The Home Team

"Roy wanted to look at the bond between fathers and sons in hockey and the family roots of hockey culture. He had observed that often hockey players in moments of triumph referred to their fathers. Many of them are fulfilling a dream for their fathers as much as a dream for themselves. The book succeeds in showing where these boys and their drive to succeed come from. He talks about Brett Hull and his father Bobby Hull, both of whom are Hall of Fame players, great players. He talks about Wayne Gretzky and his father Walter, who never was an NHL player. One chapter takes place during one of the labour lockouts, when a bunch of NHL stars barnstormed around Europe and took their fathers with them. It shows the range of fathers who were travelling with their sons on this tour – from the father of guys like Wayne Gretzky, who might be the best player who ever played, right down to the dads of journeymen like Marty McSorley, who were just average players. Football and baseball in America and even in Canada are sports that kids can play through the school system. Typically the people that you are coached by and the culture you’re surrounded by is an educational one. It produces a certain type of mindset. Hockey has always been placed in the community. The time when you practise and play games is the time when you’re away from school, so the obligation falls more on moms who have kids in hockey than it does in other sports. In the other sports the schools will transport the kids to games and organise the practices on school grounds. With hockey it’s all on the parents to drive kids at five in the morning to a hockey practice far from home, or to go for a weekend tournament in a van. Hockey requires more commitment from parents than other sports do. It’s part of the culture and mythology of the game that I talk about in my books."