Book Review: King of Russia by Dave King

I read another hockey book this week, again with a Calgary Flames connection; King of Russia by Dave King.  King, who coached the Canadian national team for almost ten years and coached the Flames for three seasons, was the first North American coach in Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League.


The book reads as a journal from King’s season in Russia, while he coached Mettallurg Magnitogorsk of the KHL, from the start of training camp (in July!) through the end of the season in April.  He details his difficulties with language and cultural barriers, and his relationship with the players (including a 20-year old Evgeni Malkin), all the while chronicling his team’s season.

Heading into this book, I was quite interested to learn about playing hockey in Russia.  I’ve heard so many stories, be it about mafia connections, briefcases of cash, or dodgy arenas.  It’s always seemed like such a culture change for anybody who goes over there.



In this respect, I was a little disappointed with King of Russia.  I felt there was too much of a focus on his hockey season there.  Yes, it’s a hockey book, and should be expected to be about hockey, but I thought it would focus more on living and working in Russia and how that differs from Canada.  Too many times, King would touch on such interesting things, but fail to go into detail.  He talks about his GM having briefcases of cash on road trips, but never really explains why, or even explores the issue; he only mentions it in passing.  He talks about rampant nepotism and shady backroom deals with other teams, but fails to ever really talk about the causes or effects.  Too often things are merely written off as ‘that’s just the way it is in Russia.’

Instead, King talked more about his team’s hockey season, player injuries, big wins, tough losses, etc.  While I’m always interested in hockey, quite frankly, I wasn’t reading this to learn how Mettallurg fared back in 2006.  Yes, it’s part of the story, and should be mentioned, but too often it seemed to be the focus, while the fact they were in Russia was secondary.  I was hoping for the opposite.

Having said that, this wasn’t a boring read by any means, in fact it was quite enjoyable.  It is a well written book that keeps the reader interested, and one I would recommend to any hockey fan.  I suppose I was looking forward to a book written by a historian or a political scientist, focusing on the social and economic differences of life in Russia, with hockey as a back drop, not the other way around.  But I shouldn’t have expected that from a book written by a hockey coach.


-TheRev


Jersey Fouls
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thesportsroundup@gmail.com
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