I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Well, this is a departure from my usual fare! But one of the many fascinating facets of my personality is that I'm a hockey fan and specifically an Avalanche fan. Terry Frei and Adrian Dater, the authors, are both sports writers for the Denver Post, so I'm somewhat familiar with their work. They wrote this book as a response to the amazing rookie year that Patrick Roy had as head coach of the Avalanche, a team that began with a bang but has been struggling in recent years with young players, bad trade decisions, and probably some poor management in the back office.

Last year, however, Roy was brought on as head coach. After his retirement as a goalie for the Avs, he coached college hockey but had not yet felt ready for an NHL coaching job. He came back to the organization and promptly shook things up to the point that the Avs not only came in first place in their conference, but went to the playoffs for the first time in years.

The book alternates between player bios and quick rundowns of the games of the 213-2014 hockey season for the Avs. The recaps of the games can get kind of old. I remember them from last year, in general, and I began to skip past the play-by-plays. I just didn't care about reading in that much detail about games past. The player bios were interesting. However, the teams' makeup has changed somewhat from last year. The most important change is probably that Paul Stastny, a great center, versatile player, and hard worker on both ends of the ice, has gone to the St. Louis Blues with a fabulous contract. Many players, notable Ryan O'Reilly, are having very different years this year as compared to last, and the Avalanche are struggling to try to get out of the basement this year. It's a bizarrely quick turnaround from last year, and I don't think anyone quite knows why the magic isn't there right now. Because of this change, I wonder how this book will sell. Any sports book has got to be a snapshot of a specific time and a very specific team, before records and players change. In this case, the change may make it more difficult to market this book.