Ultimate Hockey

In the grand tradition of Bill James' Baseball Abstracts comes this wonderful book. A knowledgable, thought-provoking trip through the history of hockey. Structured much like the James Abstracts (the authors acknowledge his influence), "Ultimate Hockey" provides anecdotes, player profiles, stats and serious comparisons of great teams and players from the 1880's to the dawn of the 21st century. Fun to read and hard to put down, if one were to own this book and maybe "Total Hockey", it would not be a great exaggeration to call the reference section of one's hockey library complete.

A truly wonderful, well-thought out book, with writing that is both witty and fun to read. It is evident that the writers are extreme hockey enthusiasts, due to the plethora of facts presented in a very entertaining manner. This is not just another stat book...the authors provide many interesting tidbits throughout, including anecdotes, player profiles, births, deaths, and nicknames, as well as all the stats you could ever hope for. The chapters cover a decade at a time, which makes it very easy to look up specific information. Plus, each decade has it's own stats and player profiles. I never imagined that I would purchase a hockey history book and be unable to put it down. Kudos to the authors. I highly recommend this book for personal reading or as a gift to any hockey fans you know.

I don't really know what to say ezxcept that I love Ultimate Hockey and want to know more about how the book came about and where it popped out of. I've been an avid sports book reader for many years now and have all the titles out there ... well, almost. I';d have to rank Ultimate Hockey as one of the finest i've ever invested in. Total Hockey was awesome too, but I didn't really have any *fun* reading through it ... it's too big and kind of expensive. Ultimate Hockey gave me and is still giving me alot of enjoyment. Even Total doesn't go back as far as these guys (125 years) in any depth. And to go all the way to Y2K? Well worth the money. good job guys.