Danny, the young hockey hero of The Moccasin Goalie and The Final Game, is back on the ice in William Roy Brownridge’s latest picture book. Although he’s unable to wear skates because he has a crippled foot, Danny helped his team win the league’s annual trophy last year and is still basking in the glow of glory. After a summer spent immersed in reading hockey books and drawing hockey scenes, he can hardly wait for winter. But the new season starts with bad news when Danny is told that he can no longer play on the team. What’s even worse, his older brother Bob, a star on the Toronto Maple Leafs, is off his team too and back home because of injured knees. It’s up to Danny and Bob to help one another find new ways to connect with their passion for hockey.

As in the previous books, Brownridge is at his best focusing on hockey. His energetic text and vivid coloured illustrations capture the thrill of the game, making young readers taste the biting cold of the rink and the deep satisfaction of scoring a winning goal. Brownridge wisely doesn’t make Danny’s disability the main focus but nor does he slough it off as background information. We know that Danny’s disability is the reason he isn’t on the team this year, but Brownridge’s approach makes the reader ask why, rather than simply giving us a pat explanation; it makes Danny’s story all the more powerful. What matters to Brownridge is that Danny finds his own way to connect with hockey – as Brownridge himself has done in creating this trilogy based on his own childhood experiences.