With the 2018-2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs now underway, and the Toronto Maple Leafs beginning their campaign to once again be NHL Stanley Cup champions, we thought we’d give you a crash course on The Last Hockey Game.
Bruce McDougall saw his first NHL game at Maple Leaf Gardens between the Canadiens and the Leafs in 1955. He is the author of sixteen books of non-fiction, including biographies of Ted Rogers and Edgar Bronfman Jr. Since The Last Hockey Game, published by Goose Lane Editions, was shortlisted for the 2015 Toronto Book Awards, McDougall has completed a novel about money, art, greed, and innocence in Palm Beach and published several short stories in North American and European literary magazines, including Amsterdam Quarterly, Dark Ink Magazine, Dead Mule, Bindweed Anthology, and Blood & Bourbon. After publishing McDougall’s first book of short stories, Every Minute is a Suicide, The Porcupine’s Quill will publish his second short-story collection next year.
And how will the Leafs fair this year? According to McDougall, "The Leafs look like contenders for the first time in about 20 years, and if we could resurrect the Canadiens, we could even dream again that the two teams might meet in the playoffs."
“Anecdotes, stories and clearly enunciated insights and analysis put The Last Hockey Game right up there on the shelf with Ken Dryden’s The Game.”
“Ripe with description that brings many of hockey's characters from the past back to life, McDougall’s book The Last Hockey Game is an interesting look at how hockey has changed through the lens of just one hockey game — the final game of the 1967 Stanley Cup final.”
“Longtime Canadian business writer McDougall implies nostalgia with his title but is unflinching in his depiction of the rigors of old-time hockey . . . he succeeds in showing how players loved the game in an era when it was all they had.”
“McDougall, who saw his first NHL game at Maple Leaf Gardens between the Leafs and Habs in 1955 when he was five years old, spent a year visiting the archives at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto scouring clippings from a time when players were more approachable and accessible.”
Don’t forget to check out this video of McDougall from the 2015 Toronto Book Awards.
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