This is a very good book for any hockey fan. I don’t get in any debate with people about hockey players just that each generation has good and greats. Here is a book about a great player and you really get a good look at all that he does on the ice and now for many years, he has continued to keep it going at such a high level. I really enjoyed this book and learning about Sidney Crosby and now have even a greater appreciation for his game and the person, an excellent book.

If I’m being totally honest, much of the book left me bored! It’s extremely disappointing to say this because we’re talking about my favorite hockey player OF ALL TIME who changed the way the game is played, so I was 100% the right audience for this book. Part of it was entirely my fault: Truth is, I didn’t start following hockey until 2003, so all the old-school references to the game and former players were completely lost on me. Also, I wasn’t really captivated by Crosby’s junior career/teen years. The middle of the book/Crosby’s early NHL career was fantastic- I loved going down memory lane and reliving some of those mind-blowing goals and epic playoff wins. Unfortunately the writing fell flat for me throughout most of the book. I was hoping for more of a biography/memoir read and got more of a stat sheet/hockey highlight text. While I did enjoy the middle section, the writing just couldn’t keep even my interest.

There is no one that knows me that doesn’t know how much I love hockey, my Pittsburgh Penguins, and especially Sidney Crosby! I remember watching these injuries and how gut wrenching they were. People who don’t think these guys lay it all out on the line when they play are crazy. That being said, I just didn’t have the connection or feeling with this book that I really hoped I would as a fan. Maybe it is because I am a huge Pens fan that the possibility of my team without their captain is something I don’t want to consider.

I voluntarily reviewed a copy of this book provided by NetGalley.

As a Sidney Crosby fan, I thought that this would be a must read book for me. Unfortunately, there is not all that much new information to be gained from reading it. The early chapters charting Sidney's passage through junior hockey were interesting but after that it becomes a little bit of a love fest from the author. The pacing of the book was a little bit off as well with one chapter talking about his first year in the NHL and then quickly jumping to the latest Hockey World Cup in the following chapter.

Unfortunately I would only recommend this to absolute die hard Penguin and Sidney Crosby fans

Sidney Crosby has been the face of the National Hockey League (NHL) since his rookie season of 2005. While he may not have the statistical excellence of Wayne Gretzky or changed the play of a positing like Bobby Orr did for defensemen, but sports journalist Gare Joyce, who earlier had penned a biography of Crosby, makes the case that Crosby has transformed the entire league into a league that he may not have been able to succeed in.

If this sounds confusing, then one must read this book as Joyce covers all levels of hockey in which Crosby has excelled – pee wee hockey and the Canadian Junior league as well as his time at Shattuck-St. Mary’s in Minnesota and of course his time with the Pittsburgh Penguins, the only NHL team for which he has played. As an American reader, I was appreciative of the description of Crosby’s time in juniors as it is very detailed about not only Crosby nearly single-handedly leading a less talented team to a championship but also the structure and the cut-throat nature of junior hockey.

Something else that was noted throughout the book is that Crosby is one of the very few players who have had successful hockey careers learning the game in a Maritime province – in Crosby’s case, he hails from Nova Scotia. While it is well known that the Maritimes have not produced many hockey stars, it was interesting to learn that many consider coming from that area a handicap in one’s hockey career.

Joyce gives Crosby a lot of credit for leading the NHL away from the defensive style of hockey it played in the 1990’s and early 2000’s thanks to the success of the New Jersey Devils with their infamous neutral zone trap and into a game that emphasizes speed, puck handling and skill. The transformation into this type of game has been so successful that players like Connor McDavid and Nathan McKinnon, the latter whose skills are described in great detail in the book. If there is a downside to reading the book, it would be that while Joyce writes about the hits that Crosby took in which he suffered debilitating concussions resulting in the loss of significant playing time, Joyce doesn’t write much about a possible solution or at least how the issues of concussions will be addressed.

Readers who are fans of Crosby or of today’s style of hockey played in the NHL will want to read this book. Even if they are Crosby critics, and Joyce acknowledges them and doesn’t dismiss all of the criticisms, this book is one to read to learn why Crosby has to be considered one of the greatest players in the history of the game.

I wish to thank Viking Publishing for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

First let me say I am a hockey fan (Go Bruins) and I think Sidney Crosby is a heck of a player. Is he the best player to ever put on skates, I do not think so. This book read like the author is obsessed with Crosby and I feel like he is biased. I would only recommend this book to a Sidney Crosby fan.

Most Valuable is not my usual taste in books. However, I needed a break from the suspicious spouses and families in peril that populate the fiction I generally enjoy. Besides, I’m a huge fan of the Pittsburgh Penguins’ star center Sidney Crosby. I have been since 2005, his rookie year. I was very interested in reading what Gare Joyce, a longtime sports journalist, had to say.

Joyce did not set out to write a tell-all or sensationalistic account. Instead, he seeks to contextualize Crosby’s place in hockey history. Crosby has been described as the “face of the NHL” from the beginning of his career. It’s an attractive and usually soft-spoken face. Joyce had followed Crosby’s career from the time he was an attention-getting teenage player in Nova Scotia, a Canadian province that was not known for regularly turning out NHL stars.

The first half of the book is intriguing. Then again, Joyce had already written a book about Crosby when his NHL career first began. Joyce is well-versed in hockey history, and eager to share it. He points out how improvements in technology have made it easier for fans and aspiring young players to follow a team or player. He discusses the hockey history of Crosby’s family, of Nova Scotia, of Shattuck-St. Mary’s (the boarding school where Crosby attended for a year, now known to fans as “Hockey Hogwarts”), and, of course, of the NHL. Joyce didn’t think highly of the style of hockey being played in the 1990s, which emphasized preventing goals over scoring them. Then again, fans didn’t, either. Hockey needed an exciting young star, and Joyce convincingly demonstrates how Crosby filled the void.

Joyce also lovingly documents Crosby’s unusual seriousness and work ethic. He was derided as working too hard and as being a “hockey nerd” by older players. Joyce describes how the league grew to embrace Crosby’s obsessive hard work and attention to detail, as well as his speed. Younger players, Joyce contends, must now all be hockey nerds and gym rats. He especially concentrates on Crosby’s concussion history, particularly the hits in early 2011 that would remove him from the game for over a year. Sidney Crosby has an unusual and interesting brain, Joyce constantly reminds the reader, but it is in danger from the game he loves so much.

Most of the stories in here will not be new to fans of Sidney Crosby or the Pittsburgh Penguins. The book suffers in the second half from lack of access to Crosby himself. Joyce interviews many people to talk about him but appears to have not spoken to him very much since his twenties. He will be turning 32 in August. This means that there is very little insight into the adult man that Crosby has become.

Joyce does not attempt to delve into how the concussions or lengthy recovery time may have affected Crosby, even as he disapprovingly describes some of his petulant behavior and dirty play. He does not discuss the medical effects very much at all, and seemingly assumes that all readers would already understand them. There is very little on his relationships, even with coaches and teammates. (Joyce simply alludes to a few disputes.) While there is no need for gossip or anything prurient, it would have been interesting to learn more about how Crosby and the people around him live and work with his rare, gifted, and obsessive mind on a daily basis. It would also have been intriguing to read whether Crosby intends to continue affecting the game of hockey after he stops playing—for example, as a coach, trainer, or agent.

Last year, Penguins fans (and Penguins team members) laughed when Jake Guentzel, a 22-year-old winger revealed that as a teen, he wrote a report on a book about Crosby. It could very well have been Joyce’s earlier book. This one will likely be of great interest to young hockey fans and players. The history alone is valuable. Few people love hockey more than Sidney Crosby or Gare Joyce. If nothing else, Joyce makes it abundantly clear that hockey will not love anyone back.

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.