YORKTON - Hockey is a team sport, yet one player seems to stand at least a little apart from others.
The goaltender is that player who ultimately must stem the attack by the opposition, sometimes with the help of teammates, at other times standing alone, the eyes of every fan cast upon them.
One look at the often colourfully painted head gear standing out like a battle crest of old and you realize the players behind the mask don’t mind the attention. They are used to it. Maybe even relish it.
They are unique individuals operating almost independently within the confines of a team game.
It is that individuality which author Randi Druzin explores in Behind the Mask: A Revealing Look at Twelve of the Greatest Goalies in Hockey History, a recently released book from Greystone Books.
“While his teammates rush up the ice in a coordinated attack, the goalie is alone in his net. And when the play turns back toward him, he's prepared to step in front of a frozen rubber disc travelling 100 miles an hour. He's the last line of defense in a pitched battle. The goalie stands apart, on and off the ice. Like the relief pitcher in baseball and the place kicker in football, he is a maverick,” noted greystonebooks.com
“I am a goaltender nerd,” said Druzin a journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times, Time magazine, and the Globe and Mail.
That is actually somewhat surprising given her own on ice experience.
“When I played in university I was a winger,” she said.
But, the guys behind the mask called to her.
“Something about goaltenders always fascinated me,” said Druzin who a decade ago released Between the Pipes, a book featuring vignettes on goaltender greats such as Johnny Bower and Ken Dryden.
A writing gig helping Reggie Leach with his book, and life meant a 10-year interval to the newest look at goaltenders.
Behind the Mask covers some netminders from decades ago; Gerry Cheevers, Tony Esposito, Vladislav Tretiak with more recent names such as Marc-Andre Fleury, Henrik Lundquist and Carey Price.
“Behind the Mask profiles 12 legendary NHL goalies, emphasizing the traits that make each one unique,” noted greystonebooks.com. “It blends accounts of the goalies on-ice exploits with anecdotes about their lives off the ice information gleaned from archival research as well as interviews with teammates, family members and the goalies themselves.”
Now if you are looking for every detail of a particular netminder’s career, their secrets to the craft, the secrets in their equipment bags, this is not the book.
Druzin said the goal of the book was to keep readers engaged with some interesting stories from the chosen netminder’s career.
“My goal was to entertain, not to be the definitive work,” she said.
The result is a book that is an easy read – one that should have been a popular as a gift this holiday season since it should engage almost any hockey fan.
