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McCown's Law: The 100 Greatest Hockey Arguments
Hockey’s most controversial authority gives you everything you need to know to be Canada’s best-informed armchair coach.
Sports talk-radio personality Bob McCown knows what he’s talking about, and he’s not afraid to say what’s on his mind. Depending on your own strongly held opinions, some of Bob’s will have you cheering in agreement while others will tempt you to throw the book out the window (if you weren’t enjoying the damn thing so much). McCown’s Law will be fuelling and informing heated discussions at the bar for years to come.
A sample of Chairman Bob’s
-The Leafs haven’t won the Stanley Cup in 40 years for a perfectly logical they have the crappiest players.
-It’s time the law put hockey’s most violent offenders in something more restrictive than the penalty box.
-Let’s leave Olympic hockey to the men.
-Eric Lindros won’t end up in the Hockey Hall of Fame, but he still deserves to be mentioned right alongside the all-time greats.
-Slovakia, not Canada, may just be the greatest hockey nation
on Earth.
-The Ottawa Senators. Are these guys a bunch of chokers or what?
Sports talk-radio personality Bob McCown knows what he’s talking about, and he’s not afraid to say what’s on his mind. Depending on your own strongly held opinions, some of Bob’s will have you cheering in agreement while others will tempt you to throw the book out the window (if you weren’t enjoying the damn thing so much). McCown’s Law will be fuelling and informing heated discussions at the bar for years to come.
A sample of Chairman Bob’s
-The Leafs haven’t won the Stanley Cup in 40 years for a perfectly logical they have the crappiest players.
-It’s time the law put hockey’s most violent offenders in something more restrictive than the penalty box.
-Let’s leave Olympic hockey to the men.
-Eric Lindros won’t end up in the Hockey Hall of Fame, but he still deserves to be mentioned right alongside the all-time greats.
-Slovakia, not Canada, may just be the greatest hockey nation
on Earth.
-The Ottawa Senators. Are these guys a bunch of chokers or what?
336 pages, Paperback
First published October 30, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 8, 2011
A poorly conceived, lazily argued, droll and repetitive series of arguments, Bob McCown's "McCown's Law" is already hopelessly dated just a few years after publication and nearly impossible to recommend to any hockey fan.
The book is basically a series of short essays - each about the size and length of a blog post - where McCown presents an argument about hockey. Some are historical flights of fancy (Who would win: the 1972 Summit Series team or the 1980 Olympic team?), others take a serious look at the sport ("Will someone ever die in a hockey fight?" and some are more trivial and fun ("What were the most underachieving teams ever?". While there's a couple of interesting arguments and ideas, most of these arguments aren't even open-lines talk radio affairs. Does anyone really think the NHL was better with one referee?
A more pressing problem is his frequently lazy reasoning. In one essay, he writes about how the comeback win has returned to hockey, as teams are playing to win. In another, he writes how the shootout is ruining hockey: teams sit in leads and wait for the shootout. Well, it's either one or the other, Bob. There's other examples: Gretzky was a tremendous scorer who set records nobody will ever touch - but mostly because he played in an era where scoring was up. But then he'll cite other players from the same era - the Stasny brothers come to mind - as great for their scoring touch.
Other times he relies on empty sportswriting cliches: a goalie with the most wins is better than, teams that win the Cup are better than, this guy was a leader because he cared about winning, etc, ad infinitum, ad nauseum. From page 113: "The biggest thing about (Patrick Roy) was that he was a winner who made everyone around him feel like one, too." Like I said: if you say so, Bob.
Finally, some of his predictions are wildly off the mark: Winnipeg did get it's NHL team back and it wasn't because nobody from the US wanted to own it. The concussion crisis has done more to take fighting and violent hits out of the game than publicly shaming the coaches ever would.
All in all, it's hard to recommend this book: when it's right, it's usually with an opinion any reasonable person would have. And when it's wrong, well, why bother reading a bad argument? It's a shame: McCown is an engaging broadcaster and it's too bad his blunt charm didn't translate to these pages.
The book is basically a series of short essays - each about the size and length of a blog post - where McCown presents an argument about hockey. Some are historical flights of fancy (Who would win: the 1972 Summit Series team or the 1980 Olympic team?), others take a serious look at the sport ("Will someone ever die in a hockey fight?" and some are more trivial and fun ("What were the most underachieving teams ever?". While there's a couple of interesting arguments and ideas, most of these arguments aren't even open-lines talk radio affairs. Does anyone really think the NHL was better with one referee?
A more pressing problem is his frequently lazy reasoning. In one essay, he writes about how the comeback win has returned to hockey, as teams are playing to win. In another, he writes how the shootout is ruining hockey: teams sit in leads and wait for the shootout. Well, it's either one or the other, Bob. There's other examples: Gretzky was a tremendous scorer who set records nobody will ever touch - but mostly because he played in an era where scoring was up. But then he'll cite other players from the same era - the Stasny brothers come to mind - as great for their scoring touch.
Other times he relies on empty sportswriting cliches: a goalie with the most wins is better than, teams that win the Cup are better than, this guy was a leader because he cared about winning, etc, ad infinitum, ad nauseum. From page 113: "The biggest thing about (Patrick Roy) was that he was a winner who made everyone around him feel like one, too." Like I said: if you say so, Bob.
Finally, some of his predictions are wildly off the mark: Winnipeg did get it's NHL team back and it wasn't because nobody from the US wanted to own it. The concussion crisis has done more to take fighting and violent hits out of the game than publicly shaming the coaches ever would.
All in all, it's hard to recommend this book: when it's right, it's usually with an opinion any reasonable person would have. And when it's wrong, well, why bother reading a bad argument? It's a shame: McCown is an engaging broadcaster and it's too bad his blunt charm didn't translate to these pages.
April 15, 2009
Bob McCown, a well respected Canadian sports talk show host gives his opinion on 100 of the issues and debates surrounding the wonderful sport of hockey!
I was skeptical that I would enjoy reading a book that is solely one man's opinion. However, Bob generally does a good job of exploring the issues at hand, and he defends his opinions generally very well.
The book features one of the best stated arguments against fighting in hockey I have ever read,and the variety of topics covered in the book is commendable. From fun and whimsical ("What the NHL Will be like in 10 Years", "The Best Brother Combinations" ) to more serious issues ("Hits to the Head", "The Russian Transfer Dispute"), Bob covers them all!
I found myself nodding my head in agreement most of the time reading this book, and even when I did not agree with Bob on an issue, I generally found his argument to be thought provoking.
Any serious hockey fan would find this book to be an enjoyable exploration of the sport. There's been a new, revised edition out since mine has been published, but it seems to be of equal caliber!
I was skeptical that I would enjoy reading a book that is solely one man's opinion. However, Bob generally does a good job of exploring the issues at hand, and he defends his opinions generally very well.
The book features one of the best stated arguments against fighting in hockey I have ever read,and the variety of topics covered in the book is commendable. From fun and whimsical ("What the NHL Will be like in 10 Years", "The Best Brother Combinations" ) to more serious issues ("Hits to the Head", "The Russian Transfer Dispute"), Bob covers them all!
I found myself nodding my head in agreement most of the time reading this book, and even when I did not agree with Bob on an issue, I generally found his argument to be thought provoking.
Any serious hockey fan would find this book to be an enjoyable exploration of the sport. There's been a new, revised edition out since mine has been published, but it seems to be of equal caliber!
February 19, 2025
Review for McCown's Law can be found on Hockey Blog In Canada.
February 18, 2010
I like hockey!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews