A book about the history of hockey taken day by day 365 days a year. What I really liked about this book is that yes he could have given you the information that an average hockey as myself would know. What he really did was give you the actual history of hockey and the information that has made the game stand over time and one that I followed as a kid growing up in Southern California when the Kings became an NHL team, but now as I am much older and appreciate all of the art of the game I am able to see where the sport has come from with books such as these. This is a book that I will read again just because I was interested in the stories and all of the different personalities that you come to find. A very good book.

No matter what day of the year one picks, there is a good hockey story to be told. This book by Mike Commito proves that point by providing an interesting story, historical moment or noteworthy accomplishment that happened on each date on the calendar.

Instead of these entries being very short entries like one would see on a page-a-day calendar, each anecdote by Committo is an extensive account of what happened in the world of professional hockey on that date. While there are some of the more well-known players mentioned, such as Wayne Gretzky and Maurice Richard, some other lesser know accomplishments are also included.

For example, one might not know that in 1980, the Philadelphia Flyers set a record that still stands today. They played 35 consecutive games without losing (25 wins and 10 ties) when they defeated the Buffalo Sabres on January 6. Here, a rarity in the book happens when the same team or player is mentioned on consecutive days as the entry for January 7 is when the streak ended as the Flyers lost that night to the Minnesota North Stars 7-1. (Note: I was at that game and it was one of the most memorable nights I have spent at a hockey rink – the atmosphere was electric)

There are many more stories about well-known and not so well-known players as I have only mentioned two dates here – only 363 more to go. The stories themselves are written well as the reader will learn something new in many of them without getting bogged down with too many details or statistics. The author says as much in the introduction by giving the reader a description of what type of research he did and what topics to find. That was a great aide in reading this book so that it made the book match my expectations. It is one that is recommended for any hockey history buff.

I wish to thank Dundurn for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I am a hockey girl! I love watching, listening to and talking hockey! So a book with a hockey story for every day of the year, um yes please!
I loved the stories and actually cannot wait to go back and follow with one story a day and read them again.
This is a very good book for hockey lovers.

This is a great addition to every hockey lovers collection. Lots of stories, facts and reminding us of why we love this game so much

I love hockey, the history and the stories, statistics and anecdotes and I'm anxious to read through any books that come out. As someone who has read a lot on the topic, I'm always leery of a new book, afraid it will merely retell the most famous of stories. This book is truly a breath of fresh air for a number of reasons. Yes, any book on hockey history has to include a few stories about The Great One, or Gordie Howe or the Montreal Rocket Richard riot, but this one also includes some that aren't familiar to anyone with a passing interest, and several I hadn't seen before.
My other concern was that this was just going to be a glorified "page-a-day" calendar in book form. Even though the format is a day by day, each story/day gets full attention with quick asides and tangents, giving the reader a full view of the impact or relevance of the topic of the day.
I highly recommend this for any hockey fan, whether you're just learning about the history of the game or if you think you've already read it all.

#Hockey365 #NetGalley #Hockey #NHL

Fans will be not disappointed. The book is well documented and Mike knows how to bring the most significant hockey moments with passion and fire. The book covers decades of historical moments of the NHL. Excellent reference book!