Originally published in Eishockey News in 2006 By Lucas Aykroyd Although Roberto Luongo resided in Miami, Florida for five years, it hasn’t taken him long to get comfortable with living in Vancouver, Canada this season. “It’s beautiful here,” the 27-year-old Montreal-born goalie told Eishockey News. “You’ve got a bit of everything with the mountains and […]

Originally published in Eishockey News in 2006 By Lucas Aykroyd Since Ed Belfour has apparently been relegated to backup status this season in Florida, that would make Olaf Kolzig the only remaining starting NHL goalie to have played his first NHL game in the 1980’s (a 4-1 loss to Hartford on October 11, 1989). However, […]

Originally published in Eishockey News in 2007 By Lucas Aykroyd “I’ve always said Patrick Roy was the best goalie I’ve ever seen, but this kid is going to be better.” That’s what former NHL star and Atlanta Thrashers scout Peter Mahovlich said about Kari Lehtonen a few years ago. So far in 2006-07, the 23-year-old […]

Originally published on EuroReport.com in 2001 By Lucas Aykroyd When you look at a photo of our Milky Way Galaxy, the stars are so densely clustered that you can’t distinguish individual luminaries. You might think a similar effect would occur with Dominik Hasek on the star-laden Detroit Red Wings. But the 36-year-old superstar goaltender looks […]

By Lucas Aykroyd If you owned a broadcasting company and believed all the old stereotypes, you’d never let a former goalie become a fixture on your hockey telecasts. After all, aren’t goalies supposed to be the craziest guys in the sport? When they’re not willingly throwing their bodies in front of 100-mph slapshots, they’re talking […]

Originally published in Rinkside in 2005 By Lucas Aykroyd It may seem hard to believe now, but at one time, Finland produced fewer quality goalies than any other major hockey nation. Want proof? Check out the scoresheets from the inaugural 1976 Canada Cup. In their first best-on-best competition, the Finns lost 11-2 to Canada, 8-0 […]

Originally published on EuroReport.com in 2001 By Lucas Aykroyd Last year, the less-informed hockey fan might have wondered if his surname was a misspelling of “Nabob Tea.” This year, the whole NHL knows who Evgeni Nabokov is. Combining sharp reflexes with an aggressive challenging style, the San Jose Sharks rookie is bidding to become the […]

Originally published in Eishockey News in 2006 By Lucas Aykroyd Last season, Miikka Kiprusoff became the first Finnish goalie to win the Vezina Trophy, but he didn’t bother to attend the NHL Awards in Vancouver. This season, after getting off to a slow start with three wins in his first 11 starts, the 30-year-old Turku […]

By Lucas Aykroyd As a hockey goaltender, Bernd Bruckler excels at one of the most difficult positions in all of sport. Yet the University of Wisconsin Badgers star grew up in a country where hockey is an afterthought. When you consider all the other obstacles he’s conquered to become a highly touted prospect of the […]