Originally published in The Hockey News in 2005 By Lucas Aykroyd I haven’t seen the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs since 1999. I missed such dramatic events as Keith Primeau’s quintuple overtime winner over Pittsburgh in 2000 and Minnesota’s 2003 rally from a 3-1 series deficit to eliminate Vancouver. But that’s OK, because […]

Originally published in summer 2004 By Lucas Aykroyd It seems like Steve Tambellini is connected to everything happening in the world of Canadian hockey lately. As the GM of Canada’s 2003 World Championship gold medal team, Tambellini carried on a great family tradition: his father Addie played for the 1961 Trail Smoke Eaters, the last […]

Originally published in the 2004 NHL Playoff Magazine By Lucas Aykroyd We’ve all heard stories about crazy places where the Stanley Cup has ended up during victory celebrations: nightclubs, swimming pools, horse stables, and so on. But in many cases, the winners of this powerful symbol of NHL supremacy have done things with it that […]

Originally published in Prospects Hockey in 2006 By Lucas Aykroyd Video game fans understand the concept of the bonus round. Over a short period of time, your character runs around collecting bonus points without endangering himself in any way. Well, that’s similar to what happens at the annual CHL Top Prospects game. “A bad performance […]

Originally published in Prospects Hockey in 2004 By Lucas Aykroyd For decades, beating the Russian national hockey team was about as difficult as wrestling with a brown bear. Despite triumphing frequently in best-on-best competitions, Canadian teams faced their stiffest challenges against the Soviet senior squads, who posted an international record of 725 wins, 110 losses, […]

Originally published in Prospects Hockey in 2003 By Lucas Aykroyd Most Canadian hockey fans have fond memories of Maple Leaf magic on Moscow ice. Paul Henderson’s winning goal in Game Eight of the 1972 Summit Series remains a defining moment in our nation’s history. Jimmy Waite’s 38-save performance in a 3-2 victory over the Soviets […]

Originally published in Rinkside in 2007 By Lucas Aykroyd Is a youth movement always a good thing? In economics or art, that can be a matter of controversy. The young Silicon Valley entrepreneurs who created the late 1990’s “dot-com bubble” looked pretty good–until that bubble burst. And if you want to accentuate the generation gap […]

Originally published in Prospects Hockey in 2005 By Lucas Aykroyd Thirty years ago, nobody was a bigger deal in Ottawa than Peter Lee, except maybe Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. Lee was named the 1975-76 Canadian Major Junior Player of the Year after tallying a then-OMJHL record 81 goals for the Ottawa 67s. Today, he remains […]

Originally published in Prospects Hockey in 2006 By Lucas Aykroyd Wayne Gretzky never got 100 goals in one major junior season. Neither did Mike Bossy, Joe Sakic, or Sidney Crosby. But Ray Ferraro, though less celebrated than those other forwards, potted 108 in 1983-84 with the Brandon Wheat Kings as a 19-year-old. Considering no one […]

Originally published in Prospects Hockey in 2006 By Lucas Aykroyd Before Sidney, there was Mario. And before Mario, there was Pierre. The Pittsburgh Penguins have drafted some of the greatest QMJHL forwards of all time, and in the 1970’s, perhaps only Guy Lafleur and Marcel Dionne outshone Pierre Larouche. Growing up in the northwestern Quebec […]