Thunder and Lightning: A No-BS Hockey Memoir

Dave Jenkinson is a professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba and the author of the “Portraits” section of Emergency Librarian.

Phil Esposito’s career statistics when he retired as an NHL player in
1981 placed him second in all-time goals scored and third in assists.
What initially makes Esposito’s autobiography different from those of
other hockey players is that he has actually had two distinct hockey
careers: the first as a player and the second as a manager and sometime
coach.

The initial half of Thunder and Lightning focuses on Esposito’s
growing up, his early involvement with hockey, including his
junior-hockey days; and his making and playing in the NHL with the
Chicago Black Hawks, Boston Bruins, and New York Rangers. The second
half deals with Esposito’s becoming a TV hockey commentator and then
with his managing the New York Rangers, as well as with his role in
establishing and subsequently managing the expansion team Tampa Bay
Lightning.

The work’s subtitle, “A No-B.S. Hockey Memoir,” suggests that
Esposito is going to tell all—and, to some degree, he does. For
example, he speaks candidly about his two failed marriages, and he is
willing to name and comment on the shortcomings of players, coaches,
managers, and owners. However, Esposito also holds back, and, though he
acknowledges that the Rangers team he played for had players with
drinking and drug problems, he does not “out” the abusers. The other
aspect that distinguishes Esposito’s autobiography from those of other
ex-players is that, in the main, he does not concentrate on writing
play-by-play descriptions of significant games or seasons. The only
playing event that Esposito really highlights is the 1972 Canada Cup,
and even then he focuses more on the off-ice happenings.

While the writing is most lively and engaging and includes lots of
entertaining locker-room anecdotes, the pace slows somewhat in the
closing sections, in which Esposito deals with the machinations of
various financial groups to assume ownership of the Tampa Bay Lightning
team. The book contains two eight-page sections of black-and-white
photos, none of them the professional game-action shots normally
associated with sports books; instead, they are virtually all family
snapshots.