As the National Hockey League expands to cities that once seemed no less exotic than Timbuktu, many Canadians have adopted a weepy nostalgia for what the Hanson brothers (in the 1977 movie Slap Shot) described as “old-time hockey.” In his introduction to Original Six, novelist Paul Quarrington makes it clear that it is not nostalgia that motivates this clever and entertaining collection of stories of old-time hockey’s great teams. It’s not even “about the six franchises, not really. It is about enthusiasm.”

As the word-play in the title suggests, each of these six stories was specially commissioned, though the choice of contributors is oddly idiosyncratic. The only established fiction writers are Wayne Johnston and Quarrington himself; the others are sports journalists Trent Frayne and Jeff Klein, poet Judith Fitzgerald, and guitarist Dave Bidini (of the Rheostatics). And yet the collection succeeds by virtue of its enthusiasm – with assists to Quarrington’s editorial hand and the caricature illustrations of Sean Thompson and Frank Perna.

Given their resemblance to tall tales, it might be a bit of stretch to call these “true stories.” Yet the characters are real hockey heroes and the events they relate are more or less accurate. Bidini’s story, for example, is narrated by Chicago Blackhawks netminder Charlie Gardiner, who won the 1934 Stanley Cup final game (1-0 in double overtime) despite an illness so painful he could barely stand. (He died three weeks later at the age of 30.) Bidini writes with the bristling energy of a fiction writer, though he’s as faithful as a biographer to the source material.

Each of the writers uses a similar formula, taking the rich lore of old-time hockey and turning it into a fictional narrative. Johnston’s tale of Rocket Richard’s riot-inducing suspension in 1955 revisits the Montreal Canadiens, who figured strongly in The Divine Ryans, his fine 1990 novel. Klein’s “Now I Can Die in Peace” is a dark (though extremely funny) story of “The Curse” that denied the New York Rangers the Stanley Cup for 54 years, narrated from the grave by the man responsible for it.

Surprisingly, Quarrington’s story about Boston Bruins defenseman Eddie Shore, the bruisingest player of the 1930s, is the weakest in the bunch; his attempt at parodying Shore by making him hyper-articulate simply comes up short. Otherwise, Original Six is an entertaining romp that should tide over fans of the grand old game, at least until we can get the Cup out of Colorado.