Author: Andrew Podnieks
Publisher: HarperCollins Canada
ISBN: 9780002000802
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 183

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Author: Peter Robinson
Publisher: Dundurn
ISBN: 1459706854
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
For many, being a Toronto Maple Leafs fan has become a curse from cradle to grave. False hope, hollow promises, and a mind-numbing lack of success - these words describe the Toronto Maple Leafs and the hockey club’s inexplicable mediocrity over much of the past decade. Author Peter Robinson has attended some 100 games over the past six seasons and has little to show for it except an unquenched thirst that keeps him coming back. Why does a team that hasn’t won a Stanley Cup since 1967, long before many of its followers were even born, have such a hold on its fans? Robinson tries to answer that question and more while detailing what it’s like to love one of the most unlovable teams in all of professional sports. Being a Leafs fan requires a leap of faith every year, girding against inevitable disappointment. This book tells what that’s like, how it got to be that way, and what the future holds for all who worship the Blue and White.

Author: Kelly McParland
Publisher: McClelland & Stewart
ISBN: 0771056842
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 402

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Book Description
While the story of the Toronto Maple Leafs has been told many times, there has never been a full biography of the man who created, built and managed the team, turning it from a small-market collection of second-rate players into the hockey and financial powerhouse that dominated Canadian sports and created a collection of Canadian icons along the way. From the 1920s to the mid-1960s, Conn Smythe was one of the best-known, highest-profile figures in the country -- irascible, tempestuous, outspoken, and controversial. He not only constructed a hockey team that dominated the league for long stretches, but was critical to the growth and shaping of the NHL itself. By building Maple Leaf Gardens and hiring Foster Hewitt to fill Canada's living rooms with weekly broadcasts, he turned Saturday night into hockey night, creating institutions and habits that became central to Canada's character and remain with us today. Smythe's story is much deeper and richer than the tale of a cantankerous hockey owner. Smythe fought in both world wars, fighting at Ypres and Passchendaele in the first war and landing at Normandy in the second. He was wounded in both and spent two years as a POW in a German camp after being shot down in 1917. He grew up in poverty and vowed to escape the life that was so incredibly hard on his family. Smythe was active in politics and ignited a national crisis over conscription that split the Liberal government in two and brought Mackenzie King to the brink of resignation. This book tells the life of one of the country's great characters, a man who helped shape and define us and who left behind national habits and institutions that continue to lay at the heart of what makes Canada, Canada.

Author: Kevin Shea
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781554076369
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Toronto Maple Leafs: Diary of a Dynasty, 1957 -- 1967 chronicles those wonderful seasons when the Toronto Maple Leafs skyrocketed from last place in the NHL to become the powerhouse team of the decade.

Author: Kirstie McLellan Day
Publisher: Triumph Books
ISBN: 1641252448
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 371

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Book Description
Curtis Joseph, known affectionately to hockey fans around the world as Cujo, was an unlikely NHL superstar. The boy from Keswick, Ontario, didn't put on a pair of skates until most kids his age were already far along in organized hockey, and he was passed over by every team in the NHL draft. Despite an unorthodox start, he would go on to play 18 seasons with the St. Louis Blues, Edmonton Oilers, Toronto Maple Leafs, Detroit Red Wings, Phoenix Coyotes, and Calgary Flames, winning an Olympic gold medal along the way.For the first time, in this revealing memoir, Joseph talks about his highly unusual upbringing and what led him to pursue hockey. Fans will not want to miss this untold story of perseverance and finding one's own path.

Author: Lance Hornby
Publisher: If These Walls Could Talk
ISBN: 9781629375960
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Chronicling the Maple Leafs for 35 years, longtime Toronto Sun beat reporter Lance Hornby provides access into the Maple Leafs' inner sanctum as only he can. From the heyday of the 1940s when Toronto won five Stanley Cups in Maple Leaf Gardens to the current star-laden era with Auston Matthews and John Tavares, this book provides a one-of-a-kind, insider's look into the great moments and interesting anecdotes from the Leafs' storied history. Read about how a lifetime pass to Leafs games was lost in a poker game; why Charlie Conacher dangled King Clancy by his feet from an open hotel window; how Mike Babcock learned he was related to Dave Keon; the wild times of the historic Gardens during the chaotic Harold Ballard era; and the legendary pranks of Doug Gilmour, whose sense of humour only was rivaled by his skill on the ice.

Author: Rick Vaive
Publisher: Vintage Canada
ISBN: 0735280312
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 281

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Book Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER Rick Vaive sets the record straight as he tells his story of turmoil in Toronto's Ballard years (and with Don Cherry's Mississauga Ice Dogs), growing up in an environment filled with alcohol and alcoholism, and his own struggles and battles. In the storied history of the Toronto Maple Leafs, no player scored fifty goals in a season until Rick Vaive in 1981-82--and he did it three years in a row. So why isn't his number 22 hanging from the rafters of the Leafs' rink and his name as revered in Leafs lore as more recent stars like Gilmour, Sundin and Clark? You could blame it on a team that lost far more than it won. You could blame Harold Ballard and his erratic ownership. You could blame the fans, the media... but Rick Vaive doesn't blame anybody. Sometimes, life just doesn't go your way. Growing up in a household plagued by alcoholism, the gifted young hockey player took shelter in the company of his grandmother and a blind and severely disabled uncle. Rick learned quickly that there are more valuable things in life than hockey. Even after his promising coaching career stopped dead when it ran into Don Cherry in Mississauga--one of the worst seasons in Ontario junior hockey history--he still doesn't point fingers. Life is too sweet for regrets, but learning that lesson can be one hell of a ride.

Author: Damien Cox
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0735234787
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Nominated for the 2019 Toronto Heritage Book Award We may never see a playoff series like it again. Before Gary Bettman, and the lockouts. Before all the NHL's old barns were torn down to make way for bigger, glitzier rinks. Before expansion and parity across the league, just about anything could happen on the ice. And it often did. It was an era when huge personalities dominated the sport; and willpower was often enough to win games. And in the spring of 1993, some of the biggest talents and biggest personalities were on a collision course. The Cinderella Maple Leafs had somehow beaten the mighty Red Wings and then, just as improbably, the St. Louis Blues. Wayne Gretzky's Kings had just torn through the Flames and the Canucks. When they faced each other in the conference final, the result would be a series that fans still talk about passionately 25 years later. Taking us back to that feverish spring, The Last Good Year gives an intimate account not just of an era-defining seven games, but of what the series meant to the men who were changed by it: Marty McSorley, the tough guy who took his whole team on his shoulders; Doug Gilmour, the emerging superstar; celebrity owner Bruce McNall; Bill Berg, who went from unknown to famous when the Leafs claimed him on waivers; Kelly Hrudey, the Kings' goalie who would go on to become a Hockey Night in Canada broadcaster; Kerry Fraser, who would become the game's most infamous referee; and two very different captains, Toronto's bull in a china shop, Wendel Clark, and the immortal Wayne Gretzky. Fast-paced, authoritative, and galvanized by the same love of the game that made the series so unforgettable, The Last Good Year is a glorious testament to a moment hockey fans will never forget.

Author: Eric Zweig
Publisher: Dundurn
ISBN: 1459736206
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 457

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Book Description
A complete oral history of Canada’s most iconic team, compiled from interviews with some of the biggest names in hockey, then and now. Eric Zweig takes readers through the storied history of the Leafs through the eyes of their players, coaches, managers, and fans.

Author: Mike Leonetti
Publisher: Scholastic Canada
ISBN: 1443107433
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 34

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Book Description
This nostalgic tale of a young boy's love for the Toronto Maple Leafs is now available from Scholastic! Journey back to 1976 and meet Michael, who wants to be just like his hero Darryl Sittler, captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs. From his living room perch in front of the television, Michael watches Hockey Night in Canada and dreams of playing for the Leafs. He sets out with his father on a search for a sweater that he can proudly wear on the ice while playing with his friends. He tries every store only to find out they are sold out. He tries one more, at Maple Leaf Gardens, and although they, too, have sold out of the Sittler sweater, Michael's father is able to get tickets to what will be an historic game for the Leafs' captain! As Michael roots Sittler on, he learns that there is much more to the love of hockey than just having the sweater of your favourite player.