It's Our Game

January 19, 2015
Instead of focusing on the backroom machinations of the politically-charged Hockey Canada entity, McKinley wisely chooses to put the spotlight on the ice. The colorful stories he shares from the past century are very much moments in time, not full biographies, as the reader bounces like a caroming rubber puck from the Olympics to the professionals, from the Spengler Cup to the World Championships, from the men's teams to the women, from the World Juniors to key figures behind the scenes like the philanthropic Doc Seaman, the wise teacher and visionary Father David Bauer, and the unavoidable Alan Eagleson. Founded in 1914, the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association would grow into the powerbroker that it is internationally today. The author addresses the "breadth and complexity" that the CAHA faced in a "vast country" in the introduction, but those terms apply equally to the efforts to document 100 years; people and events are left sitting on the bench out of necessity. With entertaining prose, and incredible photos and artifacts, it's a shame that so many of the players and figures in the images are left unidentified, preventing it from becoming a championship book. Agent: Rick Broadhead.