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A League of Our Own: THE STORY OF THE NHL'S FIRST ALL-CANADIAN DIVISION
296 pages, Hardcover
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 31, 2023
In A LEAGUE OF OUR OWN, co-authors Damien Cox and Andrew Podnieks examine the shortened 2021 season - specifically the North Division - as the NHL attempted to navigate the Covid-19 pandemic.
When this book initially hit shelves in April of 2022, I dismissed it as potentially being a thinly-researched cash-grab. Are we really that far enough removed from the season to truly understand the impact? Can there really be enough material to fill two-hundred and ninety-six pages? Especially when you're only focusing on the seven team north division? Well, I was wrong.
Cox and Podnieks break up the book by having individual chapters focus on one team at a time. Obviously, they shine a light on the 2021 season and how each team handled the challenges imposed by the pandemic, but they also go into each franchise's long and storied history as well as the history of previous clubs within their respective cities (Vancouver Millionaires, Toronto Arenas, Montreal Maroons, the original Winnipeg Jets, etc). I felt that this was the true strength of the book.
It was good to see a mention of the problems that had arisen in Calgary following the accusations against then head coach Bill Peters and his treatment of former player Akim Aliu back in 2009, an event that ultimately forced his resignation from the Flames. Unfortunately, Peters is back in the news again recently having accepted a job as head coach of the WHL's Lethbridge Hurricanes (side note: why they're called the Hurricanes when it's a team based in Alberta is beyond me).
It's amazing that many of the cancelled games and depleted rosters had slipped my mind before picking this book up. This is likely due to the fact that the Leafs seemed to escape the worst of it with Vancouver bearing the brunt of it in the North Division. At one point, twenty one active roster members had tested positive causing multiple games to be postponed and rescheduled. Sometimes it is incredible to think the NHL was actually able to pull this off.
The last bit of this book covers the playoffs where the Montreal Canadiens improbably made it to the cup finals against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Unfortunately, I had to relive quite possibly my worst nightmare as a Leafs fan as the authors recapped the Leafs first round collapse against the Habs. If you're a Leafs fan like myself, maybe skip over that. We've suffered enough.
When this book initially hit shelves in April of 2022, I dismissed it as potentially being a thinly-researched cash-grab. Are we really that far enough removed from the season to truly understand the impact? Can there really be enough material to fill two-hundred and ninety-six pages? Especially when you're only focusing on the seven team north division? Well, I was wrong.
Cox and Podnieks break up the book by having individual chapters focus on one team at a time. Obviously, they shine a light on the 2021 season and how each team handled the challenges imposed by the pandemic, but they also go into each franchise's long and storied history as well as the history of previous clubs within their respective cities (Vancouver Millionaires, Toronto Arenas, Montreal Maroons, the original Winnipeg Jets, etc). I felt that this was the true strength of the book.
It was good to see a mention of the problems that had arisen in Calgary following the accusations against then head coach Bill Peters and his treatment of former player Akim Aliu back in 2009, an event that ultimately forced his resignation from the Flames. Unfortunately, Peters is back in the news again recently having accepted a job as head coach of the WHL's Lethbridge Hurricanes (side note: why they're called the Hurricanes when it's a team based in Alberta is beyond me).
It's amazing that many of the cancelled games and depleted rosters had slipped my mind before picking this book up. This is likely due to the fact that the Leafs seemed to escape the worst of it with Vancouver bearing the brunt of it in the North Division. At one point, twenty one active roster members had tested positive causing multiple games to be postponed and rescheduled. Sometimes it is incredible to think the NHL was actually able to pull this off.
The last bit of this book covers the playoffs where the Montreal Canadiens improbably made it to the cup finals against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Unfortunately, I had to relive quite possibly my worst nightmare as a Leafs fan as the authors recapped the Leafs first round collapse against the Habs. If you're a Leafs fan like myself, maybe skip over that. We've suffered enough.
July 6, 2023
Although heavily focused on the 7 Canadian NHL teams, particularly during the season of “The North Division”, each team’s story intricately ties in with other teams’ stories from all the way from pre-NHL days, to current times, post-Covid. An incredibly informative read, packed with details, trades, the business side of hockey, memorable moments from games, and expansion history on which the NHL is founded. I personally found it interesting, although it may be dry or slightly hard to follow without a decent foundational knowledge of NHL history, players, etc. Overall a great read for anyone looking to increase their knowledge of the game!
June 2, 2025
The book looks at the Canadian Division of the NHL during the 2020-21 season, which was created as a result of Covid. It chronicles each team's progress, along with some history of the seven teams, culminating in the playoffs. However the book is full of factual errors, starting with the dust jacket ("The North Division started the 2020-21 NHL season on January 13, 2020") and goes from there, to the point one has to question anything that is written. As a capsule of the unique year it would be a good resource, but even a modicum of basic fact checking would have gone a long way.
December 29, 2024
A decent book that would’ve been much better without the authors venturing into political matters. False claims about certain people and false claims that have never been proven about deaths took a lot away from this publication. Moreover it relied too much on past history as opposed to the actual season.
August 12, 2023
The best part of this book was the history lessons covering events within the Canadian franchises well before the 20-21 all Canadian division. A must read for a hockey fan.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews