| When two determined teams clash in a game of hockey on ice, the result is a rousing spectacle of speed and skill on skates. Players hurl themselves recklessy in pursuit of a small black puck that can be stickhandled cleverly around opposing players, passed swiftly to a charging teammate or shot with astonishing speed and accuracy at a padded goalie grimly protecting his cage. The crunch of body contact is common, spills and tumbles frequent and minor injuries inevitable. Hockey is for the adventurous, the daring, the thrill seeking. It has little appeal for the timid or the squeamish. |
| William Leggat, writing in Sports Illustrated, once described the violent skills of hockey this way: |
 | | | Hockey is fast, hockey is harsh, hockey is cruel and comical; a game of sticks and stitches, bruises and pratfalls. The best hockey is played in the NHL, because the best skaters, the sharpest shooters, the Quickest goalies and the toughest professionals that can be found, man the rosters. |
| One hundred years of hockey have produced scores of memorable team and individual accomplishments. It would be an easy task to produce thousands of words, complemented by dozens of photographs, about Gordie Howe, Bobby Orr, Wayne Gretzky, the Montreal Canadiens or Team Canada '72. All are names synonymous with excellence, the very best on ice. But this book's intent is to capture the changing face of hockey, touching on the deeds of hockey players, coaches and builders who played huge roles in shaping the fascinating history of the game. Ahead meet the movers and shakers, the builders and backers, the journeymen losers and jubilant winners, all of whom helped elevate hockey to the lofty pinnacle it enjoys today in the ever-changing realm of sport. |
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