Game Change

October 30, 2017
Dryden, a former NHL goalie, retired Canadian politician, and author (The Game), offers a startling hybrid of a biography and a call to save the lives of athletes who are vulnerable to brain damage caused by concussions. His subject, Steve Montador, was a journeyman hockey player who “was never not on the margins.” After a decent career, with more than 500 games on six NHL teams from 2001 to 2012, Montador dealt with concussion-related health issues. He died in February 2015 at age 35. Montador’s story begins as an inspiring one as he moves from being an unlikely prospect to making the big leagues, but it becomes harrowing as he descends into addictions to deal with his deteriorating physical and mental health. Dryden includes excerpts from the journal Montador kept during his last years, which increases the drama. His story is a page-turner. The book also ventures into the stories of other players sidelined by brain injuries and the doctors who study the condition. Dryden proposes dramatic fixes for the “ever-escalating game,” such as limiting when players can be checked and eliminating all hits to the head and fighting, that are sure to anger traditionalists, but it’s hard to deny his powerful warning that by delaying taking action “we waste careers and lives.” Agent: Bruce Westwood, Westwood Creative Artists.

Starred review from September 1, 2017
Dryden, a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame, was the primary goalkeeper for the Montreal Canadian teams in the 1970s that won six Stanley Cups. He's also the author of The Game (1983), arguably the best book about hockey ever, and he was a member of the Canadian parliament and a cabinet minister. Here he examines the rise of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) among professional hockey players by building on the life of Steve Montador and branching off into the lives of other players and the state of the science researching the disease. Montador was the type of grit-and-grind player fans love. He carved out a career as a defenseman by working harder than his competitors to overcome a lack of size and natural athleticism, but he eventually suffered from CTE, a progressive disease triggered by repeated blows to the head that can produce chronic depression. Montador died in 2015 with a potpourri of drugs in his system. He was 35. Four days later his only son was born. Dryden refuses to accept the premise that, well, hockey is a tough game and stuff happens. He offers specific rule changes to make the game safer, and he weaves in a history of the National Hockey League. At its core, though, Dryden's book delivers a powerful statement about the danger of hockey as it is played today, all through a portrait of one player's short, tragic life. An outstanding contribution to sports literature.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)