Breakaway: From Behind the Iron Curtain to the NHL-The Untold Story of Hockey's Great Escapes

by Tal Pinchevsky

Overview

The incredible true story of the trailblazing men who risked everything to pass through the Iron Curtain and become NHL superstars, Breakaway is a thrilling look at the stories that changed hockey forever. From midnight meetings in secluded forests, to evading capture by military and police forces, this is the story of the brave players whose passion of the game trumped all.

Featuring exclusive interviews with the legends of the ice who put everything on the line just for the chance to play on the world's greatest stage, many of them speaking about their experiences for the very first time, the book looks at how Peter Stastny, Igor Larionov, Petr Klima, Petr Nedved, Sergei Fedorov, Slava Fetisov, Alexander Mogilny, and other hockey superstars captured the imaginations of fans around the world. As much a tale of espionage and social history as a gripping hockey chronicle, Breakaway sheds light on the untold stories of some of the sports' most inspiring heroes.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781443429689
Publisher:	HarperCollins Canada
Publication date:	08/27/2013
Sold by:	HARPERCOLLINS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	956,330
File size:	459 KB

About the Author

Tal Pinchevsky has worked as a freelance journalist in New York for almost a decade. Born and raised in Montreal, Pinchevsky attended McGill University, where he worked as a reporter and editor at the McGill Daily, one of Canada's oldest independent student newspapers. Since moving to New York in 2001, Tal has written primarily about hockey and baseball for a variety of print and online publications, including the New York Times, ESPN the Magazine, Rolling Stone, the New York Post, Spin, the Source, Men's Fitness, Time Out New York, The Hockey News, and Madison Square Garden's web site, MSG.com. He is currently a Staff Writer for NHL.com.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Preface xi

1. The Prague Spring 1

2. The European Project 29

3. The Beginning of the Czech-sodus 67

4. The Juniors 111

5. The Russians Are Coming 145

6. The Young Ones 200

7. The Last Defector 239

Index 265