I’ve been fortunate enough to work with the International Ice Hockey Federation at every World Championship and Olympics since 2000, writing and editing for the official web site. IIHF.com has just undergone a complete facelift as part of the organization’s 100th-year anniversary celebrations, and I’m happy to announce that I’ll be a contributing columnist for […]

Here are seven hockey stories from both mainstream sites and blogs that made an impression on me this month.
1. The Globe and Mail: “Speed kills”: Has the NHL gotten too fast for its own good? Eric Duhatschek investigates. Interesting to see Al MacInnis admit that sometimes he’s preferred watching international women’s hockey due to the […]

Future Greats and Heartbreaks: A Year Undercover in the Secret World of NHL Scouts
By Gare Joyce
Published by Doubleday Canada
Hardcover, 336 pages
Release Date: November 20, 2007
Gare Joyce is gradually becoming Canada’s answer to George Plimpton. No, the prolific Toronto-based hockey scribe hasn’t strapped on equipment and competed against pro athletes to garner first-hand material for his […]

For many NHL fans, Anze Kopitar of the Los Angeles Kings put Slovenia on the hockey map with his dazzling 61-point rookie season last year. But this former Yugoslav republic of 2 million had already made its mark in the elite division of the IIHF World Championships as early as the 2002 tournament in Sweden.
Slovenia […]

On top of the Hockey Hall of Fame inductions, this past weekend in Toronto also featured the official launch of World of Hockey: Celebrating a Century of the IIHF.
The International Ice Hockey Federation is gearing up for the 2008 IIHF World Championship in Halifax and Quebec City (May 1-18), which will mark the organization’s 100th […]

Good news lies ahead for those who object to the garish advertising that often covers European hockey jerseys.
When the International Ice Hockey Federation kicks off its Champions Hockey League in 2008-09, 24 clubs from across Europe (including the champions of the top six European leagues) will compete for some 16 million Swiss francs in prize […]

OK, rivalling Sidney Crosby is probably a longshot. But playing versus men at age 15 in a national league is an achievement, even if it’s in New Zealand. Not to mention being a native-trained top prospect for national teams in multiple age groups.
So nice work, Jordan Challis (who’s also a former member of the Markham […]

In recent years, René Fasel has often spent more time in Vancouver, Canada than anywhere besides the Zurich headquarters of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) in his native Switzerland. The IIHF President chairs the IOC Coordination Commission for the 2010 Winter Olympics, and he visits Canada’s leading West Coast city regularly to make sure […]

It wasn’t quite as big as winning double gold in Turin and Riga last year, but for Swedish hockey fans, the news I covered today in Vancouver is still something to celebrate.
From IIHF.com:
Sweden won the right to host the 2013 IIHF Championship at the IIHF Semi-Annual Congress today, beating out Belarus, the Czech Republic, Hungary, […]

Lars Lindgren, whom the Vancouver Canucks hired as a European scout earlier this month, accomplished a lot of fine things during his playing career. The big Pitea native was a two-time Swedish League all-star defenseman and a mainstay on Vancouver’s blueline during the club’s 1982 march to the Stanley Cup finals. Unfortunately, as Steve Smith […]