Soaring on Ice: A Critical Appreciation of Jamie Dopp’s Hockey on the Moon

Tobias Stark
Dept. of Sport Sciences, Linnaeus University, Sweden

Jamie Dopp is an Associate Professor of Canadian literature at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada. Over the course of his career, he has established himself not only as a respected literary scholar but also as one of the leading academic voices in the emerging field of ice hockey studies. His work frequently bridges the domains of literature, culture, and sport, with particular attention to how ice hockey has been imagined, narrated, and mythologized in Canadian writing. Hockey on the Moon (Athabasca University Press, 2024) represents the culmination of many years of research and reflection, offering both specialists and general readers a comprehensive and imaginative engagement with Canada’s game as a cultural text.

The book is a compelling scholarly exploration that illuminates the imaginative dimensions of ice hockey within Canadian literary culture. Eschewing a mere debunking of myths, Dopp instead fosters a rich, generative “conversation” about the cultural reverberations of the game—an approach lauded by fellow ice hockey scholar Jason Blake, himself a leading academic in the field, as “hockey talk that works across the aisle”. The result is a text that is insightful, inclusive, and deeply appreciative of the multifaceted role the game plays in Canadian imagination.

From the outset, Dopp frames his central analytical lens: imagination. He asks not how ice hockey is played, but how it is dreamt, mythologized, and woven into Canadian identity. The “Introduction” elegantly situates literary texts as conduits of fantasy, meaning, and cultural longing—not just sport. Dopp writes, in a self-reflective note, that “a recurring feature of Canadian hockey literature is that the texts … focus on the imaginative dimensions of the game; that is, they are more about the meanings invested in hockey … than … goals and assists” (p. 7). This distinguishing premise establishes a robust foundation for the ensuing chapters.

The chapters accumulate like successive orbits, circling back in the concluding “Return to the Moon” to reaffirm how imagination has propelled Canadian ice hockey from lived reality into the realm of myth, metaphor, and meaning.

Structurally, the book is organized into thirteen chapters—each devoted to a different literary or popular text, from Stompin’ Tom Connors’ The Hockey Song and Al Purdy’s poem “Hockey Players,” through classics like The Hockey Sweater, The Last Season, and Indian Horse. This breadth is impressive, reflecting Dopp’s deep familiarity with both popular and literary registers. Yet, more remarkable is his ability to engage in close, nuanced readings that reveal the imaginative stakes at play. For example, Dopp’s analysis consistently demonstrates how ice hockey narratives can be read not merely as accounts of sport, but as psychologically rich and sometimes self-reflective texts—ones that draw attention to how media and culture construct the figure of the ice hockey player. This interpretive stance is both subtle and compelling.

Throughout, Dopp gracefully balances theoretical rigor with real warmth. He avoids the dense citation-archipelagos typical of some academic monographs—opting instead for a more accessible, reader-oriented style, reducing the burden of academic apparatus yet providing sufficient context to support deeper inquiry. This decision beautifully broadens the book’s appeal beyond strictly academic audiences, without sacrificing analytical precision.

Another strength lies in the book’s thematic coherence. Dopp does not simply present a sequence of separate case studies. Rather, he weaves them together with careful attention to how each text refracts key motifs—imagination, myth, play, identity—in relationship to themes such as national history, storytelling, and cultural memory. The chapters accumulate like successive orbits, circling back in the concluding “Return to the Moon” to reaffirm how imagination has propelled Canadian ice hockey from lived reality into the realm of myth, metaphor, and meaning.

Moreover, the author’s perspective—both academic and personal—imbues the text with a sense of exploration and discovery. As Dopp recounts in an interview, the project gestated over many years, grew partly from earlier articles and teaching experiments, and aimed to inhabit that ambiguous border between scholarly and commercial readerships. This transparency enriches the reading experience, reminding us that scholarship can be both rigorous and relational.

One might quibble with the breadth of material—some readers may wish for deeper excavation of fewer texts, or for inclusion of more contemporary media forms. Yet, this very vastness is ultimately a virtue: it affirms the ubiquity of ice hockey in Canadian cultural imagination and invites diverse readers—whether drawn to popular tunes, classic novels, or Indigenous narratives like Indian Horse—to find common ground in Dopp’s imaginative field.

In terms of voice and style, Dopp achieves a rare feat—writing that is lucid, evocative, and lively, even as it remains analytically grounded. His prose draws readers in, making passages like his reflections on Twenty Miles or The Hockey Sweater feel alive, intimate, and intellectually stimulating. The book feels less like abstraction and more like a shared moment of reflection on why ice hockey matters—beyond sport—within the Canadian psyche.

Overall, Hockey on the Moon exemplifies the best of cultural criticism: it is academically sound yet generative, expansive and inclusive, deeply informed yet accessible. Dopp’s imaginative framing of ice hockey literature offers new ways to think about the game—not merely as entertainment or pastime but as a site of narrative, myth, and national becoming.

In sum, Jamie Dopp has crafted a scholarly contribution whose strengths resonate beyond its pages. His analytical insight, stylistic finesse, thematic cohesion, and generous spirit make Hockey on the Moon not only high-quality literary criticism, but also an uplifting celebration of sport as imagination. I offer my wholehearted endorsement of this book to scholars, students, and general readers alike—as a text to return to, revisit, and savor.

Copyright © Tobias Stark 2025