Wild League On Ice

When the Wild League arrives in the village of Nice for its championship, a grumpy ice-dragon tries to stop the games by causing a huge ice storm. The players band together to repair the village, and the dragon learns a lesson.

“Shows us, in tender detail, a life consumed by our unholy appetites.”—Steve Almond, New York Times Book Review The tragic death of hockey star Derek Boogaard at twenty-eight was front-page news across the country in 2011 and helped shatter the silence about violence and concussions in professional sports. Now, in a gripping work of narrative nonfiction, acclaimed reporter John Branch tells the shocking story of Boogaard's life and heartbreaking death. Boy on Ice is the richly told story of a mountain of a man who made it to the absolute pinnacle of his sport. Widely regarded as the toughest man in the NHL, Boogaard was a gentle man off the ice but a merciless fighter on it. With great narrative drive, Branch recounts Boogaard's unlikely journey from lumbering kid playing pond-hockey on the prairies of Saskatchewan, so big his skates would routinely break beneath his feet; to his teenaged junior hockey days, when one brutal outburst of violence brought Boogaard to the attention of professional scouts; to his days and nights as a star enforcer with the Minnesota Wild and the storied New York Rangers, capable of delivering career-ending punches and intimidating entire teams. But, as Branch reveals, behind the scenes Boogaard's injuries and concussions were mounting and his mental state was deteriorating, culminating in his early death from an overdose of alcohol and painkillers. Based on months of investigation and hundreds of interviews with Boogaard's family, friends, teammates, and coaches, Boy on Ice is a brilliant work for fans of Michael Lewis's The Blind Side or Buzz Bissinger's Friday Night Lights. This is a book that raises deep and disturbing questions about the systemic brutality of contact sports—from peewees to professionals—and the damage that reaches far beyond the game.

Provides a history of the Minnesota Wild's first NHL season.

The earliest forms of ice hockey developed over the centuries in numerous cold weather countries. In the 17th century, a game similar to hockey was played in Holland known as kolven. But the modern sport of ice hockey arose from the efforts of college students and British soldiers in eastern Canada in the mid-19th century. Since then, ice hockey has moved from neighborhood lakes and ponds to international competitions, such as the Summit Series and the Winter Olympics. Historical Dictionary of Ice Hockey traces the history and evolution of hockey in general, as well as individual topics, from their beginnings to the present, through a chronology, an introductory essay, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary has more than 600 cross-referenced entries on the players, general managers, managers, coaches, and referees, as well as entries for teams, leagues, rules, and statistical categories. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about ice hockey.

After a controversial play and a blown referees call costs their team the Stanley Cup, three pathologically obsessed fans determine that justice must be served. They are a trio of unmotivated twenty-something slackers with no particular ambitions in life. On a sunny afternoon while mourning their loss and nursing their hangovers an idea begins to form. Whats the best thing to do when something precious is stolen from you? Maybe you should steal it back.

In the summer of 1947, a young priest, Petter, his wife and baby daughter, arrive by mail boat at a tiny island. They are to take over its drafty homestead from where Petter is to minister to the scattered community. In this evocative tale, Ulla-Lena Lundberg draws us into the minutiae of an austere yet purposeful life where the demands of self-sufficiency - cows to milk and sheep to graze - are tempered by the kindness of neighbours. With each season, the family's love of the island grows and when the winter brings ice a new and tentative link is created. Told through the eyes of Petter, the wholehearted if naive novice priest, and Mona, his tough-minded wife, a story unfolds that is as immersive as it is heartrending. Winner of the Finlandia prize and nominated for the Nordic Critics Prize, Ice was a huge bestseller in Finland.

In 2008, the Vancouver Canucks were Team Modern, revolutionizing the NHL under their new GM, former player agent Mike Gillis. Cool, calculating, and unsparing with the media, the onetime number one draft pick of the old Colorado Rockies swept away the tangled psychological past of the Canucks with bold innovation, remodeling Vancouver as a destination city for NHL star players. To do so, he built the Canucks from a non-playoff team in 2008 to the best in hockey from 2010-2012. He modernized the players' diets and psychological approach, he rebuilt the dressing room, and he sought sleep consultants to help with the Canucks' punishing travel schedule. More than that, his winning team lifted Vancouver from eighth overall in NHL revenues to second by 2013. When the team took to the ice for Game 7 of the 2011 Cup Final, it seemed there was nothing the Canucks couldn't overcome with their "Canucktivity" approach. The hockey world was at their feet. But things changed in Game 7. Physically exhausted and bullied by the Bruins, the Canucks succumbed 4-0. To cap the greatest season in team history, Vancouver rioted. Gillis tried a number of aggressive moves to get back to the Final, from switching Luongo for Schneider to trading players, but nothing worked. From there, the dominoes fell: Alain Vigneault was dismissed, John Tortorella hired; Tortorella raged, fans bayed for Gillis' head; and finally, Gillis and Tortorella were both fired. In spring 2014, tried-and-true Canuck hero Trevor Linden was installed as president, with former teammate Jim Benning by his side as GM. No one was quite sure if this was an improvement, but at least the hysterical screaming had stopped. How did it happen? Ice Storm follows the journey that led the Canucks from the top of the mountain to the bottom of the abyss in six short years.

This book provides a survey of the academic research and knowledge on the economics and management of professional hockey. While professional football, baseball, and basketball have been the focus of sports economists for decades, professional hockey has been left out of most economic analyses of the sports industry. This book fills that gap by presenting a selection of research focusing specifically on hockey, such as labor relations and player behavior in the NHL, salary determination and player careers, ticket demand and ticket pricing, and emerging topics such as diversity and discrimination. Expanding the available literature dramatically, this book will be an important tool for researchers as well as sports managers, and students at the advanced undergraduate and graduate level.

Help! The Ice-cream Domination League is blowing up the world’s ice-cream factories! Enter Leo da Vinci. Inventor, artist, genius and founder of Fixit International Inc., all at the age of ten. His team? Meet steam-powered Isaac, maths whiz and wise-cracking pig Ragnar, and Mina from school, who’s super-handy with a hammer. The plan? Ready the Strikebird. Pack the Heat-seeking Cauliflower Missiles. Find out why Comet Big-Kahuna is heading for Earth. Stop the IDL before Mum calls you home for dinner. Start the cheesy launch music and hold on for your life . . .

I met my dream girl. That’s right. She’s stunning and the worst bartender I’ve ever seen. I should have gone home and gone to sleep—dream girl or not. I had an early morning and the season was starting soon. But when she threatened me with boy band karaoke I couldn't help myself. I went. The stars aligned. I have never felt more alive or wanted anyone more than I want her. When it’s time for me to head on my annual pre-season boys trip, I barely let her go. It’s been a week and I can’t stop thinking about her. Except there she is. Right here at the Wildcat’s kickoff party. And as luck would have it, my dream girl is the coach’s youngest daughter. But everyone knows the coach’s daughter is off limits. Right? Wildcat is a full-length sports romance with a hot-as-puck hero, the coach’s daughter, and an unfortunate case of mistaken identity. The Wildcats are the youngest team in the NHL. On the ice, they’re cocky, determined, and ready to take the league by storm. Off the ice? They’re always up for a wild time. For fans of: Helena Hunting, Elle Kennedy, Lauren Asher, Emily Henry, Avon Gale, Toni Aleo, Kristen Callihan, LJ Shen, Jana Aston, Karina Halle, Meghan March, Jay Crownover, Anna Todd, Geneva Lee, Audrey Carlan, Jill Shalvis, Helen Hoang, Christina Lauren, Sally Thorne, Penny Reid, Julia Kent, Kelly Jamieson, Kendall Ryan, Kennedy Ryan, Lauren Blakely, Lexi Ryan, Jen Frederick, Sara Ney, Nana Malone. Keywords: hockey, hockey romance, sports romance, new adult romance, sexy romance, steamy romance, wildcat hockey, alpha males, alpha romance, one night stand, friends to lovers, workplace romance, office romance, forbidden romance, coaches daughter.