Sporting Madness

Seeing as there are so many quality sports writers out there these days, and many of them are producing fine books, I figured I’d start occasional posts about the best works by sporting journalists I’ve read recently. To start it off, there’s Future Greats and Heartbreaks by Gare Joyce, which I received for Christmas and promptly read in the next couple days: it's very difficult to put down. The book provides a fantastic look at the profession of hockey scouts with a good deal of access from the inside, as Joyce was able to sit in on the Columbus Blue Jackets’ 2006 draft preparations and was involved with much of their subsequent scouting season. There are also interesting takes on a variety of other topics related to junior hockey, such as the tragic Swift Current Broncos bus crash of 1986, the world junior championships, and the players who never make it to the big leagues. Another thing that helps this book excel is Joyce’s terrific writing talent. As established in his previo...

Canada beat Sweden 3-2 in overtime to take home the World Junior Championships' gold medals. It was a solid performance from the juniors against the only team to beat them at these championships in their last 24 games. There were definitely worrisome moments, such as Sweden's tying goal with less than a minute to go (which brought back all the reasons I hate no-touch icing: in regular hockey, Matt Halischuck gets the puck Shaun Matthias shot down the ice and perhaps even scores an empty-netter to seal the victory, but under international rules, it's still icing even though there were no Swedes anywhere near the puck. For a while, it looked like the many posts and crossbars the Canadians hit might come back to haunt them, and Canadian fans with international hockey memories don't fancy shootouts in championships against Swedes (particularly when one of them is named Forsberg ). However, in the end, it was Canada's determination and grit that won them the victory. Th...

Currently watching the Canada-U.S. showdown at the World Juniors. Good game so far: the first period was a little defensive, but as a Canucks fan, I can hardly complain about that! Canada broke through in the second with a nice goal, and both teams seem to have decided to turn up the offensive pressure as a result. Kyle Turris is having a solid game, and just recorded Canada's second goal on the power play (after the U.S. was called for too many men on the ice) What I find weird about this match is how many, including the Globe's Tim Wharnsby , have labeled the Canadians as underdogs. Sure, they lost once in the group stage this year to a very good Swedish team (who knocked off Russia earlier today to advance to the finals), and came in through a quarterfinal win over Finland, but they've still won the last three world championships, and killed the Russians in the Super Series earlier this year: that deserves a little respect in my books at least. In contrast, the U.S. has...