TBC: The Year Of The LA Kings

I've been reading a lot of non-hockey books this year in my effort to increase my literary range, but I still have a few hockey books on my shelves that I want to read. I recently received an excellent book that needs to be read if you're a Los Angeles Kings fan in any way. Teebz's Book Club is proud to present The Year of the Los Angeles Kings, written by Andrew Podnieks and published by Fenn/McClelland & Stewart. This book is literally a play-by-play recap of the stunning playoff run by the Los Angeles Kings and features a number of interesting pieces from the history of the Los Angeles Kings to a personal biography of each player who contributed to the extraordinary season experienced by the Kings.

Andrew Podnieks has written more than 50 books on hockey, including Honoured Canadiens, Celebrating the Game, and Lord Stanley's Cup. Mr. Podnieks has played a major role in researching international hockey for various institutions including the Hockey Hall of Fame, the IIHF, and Hockey Canada. The Canadian author has provided Hockey Canada all of the statistics and historical info on all of Canada's teams at of the IIHF major tournaments since 2003. You can check out his website, which features all of his books, by clicking here.

As seen above, hockey historian Andrew Podnieks did some marvelous work in recapping the Kings' season. There is some great information regarding the birth of the Los Angeles Kings and the two arenas that this franchise called home. Seen with the articles are some fantastic photos of players like Terry Sawchuk as a Los Angeles King, and this is a major highlight for me in this book. There are so many good photographs to accompany the writing that it's a visual pleasure to flip through this book.

That's not to take anything away from Mr. Podnieks' writing, though. He highlights each game of the 2012 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs that the Kings participated in with fantastic detail. He also details each player's biography with excellent detail, and this ability to bring insight to each game and player makes Mr. Podnieks' writing enjoyable. Adding context to the pictures featured on each page isn't hard to do, but Mr. Podneiks goes one step further in bringing the image to life with his words.

The history contained within the covers really would make this book worth the purchase price alone. Mr. Podnieks highlights a number of historical points in the Kings' history, including the 1993 Stanley Cup Final appearance and the Miracle on Manchester, and brings forth all relevant historical statistics such as all-time playoff appearances, all-stars, and draft picks. If you wanted a concise historical collection of information on the Los Angeles Kings, Mr. Podnieks has done a superb job in The Year of the Los Angeles Kings.

Overall, The Year of the Los Angeles Kings is a great look back at this past season's Stanley Cup-winning Kings team as well as being an excellent historical look at the Kings franchise. Mr. Podnieks' work as a hockey historian is on display in The Year of the Los Angeles Kings, and the work he puts forth is unequaled as far as anything I have seen thus far. Because of the excellent job Mr. Podnieks has done in this book combined with the fabulous Getty photos he chose for the book, The Year of the Los Angeles Kings deserves the Teebz's Book Club Seal of Approval!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!