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Todd Smith admits he is a better writer than he is a hockey player, and it shows with his debut book, “Hockey Strong” (Simon & Schuster). Smith, a Minnesota native who played high school hockey at Holy Angels, weaves together several chapters depicting the grit and determination of hockey players in overcoming both mental and physical struggles. His list includes Wild players Charlie Coyle and Zach Parise, and a chapter is dedicated to the famous confrontation between Herb Brooks and Rob McClanahan during the opening game of the 1980 Olympics. His father, Dave, served as the head trainer for the 1980 team and gives a detailed description of the event that was made famous in the movie “Miracle.” Let’s Play Hockey caught up with Smith recently to talk about the book. Here is what he had to say:

1. What is your background in hockey? I grew playing park board hockey in Minneapolis, skating for hours on end at all the local parks. A real rink rat. Small and mouthy and chippy. Then I played junior varsity at Holy Angels were my playing style was once described as “surly and terrible.” I ate more bags of Skittles on the bench DURING the game than I scored goals (that’d be five bags of candy and one goal). Although I was terrible at hockey, I was a massive fan and grew up at the old Mariucci rink and Met Center. In my teen years, I even grew my hair out so it would look like Dave Snuggerud’s salad that flowed out of his helmet. Now THAT is commitment.

2. What is your writing/journalism background? I have a real blue collar, grassroots writing background. I do not have an English or journalism degree, nor an MFA in creative writing. I taught myself how to write with a library card and by dissecting the stories I read and loved in Sports Illustrated and The Hockey News. 

After years upon years of rejection, I published my first nonfiction piece in a magazine called The Rake. Ironically, my first published story was about my participation in the U.S. Pond Hockey Championships where my team suffered a historic defeat when we lost 37-4. After that first piece, I began writing for Twin Cities Metro Magazine where I penned the popular blog and print column titled “Spazz Dad” which was my riff on modern manhood. I’ve also been published multiple times in Minnesota Monthly. 

During this time, I began moonlighting as a hockey writer and I started writing human interest pieces for the Minnesota Wild and the hockey writing took off from there. I now contribute regularly for Minnesota Hockey. A year ago, I signed a book deal with Simon & Schuster, the publisher of Hockey Strong.

3. What inspired you to write this book? The book “Hockey Strong” actually comes out of my own hockey scars. The game of hockey has left it’s mark on me physically, mentally and spiritually. I grew up skating outside in the brutal cold for hours on end. As a native Minnesotan, that experience soaks into you, the love of the game and the sting of winter just digging into your bones. 

In high school, I suffered a brutal injury. I got hit really really hard and my chin was split in half and I had a concussion. I didn’t think anything of it until I was 40 years old. I was shaving one night and noticed that my beard grew in weird on my chin because of the scar tissue from that hit. In that moment, standing over my bathroom sink, the bulb went off. For the first time, I remembered every detail of the hit: I remember the guy that hit me, waking up in the locker room, the blood all over, throwing up at home and my mom flashing the light in my eyes. 

Every scar has a story. And every hockey scar REALLY has a story. So I took that idea into the Minnesota Wild locker room and asked a few players if they had any great stories behind their scars or injuries. 

I had enough material for a book in about five minutes and about 10 feet. This is because the first guy I asked was Mike Rupp, a rugged journeyman, and he told me about the time he got his nostril ripped off and stitched back on and going back into the game and fighting the guy that did it! Then Charlie Coyle told me about the time he got hit in the face by a slap shot. Oh, and he was also playing with two separated shoulders. Two. Separated. Shoulders. After I heard that, I knew I had a book.

4. Tell us about the book itself. What can readers expect and who is this book aimed at as far as audience? Before I was ever a hockey writer, I was a hockey player and, more importantly, a hockey fan. So I set out to write the book that I would want to read. I was tired of reading the same hockey story over and over. Most sports journalists – both newspapers and magazines – are somewhat confined by column space, word count, editorial directions and the corporate views of the publishers. With “Hockey Strong,” I was granted complete freedom from my editor at Simon & Schuster in New York City that allowed me to stretch my writing legs and really tell the stories that fans would want to read. 

My goal was to give the reader an inside look into the sport. Take them inside the locker room, the press box, the morning skate, the bench and the training room. So I did just that. There are chapters that take place in all of those locations. The chapters are written in an easy manner, much in the way I would tell you the stories verbally with a pint of Guinness in my hand. And I’m pleased to say that Hockey Strong, indeed, gives readers a unique behind-the-pads look at the playing-in-pain ethos that has been woven into the fabric of the game. 

When I wrote “Hockey Strong,” I also made a deliberate attempt to make the book accessible for non-hockey fans, too. This is where my background as a magazine columnist came into play. During my time writing my own magazine column, I covered a wide range of subjects that were at times serious or humorous or sentimental. “Hockey Strong” reflects that. Each chapter features a different player or moment and their respective struggle to overcome adversity whether it’s physical or mental. So in one chapter you’ll read about Chris Nilan’s struggle with addiction after his career of brawling through the NHL. Then you’ll read Zach Parise’s heartbreaking story about losing his father. Then you’ll read about the time Jack Carlson jumped into the crowd with his two brothers in Utica, N.Y., to fight some fans because, well, it’s a helluva story! 

“Hockey Strong” features well-crafted essays that just happen to be about sports, not the other way around. The two best compliments that I’ve received so far are from Coyle and my wife Sarah. Obviously, getting Coyle’s kind remarks is huge. But my wife’s apporoval is actually bigger. This is because Sarah is allergic to sports. She hates the sound, the look, the whole thing. She actually asked me if I was going to make her read “Hockey Strong!” Hilarious. But she read it and loved it. There is no higher recommendation for a hockey book than from a woman that hates hockey!

5. The book is about stories of sacrifice and includes Shjon Podein, Jack Carlson and Zach Parise among others. How did you choose your subjects? There were three players that I wanted to anchor the book because they had amazing stories of sacrifice: Kris Draper, Patrice Bergeron and Shjon Podein. Draper got his entire face crushed in 1996. Broke his nose, jaw, cheek and nose. When he came to in the locker room, his first response was to put his pads back on. He wanted back into the game despite not being able to see out of one eye! That single moment was the inspiration and guiding light for the book. That was exactly the type of story that fans want to read about. 

Podein is such a great dude and has a hilarious story that is like the movie “The Big Lebowski” inside the world of minor league hockey. Bergeron, one of the best players in the world for Team Canada and Boston Bruins, played in the Stanley Cup finals with a broken rib, torn cartilage, separated shoulder and a partially punctured lung. He played with a punctured lung! 

After those three, I sprinkled in a diverse mix of players that represented every aspect of the hockey strong ethos. Chapters include old school fighters like Dave Brown, the inside story of the Molotov cocktail on ice of the Detroit Red Wings Grind Line, and mixed in are the superstars such as Duncan Keith, Steve Yzerman and Steven Stamkos.

6. Your dad was the head trainer for the Olympic team and you interview whim for a chapter in this book. Tell us about that: My dad, Gary Smith, is a Hall of Fame athletic trainer. He was at the University of Minnesota with Herb Brooks and then the 1980 Miracle on Ice Olympic team. My dad knew Brooks better than anyone, knew all of his tactics, all of his tricks. 

The chapter in “Hockey Strong” is titled “Herb Brooks versus Rob McClanahan” because that’s exactly what it was. McClanahan was injured on his first shift in the first game of the Olympics versus Sweden. My dad sent McClanahan to the locker room to get treatment. Team USA played poorly that first period and Brooks felt he needed to light a fuse. He did it by assaulting McClanahan verbally between periods. It was one of the greatest ass chewings in the history of sports. My dad was right there literally in the middle of it. Its unbelievable. 

7. Do you have a favorite story in the book? The chapter with me and my dad and his 1980 “Miracle on Ice” experience is lights out. I wrote it in one flush, five straight hours in one spot. It is the best story I’ve ever written. Sports and the stories they create is the conduit between us. That chapter is really about a father and son connecting, being tied together by the stories they love, as much as its about the 1980 Winter Olympics.

8. Was there a common theme you found in these players’ stories of sacrifice? What I discovered is that there is a thread through time that connects the first hockey players to the modern era. Every player, from every era, from every corner of the world, regardless of their role has to have toughness to play hockey. They have to have a mental and physical stamina to withstand the punishment. This includes both the superstars and the muckers. This is the way its always been, the thread through time. Mainly, they all carry on because they want to be there for their teammates. 

Another common theme that was repeated was that if you are going to play hockey for a career, you have to learn how to play with pain. It is simply a part of the job. This is because everyone gets hurts. The sheer number of ways athletes can get hurt in hockey is so much greater than in any other sport. In hockey, it’s not if they will get hurt, it’s when. This is why they refer to their own injuries as “repairs.” They just get fixed up and go back out there because who are they to sit out? 

9. What do you think separates hockey players and their toughness, grit and determination from other professional athletes? What separates a hockey player’s toughness from the other athletes is the fact that being hockey strong is more than a single performance or about a game or series: It is a way of life. You can find toughness in all sports at every level. But nothing matches hockey. The sacrifice starts early on the outdoor ice rinks and continues full throttle from there. 

Football, from a physicality standpoint, is the closest. But football players have six days between games to get better physically and mentally. The NHL is an 82-game season. Then the carnage of the playoffs starts. This means they play every other night. 

And no one has to tell them to play in pain either. This is why recently we saw a checker for the Columbus Blue Jackets named Matt Calvert take a slapper to the face, get 36 stitches, and return to the game and score the game winner. Then Tampa Bay Lighting goalie Ben Bishop got hit in the face and lost his two front teeth. He never left the game. You can connect these two moments to the history of the game without a single hesitation. 

For a hockey player, it is their way of life, it is their collective history. I know this because I lived it. When I got cut and knocked out and later wrenched my shoulder playing hockey, no one told me I had to play in pain. It was just a part of the deal. If you play hockey, you will play in pain. No other sport has this ingrained, historic, steel toed athletic ethos.

“Hockey Strong” is available at Barnes and Noble, independent book stores, online and anywhere else good books are sold.