________________ CM . . . . Volume XXIV Number 16 . . . . December 22, 2017

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Montreal Canadiens. (The Original Six: Celebrating Hockey's History).

Eric Zweig.
St. Catharines, ON: Crabtree, 2017.
32 pp., pbk., hc., & html, $9.95 (pbk.), $26.95 (List RLB), $21.56 (School RLB).
ISBN 978-0-7787-3445-1 (pbk.), ISBN 978-0-7787-3439-0 (RLB), ISBN 978-1-4271-1924-7 (html).

Subject Headings:
Montreal Canadiens-(Hockey team)-Juvenile literature.
Montreal Canadiens-(Hockey team)-History-Juvenile literature.

Grades 5-8 / Ages 10-13.

Review by Dave Jenkinson.

***½ /4

   

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Toronto Maple Leafs. (The Original Six: Celebrating Hockey's History).

Eric Zweig.
St. Catharines, ON: Crabtree, 2017.
32 pp., pbk., hc., & html, $9.95 (pbk.), $26.95 (List RLB), $21.56 (School RLB).
ISBN 978-0-7787-3466-6 (pbk.), ISBN 978-0-7787-3441-3 (RLB), ISBN 978-1-4271-1926-1 (html).

Subject Headings:
Toronto Maple Leafs-(Hockey team)-Juvenile literature.
Toronto Maple Leafs-(Hockey team)-History-Juvenile literature.

Grades 5-8 / Ages 10-13.

Review by Dave Jenkinson.

***½ /4

   

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Boston Bruins. (The Original Six: Celebrating Hockey's History).

Eric Zweig.
St. Catharines, ON: Crabtree, 2017.
32 pp., pbk., hc., & html, $9.95 (pbk.), $26.95 (List RLB), $21.56 (School RLB).
ISBN 978-0-7787-3442-0 (pbk.), ISBN 978-0-7787-3426-0 (RLB), ISBN 978-1-4271-1921-6 (html).

Subject Headings:
Boston Bruins-(Hockey team)-Juvenile literature.
Boston Bruins-(Hockey team)-History-Juvenile literature.

Grades 5-8 / Ages 10-13.

Review by Dave Jenkinson.

***½ /4

   

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Detroit Red Wings. (The Original Six: Celebrating Hockey's History).

Eric Zweig.
St. Catharines, ON: Crabtree, 2017.
32 pp., pbk., hc., & html, $9.95 (pbk.), $26.95 (List RLB), $21.56 (School RLB).
ISBN 978-0-7787-3444-4 (pbk.), ISBN 978-0-7787-3438-3 (RLB), ISBN 978-1-4271-1923-0 (html).

Subject Headings:
Detroit Red Wings-(Hockey team)-Juvenile literature.
Detroit Red Wings-(Hockey team)-History-Juvenile literature.

Grades 5-8 / Ages 10-13.

Review by Dave Jenkinson.

***½ /4

   

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New York Rangers. (The Original Six: Celebrating Hockey's History).

Eric Zweig.
St. Catharines, ON: Crabtree, 2017.
32 pp., pbk., hc., & html, $9.95 (pbk.), $26.95 (List RLB), $21.56 (School RLB).
ISBN 978-0-7787-3465-9 (pbk.), ISBN 978-0-7787-3440-6 (RLB), ISBN 978-1-4271-1925-4 (html).

Subject Headings:
New York Rangers-(Hockey team)-Juvenile literature.
New York Rangers-(Hockey team)-History-Juvenile literature.

Grades 5-8 / Ages 10-13.

Review by Dave Jenkinson.

***½ /4

   

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Chicago Blackhawks. (The Original Six: Celebrating Hockey's History).

Eric Zweig.
St. Catharines, ON: Crabtree, 2017.
32 pp., pbk., hc., & html, $9.95 (pbk.), $26.95 (List RLB), $21.56 (School RLB).
ISBN 978-0-7787-3443-7 (pbk.), ISBN 978-0-7787-3427-2 (RLB), ISBN 978-1-4271-1922-3 (html).

Subject Headings:
Chicago Blackhawks-(Hockey team)-Juvenile literature.
Chicago Blackhawks-(Hockey team)-History-Juvenile literature.

Grades 5-8 / Ages 10-13.

Review by Dave Jenkinson.

***½ /4

   

excerpt:


les Glorieux

The Montreal Canadiens are the NHL's greatest team. If you like to cheer for someone else, you might not think so. But throughout 100 years of NHL history, the numbers don't lie. The first NHL games were played on December 19, 1917. The Canadiens got their first win that night when they defeated the original Ottawa Senators 7–4. Since then, the Canadiens have scored more goals, won more games, and won the Stanley Cup more times than any other franchise in the NHL. They've also had many of the greatest players in hockey history in the their lineup. No wonder fans call them
les Glorieux, meaning The Glorious. (From "The League, The Habs, The Cup" in Montreal Canadiens.)


The Leafs

The NHL was back up to four teams in 1918-20, and it continued to grow. During the 1920s, people wanted to forget all about the war years. They wanted to have fun! Music got jazzier, movies began to talk, and sports fans flocked to stadiums and arenas to cheer for their favorite teams. Soon, the NHL had expanded beyond Canada, adding teams in the United States, too. By the start of the 1926-1927 season, there were 10 teams in the NHL. Toronto's team got another new name that season. On February 14, 1927, Conn Smythe bought the St. Pats and decided to call them the Toronto Maple Leafs. (From "The Original Six" in
Toronto Maple Leafs.)


The Stanley Cup

The Stanley Cup is usually presented to the team captain on the ice after the last game of the finals. Boston didn't have a captain in 1970 or 1972, so the trophy was presented to their longest-serving player, John Bucyk. (From "The Stanley Cup" in
Boston Bruins.)


Gordie the Great

Gordie Howe went to his first NHL training camp with the New York Rangers when he was only 15 years old. A year later, he signed a contract with the Detroit Red Wings. Howe began playing professionally in Detroit's minor league system when he was only 17, and made his Red Wings debut as an 18-year-old on October 16, 1946. When he played his final NHL game on April 11, 1980, he was 52 years old! (From "Dominant in Detroit" in
Detroit Red Wings.)


Ching Johnson

Ching Johnson was an original Ranger in 1926-1927. At 5-foot-11 (180 cm) and 210 pounds (95 kg), he was a huge player of this era and one of the game's hardest hitters. Johnson never added much to the offense, but it was always tough for the other team's forwards to get around him. There was no Norris Trophy back in his day, but when the NHL first began selecting All-Stars in 1930-31, Johnson earned two selections to the First Team and two to the Second Team in the first four seasons. (From "Dominating Defensemen" in
New York Rangers.)


Hats Off!

Bill Mosienko scored the NHL's fastest hat trick on March 23, 1952. The three goals came within 21 seconds in the third period for a 7-6 Blackhawks win over the New York Rangers.

Times: 6:09    6:20    6:30 (From "Blackhawks by the Numbers" in
Chicago Blackhawks.)

With 31 teams now making up the National Hockey League, it is hard to believe that the league began a century ago with just four teams, all in Canada, with only three surviving the first year of play. Between then and the beginning of the 1942-43 season, the number of NHL teams in Canada and the United States fluctuated widely. However, that season marked the beginning of a 25 year period in which the same six teams "were" the NHL. Beginning in 1967, the NHL began to expand by adding new teams, and, since then, the Montreal Canadiens, Toronto Maple Leafs, Boston Bruins, Detroit Red Wings, New York Rangers and Chicago Blackhawks have come to be referred to as "The Original Six".

      As is typical of a Crabtree series, the "The Original Six: Celebrating Hockey's History" books have two-page chapters, in this case 13 per book, that are followed by three pages which incorporate a glossary of words that have been bolded in the text, a few suggestions for further reading and hockey associated websites to explore, a five question multiple choice quiz on the book's content, places to visit in a book's target city, a brief note on the author, and an index. The series is visually attractive, and the books include a generous selection of period photographs as well as numerous engaging diagrams and other figures.

      Eric Zweig was the perfect choice to write this book sextet as he has previously authored numerous hockey related books for a variety of publishers. Despite the areas of content overlap among the books, Zweig has made each book sound fresh, especially on the page dealing with the Stanley Cup where I thought I might find the same content repeated six times. Instead, Zweig drew on his encyclopedic hockey knowledge and created different Stanley Cup content for each book. Zweig's highly readable text is broken up into bite-size pieces.

      While the chapter titles vary among the books, the books all share a largely common structure that begins with a short history of the NHL and the book's specific team. In the chapter on the Stanley Cup, each team's record in winning the trophy is provided. Other chapters deal with the reasons behind a team's uniform colour choices, the arenas in which the team has played and in which they currently play, famous players and significant coaches as well as players who have won individual league awards or have had their jersey numbers retired. The closing pair of chapters offer team trivia and identify each team's historic rivalries.

      Overall, the "The Original Six: Celebrating Hockey's History" series is well-written and produced and should appeal to a middle school audience, especially reluctant readers.

Highly Recommended.

Dave Jenkinson, CM's editor, lives in Winnipeg, MB.



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