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The Toronto Maple Leafs: The Complete Oral History
A complete history of the Toronto Maple Leafs, as told by the players, coaches, and reporters.
On December 19, 1917, the Toronto Arenas took to the ice for the first NHL game ever played. Over the next hundred years, the franchise changed names twice, home rinks twice, and won 13 Stanley Cups on its way to becoming one of the most successful and storied franchises in NHL history.
The Toronto Maple Leafs: The Complete Oral History gives the most comprehensive record of the team from its formation to the present day. With first-hand accounts of some of the biggest names ever to play the game — Syl Apps, Darryl Sittler, Mats Sundin — as well as coaches, managers, and commentators, Eric Zweig gives readers the full insider history of Canada’s most iconic team.
On December 19, 1917, the Toronto Arenas took to the ice for the first NHL game ever played. Over the next hundred years, the franchise changed names twice, home rinks twice, and won 13 Stanley Cups on its way to becoming one of the most successful and storied franchises in NHL history.
The Toronto Maple Leafs: The Complete Oral History gives the most comprehensive record of the team from its formation to the present day. With first-hand accounts of some of the biggest names ever to play the game — Syl Apps, Darryl Sittler, Mats Sundin — as well as coaches, managers, and commentators, Eric Zweig gives readers the full insider history of Canada’s most iconic team.
456 pages, ebook
Published October 28, 2017
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26 people want to read
About the author
Eric Zweig
68 books24 followersBy the age of ten Eric Zweig was already a budding sports fanatic who was filling his school news books with game reports instead of current events. Eric’s first book, Hockey Night in the Dominion of Canada (1992), was an historical novel set in the early days of professional hockey. He has been working with Dan Diamond and Associates, consulting publisher to the National Hockey League, since 1996. As a freelance writer, Eric is the author or co-author of many non-fiction sports books for adults and children. He is a member of the Society for International Hockey Research and the Society for American Baseball Research. A former member of the Toronto Blue Jays grounds crew, he still has a champagne bottle from the club’s first American League East Division title celebration in 1985.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
March 5, 2018
Great read for hockey nerds – tons of in-depth knowledge and untold stories from the earliest years of the team, through brutal years of losing, all the way to their current success.
December 25, 2017
The Toronto Maple Leafs are one of the most iconic franchises in all of sports and they recently celebrated their 100th anniversary. The team has changed its name twice and its home arena twice to go along with 13 Stanley Cup championships. That makes for a very colorful history – that history is told in a unique manner by this wonderful book by Eric Zweig.
What makes this book unique is that instead of writing the story as a narrative after doing the research, he takes quotes and snippets from his sources and simply puts them together with very small doses of narrative between topics. The reader will still get the complete story of the player discussed, the playoff series being contested (I thought this format worked especially well for the years when the Leafs won the Stanley Cup) or the general manager’s vision for the team – whether rebuilding, re-tooling or just starting out in 1917. It does make for a slower read, as a reader will have to carefully read each article or quote, but it does teach the reader a lot about the team.
The reader will also learn a lot about the men behind the history of the Maple Leafs – from King Clancy and Conn Smythe to Austen Matthews and Mike Babcock, the personal stories are just as engrossing as those of the games. The reader will know that these quotes and excerpts from newspapers, books and other sources will tell how important the subjects are to the history of the team.
Every important and memorable event in team history is covered. From the historic comeback in 1942 to win the Stanley Cup (the Leafs became the first team to rally from a 3 games to none deficit in that year’s finals) to the devastating 4-1 lead that was blown to the Bruins in game 7 in the 2013 playoffs, the same style that worked for the team and the people tells the story of the emotions, both highs and lows, that were felt by all.
This book is a complete and comprehensive history of the team that is rich in detail, exhaustive in its research and will be loved by any hockey fan, even if the Leafs are not the reader’s favorite team.
I wish to thank Mr. Zwieg for providing a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
What makes this book unique is that instead of writing the story as a narrative after doing the research, he takes quotes and snippets from his sources and simply puts them together with very small doses of narrative between topics. The reader will still get the complete story of the player discussed, the playoff series being contested (I thought this format worked especially well for the years when the Leafs won the Stanley Cup) or the general manager’s vision for the team – whether rebuilding, re-tooling or just starting out in 1917. It does make for a slower read, as a reader will have to carefully read each article or quote, but it does teach the reader a lot about the team.
The reader will also learn a lot about the men behind the history of the Maple Leafs – from King Clancy and Conn Smythe to Austen Matthews and Mike Babcock, the personal stories are just as engrossing as those of the games. The reader will know that these quotes and excerpts from newspapers, books and other sources will tell how important the subjects are to the history of the team.
Every important and memorable event in team history is covered. From the historic comeback in 1942 to win the Stanley Cup (the Leafs became the first team to rally from a 3 games to none deficit in that year’s finals) to the devastating 4-1 lead that was blown to the Bruins in game 7 in the 2013 playoffs, the same style that worked for the team and the people tells the story of the emotions, both highs and lows, that were felt by all.
This book is a complete and comprehensive history of the team that is rich in detail, exhaustive in its research and will be loved by any hockey fan, even if the Leafs are not the reader’s favorite team.
I wish to thank Mr. Zwieg for providing a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
November 20, 2019
When my beloved Maple Leafs turned 100 in 2017 there were numerous books written about the history of the club. Apart from the club's official book this was my favourite as the author does an amazing job of using primary sources to help the reader better understand what people were thinking as each event in the book is talked about.
February 1, 2018
Fantastic
Born and raised in montreal, I have been a Toronto maple leaf fan since I was 5 years old and still a leaf fan at 79.
Born and raised in montreal, I have been a Toronto maple leaf fan since I was 5 years old and still a leaf fan at 79.
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March 9, 2024I know too much now
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews