In addition to writing about hockey, I frequently review hard rock and metal CDs for the Georgia Straight newspaper in Vancouver, and whenever possible, I like to insert a blatant yet appropriate hockey reference. It’s no coincidence, in my view, that rousing, guitar-driven 80’s music continues to rock NHL arenas even decades after going out […]

I’ve worn many hats (or should that be helmets?) over the years as a hockey writer, largely because I’ve always felt it’s fun to tie this sport into as many areas of life as possible.
That’s included covering the launch of Wayne Gretzky’s signature fashion line at the Bay, interviewing the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” team […]

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 […]

I covered the exhibition opener for the Canucks in Vancouver. It’s good to be back at GM Place for NHL hockey (even of the pre-season variety). My last such experience was Game Seven versus Dallas, prior to heading off to the IIHF World Championship in Moscow. Sure, the atmosphere was just a tad more jacked […]

It’s hard to believe Lukas Krajicek is only entering his third full NHL season. He made his NHL debut with Florida on April 6, 2002 as a call-up from the OHL’s Peterborough Petes. But it took until 2005-06 for the #24 overall pick of the Panthers in 2001 to establish himself as an everyday blueliner […]

Declining numbers don’t always mean declining fortunes for an NHL captain known as a sniper.
In 1997, 1998, and 2002, Steve Yzerman led Detroit to the Stanley Cup, but only scored 85, 69 and 48 points respectively in the regular season. Those numbers were a far cry from his best year (155 points in 1988-89), but […]

Maybe Nazareth’s “Love Hurts” should have been the theme song of the Vancouver Canucks intrasquad game at Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre in Victoria, BC on September 16.
The sold-out crowd of 7,006 had lots of love for their heroes, present and future, who showed off their skills over three 25-minute periods (played mostly in real time, non-stop). […]

At the 2004 World Championship, a senior IIHF official confessed to me that he barely knew anything about Matt Cooke prior to the tournament in Prague and Ostrava, but by the end, he was wowed by the relentless, effective physical play of this Vancouver winger en route to Canadian gold. Earlier that same spring, Cooke […]