The NHL: 100 Years in Pictures and Stories

Since the creation of the National Hockey League in 1917, it has seen so many "seminal moments" that sportswriters Duff (The China Wall) and Dixon (Hockey's Young Guns) must have found it tough to focus on just 100. The most interesting tidbits from this lavishly illustrated book aren't the frequently told tales of Howie Morenz's early stardom and death in 1937, the Rocket Richard riot of 1955, or Wayne Gretzky's many scoring records, but the off-the-ice decisions, such as the introduction of the forward pass in 1929, which would "forever influence the way the game is played"; referees adopting hand signals in 1956; and the establishment of the competing World Hockey Association in 1972. The book is not an official NHL publication, and while it celebrates the NHL's century, it also doesn't shy away from controversies, including assault charges over on-ice incidents and the troubling deaths in recent years of some of the game's tough guys, such as Derek Boogaard and Wade Belak. Each entry is two pages at most, perhaps with a relevant sidebar, so nothing is covered in depth, but the book provides a glimpse of each moment in time. This is a reasonable encapsulation of NHL history that's greatly enhanced by its more than 200 photos. (Oct.)