Customer Reviews

Sidney Crosby: Taking the Game by Storm

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OK, any time a new star pops up there is an author wanting to make a quick buck. I knew better than to jump on the first unofficial biography but did anyways. Like any book of this genre, the entire thing comes off as "I talked to someone who talked to someone who once knew Sidney and based on that we can deduce this...". It was clear from the author's account that they stalked the Crosby family for a period of time and despite that effort failed to gain any deep insights from Sidney or his family. This entire book could have been written after reading newspaper clippings and perhaps a 30 minute interview with Sidney. My recommendation - wait until Sidney lives up to the hype (and I suspect he will!) and then read his official biography.

If you are a huge hockey fan, with knowledge about players and teams, new and old, throughout Canada and at all age levels, you are the right person for this book. Reading about places, people, and teams that I didn't know anything about was very frustrating and made it hard to keep reading. A good portion of the book was just comparing Gretzky and Crosby. That was interesting, in moderation. I was looking for a book to tell all about Sidney Crosby and his trip to the NHL. This book has that, but it came along with a lot of extra stuff that was unnecessary.

This is a pretty quick read although I'm not sure how interesting it would be to most hockey fans.

It basically recaps Gretzky's trip to the NHL and then Crosby's entire life in hockey leading up to the NHL draft. The good parts are the insights into scouting and comments from his peers and coaches on Crosby's abilities and work ethic. It is of course well-written and many great hockey minds are quoted.

But I get the feeling that Joyce spends a bit too much time praising and defending Crosby against criticism, which really doesn't need to be done in my opinion. In addition, Crosby's road to the NHL was pretty standard without a lot of detours or excitement. There's mostly a pattern of anticipation and hype going into each league and then him fulfilling expectations, then moving on to the next level.

There's no real insight into Crosby's (in my opinion, mysterious) personality. Either Crosby literally has no personality outside of wanting to play hockey and win, or this book didn't find any. And for an autobiography written about an 18 year old (at the time) who had a fairly straightforward journey through his amateur career, it gets pretty stale.

You will not enjoy this book unless you are a fan of Hockey! I read this book after about half a season of Hockey and seeing Crosby play. This book is a great way to learn about an up coming star (which you can see through his play). I would recommend this book to anyone that really loves the game of Hockey!