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Tropic of Hockey: My Search for the Game in Unlikely Places
One hot afternoon in 1998, Dave Bidini – who loves hockey, watches it, plays it, and breathes it – found the Stanley Cup final so tedious to watch that at one point he clicked channels to Martha Stewart – and never switched back. This made him wonder where in the world the game might exist free of the complications of professional sport. He set out to find the tropic of hockey.
His quest took him to a rink on the seventh storey of a mall in Hong Kong – a rink encircled by a dragon-headed roller coaster – and to the gritty city of Harbin in northern China, where a version of hockey has been played for 600 years; to Dubai in the desert of the United Emirates, where hockey is brand new and incredulous Bedouin drop by the Al Ain rink to touch the ice; and to Transylvania, where the game is a war between Romanians and ethnic Hungarians, who were introduced to hockey by a 1929 newsreel of Canadians chasing the puck.
Bidini’s encounters with odd-sized rinks and players of wildly different talents and experiences have inspired him to interweave his stories of hockey in unlikely places with funny and eyebrow-raising stories about places and players back in Canada. As a bonus, readers are also treated to some striking observations about the game, its fans, and the testosterone, the profanity, and the moments of grace that enrich it.
His quest took him to a rink on the seventh storey of a mall in Hong Kong – a rink encircled by a dragon-headed roller coaster – and to the gritty city of Harbin in northern China, where a version of hockey has been played for 600 years; to Dubai in the desert of the United Emirates, where hockey is brand new and incredulous Bedouin drop by the Al Ain rink to touch the ice; and to Transylvania, where the game is a war between Romanians and ethnic Hungarians, who were introduced to hockey by a 1929 newsreel of Canadians chasing the puck.
Bidini’s encounters with odd-sized rinks and players of wildly different talents and experiences have inspired him to interweave his stories of hockey in unlikely places with funny and eyebrow-raising stories about places and players back in Canada. As a bonus, readers are also treated to some striking observations about the game, its fans, and the testosterone, the profanity, and the moments of grace that enrich it.
312 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2000
6 people are currently reading
256 people want to read
About the author
Dave Bidini
15 books52 followersDAVE BIDINI is the author of nine books. His play, "The Five Hole Stories," was performed by One Yellow Rabbit and toured Canada in winter, 2009, and his two "hockumentaries," The Hockey Nomad and The Hockey Nomad Goes To Russia were Gemini-nominated films, and The Hockey Nomad won for Best Documentary.
Bidini is the recipient of numerous National Magazine Awards, and is a weekly columnist in The National Post. In 1994, his former band, Rheostatics, won a Genie Award for the song 'Claire' (from the film Whale Music), and two of their albums were included in the Top 20 Canadian Albums of All Time. His first hockey book, Tropic of Hockey, was named one of the Top 100 Canadian Books of All Time by McCllland and Stewart, and his baseball odyssey, Baseballissimo, is currently being made into a feature film.
He is a board member of Street Soccer Canada, and has attended two Homeless World Cups, traveling with Team Canada to Melbourne and Milan.
David Bidini lives in Toronto with his wife, guitarist Janet Morassutti, and their two children.
Bidini is the recipient of numerous National Magazine Awards, and is a weekly columnist in The National Post. In 1994, his former band, Rheostatics, won a Genie Award for the song 'Claire' (from the film Whale Music), and two of their albums were included in the Top 20 Canadian Albums of All Time. His first hockey book, Tropic of Hockey, was named one of the Top 100 Canadian Books of All Time by McCllland and Stewart, and his baseball odyssey, Baseballissimo, is currently being made into a feature film.
He is a board member of Street Soccer Canada, and has attended two Homeless World Cups, traveling with Team Canada to Melbourne and Milan.
David Bidini lives in Toronto with his wife, guitarist Janet Morassutti, and their two children.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
April 30, 2015
It's more of a travel memoir than a hockey book. I liked most of it. A few things bothered me.
First, Dave Bidini's goal for his hockey trip was to find the game being played in interesting and obscure places; places where one would ask oneself, "I wonder what a hockey game in Transylvania is like" (pretty awesome apparently). He made his trip in 1998 and published this book in 2000. He has a lot of negative things to say regarding the state of professional hockey at the end of the last century (his reason for taking the trip in the first place) and there have been some recent rule changes that has opened up the game a bit more. As I was reading it I was often struck by the thought of how he feels about the pro game today with regards for those changes. I think he probably still hates it.
Second, he is an extremely honest writer, almost to a fault. There are a few moments in the book where I felt a bit like Edward Norton in a support group. That is never a good thing.
Third, according to the afterword he did play hockey in Ireland but ran out of room in the book to include a chapter on it. Seeing as how the book was too short to begin with I think the Ireland excursion should have been included too.
First, Dave Bidini's goal for his hockey trip was to find the game being played in interesting and obscure places; places where one would ask oneself, "I wonder what a hockey game in Transylvania is like" (pretty awesome apparently). He made his trip in 1998 and published this book in 2000. He has a lot of negative things to say regarding the state of professional hockey at the end of the last century (his reason for taking the trip in the first place) and there have been some recent rule changes that has opened up the game a bit more. As I was reading it I was often struck by the thought of how he feels about the pro game today with regards for those changes. I think he probably still hates it.
Second, he is an extremely honest writer, almost to a fault. There are a few moments in the book where I felt a bit like Edward Norton in a support group. That is never a good thing.
Third, according to the afterword he did play hockey in Ireland but ran out of room in the book to include a chapter on it. Seeing as how the book was too short to begin with I think the Ireland excursion should have been included too.
August 27, 2025
I enjoyed this short book. Felt like an ode to hockey that I really enjoyed. The unique stories of hockey cultures in poorer areas really rings home in Canada’s wealth dominated youth culture. Feels like we’re losing the Orrs and Howes growing up skating on lakes. Anyways, good story teller, but a lot of the language in this book has not aged well at all.
April 16, 2023
Bidini brings a wealth of NHL hockey knowledge (plus his love for the Leafs) to this book. His colourful descriptions of the people he meets are a joy, as are his description of the cultures and places he and his wife visit. If you love hockey, this is a wonderful celebration of the game.
January 14, 2018
Dave Bidini is a Canadian Mark Twain. This book is chronicling his trip around the world to find hockey in unexpected places and is one of the most enjoyable books I have read in awhile.
February 24, 2012
So, an okay book, considering I am not a big hockey fan... not really a hockey fan at all, to be truthful. I also admit that I would have a hard time naming even one Rheostatics song. Yet, Dave Bidini made it to Canada Reads this year, so I thought it might be interesting to read something by him.
All in all, not a bad read. The fact that I kept reading owes a lot to the writer's style. Down-to-earth and easy to understand, he also peppers it up with some hilarious outbursts and understatements. His one-word sentences made an interesting impact. With that one word, you knew what he meant.
Part One of the book tells of Bidini's visit to China to participate in a hockey tournament. The are teams from several countries, including the United Arab Emirates, which is where we find Bidini is Part Two. Bidini's chinese is pretty much limited to "I play hockey", but there are a few interesting conversations where he and other players throw players' names at each other and receive nods and grunts as replies. As Bidini explains, he could not have had such a conversation about other topics because they were too complex. But to hockey fans, a player's name evokes images, memories and emotions that are easily shared without words. I also found it hilarioius when Dave skated over to the Chinese bench to talk with the players, and came away ruminating about what a funny friendship it was, and then just as the game gets back under way, one of the guys he befriended slaps him with his stick so hard that Bidini eventually goes back to the bench to find a huge red welt. His response, another one-word sentence, made me howl with laughter.
Although not a hockey person, I was able to enjoy this book because when Bidini writes about hockey he uses a simple language that I can understand. Although there were some hockey terms I was unfamiliar with, not to mention the seemingly neverending parade of players' names, I was able to get the gist of what he was talking about clearly enough to appreciate the moral of the story, or the hilarity of the anecdote. It was also interesting to observe some universal aspects of the sport, like the dad who pushes his son to play better and better, yelling from the sidelines (or from directly behind the net in one young goalie's case) during the whole game, while the son just wishes Dad would go away and let him play and have fun already. One aspect of the game I was less taken with - because I don't understand it, frankly - is how players can go nuts in the heat of the moment, swearing, yelling crude insults and behaving way too brutally for my liking. It's hard for me to reconcile the image of a nice guy traveling the world to discover hockey at the grassroots level with the brutality and the profanity that sometimes exited his mouth during a match. I also really wish that one of the anecdotes in the book about such behavior weren't about a musician in my favorite band. *sigh* But, what can I say. Everyone is human and, although humans are a social animal, they are still, at some basic level, sometimes just animals.
The second part of the book was very interesting in showing how hockey culture was evolving in the desert among arab players. Bidini's narration was hilarious when describing the conditions he expected to see as opposed to what he actually came across. I also liked to read names such as Dubai Penguins and Mighty Camels.
For me, Part Three was the hidden gem in this book. Picking up a book about hockey - about hockey around the world - I don't know why I was surprised, but I WAS, (and pleasantly so!), to find all of Part Three dedicated to Hungarian hockey players. Actually, they were Transylvanian Székelys, but, as any Hungarian will tell you, same difference! So I guess it IS ironic that, similar to how Bidini often said that at certain moments of his journey, he felt like he was home, and that I found a story that was so interesting to me not becuase it was about hockey, but about Hungarians for whom hockey is part of their identity, something that once meant life or death to them in the political turmoil of Romania. I have also added Ciuc, Transylvania to the list of places I would like to see one day. I want to go to Vakar Lajos Arena and look at the photos in the lobby. I want to see a photo of Lajos and his wife Elizabeth and think how funny it is that I am standing there becauase of a book about hockey I read in Canada.
All in all, not a bad read. The fact that I kept reading owes a lot to the writer's style. Down-to-earth and easy to understand, he also peppers it up with some hilarious outbursts and understatements. His one-word sentences made an interesting impact. With that one word, you knew what he meant.
Part One of the book tells of Bidini's visit to China to participate in a hockey tournament. The are teams from several countries, including the United Arab Emirates, which is where we find Bidini is Part Two. Bidini's chinese is pretty much limited to "I play hockey", but there are a few interesting conversations where he and other players throw players' names at each other and receive nods and grunts as replies. As Bidini explains, he could not have had such a conversation about other topics because they were too complex. But to hockey fans, a player's name evokes images, memories and emotions that are easily shared without words. I also found it hilarioius when Dave skated over to the Chinese bench to talk with the players, and came away ruminating about what a funny friendship it was, and then just as the game gets back under way, one of the guys he befriended slaps him with his stick so hard that Bidini eventually goes back to the bench to find a huge red welt. His response, another one-word sentence, made me howl with laughter.
Although not a hockey person, I was able to enjoy this book because when Bidini writes about hockey he uses a simple language that I can understand. Although there were some hockey terms I was unfamiliar with, not to mention the seemingly neverending parade of players' names, I was able to get the gist of what he was talking about clearly enough to appreciate the moral of the story, or the hilarity of the anecdote. It was also interesting to observe some universal aspects of the sport, like the dad who pushes his son to play better and better, yelling from the sidelines (or from directly behind the net in one young goalie's case) during the whole game, while the son just wishes Dad would go away and let him play and have fun already. One aspect of the game I was less taken with - because I don't understand it, frankly - is how players can go nuts in the heat of the moment, swearing, yelling crude insults and behaving way too brutally for my liking. It's hard for me to reconcile the image of a nice guy traveling the world to discover hockey at the grassroots level with the brutality and the profanity that sometimes exited his mouth during a match. I also really wish that one of the anecdotes in the book about such behavior weren't about a musician in my favorite band. *sigh* But, what can I say. Everyone is human and, although humans are a social animal, they are still, at some basic level, sometimes just animals.
The second part of the book was very interesting in showing how hockey culture was evolving in the desert among arab players. Bidini's narration was hilarious when describing the conditions he expected to see as opposed to what he actually came across. I also liked to read names such as Dubai Penguins and Mighty Camels.
For me, Part Three was the hidden gem in this book. Picking up a book about hockey - about hockey around the world - I don't know why I was surprised, but I WAS, (and pleasantly so!), to find all of Part Three dedicated to Hungarian hockey players. Actually, they were Transylvanian Székelys, but, as any Hungarian will tell you, same difference! So I guess it IS ironic that, similar to how Bidini often said that at certain moments of his journey, he felt like he was home, and that I found a story that was so interesting to me not becuase it was about hockey, but about Hungarians for whom hockey is part of their identity, something that once meant life or death to them in the political turmoil of Romania. I have also added Ciuc, Transylvania to the list of places I would like to see one day. I want to go to Vakar Lajos Arena and look at the photos in the lobby. I want to see a photo of Lajos and his wife Elizabeth and think how funny it is that I am standing there becauase of a book about hockey I read in Canada.
February 19, 2025
Review of Tropic of Hockey can be found on Hockey Blog In Canada.
October 9, 2008
An excellent book to read at the hockey rink! I'm sure many of the other parents on my sons' hockey teams wondered why the heck I was cracking up in laughter during early-morning practices. Written by musician/night-league hockey play Dave Bidini, this book is a must read for all hockey fans. A few years after reading the book I still chuckle over the first thing the author thought when looking at an elderly Chinese woman on the Great Wall of China. The great Leaf goalie Johnny Bower! Perhaps this is why the new biography of Bower is called the "China Wall," but more likely I'm missing some other connection...
August 27, 2010
Dave Bidini, bad hockey player, big hockey fan (even if it is the leafs) and punk musician, has a casual, funny writing style, it's kind of like anthony bourdain's cooking show only nowhere near as umm..crude/new jersey/new york - it's definitely canadian. clean punk rock. only in canada.
It is an easy read about strangely enthusiastic and poorly equipped hockey players all over the world. a tribute to bush leagues and kids growing up yelling "car" who just really love to play the game - only these kids are from mongolia, dubai and beyond.
It is an easy read about strangely enthusiastic and poorly equipped hockey players all over the world. a tribute to bush leagues and kids growing up yelling "car" who just really love to play the game - only these kids are from mongolia, dubai and beyond.
January 13, 2014
I don't read much sports writing that doesn't include advertisements for tractors in northern Wisconsin or any number of suggestive banners asking that I categorize myself among niche lonely hearts, let alone about hockey, a sport I've watched once live (Thrashers/Leafs probably six or seven years ago). But this book makes me want to seek more excellent sports writing and to maybe pick up watching hockey so I can complain about how much the NHL is ruining a pure sport. Something it has in common with the NFL.
February 6, 2015
I am not sure what shelves to put this book on! It's a travel memoir about the author's journey around the world looking for hockey. He goes to China, the United Arab Emirates, and Transylvania, checking out these grassroots hockey cultures developing in places that aren't Canada. It's hilarious and touching and smart, and I had a lot of trouble putting it down. I'm pretty sure I would love this book even if I were not on a hockey kick right now.
May 16, 2015
An interesting book most hockey fans will enjoy. The author goes around the world to play hockey in unusually places, a tournament in Hong Kong, playing with a group of older American Tourists in China, a tournament in the UAE and ending with a grudge match in Transylvania. Interesting look at hockey and how it is perceived outside North America.
June 4, 2008
I would give this 4 stars if it only contained the story of Jim Cuddy of Blue Rodeo losing it during a a game and smashing Bidini's head into the ice while screaming "fuck you Bidini!!" But really I don't even like hockey and I liked this book a lot.
October 16, 2013
I loved reading this book!!! It was super funny. Yes, it was more of a bad sense of humor, but isn't that the best type of humor. I recommend this to all hockey players who want to read a good book about hockey. It did help me learn more about the sport I love and made me love it even more:)
August 10, 2009
One part travelog, one part sports memoir, and one part social commentary on hockey. I liked this book so much more than I thought I would.
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November 19, 2013loved it, so real and hilarious. very insightful and you don't even have to like hockey
June 24, 2022
When a writer is characterized as direct then their prose is concise or unsophisticated; The Tropic of Hockey is as direct as a goalie pass on an empty net
April 12, 2015
Entertaining.
July 25, 2010
Fucking brilliant
June 22, 2012
amazing read. makes you want to pack up your gear and go play puck.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews