TBC: Killer

I try to choose books for Teebz's Book Club that interest me. Normally, this means avoiding topics and stories that involve the Toronto Maple Leafs, but I do like biographies that examine the careers of great men. Today's entry in Teebz's Book Club looks back at the career of one of the greatest Leafs in history, and his life thus far is pretty interesting. Teebz's Book Club is proud to review Killer: My Life in Hockey, written by Doug Gilmour and Dan Robson, and published by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd. I will admit that I never had an appreciation for Doug Gilmnour's career prior to cracking Killer open, but learning about Gilmour's life, his career, and his accomplishments was admittedly more interesting than I would have ever thought mainly because I always associated him with the Maple Leafs. In the end, his time with the Blues, Flames, Devils, Sabres, and Canadiens turned out to be rather fascinating!

From the HarperCollins website, "Doug Gilmour was born and raised in Kingston, Ontario. Over his twenty seasons in the NHL, he played for the St. Louis Blues, Calgary Flames, Toronto Maple Leafs, New Jersey Devils, Chicago Blackhawks, Buffalo Sabres and Montreal Canadiens before returning to the Leafs to retire in the blue and white in 2003. He won the Memorial Cup with the Cornwall Royals and the Stanley Cup with the Calgary Flames, was an NHL all-star and still holds a number of junior hockey and Toronto Maple Leaf records. Gilmour became the coach of his hometown's junior hockey franchise, the Kingston Frontenacs, in 2008 and is now the team's general manager. He lives in Kingston."

Also from the HarperCollins website, "Dan Robson is a senior writer at Sportsnet. He is the author of the bestseller Quinn: The Life of a Hockey Legend and co-author of the bestsellers The Crazy Game: How I Survived in the Crease and Beyond with Clint Malarchuk, Change Up: How to Make the Great Game of Baseball Even Better with Buck Martinez, and Killer: My Life in Hockey with Doug Gilmour. He lives in Toronto. As a child he was given a print of Johnny Bower, signed to 'Danny' that has hung on his wall ever since."

Killer starts at the beginning with a young Doug Gilmour ripping around the rink during an intermission when his father, Don, coached the all-star bantam team in Kingston. Without giving too much away, "Little Gilly", as he was called then, was an undersized-but-tenacious kid when it came to hockey, and his father always was giving him advice. There were some good lessons that Don passed onto Doug in those talks, and Gilmour relates a number of these stories about his dad throughout the book.

I was very interested in learning about Doug's junior career and how one of the highest-scoring players in the OHL in his draft year somehow fell to the seventh-round of the NHL Entry Draft. He played with some amazing players during his junior days in Cornwall, but he also explained how Cornwall's fortunes changed once they moved from the QMJHL to the OHL. In any case, his fantastic junior career led St. Louis to choose him in the seventh-round of the 1982 NHL Entry Draft, and his dream of playing in the NHL was nearly complete!

It's very interesting to see how Doug's home life followed his NHL path as well. From his first marriage and his daughter, Maddison, being born in St. Louis to being traded to Calgary to being traded to Toronto, Doug has done his best to seemingly keep his family close no matter where he was playing. Even while playing for New Jersey, Buffalo, and Montreal, there were chances for him to go to other NHL cities where he could win more accolades, but Doug always seemed to put his family first when it came to where he'd continue his career. I found that very interesting considering that one often thinks of NHL players as being driven in their pursuit of the Stanley Cup above all else.

I know that hockey players occasionally have collections of memorabilia and paraphernalia that they collect over their years of playing the game, but Doug Gilmour has a fairly unique collection that he put together. He writes,

Throughout my short career, I had always collected my sweaters from each team I played for. Well, it turned out that the Blues wouldn't allow us to keep our sweaters. They were team property and would be reused for training camps and other things. They had only one set each of home and away sweaters. Talk about different times! Later, I'd find ways to smuggle my sweaters out of the arena and pretend they were lost. But I wasn't that bold as a rookie. So to this day, the only sweater I don't have from my playing days is that number 18 Blues sweater.

Pretty cool, right? Doug Gilmour has virtually every sweater he's worn in his career stored away somewhere. I knew that guys collected some of the more unique or historic jerseys, but to have nearly every single jersey from his playing days makes Doug Gilmour way cooler in my eyes.

Killer was a great read, and it really moved along nicely. I spent a few evenings flipping through the pages, and it was a very easy read. The stream-of-consciousness style of writing used by Gilmour and Robson is like you're listening to Doug Gilmour tell stories from across a table or in a group setting. I'm fond of this type of writing, and it makes autobiographies so much more personal. Because of the Gilmour's candor and honesty throughout the chapters along with this easy-to-read style, Killer: My Life in Hockey certainly deserves the Teebz's Book Club Seal of Approval!

Killer cna be found at all major bookstores and libraries, and would be suitable for most teenagers and older due to some PG-rated language used by Gilmour in his stories. There isn't a lot of adult language, but some situations described by Gilmour may not be suitable for younger readers. If you're a fan of Gilmour or grew up watching him as a Leaf, Killer would be a great pick to pick up as it tells you so much more about Hall-of-Fame player Doug Gilmour!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!