The Last Hurrah

a celebration of hockey's greatest season '66-'67

Plot

"We all thought the Leaf-Canadien rivalry would last forever. It didn't. The 1966–67 season was the last hurrah for a competition that sustained Canada for more than forty long winters. The last time that hockey seemed securely, yes, perhaps even smugly ours; for four decades there were just two professional hockey teams in Canada. One of two hockey sweaters were handed out under the tree at Christmas. Somewhere along the way the dye from those scratchy wool sweaters must've seeped into our skins."It's the fall of 1966. Montreal is dressing up for Expo. In Toronto, hippie Yorkville is in full flower. Canadians have a new flag. A new anthem. The world is speeding crazily and Canada is changing fast. Except on Wednesday nights, fourteen times a season, when time stops as the Montreal Canadiens face off against the Toronto Maple Leafs and for three hours hockey fans across the country are holding their breath.The Last Hurrah captures all the sweet suffering of those epic Leaf–Canadien battles. Informed by exhaustive research and coloured by reminiscences of dozens of players, coaches, referees and sportswriters from the era, the book is a provocative, richly detailed chronicle of the last season of hockey's golden era. Here is again is Henri Richard sending Tim Horton and Allan Stanley scrambling on one of his twisting "where's he going now?" rushes; Fergy and Shack butting heads in the corner of the old Forum; and, at the heart of hockey's most famous rivalry, coaches Toe Blake and Punch Imlach plotting and scheming to push their teams to the Stanley Cup.As well as recreating all the excitement and drama of the 1966–67 hockey season, from the crazy days of Leaf training camp in Peterborough to the glorious final showdown between Montreal and Toronto in the Stanley Cup finals, The Last Hurrah provides fascinating sidelong glances at life in Canada during our centennial year, capturing not only a remarkable period in the evolution of hockey, but also telling a moment in a country's cultural history.