The Crazy Game: How I Survived in the Crease and Beyond

In the spirit of The Game and The Blind Side, a raw, raucous and unvarnished look at life between the posts.

No one role in the world of sports is as intimidating, exhilarating and as stress-ridden as the job of a hockey goaltender. Standing in the crease facing one-hundred-mile-an-hour slapshots, the entire game riding on your glovehand, standing on your head when necessary—all job requirements for those wanting to be the best goalies in the world. Now imagine doing that job while suffering high anxiety, depression and obsessive compulsive disorder, and having your career nearly literally cut short by a skate across your neck.

The Crazy Game takes you deep into the troubled mind of Clint Malarchuk, the former NHL goaltender for the Quebec Nordiques, Washington Capitals and the Buffalo Sabres. Even as a boy, Malarchuk faced such deep anxiety that he missed school, and he acted out at school and with his friends. His OCD changed the way he trained, and he was almost always the last player on the ice. When his throat was slashed during a goal-mouth mishap, Malarchuk nearly died on the ice. Forever changed, he struggled deeply with the depression and substance abuse that nearly cost him his life.