Book Review: Victory on Ice: The Chicago Blackhawks' First Stanley Cups

Victory on Ice: The Chicago Blackhawks' First Stanley Cups. Paul Greenland, North Hill Books, November 4, 2022, Paperback, 262 pages.

Reviewed by Brian R. Johnston.

Many Chicago Blackhawks fans will easily remember the team's three Stanley Cup Championships in 2010, 2013, and 2015. Some who are old enough may even remember the 1961 championship. However, there aren't many people around anymore to remember the 1934 and 1938 championships. Enter Paul Greenland, who has written a great new book about those two seasons with Victory on Ice: The Chicago Blackhawks' First Stanley Cups.

This book chronicles the 1933-1934 and 1937-1938 seasons, but it's much more than just a bunch of facts or a description of what happened during those years. The author goes into great detail, describing what happened in games and why the games that he chronicled were important. 

With all the great descriptions of the action on the ice, I felt like I was there watching the games, while the pictures throughout the book also add faces and visual descriptions to the action. I really enjoyed looking at the pictures, which also helped me to understand how much different hockey was back then.

There are also detailed descriptions and interesting facts about many of the players who were on one or both of those championship teams. The author brings them to life, describing not just their hockey accomplishments but also what each person was like both as a hockey player and as a person.

The book also tells the story of hockey in its early years in general, told against the backdrop of what life was like back then during the Great Depression years. Indeed, the book is much more than just a description of what happened in the aforementioned years. It's a celebration of hockey, especially in its formative years. 

Victory on Ice: The Chicago Blackhawks' First Stanley Cups is well-researched. The author used a lot of great sources, including interviews, in putting together his information. A comprehensive bibliography, which also includes newspaper stories, is included at the end of the book.

This is a great book that would be a welcome addition to any hockey or Chicago sports fan's collection. I can tell that the author is a big hockey fan, as his passion and knowledge of the game shined through on every page. I learned so much about the game and about this era of history, and I would recommend the book to sports fans everywhere.