NHLers, as a rule, are very accommodating interview subjects, even with buses and planes to catch, PR guys hovering nervously in the background, and sometimes a ridiculously repetitive stream of post-game questions from reporters. (After a Chicago game last season, I witnessed Martin Havlat giving almost the same answer verbatim about five times in a […]

Originally published in Full Tilt in 2006 By Lucas Aykroyd Vancouver has changed drastically over the last 10 years. Back in 1995, there was only one Skytrain line, no giant Future Shop downtown, and no wireless Internet access at Blenz. Nobody had heard of Nickelback, leading restaurants like West and Feenie’s didn’t exist, about 50,000 […]

Originally published on IHWC.NET in 2002 By Lucas Aykroyd Like other Russian athletes, members of the national hockey team experience a wide range of emotions when they hear their anthem played at a sporting event. As of December 2000, Russia reverted to using the music of the old Soviet anthem by assent of the Duma, […]

Originally published on IHWC.NET in 2002 By Lucas Aykroyd Hockey is an emotional game. In a sport played at high speed, where sticks and bodies clash and tempers run high, it’s only to be expected that controversy will flare up from time to time. And sometimes, those controversial moments linger in our memories for years […]

Originally published on IIHF.com in 2006 By Lucas Aykroyd After a sumptuous media brunch organized at the IIHF House of Hockey adjacent to the Palasport Olympico, IIHF President René Fasel, NHL Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer Bill Daly, and NHLPA Executive Director Ted Saskin sat down in front of a packed press conference […]

Originally published on IIHF.com in 2006 By Lucas Aykroyd Feeling nostalgic about the 2002 Olympic hockey tournament? Visit the special exhibit on the second floor of the Joe Quinney Winter Sports Center at the Utah Olympic Park, four miles north of Park City. This modern, 29,000-square-foot facility still feels brand new, almost as if the […]

Originally written in 2003 By Lucas Aykroyd It’s a symbol of team pride. A marketing tool. And yes, a fashion statement. In pro sports, the brightly colored, boldly named team jersey fills all these roles. Let’s take a closer look at the threads that make up this story by examining today’s National Hockey League. The […]

Originally published on IHWC.NET in 2007 By Lucas Aykroyd Hockey players like to take it “one game at a time.” Fans, journalists, and hockey officials often look much further ahead. Admittedly, there are three IIHF World Championships yet to be completed before we can truly start thinking about what will take place at the 2010 […]

Originally published on IHWC.NET in 2003 By Lucas Aykroyd Each major hockey nation celebrates the sport according to its own culture. Never renowned for its classical composers, Canada would be unlikely to stage an opera based on its 2002 Olympic gold medal performance, as the Czech Republic will do next year in commemoration of its […]

Originally published in Prospects Hockey in 2004 By Lucas Aykroyd Hollywood movies like The Towering Inferno and Backdraft are as close as many of us ever come to confronting a fire raging out of control. But for the citizens of Kelowna, the sight of homes and forests ablaze became a terrifying reality in the late […]