“When you were a kid, you probably read the life story of your favorite hockey player and imagined that, one day, your feats of Stanley Cup glory would be told to the world. Me too, but neither of us ended up in the NHL.

So what about our stories? Instead of letting mine die, I decided to write them down. But this book isn’t just about me. It’s about everyone who ever laced up a pair of skates or shot a tennis ball toward a makeshift net on a driveway, emulating their hockey heroes. It’s about the memories we share as kids who grew up with what our dads called “hockey on the brain.” These stories will remind you of your own life—childhood boasting and jostling for playground supremacy, the loss of innocence that comes with aging, regaining what you love once you’ve figured out career and family—all of which, for both of us, somehow intersected in the game of hockey.

This book, “an autobiography of anyone who ever loved the game,” will remind you of how the game shaped you and will reawaken you to the joy of loving something the way kids love hockey, whether you’ve remained a fan into adulthood or not.”
—- from the Introduction to Growing Up Hockey