TBC: Next Goal Wins!

As you may have guessed with my affinity towards hockey history, I like hockey trivia. I will say, however, that I'm nowhere even close to being a hockey trivia genius like the man featured today. I was reading through his latest publication, and I have to admit that I'm blown away with what he knows and what I honestly didn't know. I'm pretty sure that Liam Maguire will forget more about hockey trivia than I'll ever know, so Teebz's Book Club is proud to review Next Goal Wins!, written by Liam Maguire and published by Random House Canada. I've reviewed hockey trivia books in the past, and it's tough to find a lot of reason to re-read these books. Mr. Maguire's Next Goal Wins! is jam-packed with so much information that you'll have to read it again to absorb everything contained within the covers!

From the book's cover, "Liam Maguire became Canada's unofficial hockey trivia expert in 1981. Since then he has made many appearances across the country at speaking engagements, on television and on radio. He is the president of Liam Maguire's Ultimate Hockey, a hockey portal found at www.liammaguiresultimatehockey.com. Liam has been involved in the sport of hockey, as a fan and participant, for 46 years. He attended 344 games at the Montreal Forum from May 1, 1975, until March 11, 1996. He lives, sleeps, eats and breathes hockey. Liam lives in Osgoode, Ontario, with his two children."

Next Goal Wins! is filled with a ton of hockey trivia that one may not even consider. There are sections that highlight pieces of trivia from each team's history, the best players, defunct teams, Stanley Cup anecdotes, and even the questions that Liam Maguire gets asked most often. Needless to say, the amount of information contained within the covers is plentiful!

I am simply amazed at how much I didn't know in comparison to Mr. Maguire. For example, Phoenix's third coach, Bob Francis, added his name to a very select few names when he was given the job as Coyotes head coach. His father, Emile Francis, coached the New York Rangers, and these men are one of four father-son combinations to have coached NHL teams. Do you know who the other three combinations are? The answer is at the bottom of this article!

Being that we're a couple of days away from Christmas, were you aware that the NHL played on Christmas Day from 1920-1971? If you read Next Goal Wins!, you'll know that the New York Rangers played the most games on Christmas Day with 38 games played, and have the best record on Christmas Day of all the teams that played at 25-11-2. That's a pretty impressive mark for games played on Christmas Day considering that Chicago is second-best at 15-14-8!

The section in Next Goal Wins! on defunct teams is pretty impressive with all the trivia that Mr. Maguire provides. Every defunct team is highlighted - the Montreal Wanderers, the Quebec Bulldogs, the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Cleveland Barons - with some pretty interesting facts: who scored the first goal in each team's history, who scored the last goal in each team's history, and a myraid of other facts about these forgotten teams.

Next Goal Wins! is an excellent source of information that will satiate any hockey historian's or hockey trivia buff's need. I found myself astounded with some of the excellent information in Next Goal Wins!, and I'm very impressed with Mr. Maguire's outstanding hockey knowledge. Because of the vast quantity of facts and information in the book, Next Goal Wins! absolutely deserves the Teebz's Book Club Seal of Approval!

Thanks for reading this review, and the answer for the father-son coaching combinations are as follows: Lester Patrick and his son Lynn Patrick, Lynn Patrick and his son Craig Patrick, and Larry Wilson and his son Ron Wilson. Pretty incredible to see the lineages!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!