Review of "When the Lights Went Out"

With my subscription to Audible, there are books that can be obtained at no charge just like Kindle Unlimited.  This book, even though it was published 20 years ago, caught my eye as I am always interested in books that have information on the former Soviet Union's hockey program.  I loved this audiobook and highly recommend it to readers of hockey books. 

Title/Author:

“When the Lights Went Out: How One Brawl Ended Hockey’s Cold War and Changed the Game” by Gare B. Joyce, narrated by Jeff Burling

Rating: 

5 of 5 stars (excellent)

Review: 

The World Junior Ice Hockey Championship tournament is one of the most prestigious tourneys in the sport.  Teams of young players compete early each calendar year to represent their countries and become of a source of national pride, especially in hockey-mad nations like Canada.  In the 1987 World Juniors, Canada had a chance to capture the gold medal with a win over the Soviet Union in the last game of the tournament, who fell out of medal contention.

However, instead of a coronation for Canadian superiority, a bench clearing brawl occurred with 6:07 left in the second period.  This “skirmish” (what it was called by CBC broadcasters when they came back from a commercial break) led to tournament officials to remove both nations from the tourney, thereby denying the Canadians a chance at a medal. This book by Gare B. Joyce covers every aspect of this event – before, during and after – and does an excellent job in doing so.

Joyce gives excellent background information on the hockey organizations of both nations – the junior hockey program in Canada and the Soviet Union’s hockey development as well.  Players, coaches and off-ice employees are all mentioned in this section and this leads up to the teams competing in the 1987 tourney.

Several players on both sides will be familiar to fans of NHL hockey in the 1990’s and early 2000’s.  Two notable players on each side were Brendan Shanahan and Theo Fleury for Team Canada, Sergei Federov and Alexander Mogilny for the USSR.  The sections on the actual brawl are quite interesting as the narration by Burling is great here.  The instructions are for a reader to put in the DVD (book was originally published in 2006) and stop at various points where Burling describes Joyce’s observations of what was going on. I thought this was a unique way of capturing what was happening on the ice during the brawl, and it was excellent.

After the brawl, the description of the events afterward, to a reader not familiar with the incident, may seen biased toward the Canadians and even I thought at times if felt that way.  Two things stood out to overcome that thought – one was Joyce’s explanation of the dismissal of many conspiracy theories about officials not wanting to award Canada a medal.  The other was his criticism, which to many was fair, of referee Hans Ronning.  The Norwegian was named to be the referee for this game for his neutrality but instead his lack of being able to control the players was clear, long before the brawl.  In order to stop the fighting, arena workers were asked to turn off the lighting, which was the inspiration for the title of book.

While the two teams were kicked out of the tourney and each player was suspended for one year, that was reduced to six months, which allowed several players from both nations to again compete in 1988, both in the World Juniors and the Olympics held that year in Calgary.  Here, Joyce does more fantastic writing and research on describing what took place not only there, but how this affected the players, coaches and the overall rivalry between the two hockey nations, which was going to change drastically soon with the fall of the Soviet Union.

Finally, one more terrific aspect of the book – Joyce’s interviews with players from both sides nearly 20 years after that event.  For some, it affected them greatly.  Others, not so much, but each interview Joyce published here had some great insight given by the players.  It also had interesting stories about the Russian players who were now free to play in the NHL and other professional leagues.  Mogiliny’s story was quite riveting as he had to apply for asylum as he was going to come to North America before others were officially allowed by the Russian government.

If a reader is interested in the World Junior tournament, Canadian junior hockey or hockey in the former Soviet Union, this book is for them.  A great read, even 20 years after its first publication.

Link: When the Lights Went Out Audiobook by Gare Joyce