Brad Marchand should have listened to Zach Boychuk.
When Canada lost 4-3 to Sweden in round-robin action at the 2008 IIHF World Junior Championship, it ended a 20-game winning streak at the tournament. Boychuk, whose 91 points for Lethbridge last year earned him third place in the WHL scoring derby, told reporters: “In the last couple […]

Sergei Fedorov is alive and well and living in Columbus. In his 17th NHL season, the 37-year-old center is averaging just over 17 minutes a night, taking key faceoffs, serving as an assistant captain, and sitting one point away from 100 in a Blue Jackets uniform. Although he lacks the explosive acceleration of his glory […]

Gretzky to Lemieux: The Story of the 1987 Canada Cup
By Ed Willes
Published by McLelland & Stewart
Hardcover, 256 pages
Release Date: October 6, 2007
Considering how many books have commemorated the 1972 Summit Series between Canada and the Soviet Union, it’s almost unbelievable that until this year, no one had given the same full-length treatment to the 1987 […]

Today marks the 35th anniversary of Game Eight of the 1972 Summit Series, where Paul Henderson scored with 34 seconds left to give Canada a 6-5 victory and the final edge over the USSR in this most seminal of international hockey series.
Joe Pelletier, the mastermind behind 1972SummitSeries.com, has assembled some special coverage to mark the […]

King of Russia: A Year in the Russian Super League
By Dave King with Eric Duhatschek
Published by McClelland & Stewart
Hardcover, 256 pages
Release Date: October 2, 2007
Has Dave King ever met J.K. Rowling? I doubt it. In fact, I also doubt that his co-author Eric Duhatschek is on a first-name basis with the billionaire creator of the […]

Why did I choose September 15, 2007 as the official launch date for my new hockey site, HockeyAdventure.com?
International hockey fans will quickly realize that today marks the 20th anniversary of Game Three of the 1987 Canada Cup final. That thrilling conclusion to Canada’s high-tempo clash with the Soviets culminated in a third consecutive 6-5 score, […]

I had the pleasure of covering Game Eight of the Canada/Russia Super Series for HockeyCanada.ca last night at GM Place. It pretty much encapsulated the entire course of the series (6-1 compared to seven wins and one tie).
A colleague of mine who attended the games in Winnipeg, Saskatoon, and Red Deer told me that the […]

When the Russians flopped with a tenth-place finish at the 2004 IIHF World Championship in the Czech Republic, head coach Viktor Tikhonov blamed it on “the mistakes of the players” and “the lack of time” to prepare for the tournament.
Tikhonov, predictably, refused to acknowledge that his 1984-style methods just hadn’t worked, and that his troops […]

Originally written for the 2004 World Cup of Hockey Program
By Lucas Aykroyd
They say politics and sports should never mix, but in the 1980’s, the Cold War between capitalism and Communism sometimes cast a shadow over international athletic events. Two famous examples were the American boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics and the retributive Soviet boycott […]

Originally written for the 2004 World Cup of Hockey Program
By Lucas Aykroyd
Nobody would deny that hockey is a team game. But success in a short, intense international tournament can sometimes hinge on a brilliant individual performance. Whether you’re talking about setting the stage for things to come or actually clinching a championship, this pattern has […]