Top Five Hockey Books Of All Time

Unlike other sports, baseball in particular, hockey does not tend to transcend the literary world very often.

I'm not sure why that is. Is it because the game does not translate onto paper that well? I don't think so. Is it because hockey attracts few great writers? Not at all. Perhaps it is there are just fewer hockey books out there, and therefore fewer classics?

Perhaps it is a cultural thing. Baseball is archived through the words of mainly American writers. Whereas hockey is almost always documented by Canadians. Americans tend to be much more open about celebrating their history, their glories, and their identifying passions. Canadians are said to be much more reserved in everything, perhaps even in their love of hockey.

I really don't know. But a reader asked me recently to name the top 5 hockey books of all time. Here's my response, ranked in order of importance according only to my judgement. Note that one author made the top 5 twice!