There has, surely, never been a hockey book to compare.
It discusses the law of entropy. It gets into the "punctuated equilibrium" theory of evolution. It quotes George Eliot on violence, though some readers may think the reference is to Fred Elliot, who played for the old Ottawa Senators back in 1928-29.
But when Mark Moore quotes Eliot on "a hatred of all injuries," he not only knows it comes from Daniel Deronda, he knows George Eliot -- unlike Fred -- was actually a woman.
Mark Moore knows a lot of things. He once scored 1590 out of a possible 1600 on the difficult Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). He went to Harvard on a scholarship. His nickname, which he doesn't much care for, was once "the smartest man in hockey."
But that amazing brain doesn't work quite right these days.
Over time -- no one knows how long -- it will come back. It's nearly there. He can think and he can obviously write and he can skate but, at 28, he will never again play the game he loves at a competitive level.
He is, on the other hand, in much better shape than his younger brother, Steve, also a brilliant Harvard graduate and once a fine hockey player, whose rattled head is at the centre of a $19.5-million lawsuit against the player, Todd Bertuzzi of the Vancouver Canucks, whose hit to the head put Steve Moore out of hockey, likely forever.
What Mark Moore has done is write a book, entirely on his own, called Saving The Game: Pro Hockey's Quest to Raise its Game from Crisis to New Heights. It is 420 pages long, at times delving into complicated physics, at times telling the heart-wrenching story of both the Moore boys' injuries and the horrors of post-concussion syndrome. A third brother, Dominic, also a Harvard graduate, plays for the New York Rangers.
The book comes with the stamp of approval of 1972 hockey hero Paul Henderson -- "this is a project I am glad to stand for" -- and should be of interest to anyone who wonders how this game got itself into such a fix, how it has done so far in extricating itself, and what still needs to be done.
It is not a rant against the Todd Bertuzzis of hockey nor a condemnation of the game that today has both Moore brothers living back home with their parents north of Toronto, waiting for that clear day doctors say is coming but cannot say when.
Moore is not writing to grind an axe, but to bring something necessary back to a sport that had sadly lost its edge.
Moore does deal with the injuries, his own suffered in a practice drill when he was in the Pittsburgh Penguins' system, his brother's suffered on March 8, 2004, in Vancouver, when -- as any hockey fan with a television knows -- Bertuzzi chased him down the ice before delivering the blow that led to a broken neck and severe concussion.
Mark, already suffering from the foggy aftermath of his own injury, was at work on this book when his brother was hit. He remembers screaming out "Steve! Watch out!" from three time zones away, but it was already too late. That hit, and the subsequent controversy, fundamentally changed the outcome of this book, but it is about much more than that infamous moment.
Moore -- who has a Ken Dryden-like mind for analysis -- picks apart the problems. He applauds the NHL for its recent moves on obstruction and hooking, but he would go even further. Much further.
He would, for example, institute a state of No Discretion in officiating and Zero Tolerance when it comes to illegal hits that injure. He would have penalties reflect the seriousness of the infraction, and he would have punishment that far more fits the crime than currently is the case.
He would move to ban all head hits, or at least as much as possible, and he illustrates, at length, what professional football and basketball have done, effectively, to cut down on injuries and, in basketball's case, move quickly to eradicate a growing problem with violence.
All the rules and education in the world, however, will not erase the fact that today's hockey rinks are too small and the players too large.
Since larger rinks are unlikely, he reasons, the best solution would be four-on-four play during entire games, not just in overtime, as the NHL currently has it. Such a change, he believes, would kill the dreaded trap defensive systems, cut down on injuries -- and up the excitement.
"Just think about it," he says in an interview from his home. "Just about every time you hear people say, 'What a great game!' it's about a game that went into overtime."
It is a book that clearly adores that game and refuses to turn on it for what happened to Mark and Steve Moore.
Rather than blame, he prefers to look to an end to such devastating injuries.
And a new beginning for a game that sadly went off the tracks and still has some distance to go getting back on.
Roy MacGregor