On various Puckcasts, CT and I have discussed one hockey book or another. Still, when someone contacted us and asked if we would want to read this book and interview the author, I had to ask, "Why us?"

Despite the fact that the author's representative had heard of us, he still agreed to send us copies of the book for review, and we're still working on getting the book's author, Michael McKinley, on a Puckcast.

Anyway, here's my take on the book:

In the United States, baseball is referred to as the "National Pasttime", even though its popularity has waned in the last 25-30 years, to the point where it can be argued that it now lags behind football, basketball and auto racing in terms of popularity. In Canada, hockey is still second to none.

And that is the underlying theme of this aptly titled book. The book is a companion piece to the 10-part CBC documentary of the same name (full disclosure: I haven't watched the documentary, and didn't want to until after reading the book, as I wanted to base this on the book's own merits. Now I'm done talking about me, I promise.), and the book itself is downright gorgeous, with enough beautiful photographs to ensure it stays on your coffee table.

What McKinley does is take the history of hockey, from the wooden pucks in a game reserved for those of English descent, and brings it into the Modern era. At the same time, he parallels changes in the game with changes in Canadian society. You see teams of French, Irish, and Aboriginal Canadians forming, and the emergence of professional hockey, and the game's migration into the States.

In fact, something you'll find here almost cover-to-cover is the tug-of-war between the Canadian passion for the game and the lure of American money. Every professional league formed during the early Twentieth Century has an eye on the United States, up to and including the NHL. To this day, we've seen Canadian interests lose out to the lure of American revenue generated by television and merchandising, and larger, untapped markets.

At various times in the sport's history, Canadians have seen their game in danger of being taken from them, whether it be the Summit Series in 1972, or the 1987 Canada Cup, through the first Olympic Gold Medals for Canada in 50 years, the 2002 sweep of the Men's and Women's teams. In fact, Women's hockey gets no short shrift here, with stories throughout of female players, from girls pretending to be boys in order to play organized hockey, to formation of women's teams and leagues.

The narrative of the book will present the game in a different light...rather than just tell you about Wayne Gretzky's numbers, or things he was able to do on the ice, you'll read about what it meant to the people of Canada to see him play, or to find out he was in a restaurant nearby. How the "Richard Riots" of 1955 led to a surge in French-Canadian nationalism. How Hockey Night In Canada brought the players into everyone's homes, and how the telecasts brought the players to life across the Nation. Just as an ironic sidenote - the first team to televise hockey games was...the Chicago Blackhawks.

This edition of the book has a new chapter, which contains analysis of the KHL and its effect on the NHL, as well as the emerging role of bloggers in the game.

In summary, this book (along with Ken Dryden's "The Game") is about as close to "necessary" as a book can be for a hockey fan. From experience, you pick it up, and you'll find yourself devouring fifty pages before you know it.