by Paul Keery and Michael Wyatt
2021 / 58 pages

This is a graphic novel account of how the 1920 Winnipeg Falcons had to overcome decades of discrimination to be able to compete for the national championship, and then represent Canada in the 1920 Olympics.

The upcoming 2026 Olympics will involve the very best players from all the teams in the NHL. But in 1920, it wasn’t the best players, but the best team that got to go. Teams across the country competed for the national championship and the right to represent Canada. The Falcons were barred from their own city league – some people back then had a thing against Icelandic Canadians – so they formed their own league. And it turned out, winning their own league’s championship, versus the Selkirk Fishermen, was the toughest competition they’d face that year. Afterwards, as they played against Winnipeg’s other league’s champion, and then played for the provincial and finally the national championship, they ran up the score on everyone else they played.

As Canadian champs, they were invited to play in the Olympics. To get to the Games in Belgium, the Falcons had to raise their own funds and then take a 16-day boat ride across the Atlantic. When they got there, they discovered the rink was much smaller than they were used to. And they would have to play with an extra player – 7 players rather than the 6 they played with at home. The game length was different too – two 40-minute halves instead of three 20-minute periods.

The other teams weren’t nearly at their level. Some played in shorts, and one goalie wore a dress shirt and tie. The Canadians ended up holding training sessions for some of their opponents. And in a further demonstration of sportsmanship, they tried to keep the scores down, working hard to beat their opponents by “only” 10 or 15 goals. Fortunately, the Americans, at least, offered some real competition.

Cautions

No cautions with this one.

Conclusion

This will interest any kids who are into hockey. It’s well done, though more news account than gripping story – we don’t get to know any of the individual players all that well. It’s by the same author as Canada at War, and has that same look – the pictures are solid, but… let’s call them conventional. This is a thoroughly polished professional presentation, but there aren’t a lot of visual surprises.

So a very good, but not quite great, graphic novel.

The video below isn’t the book’s trailer, but it does tell a bit more about the story behind it – a Heritage Minute on the Winnipeg Falcons.