Originally published in Eishockey News in 2008
By Lucas Aykroyd
If Jarome Iginla maintains his current pace, he’ll crack the 100-point barrier for the first time in his career this season. Better still, the Calgary captain is in contention for his second Art Ross Trophy as the NHL’s leading scorer, battling the likes of Tampa Bay’s Vincent […]

Originally published in Prospects Hockey in 2008
By Lucas Aykroyd
The Kitchener Rangers, the host team for the 2008 Memorial Cup, have produced too many notable NHLers to name. Here are 15 of the best.
Bill Barber: He scored 20-plus goals in each of his 11 NHL seasons and earned two Stanley Cups with the Philadelphia Flyers […]

Marcus Nilson has one goal as a hockey player, and that’s winning the Stanley Cup. The downside is that the gritty Calgary Flames winger also only has one goal in 19 games this season.
“It’s been tough so far,” Nilson told HockeyAdventure.com with a wry chuckle. “A lot of nights you’re mostly penalty-killing and not playing […]

Never let a little thing like a broken nose stop you. That’s the philosophy Petr Sykora will take into Pittsburgh’s Friday-night opener at Carolina.
After suffering the injury in a collision with teammate Brooks Orpik in exhibition play in Montreal, the 30-year-old Czech winger will wear a full face shield for protection. Although Sykora was sidelined […]

It isn’t just because the Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers finished eighth and twelfth respectively last season, instead of both being true perennial Stanley Cup contenders.
It isn’t just because these two clubs haven’t clashed in the playoffs since 1991, instead of meeting almost annually in the Smythe Division playoffs.
It’s because a rivalry is defined by […]

Originally published on EuroReport.com in 1999
By Lucas Aykroyd
Sitting high above the ice and taking in an NHL game is many people’s idea of a good time. But when you’re an 18-year-old phenom from Moscow, Russia who’s being paid over $1 million U.S. per year to score goals for the Calgary Flames, the view from the […]

Originally published on EuroReport.com in 2000
By Lucas Aykroyd
You’d expect Valeri Bure to be in the best of moods after returning from an NHL All-Star Game weekend in Toronto that saw him pair with brother Pavel to nab MVP honors for the Russian Rocket.
But instead, Bure the Younger admitted he had a bit of a headache. […]

Originally published on EuroReport.com in 1999
By Lucas Aykroyd
It seems like Tommy Albelin has spent his entire NHL career in the hockey backwaters, whichever way you look at it. After graduating from Djurgarden of the Swedish Elite League, he broke in with the now-defunct Quebec Nordiques in 1987-88 during one of the franchise’s worst spells. 1988-89 […]

Originally published in Eishockey News in 2006
By Lucas Aykroyd
Esa Tikkanen and Brett Hull are examples of NHLers who played hard on the ice but exhibited a light-hearted attitude when they took off their skates. However, Dion Phaneuf definitely doesn’t fit that mold.
In his second NHL season, the 21-year-old defenseman conducts himself more like a hardened […]

Originally published on EuroReport.com in 1999
By Lucas Aykroyd
Ten seconds. That’s all it took for Andrei Nazarov to show the Vancouver Canucks he was fighting mad and ready to live up to his many nicknames in a 26 September exhibition game at GM Place: “The Russian Bear,” “The Mad Russian,” and “The Nazinator.”
At the start of […]