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No one knows hockey like Dick Irvin. Now Canada's most experienced hockey broadcaster draws together stories by and about the players who catch the rubber, from the giants of hockey's early years to the superstars of today.

As in his previous best-selling books, The Habs and Behind the Bench, Irvin brings the game alive by combining his own rich store of hockey lore and the words of the pla... More

No one knows hockey like Dick Irvin. Now Canada's most experienced hockey broadcaster draws together stories by and about the players who catch the rubber, from the giants of hockey's early years to the superstars of today.

As in his previous best-selling books, The Habs and Behind the Bench, Irvin brings the game alive by combining his own rich store of hockey lore and the words of the players themselves. Here are the giants of the crease: Georges Vezina, whose name is carved on the trophy given annually to the game's best goalie; Lorne Chabot, the netminder who lost the longest game ever played; and Charlie Gardiner, who died heroically, practically with his skates still on.

Here, too, are the legends of the modern era. Tony Esposito, the great Chicago netminder, explains why he refused to speak to anyone - even his wife - on game days. Glenn Hall, Chicago's best stopper of the 1960s, admits that he did, indeed, throw up before every game he played. Ken Dryden remembers with special pride the 1976 Stanley Cup finals in which he and the Montreal Canadiens won a furious grudge match against the Philadelphia Flyers. Among current stars Ron Hextall defends himself against his detractors; Patrick Roy admits that controversy over his million-dollar salary affected his play; and Martin Brodeur, once the game's most underpaid player and now the wearer of a Stanley Cup ring, explains his winning philosophy.

Irvin does not neglect goaltending's less-exalted practitioners. One chapter is devoted to back-up goalies. Another is given over to good goalies whose fate it was to play for bad teams. Yet another tells the stories of goalies whose philosophical ruminations about the game have led to a career after goaltending.

In the pages of In the Crease, hockey's goaltending heroes and its merely human practitioners vividly convey their unique view of Canada's best-loved game.

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