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  • Scotty

  • A Hockey Life Like No Other
  • Written by: Ken Dryden
  • Narrated by: Ken Dryden
  • Length: 15 hrs and 32 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (132 ratings)

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Scotty

Written by: Ken Dryden
Narrated by: Ken Dryden
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Publisher's Summary

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.

©2019 Ken Dryden (P)2019 McClelland & Stewart

What the critics say

"[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)

Featured Article: Top 13 Canadian Sports Players of All Time

Sid the Kid, The Great One, Burkie and more are waiting in this selection of amazing audiobooks paying homage to Canada’s great sporting heroes.

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What listeners say about Scotty

Average Customer Ratings
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Ken does a great job getting into Scotty's brain

Great history and insights into the amazing game of hockey from someone who knew the game better than anyone and had experience through many decades.

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
  • JJ
  • 2021-03-21

Good book but misled

I was hoping to hear more about Scottys life but instead it was more about his opinion about the best teams.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Ken Dryden hits the mark again.

Great approach to telling Scotty's story and the describing the NHL throughout his life. Really enjoyed the story and the narrative.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

What an amazing story! This from a Leaf's fan.

I was a die hard Leafs fan, back before the Jets made it to the NHL. I would never in a million years thought I'd be listening to a story about the coach of the Leaf's arch nemesis Montreal Canadians 50 years later.

But oh, what a story.

To find out that the most winningest coach of all time, had the most humblest of beginnings in this sport, and that he progressed from where he started with Sam Pollock to where he wound up in the Detroit organization fielding a team of veterans to do the unthinkable, was truly amazing.

An awe inspiring book that goes to show how someone with so much love and passion for a sport (in fact anything) can truly be successful despite the odds. With a little bit of luck and a whole lot of determination and hard work (spelled "putting in the time") and asking a whole bunch of questions.

He never stopped being curious. And he's still at it.

Amazing.

Great job Ken!

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Absolutely Fantastic

Ken Dryden comes up with an ingenious way of telling the story of hockey and the NHL through Scotty Bowman, one of it's most successful and fascinating people. This book captures the history and spirit of hockey in a way that I did not think possible.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Enjoyed Scotty and learned a lot about Hockey and the NHL

What an amazing run Scotty had. Great job helping to tell his story. I knew he was a winner, but had not realized how many times/teams he proved that point. Highly recommend.

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Missing some important information

Very good book if you’re interested about Hockey. It’s more the story of post WW2 Hockey history seen by Scotty Bowman than a Scotty’s bio. Scotty was consider as a tough coach and, at least during his Canadian’s year he was hate by all his players. He humiliated Phil Esposito in the 76 Canada Cup by dressing him but benched him all game. There is no mention of that or how he coached.
I liked the book but be interested more by an unauthorized biography.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Outstanding

A great story about Hockey, about the greatest teams and greatest figures in hockey all wrapped around the experiences of the greatest coach in hockey. Ken does a wonderful job narrating, I can’t imagine anyone else telling this story.
A perfect audiobook for hockey fans.

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Another Winner for Dryden

Thoroughly enjoyed everything about this book. The angle that Dryden takes with Scotty is very clever (should we expect anything less from Ken Dryden). The insights into the game derived from Scotty are enlightening, thought provoking and entertaining.

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    5 out of 5 stars

Great book and oral presentation

This was a great listen. As a long time hockey fan I loved hearing the detail drawn out of this great sports mind, and you learn something of the man, his time, and his observations in a beautiful narrational style.

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