Ice Time: The Story of Hockey

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.

Based on the CBC television series Hockey, a People’s History, Ice
Time’s 10 chapters trace the story of hockey’s development from
1875, the year the game was first played on an indoor rink, through the
2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, when both Canada’s
women’s and men’s teams won gold medals. The first three chapters
deal with the early years of the game’s evolution. Chapter 4, while
maintaining the book’s chronological flow, focuses principally on the
National Hockey League and its legendary teams, such as the Toronto
Maple Leafs and the Montreal Canadiens, as well as such team stars as
Rocket Richard, Wayne Gretzky, and Mario Lemieux. Amateur and women’s
hockey, while not overlooked, are dealt with in numerous coloured text
boxes liberally sprinkled throughout the book. The text boxes also
feature the NHL’s second tier of superstars. International hockey is
the focus of Chapter 7, “Us & Them,” which chronicles the 1972
Summit Series.

Ice Time is generously illustrated with both black and white and
coloured photos, and their captions add to the work’s impressive
volume of information. McKinley’s writing will appeal to both hockey
neophytes and aficionados; his episodic approach will serve the former
who may just want a basic overview, while the detail embedded in the
text boxes will appeal to the latter who are seeking more depth. Highly
recommended.