Originally published on IIHF.com in 2002 By Lucas Aykroyd Talk to the Eastern Canadian hockey media and they’ll tell you that Mats Sundin of the Toronto Maple Leafs is a leading candidate for the Hart Trophy. However, Vancouver captain Markus Naslund has been the biggest Swedish scoring threat in the NHL this season, and that […]

Originally published on EuroReport.com in 1999 By Lucas Aykroyd If it’s true Mats Sundin and Peter Forsberg are robots manufactured by IKEA, as a recent Canadian TV commercial joked, perhaps Marcus Ragnarsson of the San Jose Sharks came from the same factory. He is a prototypical Swedish defenseman. “I’m getting used to living in California […]

Originally published on EuroReport.com in 1999 By Lucas Aykroyd Could Markus Naslund be a fan of the Doors? So far this season, “Break On Through to the Other Side” has been his theme song. Heading into Tuesday’s battle at Nashville between the Predators and Naslund’s Vancouver Canucks, the 25-year-old Swedish right winger ranked in the […]

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 IHWC.NET in 2007 By Lucas Aykroyd Imagine the following scene. It’s just before a game-day skate in the Detroit Red Wings dressing room during the 2006-07 season. Nicklas Lidstrom: “Good morning, fellow Swedish Wings! Are you ready to compete hard for victory tonight?” Mikael Samuelsson: “Captain Lidstrom, I was reminiscing with Henrik […]

Originally written for the IIHF News Release in 2007 By Lucas Aykroyd Some facts about the four previous IIHF World Championships held in Moscow are common knowledge among hockey fans. Tre Kronor supporters cherish the memory of their team’s 4-4 tie with the Soviet Union at Lenin Stadium on March 5, 1957, because the result […]

Originally published on IHWC.NET in 2004 By Lucas Aykroyd Most hockey people will tell you that Peter Forsberg is the best forward, or even the best player overall in the world, when he’s healthy. The list of the Super Swede’s accomplishments is about as long as the journey from his native Ornskoldsvik to Denver, Colorado. […]

Originally published in Rinkside in 2005 By Lucas Aykroyd The invention of the airplane. The fall of the Berlin Wall. The emergence of the Internet. Some events irrevocably change the way we experience the world. Over the last 40 years of hockey history, we’ve seen a comparably huge change in the NHL’s attitude toward European-trained […]

Originally published on EuroReport.com in 1999 By Lucas Aykroyd It seems like Tommy Albelin has spent his entire NHL career in the hockey backwaters, whichever way you look at it. After graduating from Djurgarden of the Swedish Elite League, he broke in with the now-defunct Quebec Nordiques in 1987-88 during one of the franchise’s worst […]

Originally published on EuroReport.com in 2000 By Lucas Aykroyd Although Tomas Holmstrom of the Detroit Red Wings takes his share of abuse screening NHL goaltenders, you don’t normally see the 26-year-old left wing from Pieta hobbling around. But that’s what he did in the Detroit dressing room after the Wings rallied to tie the Vancouver […]