The Grind Line: The gears that powered the Detroit Red Wings to the summit

"Hockey Hall of Fame Coach Scotty Bowman: ‘ Those four guys, they made all the difference’ The Grind Line, featuring some of the most popular athletes in Detroit sports history, is one of the most successful units in the history of the National Hockey League, and without peer among so-called ‘ fourth’ lines, for those who insist on numbering them.

Kris Draper, flanked by Kirk Maltby and Joe Kocur, and later Darren McCarty, deserve their rightful place in Detroit shoulder to shoulder with The Production Line – the most famous line in NHL history: Gordie Howe and Ted Lindsay alongside Sid Abel, and later Alex Delvecchio, four men whose numbers hang from the rafters at Hockeytown’ s Little Caesars Arena.

This book argues – and has the receipts to prove it – that the Grind Line was every bit as important in its era (1997-2009) as the Production Line was in the dynastic 1950s."