General posts, including essays and discussions.
Since 2012, I’ve been a member of a stand-up group of individuals who come together every second year to talk shop and play a game of shinny. We call the meeting The Hockey Conference and it attracts scholars and other like-minded individuals who study and appreciate the sport from sociological, historical, literary, economic, kinesiological, and…
Last October I started a (fledgling) campaign to eradicate sock tape from the game of ice hockey. A tiny campaign it remains, but at least now I know I am not the only one championing the cause. A few weeks ago, a representative from Superior Hockey reached out to advertise their new SokStraps. They seem…
The following is an excerpt from C.L.R. James book, Beyond a Boundary. It was written in 1963 about cricket in the West Indies, but while I was reading it on my commute yesterday this passage stood out as painfully relevant: But that is not why I remember Matthew. For ne’er-do-well, in fact vicious character, as…
By Matt Ventresca Last Friday, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman was deposed in a private hearing in New York as part of the substantive legal action regarding the league’s mishandling of head injuries. The lawsuit is on behalf of at least 60 former players who sustained concussions during their pro hockey careers. This list includes some…
“I never thought of Terry Ryan’s hockey career as memorable until I picked up a copy of his soon-to-be-published book, Tales of a First-Round Nothing: My Life as an NHL Footnote…The book is an honest, poignant and often funny look at the life of a player on the fringe.” – Pat Hickey, Montreal Gazette Tales…
Photo by Courtney Szto “Tootoo’s book is a confession, consequences be damned. And it’s motivated by the same middle-finger-to-the-world attitude that got him from Rankin Inlet all the way to the NHL.” (The Hockey News, 2014) Summer time means summer reading. While others are thumbing through the new E.L. James series, I am catching up…
Editor’s Note: This piece was first published on June 26, 2014 ahead of the 2014 NHL Entry Draft. With the 2015 draft approaching this Friday, it was decided to repost the article given its continuing relevance. In its preview of the 2014 NHL Entry Draft, The Hockey News features a Matt Larkin article entitled “Rising…
Post by Heather Isnor Heather is a PhD student in the Faculty of Applied Health Sciences at Brock University. She previously spent six years at Wilfrid Laurier University, splitting her time between academics in the Kinesiology and Physical Education Department, coaching in the community and running a dance class and intramural hockey on campus. Her…
By E. Martin Nolan Lawrence Martin is a journalist and the author of books on both politics and sport. More importantly, he is the author of the best hockey book that’s out of print. It’s called The Red Machine, on the history of the Soviet hockey program, which dominated international competition before the NHL’s best…
I study masculinity and ice hockey from a sociological perspective, so within that context, I am often asked what I think about Gongshow Gear, a Canadian lifestyle hockey apparel company, and the way it portrays male Junior ice hockey players to society. My opinion of Gongshow is that it’s a company with a bit of a…
Hockey in Society / Hockey dans la société 