There's much more to NHL history than Stanley Cups and big goals. Hockey can be a mean business, especially when it comes to dealings between management and labor. These books provide a look at how the hockey business has helped shape NHL history.
1) Net Worth: Exploding the Myths of Pro Hockey
David Cruise and Alison Griffiths examine how the NHL shafted the players for most of the 20th century. If you want to know why NHL players don't trust their employers, this is a good place to start. Appears to be out of print, but was being carried by a couple of merchants at the time this list was made.
2) Game Misconduct: Alan Eagleson and the Corruption of Hockey
A perfect companion volume to "Net Worth." Russ Conway looks at the corruption and abuse of power that characterized Eagleson's reign as head of the NHL Players' Association. His handling of NHLPA pension monies eventually landed him in prison.
3) Money Players: How Hockey's Greatest Stars Beat the NHL At Its Own Game
This book by Bruce Dowbiggin is somewhat out of date after the owners scored a big victory in the 2004-05 lockout. But it's a good explanation of how the players made huge financial gains in the 1990s, telling the story through the recollections of those who sat in the board rooms and hammered out the contracts. Not to be confused with a book by the same name about the NBA.
4) Men at Play: A Working Understanding of Professional Hockey
Michael A. Robidoux spends some time with a minor pro team, studying the culture and power relationships. He reveals pro hockey as an insecure and high-pressure occupation which, for most players, offers little financial reward and no long-term opportunity.
5) Deception and Doublecross: How the NHL Conquered Hockey
Morey Holzman and Joseph Nieforth go back nearly a century to show how the National Hockey League emerged as a result of rivalries and in-fighting in the old National Hockey Association. Apparently, everyone else in Canada hated Toronto back then, just as they do now.
6) The Game: A Thoughtful and Provocative Look at a Life in Hockey
First published in 1983, Ken Dryden's chronicle of a career with the Montreal Canadiens set a new standard for sports memoirs. It has weak stretches, particularly when Dryden turns philosophical and gets lost in ruminations on The Meaning Of It All. But his journey inside the pro hockey world is honest and unflinching, and most of his insights are timeless. Often called the best hockey book ever, and deservedly so.
7) The Red Machine: The Soviet Quest to Dominate Canada's Game
Published in 1990, it remains an excellent history of how the Soviets got so good, so fast. The various triumphs and defeats of the dynasty were directly linked to how the country developed players and assembled teams. Out of print, but worth tracking down.
