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  • The Boys of Winter

  • The Untold Story of a Coach, a Dream, and the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team
  • Written by: Wayne Coffey
  • Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne
  • Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins
  • 4.8 out of 5 stars (4 ratings)

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The Boys of Winter cover art

The Boys of Winter

Written by: Wayne Coffey
Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne
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Publisher's Summary

Once upon a time, they taught us to believe. They were the 1980 US Olympic hockey team, a blue-collar bunch led by an unconventional coach, and they engineered perhaps the greatest sports moment of the 20th century. Their "Miracle on Ice" has become a national fairy tale, but the real Cinderella story is even more remarkable. It is a legacy of hope, hard work, and homegrown triumph. It is a chronicle of everyday heroes who just wanted to play hockey happily ever after. It is still unbelievable.

The Boys of Winter is an evocative account of the improbable American adventure in Lake Placid, New York. Drawing on hundreds of hours of interviews, Wayne Coffey explores the untold stories of the US upstarts, their Soviet opponents, and the forces that brought them together.

©2005 Wayne Coffey; foreword copyright 2005 by Jim Craig; afterword copyright 2005 by Wayne Coffey (P)2017 Tantor

What the critics say

"Well-written and thoroughly researched.... Filled with primary interviews and exceptional insight, Coffey's effort should delight more than just hockey fans." ( Publishers Weekly)

What listeners say about The Boys of Winter

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  • TMD
  • 2021-12-19

OMG, the narration was awful

I don't usually write reviews but for this title, I had to. First, the book is excellent. I love this story, even as a 15 year old canadian watching the olympics live I loved this "miracle". It exemplifies what is great about sport and people working towards a common goal. Buy the book, the author wrote an excellent book.

The story was so good that I gave this an overall rating of 4 stars and 5 stars for the story. If I could have given a rating of less that 1, for the performance, I would have give it a -5.

The narration was HORRIBLE. It was friggin AWFUL. It was HORRI-AWFUL. If the story, and the way the story was written, wasn't so good I would have stopped listening at about pg 10 (I did listen to the entire book).

If you are going to have someone read a story, about a sport, they should be familiar with the subject matter. The pronunciation of hockey terms was terrible (e.g., it's pronounced blueline, not blue line; pronouncing deeking as decking was ridiculous).

The pronunciation of russian names and player quotes using an annoying russian accent was like listening to fingernails being dragged across a chalk board. You do not want to hear the pronunciation of Guy Lafleur's name.

The reading of the game action was infuriating - the tempo was all wrong. It was just so hard to listen to his narration of the game play.

The narrator should have listened to hockey announcers doing the play-by-play of games. As well, he should have listened to the play-by-play of all the USA olympic hockey games. This would have significantly improved the performance.

This was extremely disappointing and Audible should have caught this. This was not up the high standards that I have experienced and expect from Audible.

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