The Boys of Winter by Paul Coffey (Photo: Melissa Grissom)
If you are looking for some reading on hockey, especially USA hockey history, then The Boys of Winter by Wayne Coffey is your book. It begins with a foreword by Jim Craig, the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team’s goaltender, and then tells us how a group of college players came together as a team and made us believe that yes, miracles do happen.
Coffey goes into detail about how the team was put together by head coach Herb Brooks, who was a devoted student of the game of hockey, show casing his abilities and tactics on how to defeat the powerful Soviet Union. He also touches on the lives of every player including team captain Mike Eruzione, the Boston-born left wing who scored the winning goal against the Soviets to help the Americans advance and ultimately win the gold medal against Finland.
Coffey expands on how the team got together month by month, from training camp to the games in the Winter Olympics, to the intense game against the Soviets, and eventually to when they won the gold medal. He also talks about the impact the gold medal win had on each player’s lives. Overall, this is by the far the best book I have read about the USA’s hockey history.
Coffey did a great job on telling the story of USA’s greatest moment in hockey in the 20th century. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to learn about the history of this team.
