Kooks and Degenerates on Ice
Bobby Orr, the Big Bad Bruins, and the Stanley Cup Championship That Transformed Hockey
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- USD 22.99
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- USD 22.99
Descripción editorial
Celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Boston Bruins’ 1970 Stanley Cup championship season by reliving all the moments in Kooks and Degenerates on Ice.
While the United States seethed from racial violence, war, and mass shootings, the 1969-70 “Big, Bad Bruins,” led by the legendary Bobby Orr, brushed off their perennial losing ways to defeat the St. Louis Blues in the Stanley Cup Finals for their first championship in 29 years.
In Kooks and Degenerates on Ice: Bobby Orr, the Big Bad Bruins, and the Stanley Cup Championship That Transformed Hockey, Thomas J. Whalen recounts all the memorable moments from that championship season. Behind the no-nonsense yet inspired leadership of head coach Harry Sinden, the once laughingstock Bruins became the talk of the sporting world. Nicknamed the “Big, Bad Bruins” for their propensity to out-brawl and intimidate their opponents, the team rallied around the otherworldly play of Bobby Orr and his hard-hitting teammates to take the NHL by surprise in a season to remember.
Kooks and Degenerates on Ice brings to life all the colorful personalities and iconic players from this Stanley Cup-raising team. In addition, the season is placed into its historical context as the United States struggled with issues of war, race, politics, and class, making this a must-read for sports enthusiasts, hockey fans, and those interested in twentieth-century American history.
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Whalen (When the Red Sox Ruled: Baseball's First Dynasty, 1912 1918), a professor of social science at Boston University, thrillingly details the 1970 Stanley Cup championship season of the Boston Bruins. Whalen begins in 1967, when the NHL, responding to a growing interest in U.S. hockey, doubled the number of teams from the "Original Six" across the continent, detailing how Boston which in 1924 had the first non-Canadian franchise remained the hub of American hockey. He highlights the team's colorful characters, whose on- and off-ice antics led one Bruins player to describe the team as "just a bunch of kooks and degenerates who get along": the young defenseman Bobby Orr, "a human highlight reel a Michael Jordan on ice"; the scoring champion Phil Esposito; and the perennial brawler and "wildly unpredictable" clutch scorer Derek Sanderson. Whalen vividly takes readers through the arc of the winning season, from early season struggles to the eventual Stanley Cup victory over the St. Louis Blues with Orr's game-winning goal, captured in the famous flying Superman photo. This exciting slice of hockey history is an open-net goal for Bruins fans.
