Canadians who ran wild at the Worlds

Originally published on IHWC.NET in 2002

By Lucas Aykroyd

The IIHF World Championships sometimes provide a rude awakening for top Canadian NHL players who struggle to find their game against talented Europeans on the big ice surface.

Then again, some Canadian NHLers look great in front of the European crowds, showcasing skills that they never get the time or space to demonstrate amid the grind of the NHL season.

And others, of course, simply perform in a manner worthy of their NHL reputations. Here are some classic examples from every end of the spectrum.

Did Dennis Maruk use the World Championships as a springboard to achieve his best-ever NHL season? At least on paper, it certainly looks that way. The moustachioed Washington Capitals sniper paced Team Canada at the 1981 tournament in Gothenburg with five goals and three assists. That put him well ahead of Montreal superstars like Larry Robinson (two assists) and Guy Lafleur (one assist).

The next season, Maruk scored a mind-boggling 60 goals and 76 assists for Washington. That surpasses the finest point totals ever posted by Jari Kurri or Mats Sundin in the NHL.

To NHL fans, Andrew McKim doesn’t exactly rank as a household name. The 5-8, 175-pound center played 38 games in the league with Boston and Detroit, accumulating a not-so-grand total of one goal and four assists. But among fans of Eisbaren Berlin, McKim gained fame as a real marksman, good for close to a point per game in his three seasons in the German DEL. And the 1995 IIHF World Championships really allowed this St. John, New Brunswick native to strut his stuff.

Even though no NHL players participated in this tournament in the wake of the league’s extended lockout, McKim’s achievement in racking up a team-leading six goals and seven assists en route to a bronze medal can’t be discounted. Plenty of future NHL stars did take part, including Saku Koivu and Jere Lehtinen of Finland and Daniel Alfredsson of Sweden. McKim outscored all the aforementioned. He had a final stint in Switzerland and is now retired at age 31.

Wilf Paiement’s debut at the IIHF World Championships in Austria in 1977 epitomized the Canadian player who crosses the Atlantic and instantly gets on the bad side of international referees. The chippy Colorado Rockies winger picked up five goals and five assists, but his most significant statistic was 32 PIM, topped only by defenseman Carol Vadnais of the New York Rangers (33).

Apart from competing against the Soviets in various series and inaugurating the Canada Cup in 1976, Canada had fallen out of the international hockey loop since 1970 after refusing to compete at the Worlds and Olympics in protest over the IIHF’s amateur eligibility requirement. Canada’s 1977 return earned the nation a reputation among Europeans for on-ice barbarity, and there Paiement was at the forefront in affairs such as Canada’s 11-1 and 8-1 losses to the Soviets.

Paiement went on to further notoriety after clubbing Dennis Polonich with his stick in a Detroit-Colorado game on October 15, 1978 (regarding which Polonich later won a lawsuit). But he tidied up his international hockey reputation at the 1979 World Championships when he earned just six PIM and was chosen one of the tournament’s top forwards alongside Boris Mikhailov and Sergei Makarov.

Since 1977, Canada’s top skilled forwards have led the tournament scoring derby more than once. Names like Wayne Gretzky (1982), Steve Yzerman (1990) and Eric Lindros (1993) speak for themselves.

Interestingly, though, on Canada’s 1994 team, the first golden squad since the 1961 Trail Smoke Eaters, only Paul Kariya cracked the top ten in scoring. So the victory was a team effort.

If Canada is to run wild at the Worlds again this year in Gothenburg, another total team effort will be required.