The Best Game You Can Name

Ian A. Andrews is a high-school social sciences teacher and editor of the New Brunswick Teachers’ Association’s Focus.

Choosing lyrics from Stompin’ Tom Connors’s classic song “The Good
Old Hockey Game” for a title, Dave Bidini describes his continued
association with the game he loves. As rhythm guitarist for the
Rheostatics rock band, he equates the life of a musician with the lives
of hockey players of the 1960s and 1970s: “Both took long bus rides,
earned sparse incomes, spent endless time in bars, stayed in countless
bland hotels, ingested a mountain of bad food, and played to half-full
houses.” After more than a decade away from the game, Bidini
“rediscovered” hockey at the age of 34. In this book, he uses his
current team—the Morningstars—and their participation in the annual
Exclaim! Cup hockey tournament for musicians to frame a series of
observations collected from interviews with former professional hockey
players.

Bidini decided to interview retired players via telephone. He
discovered that even though some players may have been “icons,” they
were essentially just “guys,” only too ready to relate interesting
anecdotes about their associations with the stars and the not-quite
stars. The colourful stories Bidini has assembled deal with everything
from dressing-room rituals, to difficulties with contract negotiations,
to excessive partying, to cultural diversions. “Examined closely,”
Bidini concludes, “hockey culture is as much about beer, sex, and
violence as it is beauty, skill, and fearsome speed.”

Although the descriptions of a beer-league hockey tournament with its
sense of manufactured drama may garner interest, especially to those who
can directly relate, it is the anecdotes gleaned from the interviews
that make The Best Game You Can Name a worthwhile read. Seldom does one
hear stories about Russian coaches Anatoli Tarasov, Boris Kalugin, and
Victor Tikhanov, or experience the famous Maurice “Rocket”
Richard’s temper ignited by the mere mention of one of his detested
opponents.

Bidini’s previous books and films have met with popular acclaim. This
introspective look at men continuing to play games they enjoyed as boys
should be no exception.