National Hockey League - The Down goes Brown history of the NHL: the worlds most beautiful sport, the worlds most ridiculous league

THE NHL IS A WEIRD LEAGUE.

Every hockey fan has had this thought. One moment, youre in awe of the speed, skill and intensity that define the sport, shaking your head as a player makes an impossible play, shatters a record or sobs into his first Stanley Cup. The next, everyones wearing earmuffs, Mr. Rogers has shown up and guys in yellow raincoats are officiating playoff games.

Thats just life in the NHL, a league that cant seem to get out of its own way.

No matter how long youve been a hockey fan, youve known the sinking feeling that maybe, just maybe, some of the people in charge here dont always know what theyre doing. And at some point, youve probably wondered: Was it always like this?

The short answer is yes.

As for the longer answer, thats this book.

I was born in Australia and lived in California until I was almost five, so when it came to being a hockey fan, I had some catching up to do. Once I arrived in Canada it didnt take me long to fall in love with the game, and by the time the Islanders dynasty was giving way to Wayne Gretzky and the Oilers, I was hooked. I dove into the games history, reading anything I could get my hands on and listening to older fans tell the stories of the legends who had come before my time.

But there was another half of the fan experience, and it was one I didnt often see reflected in the reference books I signed out of the school library. This part came in bits and pieces, from throwaway lines in Sunday columns and rambling stories from late-night sports radio callers and offhand anecdotes by colour commentators late in blowouts. And it seemed to send a clear message: The games history was filled with epic stories of dramatic moments and heroic performances, to be sure. But there was also plenty of weird stuff that happened in between.

Once I hit my forties and was able to make a career out of writing about hockey, thats the kind of stuff I made sure to mention. To this day, Ill drop in a passing reference to some strange moment or circumstance and find that readers often have no idea what Im talking about. Some assume Im joking; others accuse me of making stuff up. Im not. The NHL has featured so many weird side notes over the years that the story doesnt feel complete without them.

Thats where this book comes in. The idea here is to trace the history of the NHL from its earliest days as a four-team organization (that almost immediately shrank to three when an arena fire left one team homeless) to its current iteration as a multibillion-dollar monstrosity. Well look at the story from a fans perspectivefrom yours and mineand cover the best, the worst and (especially) the downright odd. This book is about the moments that brought you out of your seat, but also the ones that left you just shaking your head. Because Lord knows, the NHL has given us plenty of both.

To tell that tale, well have to go back to the start, more than a century ago.