The Game We Knew

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.

Nostalgia-minded hockey buffs will enjoy this first of two volumes
celebrating the hockey-related photography of Harold Barkley, who worked
for The Toronto Star. The Game We Knew focuses on the 1950s, the only
complete decade to feature what are now referred to as the “original
six” NHL teams and a period during which the roster of the entire
league was limited to 120 players.

The book contains eight color and 62 black-and-white photographs. Most
are action shots, and most were shot at Toronto’s Maple Leaf Gardens.
Leonetti’s accompanying captions, in addition to recording the names
of the players caught in the action, provide interesting career and
personal information. Period anecdotes, trivia, and statistics, which
often make comparisons with the modern hockey era, appear in the
book’s margins.

The final three photos are team portraits of the Detroit Red Wings, the
Montreal Canadiens, and the Toronto Maple Leafs. The first two teams
dominated the decade, winning 10 Stanley Cups between them, while the
Leafs were, of course, Barkley’s home team. An afterword discusses how
the game was to change in the next decade.

This trip down hockey’s memory lane is recommended for public
libraries.