Dropping the Gloves: Inside the Fiercely Combative World of Professional Hockey
“I knew what I needed to do to stay in hockey. And I was willing to do it. I would have done anything to stay in hockey.”
—Barry Melrose
Barry Melrose is one of the very few men to have played and coached at all three levels of professional hockey: Junior Hockey, American Hockey League, and the National Hockey League.
With incredible expertise, Mr. Melrose dives deep into the bowels of pro hockey–and holds no quarter in sharing eye-opening stories, rare viewpoints, and very honest opinions about what life is really like as a pro hockey player—the real “blood and guts” of the game, something all hardcore fans crave.
Mr. Melrose takes the reader on a detailed journey (first from a player’s perspective and them from a coach’s) starting with the “grass roots” of the game: the Junior League, in which teenage boys travel to towns like Kelvington, Assiniboia, Saskatchewan and Weyburn, with dreams of playing in the NHL.
He then covers the American Hockey League in which young players are transitioning to the NHL and older players are trying desperately to hang on to their fading careers.
And finally it’s on to the crème de la crème, the NHL, in which younger players are trying to establish themselves, older players are playing for their lives, and superstars get to live by a different set of rules.
Mr. Melrose masterfully dissects what it takes to win championships, having been there a few times himself as both a player and a coach.
“There’s a big difference between being the better team and being the more talented team. Talent is only valuable if it is combined with a solid work ethic, strong character, passion and all of the other things that embody our sport.”
He shares his indoctrination into the world of television and how over the past 15+ years he has managed to become the premier voice and face of the NHL for ESPN.
Loaded with facts and incredible insight Dropping the Gloves covers not only how Mr. Melrose believes the game has evolved, but where he thinks it is headed and why–in brutally honest language even though what he says may not be very popular with today’s NHL brass.
Having been raised during what is referred to as the “Dark Ages” of hockey–where fighting and intimidation dominated the league, he hones in on the most controversial topic in the NHL today: fighting.
“In the 70s and 80s, if a person challenged you to a fight, it never occurred to you to walk away, even if you were greatly outmatched.”
With fighting on the decline, and quite possibly on the verge of extinction, Mr. Melrose admits today’s game is better; however, he contends “Ending fighting is a bad idea.”
Barry Melrose presents a rare, firsthand, realistic look into the world of professional hockey from every perspective possible: inside the locker room, on the ice, behind the bench, and inside the front office. There is perhaps no man more qualified to do this—and he does it in a manner he has mastered: raw and unpolished.