Book Description
No major professional sports organization has undergone more turmoil and embarrassment in the past decade that the National Hockey Leauge. The NHL has faced management shake-ups, skyrocketing player salaries, franchise movement, expansion, and players' strikes while attempting to compete for the attention of sports fans against the "big three" baseball, football, and basketball. In this penetrating analysis, Stan Fischler examines the rise, fall, and attempted comeback of big league hockey. Fischler, a highly respected hockey reporter and author, gives an insider's look at the league's struggles on and off the ice while taking a look toward the sport's future. Fischler spares no one in
Cracked Ice, not even icons such as Wayne Gretzky and Chris Chelios, while also taking shots at the sports media establishment and NHL officials.
Cracked Ice is a revealing look behind the scenes at a league living on the edge.
From the Back Cover
The 1990s were not the best of times for the National Hockey League. A series of management blunders, labor unrest, and public relations disasters undermined the league's efforts to establish itself as a major sport in the United States. In
Cracked Ice, Stan Fischler, the dean of North American hockey writers, offers an inside account of what went wrong-while giving insight into what must be done if the league is to be successful in the years ahead.
Cracked Ice is a brutally candid expose of big league hockey by one of its most respected observers.
