Review: Blood Feud
As I mentioned in my last review, I’m going to be trying to do these reviews more often and whenever I finish a hockey book/DVD. Today’s review is of Adrian Dater’s book, Blood Feud
To be honest, I was skeptical when I purchased this book. It’s a 238 page book on the Wings-Avs rivalry by a Colorado reporter. I must say I was pleasantly surprised. It was not the best book I’ve ever read, but Dater provided some insight on what happened within the rivalry that many fans would not know. I especially liked it because I was only 10 in 1997 so I remember the big games, but the details were definitely fuzzy. This book helped clear things up for me.
Dater spent a chapter on each of the key players in the rivalry: Claude Lemieux, Patrick Roy, Scotty Bowman, and Darren McCarty. I certainly enjoyed reading about Scotty and Mac, but it was interesting to read about Lemieux and Roy as well (although my “hatred” for the two built as I read). He also talks about each season with the rivalry intact from 1995 to 2002. You also learn what Marc Crawford said to Scotty Bowman that got them both in a fighting match.
Other interesting tidbits…
- Denver Post columnist Kiszla wrote after Game 4 in the 1997 Western Conference finals, “Want to know the sad truth? The Red Wings are laughing at the Avalanche. Asked Wednesday if Colorado was tough enough to play dirt hockey, Wings enforcer Vladimir Konstantinov responded by chuckling for a full five seconds.” (p. 106)
- “His [Scotty Bowman] stay in Buffalo, until 1986-1987, would mark the only time in Bowman’s career he did not take a team to the Stanley Cup Finals. In the long, glorious display of his year-by-year coaching records, there is only one season in which the losses outnumber the victories…” (p. 126) Wow. That certainly speaks volumes about Bowman’s successful career.
- Did you know: Jimmy Devellano originally “wanted to hire Islanders legend Al Arbour for the [coaching job], but turned to Bowman when Arbour decline. In the summer of 1993, Ilitch gave Bowman a two-year contract worth $800,000 a yar. The son of a Montreal blacksmith had never seen so many zeroes in his life.” (p. 132-3)
- Scotty Bowman made the Red Wings get him a brand new laptop and he would read every single hockey story. He even knew what time the papers’ early editions were released online.
“I’d get a lot of calls: ‘How come I can’t get my computer working?’” Stan Bowman [Scotty’s son] said. “But once he got the hang of it, he read every single hockey story in every single paper in the country. For a guy who is 72, he’s on the computer all day, reading stories on the Internet.” (p. 136)
- Wings PR man Mike Kuta had gone to the Diamond Cabaret (a gentleman’s club) with Joey Kocur and Jamie Macoun in the 1999 playoffs, both were not playing at that time. Anyways, he spends $200-300 at the club and realizes he has no more money, but three more days in Denver. Well, the whole team learns about this event and that Kuta spent all of his money. While Kuta was sitting on the bus as they headed to the rink for the game, Yzerman gives him $400. His reasoning?
“He’s out there representing the team, that’s his allowance for the rest of the week.”
- Another big surprise, for me at least, was that Blood Feud disclosed Darren McCarty’s birth name. I won’t give it away, but the initials are DF and you can find it on page 194 in the book. Darren did not meet his biological dad until he was about 30 years old.
“I had to do it [meet his dad] on my time,” he said. “We’ve built a friendship since then. It was neat recently; I came out of the locer room in Edmonton and there was my read dad, mom, and sister all in one place. I’d never seen that.” (p. 202)
- Most of us know that Darren McCarty declared bankruptcy in April 2006. Well, it didn’t help that when the Red Wings bought out his contract after the lockout, 75% of it went towards Cheryl, who he had recently divorced. Yep, she got $405,000. It didn’t help that he had other gambling expenses, but when you go from making plenty of money to not having any income during the lockout and then losing a majority of your contract money, it could be hard to stay afloat. (p. 202-3)
Overall…
I’d suggest this book to other Wings and Avs fans. I enjoyed it and I’m happy with my purchase. One thing I noticed was that he referred to Denver columnists/reporters a lot for their postgame reactions. It wouldn’t have seemed so obvious, but the Detroit voice was missing a lot of times. I’m sure it’s because he had easier access to the Denver archives since he works there, but it would have been nice to read about what Detroit columnists/reporters wrote following those games as well. Especially since there weren’t hockey blogs back in ‘95 and I certainly don’t remember what they wrote.
However, he did cover the rivalry from both sides so it wasn’t completely biased. He even discussed the little rivalry between the Denver and Detroit papers. Now I don’t believe it has been released to stores yet until January 25th, but you can buy it on Amazon and get it today.
You can buy it at Amazon.com
Cost: $12.03
Update: The author of the book, Adrian Dater, emailed me after reading my review with some answers to the questions I posed:
You’re right, there is more mention of Denver columnists in the book, and all their invective. You’re right, it was because it was easier for me to get them from the archives here, but mainly because they were the ones who did nearly all of the trash talking. The Detroit columnists were always less that way, taking the “high road” more, I guess. Keith Gave would get into it a bit, but not nearly as much as Paige and Kiszla. So, that’s a big reason why you read them more.
I should have written more about guys like Yzerman and Lidstrom, but, really, they are both kind of quiet (OK, boring) guys to write about in a book like this. The same can be said of guys from Colorado, like Adam Foote and Sakic.
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6 Responses to “Review: Blood Feud”
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December 30th, 2006 at 3:01 pm
[…] Anyway, it’s definitely worth a read, if you have the time. Christy has a review, with some quotes from the book, here. Get it at Amazon here. […]
December 30th, 2006 at 9:23 pm
I noticed the media coverage disparity too, and I wonder if it’s just a rights thing — it’s a small publisher and they perhaps couldn’t afford to shell out to the News or Freep or whatever. All the Denver quotes were from the Post, and since the paper gave Dater permission to write the book, they probably weren’t too stingy about reprint fees.
Detroit probably came out BETTER in that exchange, anyhow. Re-reading Woody Paige and Mark Kiszla ten years later was kinda painful.
December 31st, 2006 at 6:11 pm
We may not have had “blogs” back in the mid-90’s, but there were websites (and USENET groups) with plenty of good hockey writing going on, the audience was just much smaller.
Back then, I wrote a Detroit Red Wings column for a site called “In The Crease” (now long-gone), where we had a columnist in most NHL cities, as well as good coverage of some of the minor leagues. The highlight of that time was when our NHL editor, who had a working relationship with Sylvain Lefevre (then a blueliner with Colorado), helped establish some contact with the NHL, to try and build our credibility.
One day, out of the blue, she called me and said she had secured a press pass for an upcoming Wings game, and wanted to know if I could go cover it. The date? March 26, 1997, when McCarty exacted revenge on Lemiuex and the goaltenders battled at center ice. It was an experience I’m sure I’ll never forget.
Just wanted to remind you that hockey writing on the internet goes back quite a ways, although of course now it is truly exploding.
March 26th, 2007 at 7:38 pm
[…] The Game Back in December, I wrote a review on the book, Blood Feud by Adrian Dater, that you can read here. If interested, the Detroit News printed the first chapter of the book which you can check out online. The book is only $11.53 at Amazon.com. […]
March 26th, 2007 at 8:02 pm
[…] As I pointed out in my review of the book Blood Feud, Scotty Bowman likes using technology for his advantage when it comes to hockey. Scotty Bowman made the Red Wings get him a brand new laptop and he would read every single hockey story. He even knew what time the papers’ early editions were released online. “I’d get a lot of calls: ‘How come I can’t get my computer working?’†Stan Bowman [Scotty’s son] said. “But once he got the hang of it, he read every single hockey story in every single paper in the country. For a guy who is 72, he’s on the computer all day, reading stories on the Internet.†(p. 136) […]
May 7th, 2007 at 12:23 pm
Great site! I have yet to read Blood Fued but I can already tell you that I will like it. Even though it is written by a Denver reporter (who contacted me but I declined to talk since I am in the process of writing my own book tentatively titled…”The Best Seat in the House”), any book that sheds a light on this great rivalry would be worth reading.
Fans should enjoy this book and any that follow it because the days of this type of rivalry in hockey are over. Changes in the game combined with the salary cap will prevent this type of cherished rivalry from ever blossoming again.
I will keep you posted on the progress of my book. Trust me, you will want to read it. No one is as privaledged to the ins and outs of a team like the trainer. We see and hear EVERYTHING! And unlike ‘blood fued’, I will not be holding anything back. On the ice or off, if it happenned, you will read about it.
Best of luck
Kind Regards