Originally published in Eishockey News in 2008 By Lucas Aykroyd Chicago has hovered close to the bottom of the Western Conference standings for much of this season, but at least Patrick Sharp has blossomed into a leader. He’s posted a club-best six game-winning goals so far. Even after a 3-2 shootout loss to the Vancouver […]

Originally published in Eishockey News in 2008 By Lucas Aykroyd Early in the NHL careers of Daniel and Henrik Sedin, the twin Swedish forwards were derisively dubbed the “Sedin sisters.” Despite their obvious finesse skills and chemistry together, they lacked upper body strength and footspeed. And despite the similarity between their surname and that of […]

Originally published in Eishockey News in 2008 By Lucas Aykroyd After the NHL trade deadline on February 26, there was a lot of history to be found in the roster of the Colorado Avalanche. If you wanted to go back to the franchise’s Quebec Nordiques era, you could look at Paul Stastny, the second-year center […]

Originally published in Eishockey News in 2008 By Lucas Aykroyd Peter Stastny was the NHL’s second-leading scorer in the 1980’s behind Wayne Gretzky, and the Slovak legend amassed 1,239 career points between 1980 and 1995. His oldest son, Yan Stastny, will never match those totals, but is emulating the paternal example by wearing a St. […]

Originally published in Eishockey News in 2008 By Lucas Aykroyd Wayne Gretzky achieved his most famous international victory as a player with Team Canada by victimizing two Russian goalies, Sergei Mylnikov and Evgeni Belosheikin, in the 1987 Canada Cup final. Ironically, the “Great One” can credit much of his coaching success with Phoenix this season […]

Originally published in Prospects Hockey in 2008 By Lucas Aykroyd The Kitchener Rangers, the host team for the 2008 Memorial Cup, have produced too many notable NHLers to name. Here are 15 of the best. Bill Barber: He scored 20-plus goals in each of his 11 NHL seasons and earned two Stanley Cups with the […]

Originally published in Prospects Hockey in 2008 By Lucas Aykroyd Seven players have scored sudden-death Memorial Cup-winning goals, and it’s been their greatest hockey feat. The only thing sweeter than winning a championship is doing it in overtime. Who can forget the image of Bobby Orr soaring through the air after scoring the OT winner […]

Originally published in Eishockey News in 2008 By Lucas Aykroyd When Dave Nonis was fired as general manager of the Vancouver Canucks on April 14, the timing of his dismissal came as a surprise. Even though owner Francesco Aquilini expressed bitterness over the club’s narrow failure to make the playoffs, most observers thought Nonis, a […]