Thunder and Lightning: A No-B.S. Hockey Memoir - Softcover

Jesus saves ? but Espo puts in the rebound in this raucous, ribald memoir

At a party marking the end of his third season with the Blackhawks, Phil Esposito told coach Billy Reay and GM Tommy Ivan that they had a great team, maybe even a dynasty, but that the two of them would screw it up.

It was a classic Espo moment (and may have had something to do with his being traded to the Bruins): the big centre from the Soo who became one of hockey?s all-time leading scorers, has never been reluctant to speak his mind. In this rollicking hockey memoir, he reveals what it was like to play with other Hall of Famers like Howe and Hull and Orr. He recalls his acrimonious encounters with Allan Eagleson, the incredible intensity of the 1972 Canada-Russia series, the fabulous ride with the great Bruins teams of the early 1970s, and the tough years that followed with the New York Rangers.

From being a player, Esposito went on to be a commentator, a coach, a general manager, and then founder and part-owner of the Tampa Bay Lightning. He saw it all: the booze, the drugs, the women, the wheeling and dealing, the good times and the camaraderie, the bad times and the back-stabbing. In telling what it was really like, Esposito takes readers into the boardrooms, back rooms ? and even the bedrooms ? of the men who make their lives in the NHL.

Phil Esposito played with the Chicago Blackhawks, the Boston Bruins, and the New York Rangers. After his retirement as a player, he did colour commentary for Rangers games and then became the Rangers’ general manager. He was a founder and a part owner of the Tampa Bay Lightning. He lives in Florida.

Peter Golenbock has written some of sports’ most important books, including Dynasty: The New York Yankees 1949-64, The Bronx Zoo, which he wrote in 1979 with New York Yankee pitcher Sparky Lyle; BUMS: An Oral History of the Brooklyn Dodgers, Personal Fouls, a look at corruption in college basketball; American Zoom, a history of NASCAR; and Wild, High and Tight, his biography of Yankee manager Billy Martin. Peter Golenbock lives in St. Petersburg, Florida.