Firewagon Hockey The Game In The Eighties

Any fan of today's hockey knows how little offense is in the sport. Shutouts are common and a 50 goal season is rare. Coaches and defense dominate making what should be an exciting, wide-open spectacle dull and uninteresting. Hockey was not always played like this especially during the decade of the Eighties. Hockey in the 1980s is best described as a mix of speed, youth, goals, goals, and more goals. All National Hockey League teams had attack on their minds, and they worried about defense later, if at all. The style of play was reminiscent of the Montreal Canadiens of hockey's Golden Era in the Fifties. The Flying Frenchmen played an all-out offensive brand of "firewagon hockey," and in the eighties it was back in vogue. The action would come fast and furious, and if you went to the concession stand, you might miss more than one goal. The best players racked up plenty of points, especially in the first half of the decade, and if a team did not have a couple of 50-goal scorers, or at least a few players pushing toward that standard, they weren't in contention. A 40-goal season was not extraordinary, and a 20-goal scorer could be easily replaced. Scores like 7-5, 10-6, and 12-7 were not unusual, even in games involving the better teams. Firewagon Hockey captures the excitement of the decade through text and via exciting action photography taken at the time. This book is one that the current NHL brass should pick up and look at carefully because this look back at the past will tell them how the sport of hockey was alive and vibrant during the Eighties. Fans will come to understand that the decade was filled with players that had speed, skills and smarts and that by the end of the ten year period, the league had achieved the right balance between offense and defense. I hope all readers of Firewagon Hockey will enjoy this look back at a time when legends like Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux made hockey the greatest game to watch.Leonetti, Mike is the author of 'Firewagon Hockey The Game In The Eighties', published 2004 under ISBN 9781552979112 and ISBN 1552979113.