Gretzky's Tears: Hockey, Canada, And The Day Everything Changed

I thought Brunt's writing was superb throughout. His eye for details and in describing little things painted a lot of vivid pictures in my mind as I read - always the sign of good writing.
The whole episode, as painted by Brunt, seems to boil down to this: everybody involved wasn't quite honest with each other. Pocklington, McNall and, sadly, even Gretzky himself. In hindsight, it seemed like everyone was trying to fool somebody else just a little bit with the whole thing.
But Pocklington definitely comes off as the biggest jacka$$ of the whole thing. Brunt does a great job in dissecting his phony facade, whisker by well groomed whisker.

Stephen steps us through the past 30 years of the NHL as seen through the career of the greatest hockey player of that era. He provides us with the most relevant facts that shaped not only the career of Wayne Gretzky but also the decisions of people around him that shaped the league to what it is today. A thoroughly enjoyable read that is laced with well documented and very interesting behind the scenes information.

Unfortunately the ending is a bit anticlimactic, but in a sense I guess it mirrors the career of the player. For all the glory that Wayne has achieved in his illustrious life in hockey, Stephen has shown that from the time he turned pro it was always about the money. His close relationship with the owners of his teams (Pocklington and McNall) is well documented and it is evident that it did shape him as the person he is outside the rink.

It was his mother and father that instilled a true sense of Canadian humility and an honest love of the game of hockey that endeared him to all Canadians but it was Pocklington and McNall who introduced him to capitalistic greed. It is rather ironic that one could have diametrically opposite role models in one's life. Although Stephen does not say it, this can be seen as the real reason for Gretzky's Tears.

My wife recently gave me this book as a gift and I enjoyed it immensely. Earlier I had thought that I had little interest in something else about Gretzky but the book touches on much more, including revisiting final WHA years and a useful review of hockey in the 1980's and up to the 1993 playoffs in particular. After 1993 the story dies off probably because Gretzky's final years were not intended to be the subject. I found the writing style to be very comfortable and it was hard to put the book down. Mr Brunt interviewed a number of key people including Skalbania, Pocklington, McNall, Sather and other teammates. The Pocklington revelations were predictable. The LA King history through expansion and Jerry Buss were interesting but the parts that dealt with McNall definitely showed the flaws in the man that became well known with his legal troubles. Mr Brunt usually writes very clearly and factually with humour and added details so he is well suited to write these sports histories. This book does an excellent job of summarizing the Gretzky history to lay the groundwork for the big day in 1988 and is well worth a read for all those with an interest in (fairly) recent hockey history. Mr Brunt writes in a friendly style and since finishing this book I have dusted off some of his earlier books that I also had on my shelf including the Bobby Orr book and the 20 year history of the Blue Jays (published 1997) for similar enjoyment. For his next title I would love to see a story on Gary Bettman's tenure and effect on the NHL and sports because so much has happened since Bettman arrived on the scene. This would effectively make a trilogy for hockey and cover greater than 40 years of NHL through 3 key people (Orr 1960's-1978, Gretzky 1978-1993, Bettman 1992-present). For the record I am a Maple Leaf fan and, yes, the Fraser non-call still grates on me. I have a crystal clear memory of the 1993 playoffs and Mr Brunt's reporting of that LA/Toronto series is spot on as far as I can see.

If 99 hadn't spoiled the Leafs run in '93 I'd probably enjoy it more ;)