I get many, many requests around here to review books, but I don't like to review a book unless I truthfully love it. To be frank, I personally read books that have almost NOTHING to do with hockey. A few great ones I read over the past year...
Bill Meltzer's, "Pelle Lindbergh: Behind the White Mask" , the great hockey fiction book,
"Starvation Lake," by Bryan Gruley,
Russ Cohen's, "100 Ranger Greats", and
Bob McKenzie's "Hockey Dad" are the exceptions and became favorites of mine over the last few years.
But today I add another, soon to be classic,
Rob Higgins' "2010-2011 Hockey Fantasy Index.".
Many of you may know Rob from the XM Home Ice radio show (my personal favorite) Rob does with Jim "Boomer" Gordon. The two talk fantasy hockey in incredible depth. It's a must listen for me. You have heard Rob speak of his "HFI" or "Hockey Fantasy Index" where he boils down every possible stat which can help or hurt a player's trade value into a single rating.
Well Rob's book is your chance to totally geek out on the HFI for 477 pages! It's more than just stats as well. Rob's writing is often witty, very conversational, and always ridiculously informed. He goes far beyond the numbers by labeling players in various categories including... "Sick, sick, sick," "Don't Believe the Hype," "Foxy by Proxy," "The Kids Are Alright,""Cherry Picking,""Radar Love," and more.
What also separates this book is how it tracks player trends from month to month making it truly the first Fantasy Guide to get you beyond just your draft and provide trends to monitor throughout the season.
The book also features commentary from hockey personalities including Scott Morrison, Bill Watters, Adam Proteau, Steve Larmer, and even Eklund. Yup, Rob was cool enough to ask me to write a little commentary on "The Anatomy of a Rumor" where I discuss how a rumor gets legs, who starts them, and how to better understand the ebb and flow of rumors in an NHL season.
To top it all off, Rob does some great historical comparisons when it comes to fantasy value, like who was the best: Gretzky or Lemieux, or Brodeur vs. Roy vs. Hasek.
In conclusion:
I don't buy many books. In the day and age of the Web, we can get information easily and quickly. However, sometimes a book works. I love flipping open a book like this one to a random page and reading from there. Newspapers writers always joke about how they were trained to write at a third grade level and write in the most general way possible. That is why newspapers are dying. I love books that aren't "dumbed down." In the year 2010 we want to be "talked to" not "talked at." I want to read books from experts who understand that I already know hockey REALLY well. I don't need to waste my time with background hockey details you would tell a baseball fan who has rarely if ever seen a hockey game.
For some reason, we get more in-depth detail on the internet. When it comes to putting ink to paper, however, writers and publishers often shy away from getting intensely specific with topics. I hate it.
I want to learn something when I read. I want to believe the writer to be the expert and, while I have my own opinions, I want to read the writings of someone who lives the topic he writes about and knows more than I do.
Higgins does this brilliantly. This is book for diehards. It costs $20 for 477 pages of awesomeness. Trust me, this one is a no-brainer purchase. Order it today for your draft and use it for the whole season to come.
Order Rob Higgin's "2010-2011 Hockey Fantasy Index.".
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I will be back with some rumors and my prediction for the Atlantic. ONE WEEK TO GO KIDS!
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