While the story of the Toronto Maple Leafs has been told many times, there has never been a full biography of the man who created, built and managed the team, turning it from a small-market collection of second-rate players into the hockey and financial powerhouse that dominated Canadian sports and created a collection of Canadian icons along the way. From the 1920s to the mid-1960s, Conn Smythe was one of the best-known, highest-profile figures in the country -- irascible, tempestuous, outspoken, and controversial. He not only constructed a hockey team that dominated the league for long stretches, but was critical to the growth and shaping of the NHL itself. By building Maple Leaf Gardens and hiring Foster Hewitt to fill Canada's living rooms with weekly broadcasts, he turned Saturday night into hockey night, creating institutions and habits that became central to Canada's character and remain with us today. Smythe's story is much deeper and richer than the tale of a cantankerous hockey owner. Smythe fought in both world wars, fighting at Ypres and Passchendaele in the first war and landing at Normandy in the second. He was wounded in both and spent two years as a POW in a German camp after being shot down in 1917. He grew up in poverty and vowed to escape the life that was so incredibly hard on his family. Smythe was active in politics and ignited a national crisis over conscription that split the Liberal government in two and brought Mackenzie King to the brink of resignation. This book tells the life of one of the country's great characters, a man who helped shape and define us and who left behind national habits and institutions that continue to lay at the heart of what makes Canada, Canada.

LIFE Magazine is the treasured photographic magazine that chronicled the 20th Century. It now lives on at LIFE.com, the largest, most amazing collection of professional photography on the internet. Users can browse, search and view photos of today’s people and events. They have free access to share, print and post images for personal use.

Without J.P. Bickell, Toronto wouldn’t have the Maple Leafs. A self-made man who left a giant mark on Canada, Bickell was also an industrial giant, a wartime leader, and a philanthropist — a man whose legacy continues to this day.

Reveals the man behind the mask—the triumphs and failures of one of the greatest goaltenders in the history of hockeyIn the early 1970s, a young Patrick Roy laced up his hockey skates for the very first time, like thousands of other kids. More than 30 years later, his indomitable will to win and his focus on being the very best brought him four Stanley Cups, three Conn Smythe trophies, three Vezina trophies, and many more individual honors. An incredible hockey talent who was instrumental in changing the very art of goaltending, Roy's success was driven as much by determination and perseverance as by talent. Patrick Roy: Winning, Nothing Else brings to life Roy's phenomenal career and unmasks his more mysterious personal side. Michel Roy, the father of this great sports legend, reveals what makes Patrick tick, taking us behind the scenes and into the family life of one of the greatest goaltenders of all time.

LIFE Magazine is the treasured photographic magazine that chronicled the 20th Century. It now lives on at LIFE.com, the largest, most amazing collection of professional photography on the internet. Users can browse, search and view photos of today’s people and events. They have free access to share, print and post images for personal use.

"Hockey Priest looks past simply understanding Bauer as a do-gooder or hockey innovator. It shows how he attempted to create a different stream of hockey that could better support youth and so build up the nation. Archival research for the book uncovered Bauer-written hockey reports, speeches, and notes that detail his thinking about the game and his politicking to bring about change in it"--

LIFE Magazine is the treasured photographic magazine that chronicled the 20th Century. It now lives on at LIFE.com, the largest, most amazing collection of professional photography on the internet. Users can browse, search and view photos of today’s people and events. They have free access to share, print and post images for personal use.

The first authorized biography of Art Ross, Hockey Hall of Famer, founding father of the NHL, and long-time member of the Boston Bruins. Gordie Howe, Bobby Orr, Wayne Gretzky, and Sidney Crosbie have all hoisted the trophy that bears his name. Learn about Ross's early crusade for players' rights, and why he was a key to the NHL's success.

Love them or hate them, they’re the most successful team in professional hockey … just not on the scoresheet. The Toronto Maple Leafs are an exception to every law of the sporting jungle. They miss the playoffs and the sellouts keep coming. They haven’t won a Stanley Cup since 1967, but the earning power of that blue-and-white maple leaf, no matter the chronic woes of the blue-and-white’s power play, never ceases to increase. In this description of failure and prescription for hope, Toronto Star sports columnist Dave Feschuk and Globe and Mail sports reporter Michael Grange draw the illogical roadmap that pinpoints how the once-proud Leafs got lost in the sporting hinterlands, who’s to blame for stranding them there, and how they might extract themselves from this historic mire.