The Last Good Year Audiobook (Free)

Nominated for the 2019 Toronto Heritage Publication Award

We may never see a playoff series enjoy it once again.

Before Gary Bettman, and the lockouts. Before all the NHL’s previous barns were torn down to make way for bigger, glitzier rinks. Before expansion and parity over the league, just about anything could happen on the glaciers. And it frequently did. It was an era when large personalities dominated the activity; and willpower was frequently enough to win video games. And in the springtime of 1993, a number of the biggest skills and about THE FINAL Good Yr biggest personalities had been on the collision course.

The Cinderella Maple Leafs had somehow beaten the mighty Red Wings and then, just like improbably, the St. Louis Blues. Wayne Gretzky’s Kings had simply torn through the Flames and the Canucks. If they faced each other in the conference final, the result would be a series that enthusiasts still talk about passionately 25 years afterwards.

Taking us back to that feverish spring, The Last Good Year gives an intimate account not only of the era-defining seven video games, but of the actual series meant to the males who were transformed because of it: Marty McSorley, the challenging guy who took his whole team on his shoulder blades; Doug Gilmour, the emerging superstar; celebrity owner Bruce McNall; Costs Berg, who proceeded to go from unidentified to well-known when the Leafs claimed him on waivers; Kelly Hrudey, the Kings’ goalie who continue to become Hockey Night in Canada broadcaster; Kerry Fraser, who end up being the game’s most infamous referee; and two very different captains, Toronto’s bull inside a china store, Wendel Clark, as well as the immortal Wayne Gretzky.

Fast-paced, authoritative, and galvanized with the same like of the game that made the series so unforgettable, The Last Good Year is normally a glorious testament to an instant hockey fans won’t forget.