Scotty

A Hockey Life Like No Other

By: Ken Dryden

Narrated by: Ken Dryden

NATIONAL BESTSELLER

A hockey life like no other.

A hockey book like no other.

Scotty Bowman is recognized as the best coach in hockey history, and one of the greatest coaches in all of sports. He won more games and more Stanley Cups than anyone else. Despite all the changes in hockey, he coached at the very top for more than four decades, his first Cup win and his last an astonishing thirty-nine years apart. Yet perhaps most uniquely, different from anyone else who has ever lived or ever will again, he has continuously experienced the best of hockey since he was fourteen years old. With his precious standing room pass to the Montreal Forum, he saw "Rocket" Richard play at his peak every Saturday night. He saw Gordie Howe as a seventeen-year-old just starting out. He scouted Bobby Orr as a thirteen-year-old in Parry Sound, Ontario. He coached Guy Lafleur and Mario Lemieux. He coached against Wayne Gretzky. For the past decade, as an advisor for the Chicago Blackhawks, he has watched Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin, and Connor McDavid. He has seen it all up close.

Ken Dryden was a Hall-of-Fame goaltender with the Montreal Canadiens. His critically acclaimed and bestselling books have shaped the way we read and think about hockey.

Now the player and coach who won five Stanley Cups together team up once again as Dryden gives his coach a new test: Tell us about all these players and teams you've seen, but imagine yourself as their coach. Tell us about their weaknesses, not just their strengths. Tell us how you would coach them and coach against them. And then choose the top eight teams of all time, match them up against one another in a playoff series, and, separating the near-great from the great, tell us who would win. And why.

Scotty is about a life—a hockey life, a Canadian life, a life of achievement. It is Scotty Bowman in his natural element, behind the bench one more time.

Critic reviews

"[Scotty] is the story of one of the game's greatest coaches written by one of the game's best goaltenders of all-time, and woven throughout are brilliant stories from two of the greatest minds to grace the ice." —Ken Campbell, The Hockey News

"It's possible [Dryden]'s an even better writer than he was a goaltender." —Mitch Melnick, TSN

"The book is a must-read for fans of the dynastic Canadiens, Lemieux's Cup-winning Penguins or the Yzerman/Fedorov Wings powerhouse, and because of Dryden's masterful prose, it should be considered a must-read for all hockey fans. It's most certainly worthy of Bowman's and Dryden's legacies." —Kevin Greenstein, Inside Hockey

Praise for Game Change:

“As an author, Ken Dryden is known for writing about hockey in a manner in which few others do or are capable. He goes beyond the score lines and cliché-ridden post-game interview style of hockey writing to plumb the depths of the game at levels rarely examined.” —Winnipeg Free Press

“Game Change is arguably Dryden's most significant book since The Game, which is still widely regarded as the greatest hockey book ever written and as one of the best sports books of all time. As good as The Game was, this latest work is the more important to read right now.” —Brett Popplewell, Globe and Mail

Fantastic book for the hockey fan

This is a fantastic book for any hockey fan. Scotty Bowman is the best coach in NHL history and arguably the best coach ever in pro sports. I loved how he went through 7 decades of hockey, identifying the best teams of those decades. Who the players were, what made them great. What were their weaknesses? How would he coach them? How would he coach against them? Great insight into a great hockey mind. If you love the sport of hockey, this is a must read.

Fabulous Hockey Book

this book is excellent in its story telling and its description of the hockey greats

best hockey, no best sports book I've ever read

This is a man who has seen every player you've ever heard of as a rookie on up. This is a man who is a student of the game in the truest sense of the word. The way this story is told is so much much better than just a biography. It teaches history of the game beyond stats and names, It teaches the evolution of the philosophy of the game and I found myself dying to know who would be champion of Scotty's bracket. awesome!! If you are a fan of any sport, if you play, or coach this is a must read.

A wonderful summary of one of the greatest coaches in sports.

Has an author, Dryden deserves a second entry into Hockey’s Hall of Fame. The concept in Scotty is brilliant, providing readers with the adrenaline, the highs and lows, of some of the sports greatest teams and players. Through the eyes of its greatest coach.

Excellent book and reading.

This is my third Dryden book and I really appreciate the details and substance in his writing as well as his solid reading of his words.