Originally published in Prospects Hockey in 2005 By Lucas Aykroyd By now, Canadian hockey fans are accustomed to watching touring Russian junior teams. In addition to the Canada/Russia Challenge we’re enjoying for the third straight year, the Russians have participated in numerous Canadian-hosted World Junior tournaments: 1978, 1986, 1991, 1995, 1999, and 2003. And that’s […]

Originally published in Rinkside in 2006 By Lucas Aykroyd For most of the 20th century, North Americans and Europeans feared Russia, and that applied on two levels. The most serious confrontation, of course, was the 45-year-long Cold War, which pitted the democratic nations of the West versus the Soviet Union’s Communist bloc and thankfully never […]

Originally published in Full Tilt in 2006 By Lucas Aykroyd One of the nice things about living in British Columbia is that for most of our history, we’ve been fortunate enough to avoid the kind of cataclysmic events that make headlines around the world. No civil wars, no big terrorist attacks, no devastating earthquakes, no […]

Originally published in Prospects Hockey in 2007 By Lucas Aykroyd In 1975, the movie Jaws broke box office records, Led Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti topped the record charts, and The Six Million Dollar Man wowed TV audiences. It was a good year for hard-hitting star power, and the Canadian Hockey League emulated the trend by instituting […]

Originally published on IHWC.net 2007 By Lucas Aykroyd Some Finnish fans might feel like the following article will be cathartic, enabling them to put the disappointments of yesteryear in perspective and move on. Other Finnish fans may immediately skip to another article as soon as they see the title. It’s impossible not to have a […]