SportsLit (Season 2, Episode 11) - Damien Cox - The Last Good Year, Seven Games That Ended an Era

The 1992-93 Campbell Conference Final was riveting. 7 games in all, the series between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Los Angeles Kings had all the elements of high drama. In his new book, The Last Good Year (Viking / Penguin Random House), veteran sportswriter Damien Cox (Toronto Star, Sportsnet) revisits the events that took place on and off the ice a quarter-century after he covered them as a beat writer. Marty McSorley slugging it out with Wendel Clark. Pat Burns’ hot pursuit toward Barry Melrose. Don Cherry kissing Doug Gilmour on the cheek. Glenn Anderson’s OT winner. Game 6, Kerry Fraser, a high stick and a non-call, followed by “the best game” of Wayne Gretzky’s career two nights later at Maple Leaf Gardens. It’s all there, presented under the overarching theme that what transpired eventually marked a dividing line. The game was about to change under a newly hired commissioner and those 13 nights in May, define a now by-gone era. Lend us your ears for a conversation with Cox about what unfolded 25 years ago, that for so many, is as vivid as yesterday.