Never Boring
Veteran hockey writer Ed Willes takes an irreverent look back at the sometimes thrilling, often infuriating and always fascinating history of the Vancouver Canucks.
Cheering for the National Hockey League’s Vancouver Canucks over the last half century has required patience, commitment and a forgiving nature. It’s not that the Canucks have been uniformly awful or drearily predictable. Far from it (as this past season would attest). But every time they seemed close to delivering the ultimate prize to their fan base—the indomitable faithful—they slipped on a banana peel and tumbled straight into the abyss.
Most of their failings were self-inflicted. The franchise’s ownership history is as uneven as its won-loss record. But some have been so random and so accidental, the faithful can legitimately wonder what they did to anger the hockey gods. It started in 1970 with a spin of the carnival wheel, which gifted Hall of Fame centre Gilbert Perreault to the Buffalo Sabres and left the Canucks with Dale Tallon. And it’s continued uninterrupted for over fifty years.
For decades, veteran Vancouver hockey writer Ed Willes has had his own vantage point on this team that has, in his words, “been haunted by dark and unnatural forces since its inception.” And Willes’s knowledge extends far beyond the most infamous chapters of the story. As this irreverent, often bitterly funny chronicle shows, the litany of woe stretches back farther and runs deeper than many Canucks fans realize, and stars several of the biggest names in hockey history.
Willes’s account tells the story of a uniquely confounded franchise and its obsessive followers, who have thus far been denied the thrill of a Stanley Cup championship. Their consolation has been the dubious comfort of wallowing in collective misery.
- In Stock Out of Stock
- Harbour Publishing
- 9781990776892
- October 5, 2024
- Stock Photo
- 328
- L 22.9cm x W 15.4cm x H 2.1cm
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Good: A copy that has been read but in clean condition. The spine, cover, pages and dust jacket (if applicable) may show signs of wear such as marks, wears, cuts, bends and crushes. Pages and dust cover (if applicable) are intact and do not have any notes or highlighting. May have a remainder mark (usually black or red in colour and is usually a dot or line on the bottom of the book on the page edges).
Acceptable: All pages are intact; the cover is intact. The spine, cover, pages and dust jacket (if applicable) may show signs of considerable wear such as marks, wears, cuts, bends and crushes. Pages can include limited notes in pen or in highlighter, but the notes do not obscure the text. May have a remainder mark (usually black or red in colour and is usually a dot or line on the bottom of the book on the page edges).