Originally published in Eishockey News in 2008 By Lucas Aykroyd For years, Marian Gaborik has been the most exciting player on arguably the NHL’s most boring, defensively minded team. It’s shocking that this speedy Minnesota Wild right wing has never earned more than 67 points in one season (2001-02). But with 25 goals and 25 […]

Big NHLers with surnames starting with “B” have been dishing out verbal punishment as well as fisticuffs recently. First, it was Toronto’s Wade Belak commenting on New York Rangers forward Sean Avery and the pre-game melee the latter instigated last Saturday: “If he keeps this up, someone is going to kill him. One day he’s […]

Originally published in the IIHF News Release in 2006 By Lucas Aykroyd It is a supreme and tragic irony that Sergei Zholtok will not take the opening faceoff for Latvia when the host team plays its first game of the 2006 IIHF World Championship versus the Czechs on May 5. The Riga-born center was arguably […]

Originally published on IHWC.NET in 2005 By Lucas Aykroyd With gold medals at the women’s and U18 IIHF World Championships this month, USA Hockey is riding high once again. But for Americans, probably no triumph will ever top the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” victory, where the USA knocked off the Soviets 4-3 and went on […]

Originally published on IHWC.NET in 2004 By Lucas Aykroyd Almost any young hockey player would love to be described as a cross between Alexander Mogilny and Pavel Bure, and that’s how former Minnesota Wild forward Cliff Ronning spoke of Marian Gaborik during the 2002-03 NHL season. 2003-04, however, proved to be an entirely different story […]

Originally published in Eishockey News in 2006 By Lucas Aykroyd When Petteri Nummelin was 16 years old, he learned that you should never give up. As the son of Timo Nummelin, the only man ever to be named Finland’s Best Player of the Year in both hockey and soccer, the young Turku-born defenseman faced constant […]

Originally published on EuroReport.com in 2007 By Lucas Aykroyd Pavol Demitra is a big Metallica fan, but in recent weeks, the shifty forward has been banging his head in frustration when the Minnesota Wild hit the road. Minnesota has sold out every home game in team history and put together the league’s best home record […]

Originally published in Eishockey News in 2007 By Lucas Aykroyd “It’s better to have more than less, because if you have less, you run into problems, and that’s not good for the team,” Manny Fernandez philosophically told Eishockey News after a 3-2 overtime win over the Vancouver Canucks on March 13. The 32-year-old Minnesota Wild […]

Originally published in Medhunters Magazine in 2003 By Lucas Aykroyd The average doctor might balk at a last minute summons to work the week before Christmas in Bled, Slovenia. But Dr. George Nagobads was glad to accept when the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) told him a medical supervisor was needed for the obscure Division […]