Nominated for the 2019 Toronto Heritage Publication Award

We may under no circumstances visit a playoff series like it once again.

Before Gary Bettman, as well as the lockouts. Before all of the NHL’s outdated barns were torn down to make method for bigger, glitzier rinks. Before extension and parity over the league, just about anything could happen on the ice. And it often did. It had been an era when large personalities dominated the activity; and willpower was frequently enough to win video games. And in the springtime of 1993, some of the biggest abilities and about THE FINAL Good 12 months biggest personalities had been on the collision course.

The Cinderella Maple Leafs acquired somehow beaten the mighty Crimson Wings and then, just like improbably, the St. Louis Blues. Wayne Gretzky’s Kings acquired just torn through the Flames and the Canucks. If they faced each other in the meeting final, the effect would be a series that supporters still talk about passionately 25 years later on.

Taking us back to that feverish spring, The Last Great Year gives a romantic account not just of an era-defining seven video games, but of the actual series meant to the men who were changed by it: Marty McSorley, the hard guy who got his whole team on his shoulders; Doug Gilmour, the rising superstar; superstar owner Bruce McNall; Expenses Berg, who went from unidentified to popular when the Leafs claimed him on waivers; Kelly Hrudey, the Kings’ goalie who would embark on to become a Hockey Night time in Canada broadcaster; Kerry Fraser, who become the game’s most infamous referee; and two completely different captains, Toronto’s bull inside a china shop, Wendel Clark, and the immortal Wayne Gretzky.

Fast-paced, authoritative, and galvanized by the same like of the game that made the series so unforgettable, THE FINAL Good Year is a glorious testament to an instant hockey fans won’t forget.