Originally published on EuroReport.com in 1999 By Lucas Aykroyd Finnish country music is nothing to write home about. So it’s just as well Kimmo Timonen came to Nashville to play hockey instead of wailing ditties about the cheatin’ hearts and lil’ dogies of Helsinki. The 24-year-old native of Kuopio appears to be coming into his […]

Originally published on IIHF.com in 2006 By Lucas Aykroyd At the 2002 Olympic hockey tournament, a guy named Salo gained the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. Swedish goalie Tommy Salo was beaten by a long shot from Belarusian defenseman Vladimir Kopat late in the quarter-finals, enabling Belarus to pull off an enormous upset. In […]

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 published on IHWC.NET in 2006 By Lucas Aykroyd Olympic years have been very good to Niklas Hagman. In 1998, the robust winger scored the overtime gold medal winner versus Russia for Finland at the World Junior Championship in his native Helsinki. 2002 saw the 6-foot, 205-pounder named Best Forward at the IIHF World Championship […]

Originally published on IHWC.NET in 2005 By Lucas Aykroyd His first NHL game was documented in Ken Dryden’s CBC TV series, “Home Game,” but Jyrki Lumme left the NHL with considerably less fanfare after completing the 2002-03 season with Toronto. Nonetheless, he earned himself a nice legacy. With 468 career points, he remains the second […]

Originally published on IHWC.NET in 2003 By Lucas Aykroyd The Finnish Lions are coming home to roar. In the weeks leading up to the 2003 World Championships, IHWC.NET’s Lucas Aykroyd spoke with Finnish players and asked them what it means for the tournament to return to their homeland. Hannes Hyvonen (Forward, Farjestads BK): Of course […]

Originally published on IHWC.NET in 2001 By Lucas Aykroyd Not many NHL lines reflect the expanding international diversity of hockey better than the Dallas Stars combo of Jere Lehtinen, Mike Modano and Brett Hull. You’ve got two amazing Americans and a fine Finn. Three NHL goal-scoring titles for Hull, two Selke Trophies for Lehtinen and […]

Originally published on EuroReport.com in 2001 By Lucas Aykroyd In 2000-01, Ossi Vaananen of the Phoenix Coyotes became known for more than having arguably the NHL’s most colorful name. Thanks to his solid play, many hockey observers hailed him as the top rookie defenseman in the Western Conference. The 6-4, 220-pound native of Vantaa, Finland […]

Originally published in Rinkside in 2005 By Lucas Aykroyd The invention of the airplane. The fall of the Berlin Wall. The emergence of the Internet. Some events irrevocably change the way we experience the world. Over the last 40 years of hockey history, we’ve seen a comparably huge change in the NHL’s attitude toward European-trained […]

Originally published on EuroReport.com in 2000 By Lucas Aykroyd Paul Kariya may wear the C for the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, but it’s clear this team has two leaders. Teemu Selanne’s solid start to his ninth NHL season has been a key to whatever success the Ducks have enjoyed so far. The Finnish Flash has […]