Originally published on IIHF.com in 2006 By Lucas Aykroyd Once upon a time, Sweden won gold medals in international hockey. Bengt-Ake Gustafsson, the coach of Tre Kronor’s 2006 Olympic entry, was a member of two memorable championship squads at the 1987 and 1991 IIHF World Championships. But lately, there haven’t been many fairy tale endings […]

Originally published on IIHF.com in 2002 By Lucas Aykroyd “Man can be defeated but not destroyed. Man can be destroyed but not defeated.” This was one of author Ernest Hemingway’s favorite sayings, and it would come as no surprise if Ryan Smyth of the Edmonton Oilers had it painted on his wall. The gritty left […]

Originally published on IIHF.com in 2006 By Lucas Aykroyd Alexei Kovalev earned his pilot’s licence in 1998, but the Togliatti native has also experienced the pain of having his Olympic gold medal hopes shot down twice since that year. A knee injury forced the 6-2, 210-pound right winger to opt out of Nagano 1998, and […]

Originally published on IIHF.com in 2006 By Lucas Aykroyd At the 2002 Olympic hockey tournament, a guy named Salo gained the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. Swedish goalie Tommy Salo was beaten by a long shot from Belarusian defenseman Vladimir Kopat late in the quarter-finals, enabling Belarus to pull off an enormous upset. In […]

Originally published on IIHF.com in 2006 By Lucas Aykroyd Just how good is Chris Drury as a clutch goal-scorer? Wayne Gretzky’s record for career NHL playoff game-winners is 24, while the 29-year-old Buffalo Sabres captain has 11. Gretzky accomplished his feat in 208 games (0.11 GWG per playoff game), while Drury has achieved his mark […]

Originally published on IHWC.NET in 2006 By Lucas Aykroyd Olympic years have been very good to Niklas Hagman. In 1998, the robust winger scored the overtime gold medal winner versus Russia for Finland at the World Junior Championship in his native Helsinki. 2002 saw the 6-foot, 205-pounder named Best Forward at the IIHF World Championship […]

Originally published on IHWC.NET in 2005 By Lucas Aykroyd His first NHL game was documented in Ken Dryden’s CBC TV series, “Home Game,” but Jyrki Lumme left the NHL with considerably less fanfare after completing the 2002-03 season with Toronto. Nonetheless, he earned himself a nice legacy. With 468 career points, he remains the second […]

Originally published on IHWC.NET in 2004 By Lucas Aykroyd Here at the 2004 IIHF World Championships, it’s hard to believe that Jiri Slegr is the senior member of the Czech defense corps at age 32. It doesn’t seem like so long ago that he was being drafted in the second round, 23rd overall by the […]

Originally published on IHWC.NET in 2004 By Lucas Aykroyd One thing you can say about Tomas Vokoun is that he isn’t afraid to speak his mind. During the first round of the NHL playoffs, the 27-year-old netminder of the Nashville Predators described the Detroit Red Wings as “arrogant” and “whiners.” Some in the media and […]

Originally published on IHWC.NET in 2004 By Lucas Aykroyd He’s not exactly a grizzled veteran, but at 25, Marco Sturm has established himself as a front-line player for both the San Jose Sharks and Team Germany. Selected 21st overall by San Jose in the 1996 NHL Entry Draft, the amiable Dingolfing native originally entered the […]