Ralph Mellanby (1934–2022)

A good over view of HNIC personalities and a few hockey greats. Very positive and upbeat. Mellanby seems to have liked everybody. Everyone was great. The only one who comes out looking bad is Gary Bettman. Mellanby makes no bones that he does not like Bettman; but, does hope that Bettman maybe yet be good for hockey. I was disappointed with how he skimmed over the dispute between HNIC and Punch Imlach in which Imlach tried to keep Daryl Sittler, Lanny McDonald, Ian Turnbull and Mike Palmateer from participating in Showdown. I can't help but think the book is about how wonderful Mellanby is/was and all the good buddies he made during his time with HNIC. Would be nice to get an unfiltered view of what went on behind the scenes during the 60's,70's and 80's.… (mehr)

Chapters on various hosts at HNIC, players & NHL executives. Would recommend if you watched HNIC over the years that he produced the show. Not sure I'd recommend to anyone else. Did not wind up liking him after reading the book despite it not having much personal info at all (wife's name kept changing in anecdotes, but no actual info about them or when/how they changed). He seemed to judge HNIC employees by whether they drank (good) or not (bad). X was good at his job despite the fact that he didn't want to hang out with me boozing it up kind of references.

Lots of positves for Eagleson, Ballard and Ziegler (won't get into certain players who get praise despite what their actions meant for others) and a glossing over of the fact that they, particularly the first two, destroyed people - whether financially or playing careers (or both). They drank with him so they must be good guys.

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Edited 9/16/08 - Just read Foster Hewitt's bio and auto-bio - neither of which mention Mellanby and both of which have direct contradictions of self-aggrandizing info Mellanby included in his chapter on Foster and Bill Hewitt.… (mehr)