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Having covered the last two Olympics and every World Championship since 2000, Lucas Aykroyd is one of the world's leading ice hockey experts.
Here the Canadian journalist picks five books every hockey fan must have. Click to view Top 5 Hockey Books.
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Best Novel (The Last Season, Roy MacGregor) |
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 When it comes to powerful fiction featuring a self-destructive main character, Roy MacGregor's The Last Season is hockey's best answer to Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure and Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Grey. This complex, layered work is worth reading more than once.
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Published in 1983, The Last Season is the story of Felix Batterinski, a Polish-Canadian hockey "goon" who overcomes his rough Northern Ontario upbringing and makes it to the National Hockey League (NHL) through sheer force of will, joining the Philadelphia Flyers during their reign of terror as the two-time Stanley Cup champions. The narrative does not unfold in strict chronological order. Instead, the author jumps purposefully between the early 60s, mid-70s, and early 80s, establishing the build-up of events that leads to Batterinski's last stand as a pro hockey player in Finland and, ultimately, to tragedy. MacGregor adds excerpts from fictional newspaper and magazine articles to increase the semblance of authenticity.
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The Darkness Is in the Details |
 MacGregor, whose articles had appeared in such major Canadian publications as Maclean's and the Toronto Star when this book appeared, knows his stuff. Many of the characters are plainly drawn from real life. Batterinski's hard-bitten, one-eyed junior coach, Teddy "Sugar" Bowles, resembles Ernie "Punch" McLean, who coached the New Westminster Bruins to four Western Hockey League championships. The first time we see our anti-hero in game action, he physically batters (yes, his surname is not idly chosen) a young Bobby Orr, who would later become the greatest and most influential defenseman in hockey history with the Boston Bruins. Touches like these will please the hardcore hockey fan.
But Batterinski isn't merely obsessed with pucks, power plays and paychecks. He's eternally self-conscious, which makes him more plausible as the novel's articulate narrator, but also condemns him to struggle when it comes to his friendships, romantic relationships, and Polish heritage. Over time, he grows more and more paranoid about what others think and write about him: "Sportswriting serves the same purpose in any language — the spreading of lies. You learn two things immediately when you make the NHL: one, you keep your head up; two, you don't trust the press."
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Complex Character |
 Like many hockey players, his true refuge is always on the rink, where he glories in his power to intimidate opponents before the game has even started: "I love this moment, no matter what anthem or what arena or what country, just me on one side and them on the other, everyone wondering what Batterinski is going to do."
MacGregor keeps you wondering how things will turn out too, throughout the decadence and brutality and sadness that pepper these 310 pages. If you can dig up a copy of The Last Season, don't hesitate.
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