Originally published on EuroReport.com in 1999 By Lucas Aykroyd Memory check: who captained Team Sweden at the 1998 Winter Olympic Games in Nagano? If you guessed Mats Sundin or Peter Forsberg, no one would raise an eyebrow. But as it turns out, the man with the C was a quietly effective veteran defender—no, not Niklas […]

Originally published in Rinkside in 2005 By Lucas Aykroyd Wayne Gretzky got a ton of attention when he centered the NHL’s most dangerous line with Esa Tikkanen and Jari Kurri in Edmonton. It was the same for Eric Lindros when he hooked up with John LeClair and Mikael Renberg to form the “Legion of Doom” […]

Originally published on EuroReport.com in 2001 By Lucas Aykroyd When you can shoot the puck 100 miles per hour and lap the rink in 14 seconds, your chances of robbing NHL goalies blind increase incrementally. That’s what Washington’s Peter Bondra has done this year. The 33-year-old Slovak right wing has twice as many goals as […]

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 on EuroReport.com in 2000 By Lucas Aykroyd Titanic is Sergei Berezin’s favorite movie. That fits. The 28-year-old Russian left wing must have had a sinking feeling over Toronto’s last 14 games, as a hamstring injury kept him out of the lineup. Lacking the opportunity to waltz around opposing defensemen or rescue his club […]

Originally published in Eishockey News in 2006 By Lucas Aykroyd On an Anaheim Ducks team stacked with former NHL trophy winners such as Teemu Selanne, Chris Pronger, and J-S Giguere, Andy McDonald doesn’t get a lot of attention. But that’s just fine with the 29-year-old playmaking center from Stratford, Ontario. “I don’t think it matters […]

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 EuroReport.com in 1999 By Lucas Aykroyd After the Ottawa Senators were swept in the first round of the NHL playoffs last year, Daniel Alfredsson had a big weight to carry on his back all summer. He didn’t whine. He made the most of it. Alfredsson pumped up his leg squat to six […]

Originally published on EuroReport.com in 2000 By Lucas Aykroyd David Aebischer’s first job was installing heating units. But the 22-year-old rookie Swiss netminder will have to cool his heels for a while with the Colorado Avalanche. That’s life when you’re the backup to an all-star workhorse like Patrick Roy. Aebischer realizes he’s already surprised a […]