In Blood Feud, Colorado Avalanche beat writer Dater not only submits that there was no more heated rivalry in North American pro sports in the final years of the 20th century and the first few years of the next than Red Wings-Avalanche, but that there was none better played. No fewer than 20 players have or will eventually make it to the Hall of Fame; the best scorers were matched up against the best goalies; brilliant coaches could be found on both benches; and two of the league's smartest general managers ruthlessly tried to one-up each other at every NHL trade deadline. A rollicking story of a fierce, and often violent, rivalry.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
This is a must have book for any serious hockey fan.:
Adrian Dater's account of the feud (and it was bloody!) between the Detroit Red Wings and the Colorado Avalanche is chuck a block full of previously unknown, but hilarious, peculiar (Scotty Bowman is a unique dude to say the least), and riveting inside information and anecdotes. Dater, a hockey writer for the Denver Post, is no homer, and plays it fair, being equally snarky and funny about both teams. Dater covered every game of the 90's between these two rivals, and its all facinatingly covered in this... more info
A Good Read:
There's a lot more to learn in this book than just the infamous brawl that took place on 3/26/97. Player backgrounds, behind the scenes issues, trades are looked into and evaluated. The entire history of the feud from Lemieux's hit on Kris Draper which started the whole mess to the finale of McCarty and Lemieux making their peace years later - in different uniforms. The book is not an elongated read. It moves fairly quickly and if your like me and are interested by facts that no one but you will probably... more info
Fun read, surprisingly unbiased:
I'm a big Red Wings fan, and while this book looked interesting at first glance, I worried that it would be slanted in the Avs favor/perspective given that the author has followed and written about the Avs since they moved to Denver. Happily, this was not the case, as both sides were evenly covered. The strength of the book is its coverage of the history of several of the major players on each side as well as a revealing look behind the scenes. I watched most of these hockey games, but I didn't know... more info
Great Read for All Hockey Fans:
I was suprised by how unbiased this book was. Seeing that it was written by an Avs beat writer I assumed it would be one sided painting the Red Wings as the "Evil Empire" or what have you. That was not the Case. Not only did it cover the major games and playoff series of the rivalry it also gave short Bios of the key people involved ie Bowman, MacCarty, Draper, Roy, and of course Lemeiux.
