Face Off: Great Moments and Dubious Achievements

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.

This small, puck-shaped book features some 200 “great moments and
dubious achievements” that occurred to people or teams associated
principally with the World Hockey Association and the National Hockey
League. Arranged alphabetically from “Jack Adams” to “Lorne
‘Gump’ Worsley,” each brief entry begins with the words “The
only ... ”; states the details of the unique feat; and then, in a
short paragraph, elaborates on those details. Snyder’s selections
range from somewhat readily available snippets of information (such as
the NHL’s San Jose Sharks’ “record” as being “the only team to
lose more than 70 games in a season” or Teemu Selanne’s being “the
only rookie with more than 70 goals in a season”) to wonderfully
obscure facts (did you know that Mr. and Mrs. Lou Reese are “the only
married couple to require stitches as the result of being hit in the
face with separate pucks in an NHL game”?). Stars, players, and
coaches are included because of some bizarre event; for example, Tony
Leswick is “the only player to score a goal off the gloved hand of an
opponent in overtime of the seventh game of a Stanley Cup final,” and
Joe Primeau is “the only coach to win a Stanley Cup final in which
every game was settled in overtime.” Collectors of hockey trivia will
delight in this excellent book’s unusual contents.