Pond Hockey: Rediscovering The Game – An Entertaining, Novel Way To Get Your Off-Season Hockey Fix

July 10, 2014 by 1 Comment

Photo courtesy Argenta Press

MONTEREY PARK, CA — With about nine weeks until the start of National Hockey League training camps, we’re into that dead period where hockey fans, already desperate for their hockey fix, are forced to choose between playing NHL2014 on their video game console, or watching replays of 2014 Stanley Cup Playoff games on their DVR or on the NHL Network multiple times each, even though they already know the outcome.

Of course, neither of those options are ever enough for hockey fans during this period that should be known as The Dreaded Lull.

Fortunately, there is another option.

Indeed, there are a number of good hockey books available, many about former NHL stars. But a recent book bucks that trend, Instead, it’s a novel about the game and time when the game was much simpler compared to what we see today on NHL ice.

Read more of this post

Filed under Books, Exclusives, News Tagged with , , , , , , ,

Breakaway: From Behind The Iron Curtain To The NHL – The Untold Stories Of Hockey’s Great Escapes – A Must-Read For Any Hockey Fan

January 4, 2013 by 2 Comments

Photo courtesy John Wiley
and Sons Canada, Ltd.

LOS ANGELES — Even though there have been indications over the past few days that the National Hockey League and the National Hockey League Players Association are finally negotiating rather than just posturing, and that an agreement on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement could be just days away, it is rather obvious that it won’t take much for the current negotiations to collapse.

Meanwhile, time marches on without the NHL on the ice. Many are looking for substitutes for their desperately-needed hockey fix. Catching an American Hockey League, ECHL, or junior league game, if you are lucky enough to have a team nearby, is probably the best substitute. But another way to help fill the void is to pick up a good hockey book, and a great choice is Breakaway: From Behind The Iron Curtain To The NHL – The Untold Stories Of Hockey’s Great Escapes, by Tal Pinchevsky, published in 2012.

Read more of this post

Filed under Books, Exclusives, History, NHL News Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

LA Kings’ Jordan Nolan Honors Family, Community Back Home In Garden River With Stanley Cup

November 18, 2012 by 11 Comments

LA Kings left wing Jordan Nolan is shown here during his “Day With The Cup” on August 20, 2012, in his hometown of Garden River, Ontario.
(click to view larger image)
Photo: Howie Borrow/Hockey Hall of Fame
via the Los Angeles Kings

LOS ANGELES — Like other young National Hockey League players who are biding their time, waiting for the NHL lockout to end, Los Angeles Kings left wing Jordan Nolan is back in the American Hockey League, having returned to the Kings’ primary minor league affiliate, the Manchester Monarchs.

But Nolan, 23, has gotten off to a slow start after suffering a broken right pinky finger during a fight in the first game of the season.

“[The healing process] is going well,” Nolan told Frozen Royalty during an exclusive interview. “I’m still working out and skating.”

“[Nolan has] been skating, but he’s still a ways away,” said Monarchs head coach Mark Morris.

Nolan, who is listed as week-to-week, is not only back in Manchester again, but he is also back with an old roommate.

“[Defenseman] Jake Muzzin and I are living together,” said Nolan. “We lived together the past three years. The first year was Jake, [defenseman] Andrew Campbell, [left wing] Dwight King and myself. Last year, it was Muzzin, King and myself. But this year, it’s just Read more of this post

Filed under Audio/Video, Exclusives, News, NHL News, Stanley Cup Playoffs Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Author, Hockey Writer Brian Kennedy Reads From His New Book, My Country Is Hockey, on February 9 in Pasadena, CA

February 6, 2012 by Leave a comment

To download a printable flyer,
click on the image above.

PASADENA, CA — Author Brian Kennedy, a freelance hockey writer who covers the Los Angeles Kings and the Anaheim Ducks for Inside Hockey, will read from his new book, My Country Is Hockey (Edmonton, Argenta Press, 2011), at Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena, on Thursday, February 9, 2012, at 7:00 PM.

The book explores the deep roots of Canada’s hockey obsession, which has become an integral part of the national mythology. Among the topics Kennedy takes up are the violence in the game, French-English rivalries, the modern definition of childhood, and Canada’s relationship with its closest neighbor, the United States. Read more of this post

Filed under Books, News, NHL News Tagged with , , , , , , , ,

Brian Kennedy’s My Country Is Hockey Is A Revealing, Insightful, Must-Read Book

December 21, 2011 by 3 Comments

Photo: Argenta Press

MONTEREY PARK, CA — Here in the United States, especially for those of us who did not grow up in the Northeast, or in states like Minnesota, where kids have the opportunity to play hockey on a frozen pond, or where road hockey games have been popular for many, many years, that innocent and pure part of the game remains a mystery.

Author and scholar Brian Kennedy, Ph.D., a native of Montreal, an Associate Professor of English at Pasadena City College, and a freelance hockey writer who covers the Los Angeles Kings and Anaheim Ducks for Inside Hockey, previously wrote two books, Growing Up Hockey: The Life and Times of Everyone Who Ever Loved The Game, and Living The Hockey Dream: Interviews and Personal Stories From NHL Superstars and Other Lovers of The Game, in which he gave readers a good look into how hockey is so deeply rooted in Canadian culture and in the psyche of Canadians.

But in his new book, My Country Is Hockey: How Hockey Explains Canadian Culture, History, Politics, Heroes, French-English Rivalry and Who We Are As Canadians, Kennedy goes for the jugular in that regard, taking great pains to point out how hockey is inextricably intertwined with just about all things Canadian, heavily influencing Canadian thought, behavior, politics, and so much more, while also looking at how the purity and simple joy of the game is being lost. Read more of this post

Filed under Books, Exclusives, History, News, NHL News Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

← Older posts