Originally published on IHWC.NET in 2007 By Lucas Aykroyd The United States versus Finland can’t be classified as one of those natural geographical or historical international rivalries like USA-Canada or Finland-Sweden. At one time, both were ranked among the weakest of the former “Big Six” hockey nations, usually lagging behind the Soviet Union, Canada, Czechoslovakia, […]

Originally written in 2003 By Lucas Aykroyd It’s a symbol of team pride. A marketing tool. And yes, a fashion statement. In pro sports, the brightly colored, boldly named team jersey fills all these roles. Let’s take a closer look at the threads that make up this story by examining today’s National Hockey League. The […]

Originally published on IHWC.NET in 2007 By Lucas Aykroyd Imagine the following scene. It’s just before a game-day skate in the Detroit Red Wings dressing room during the 2006-07 season. Nicklas Lidstrom: “Good morning, fellow Swedish Wings! Are you ready to compete hard for victory tonight?” Mikael Samuelsson: “Captain Lidstrom, I was reminiscing with Henrik […]

Originally published on IHWC.NET in 2007 By Lucas Aykroyd As much as I enjoy watching Evgeni Malkin team up with Sidney Crosby on the Pittsburgh Penguins power play, there’s a part of me that wishes Malkin had stayed in the Russian Superleague. Not under compulsion, not due to any contractual or political impasse. Frankly, the […]

Originally published on IHWC.NET in 2007 By Lucas Aykroyd How often do you see an NHLer achieve single-season highs in goals, assists, and points, and also get placed on waivers that year? That’s the strange fate that befell St. Louis forward Petr Cajanek on February 26, as the club was apparently displeased with his lack […]

Originally written for the IIHF News Release in 2007 By Lucas Aykroyd Some facts about the four previous IIHF World Championships held in Moscow are common knowledge among hockey fans. Tre Kronor supporters cherish the memory of their team’s 4-4 tie with the Soviet Union at Lenin Stadium on March 5, 1957, because the result […]

Originally published on IHWC.NET in 2007 By Lucas Aykroyd Hockey players like to take it “one game at a time.” Fans, journalists, and hockey officials often look much further ahead. Admittedly, there are three IIHF World Championships yet to be completed before we can truly start thinking about what will take place at the 2010 […]

Originally published on IHWC.NET in 2007 By Lucas Aykroyd If you’re a Swedish hockey fan, you surely remember where you were when Nicklas Lidstrom scored the Olympic-winning goal versus Finland last year. If you’re a Slovak hockey fan, you must recall what you were doing when Peter Bondra’s late goal lifted Slovakia over Russia in […]

Originally published on IHWC.NET in 2007 By Lucas Aykroyd Going purely by the numbers, the best-ever performance by an Asian country at an IIHF World Championship was Japan’s sixth-place finish (in a four-way tie) in 1930. More recently, Japan could do no better than 14th place at the 1998 tournament. So there’s a long way […]

Originally published in the IIHF News Release in 2006 By Lucas Aykroyd It is a supreme and tragic irony that Sergei Zholtok will not take the opening faceoff for Latvia when the host team plays its first game of the 2006 IIHF World Championship versus the Czechs on May 5. The Riga-born center was arguably […]