point night for a defenseman, without much context. The author sure likes his game-winning goals, even though at times it's pretty useless in determining an important goal (as in an 8-0 game). That also applies to a description of someone like Dickie Moore, who becomes "ageless" for scoring a goal in a playoff series (he actually had a good series and five more goals in 1968, although you wouldn't know it by reading this), or that Gordie Howe "hadn't lost a step" while playing hockey in his late 40s - dubious at best.
* Statistical recaps of each team's season would have been very handy - even if it's just a roster with goals, assists, points, penalty minutes, etc.. That would have filled in several gaps in the player capsules.
* There are very few interviews with coaches for the expansion teams, and none with general managers, other team officials, or media representatives. Such material could have been useful, especially in the initial team history which is quite dry. A few laughs would have been nice along the way.
* Expansion drafts are ugly processes. The rules have different every time, which affects how those teams are put together. There are references to it in the player capsules, as they pertain to how a player arrived with the expansion team, but it's confusing. A brief description of each year's method of dispersing talent would have been helpful, and the list of expansion selections by team over the years would have been nice too. (Based on my Kindle copy, it was planned - but the finished product doesn't have it.) It is particularly needed for the WHA teams of 1979, because that merger featured a bizarre set of ways to send players bouncing around the NHL.
In fairness, this book certainly displays the effort that went into it. There are some facts in here that are relatively unknown, and some of the first-person comments are interesting.
That's what makes "Changing the Game" frustrating, and that's the reason why it's not ranked lower here. It's easy to wish it were better. Let's hope Laroche learns some major lessons - particularly on attribution - and tries again, because he obviously has a passion for the game.
That even applies to books. Case in point is "Changing the Game." Stephen Laroche's reach was longer than his grasp in putting together this publication.
The subject, expansion teams in the National Hockey League, is an interesting one. The league was like an accordian in its first 25 years (1917 to 1942 or so), growing or shrinking due to a variety of factors. The league settled at six teams for another quarter-century, and then started growing and growing. The NHL eventually reached 30 teams.
Along the way, most expansion teams suffer severe growing pains. The league record book is littered with numbers of pure futility from these teams - the Capitals and Senators, for example. The stories behind the numbers - trades, coaching changes, ownership problems, etc. - are just as gruesome.
Laroche, who has a book on trading cards to his credit, has a simple format. Each expansion team, which covers almost every team that entered the league in the past 90 years, gets a chapter. There's a brief overview of the team's history, followed by capsule descriptions of players from that first year. Laroche talked to close to 100 people who played on such teams, starting with those in the six-team expansion of '67 and going through the WHA merger of 1979 (there are a few exceptions after that, but not many). The author also poured over plenty of newspapers, including The Hockey News, and web reference sites.
Alas, plenty goes wrong along the way. Let's start with the biggest one, an error that left me a little stunned. There are a variety of quotes included here from what seems like a variety of sources. Some obviously come from newspapers, others from current interviews. There is no attribution on any of them. What's more, there's not even a "he said" in the middle of most of the quotes; it's simply what was said in quote marks.
The legalities of such matters are tough to determine. Clearly, though, the least that should have been done with borrowed quotes is to write something like "Goyette told the New York Daily News after the game" in the middle of it. Otherwise, you can't tell the difference between the quotes you personally obtained and the quotes someone else contained. That's considered plagerism. I've seen people lose their jobs for this - in fact, that just happened to a Florida writer in the past week. Crediting some hockey writers in the acknowledgements isn't good enough. I'm surprised this aspect of the book made it through the publishing process.
Meanwhile, there is one easy way to tell the difference between new quotes and old ones - a few of the new ones contain profanities. While they were said on the record, they feel out of place here. Removing them wouldn't have hurt the book at all. Those are words best saved for oral histories, if that.
There are other, less important issues here:
* Some of the capsules are only a couple of paragraphs long, really too short to be of much use. Since not every player is profiled, why bother? The book is more than 400 pages as it is. And the writing style in them has sort of a "gee whiz" approach. This includes recap of the odd good game for a player, such as a two-point night for a defenseman, without much context. The author sure likes his game-winning goals, even though at times it's pretty useless in determining an important goal (as in an 8-0 game). That also applies to a description of someone like Dickie Moore, who becomes "ageless" for scoring a goal in a playoff series (he actually had a good series and five more goals in 1968, although you wouldn't know it by reading this), or that Gordie Howe "hadn't lost a step" while playing hockey in his late 40s - dubious at best.
* Statistical recaps of each team's season would have been very handy - even if it's just a roster with goals, assists, points, penalty minutes, etc.. That would have filled in several gaps in the player capsules.
* There are very few interviews with coaches for the expansion teams, and none with general managers, other team officials, or media representatives. Such material could have been useful, especially in the initial team history which is quite dry. A few laughs would have been nice along the way.
* Expansion drafts are ugly processes. The rules have different every time, which affects how those teams are put together. There are references to it in the player capsules, as they pertain to how a player arrived with the expansion team, but it's confusing. A brief description of each year's method of dispersing talent would have been helpful, and the list of expansion selections by team over the years would have been nice too. (Based on my Kindle copy, it was planned - but the finished product doesn't have it.) It is particularly needed for the WHA teams of 1979, because that merger featured a bizarre set of ways to send players bouncing around the NHL.
In fairness, this book certainly displays the effort that went into it. There are some facts in here that are relatively unknown, and some of the first-person comments are interesting.
That's what makes "Changing the Game" frustrating, and that's the reason why it's not ranked lower here. It's easy to wish it were better. Let's hope Laroche learns some major lessons - particularly on attribution - and tries again, because he obviously has a passion for the game.
July 22, 2023
Really interesting, but the writing style is kind of dull and tends to drag on at times.
March 29, 2015
3.5 Stars.
This book was generally very interesting, and I learned some fun facts. I did, however, have 2 major issues with it that kept me from loving it. 1) Some teams had a lot more written about them than others, and some players' write-ups read a bit like wikipedia articles and didn't have anything really interesting or insightful in them. The books could have used some editing to make sections more equal and write-ups more interesting. 2) The book just ended after the chapter on the Wild. There was no conclusion - it just went straight to the acknowledgements. This made the book feel unfinished.
I also didn't love the way the author wrote about how the teams were doing at publication time, because that will result in portions of the book becoming quickly outdated. Some parts are already outdated, such as the portrayal of Columbus as a struggling team, when they in fact made the playoffs this year.
Received from NetGalley.
This book was generally very interesting, and I learned some fun facts. I did, however, have 2 major issues with it that kept me from loving it. 1) Some teams had a lot more written about them than others, and some players' write-ups read a bit like wikipedia articles and didn't have anything really interesting or insightful in them. The books could have used some editing to make sections more equal and write-ups more interesting. 2) The book just ended after the chapter on the Wild. There was no conclusion - it just went straight to the acknowledgements. This made the book feel unfinished.
I also didn't love the way the author wrote about how the teams were doing at publication time, because that will result in portions of the book becoming quickly outdated. Some parts are already outdated, such as the portrayal of Columbus as a struggling team, when they in fact made the playoffs this year.
Received from NetGalley.
March 8, 2015
Best used as a reference guide; read for the #ecwchallenge
There's a staggering amount of information presented, though it can feel a little dry at times (and a list of references would have been appreciated). The short chapters, while briskly edited, sometimes left me wanting more; all the expansion teams' hard-luck seasons tended to blend together, and sometimes I wondered why some players earned a mention while others didn't. I personally would have enjoyed more about the logistics of the various expansions and the NHL/WHA rivalry; there's a lot of interesting material to mine there, but the chapter format ensured that the subject didn't get explored fully. Even so, the book could be very useful as a reference guide, and will likely serve as a jumping-off point for those who wish to learn more.
September 21, 2015
This book is filled with information on every hockey team before the original six up to today’s teams. There is some information on the top players from the team in each chapter of section, and of course I am sure it was difficult for him to settle on players from some of the better teams. It is really difficult to talk about every team and I was not expecting that. Though I was expecting a history book. He does take you from the early 1900’s through the 20’s to the original six and then on to expansion, the WHL, another expansion, and the lastly some of the newer teams. He goes over some of the players like I mentioned, and rule changes, but mostly it is filled with information about the teams and some of the early stars of those teams and how they came to be. An interesting book full of a lot of information. I got this book from net galley.
December 26, 2016
Changing the Game is an interesting and informative look at the history of NHL expansion that I decided to read after Las Vegas unveiled their new NHL team logo for the 2017 hockey season. While it might seem a bit repetative once you realize that all expansion teams encounted the same growing pains early on, Changing the Game is nonetheless an enjoyable read for fans of any sport. If you're a fan of the NBA or NFL, you'll recognize similarities between the NHL/WHL merger and the mergers of the NBA/ABA and NHL/AFL. That being said, this is definitely a book for hockey fans. Perhaps the most enjoyable part of the book for me was that it helped me chart the (often confusing) relocations (and re-relocations) of teams over the years.
January 10, 2017
A good starter book into the history of the NHL & its expansion teams, and full of fun anecdotes; but I wish Laroche had cited his sources better. Some of the stories he glossed over I really would have liked to read more about.
February 11, 2025
Review for Changing the Game can be found on Hockey Blog In Canada.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews