As we talked about yesterday, the hockey fan on your Christmas list probably doesn’t want anything to do with NHL-related merchandise this year. The video you see here is proof of that, although a lot of people aren’t waiting until December 21 to start their boycott. By the way, the Just Drop It campaign has over 20,000 likes on the mighty Facebook, and is approaching 75,000 views on YouTube.

Pucked in the Head is proud to help you out with a few last-minute gift ideas, including number 2 after the jump.

2. Tropic of Hockey, by Dave Bidini
Dave Bidini is a frickin’ national treasure.

As frontman for the Rheostatics, he helped produce some of the most uniquely Canadian rock and roll of the past few decades. He continues to do so with BidiniBand, but it’s Rheo moments like The Ballad of Wendel Clark that resonate with many fans of his work. (We featured that very song on our second Hockey Songs podcast for that very reason.)

Offstage, Dave Bidini has done little more than become one of the nation’s most prolific writers of Canadiana. He is a regular contributor to the National Post newspaper, and has penned several books (hey, it sounds better than ‘keyboarded’) about sports (Tropic of Hockey, The Best Game You Can Name, Baseballissimo and Home and Away: the Story of the 2008 Homeless World Cup), music (the outstanding On a Cold Road leads the list, but Writing Gordon Lightfoot is pretty good, too).

Tropic of Hockey is apropos right now, as it chronicles Bidini’s attempt to find real grass roots of the game by travelling the most non-traditional of markets around the world. He explores hockey in Mongolia, Japan, Dubai… FRICKIN’ DUBAI. It’s a remarkable read, and one that should be visited (or revisited) in the wake of the NHL’s latest ridiculockout.

I know the first two last-minute ideas have been books — but what’s wrong with books? I do find it interesting that the two best books about hockey Canada has ever produced have come from people for whom writing is a secondary venture. Ken Dryden was an athlete first, and Dave Bidini a musician. Look at baseball, and from Kinsella to Khan the best books are written by, well, writers. Not to knock the hockey books — both Dryden and Bidini legitimately enter the author fray — but it’s an interesting point nonetheless.

Look for more Last-Minute Gifts for the Family Hockey Fan over the next few days.
Part 1 – Ken Dryden’s The Game, can be found here.
Care for part 3? Tickets to games at other levels of hockey can be found here.
Part 4, featuring a digital download of Roch Carrier’s classic The Sweater, is here.