Originally published on EuroReport in 1999 By Lucas Aykroyd Alexander the Great is back—to conquer the Chicago Blackhawks, anyway. A two-goal performance by Alexander Mogilny of the Vancouver Canucks sparked his team to a wild 5-4 win over the Blackhawks at GM Place on 6 October. Throughout the game, the gifted 195-pound right winger displayed […]

Originally published on EuroReport.com in 2000 By Lucas Aykroyd You know that song by the Who, “Boris The Spider?” Well, Boris Mironov may not have eight legs, but some nights the mobile 28-year-old Muscovite plays as much as four seventh defensemen put together. And early in his second full season with the Chicago Blackhawks, Mironov […]

Originally published in Rinkside in 2006 By Lucas Aykroyd July 22, 2005 was a historic day for the future of international hockey. The new Collective Bargaining Agreement between the NHL and NHLPA was ratified then, and it included a clause stipulating that the League would make its players available to participate in both the 2006 […]

Originally published on EuroReport.com in 2001 By Lucas Aykroyd When Igor Larionov was traded back to Detroit from Florida on 28 December 2000, you might say it was the end of a failed experiment in emigration. The previous times when the canny Russian center packed his bags and left for a new home, it paid […]

Originally published on EuroReport.com in 2001 By Lucas Aykroyd And then there were three. Igor Kravchuk recently became the third current Russian member of the Calgary Flames, joining Valeri Bure and Oleg Saprykin when he was picked up on waivers from Ottawa on 10 November 2000. The 34-year-old defenseman didn’t see the move coming, but […]

Originally published on EuroReport.com in 1999 By Lucas Aykroyd Tall expectations led the San Jose Sharks to draft Viktor Kozlov 6th overall in the 1993 NHL Entry Draft. Coming off a strong rookie season with Moscow Dynamo of the Russian League, the 6-5, 232-pound center was expected to energize the Sharks’ woeful attack. But he […]

Originally published on EuroReport.com in 2000 By Lucas Aykroyd John Sanful’s forthcoming book Russian Revolution: Exodus to the NHL dubs Alexei Kovalev an “enigma.” It’s hard to disagree with that assessment. The 27-year-old right wing has confounded teammates, coaches and fans ever since he entered the NHL with the New York Rangers in 1992-93. Blessed […]

Originally published in Referee Magazine in 2005 By Lucas Aykroyd When the USA confronted the Soviet Union in the 1980 men’s Olympic hockey tournament in Lake Placid, the February 22 matchup was viewed as a case of David versus Goliath. The veteran Soviets were the reigning Olympic and world champions and had convincingly defeated a […]

Originally published on EuroReport.com in 2001 By Lucas Aykroyd The National Hockey League has a cruel way of making its players feel prematurely old. In most walks of life, you’re still considered young when you turn 35. A hockey player that age is a veritable graybeard. No doubt Valeri Kamensky of the Dallas Stars would […]

Originally published in Rinkside in 2005 By Lucas Aykroyd On a chilly winter night, there’s nothing like curling up by the fireside with a good book. So why not choose something about the world’s most exciting sport? Long gone are the days when hockey was stereotyped as the refuge of gap-toothed illiterates. Art Farrell, the […]