OK, rivalling Sidney Crosby is probably a longshot. But playing versus men at age 15 in a national league is an achievement, even if it’s in New Zealand. Not to mention being a native-trained top prospect for national teams in multiple age groups. So nice work, Jordan Challis (who’s also a former member of the […]

I can only imagine that after Frank Deford completed his latest piece for Sports Illustrated’s web site, he lit a big cigar, leaped into his Hummer, fired up an American Idol CD, and zoomed off to his favorite steakhouse for a 64-ounce prime rib. The veteran columnist’s argument that the NHL and NBA should both […]

In recent years, René Fasel has often spent more time in Vancouver, Canada than anywhere besides the Zurich headquarters of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) in his native Switzerland. The IIHF President chairs the IOC Coordination Commission for the 2010 Winter Olympics, and he visits Canada’s leading West Coast city regularly to make sure […]

It wasn’t quite as big as winning double gold in Turin and Riga last year, but for Swedish hockey fans, the news I covered today in Vancouver is still something to celebrate. From IIHF.com: Sweden won the right to host the 2013 IIHF Championship at the IIHF Semi-Annual Congress today, beating out Belarus, the Czech […]

Lars Lindgren, whom the Vancouver Canucks hired as a European scout earlier this month, accomplished a lot of fine things during his playing career. The big Pitea native was a two-time Swedish League all-star defenseman and a mainstay on Vancouver’s blueline during the club’s 1982 march to the Stanley Cup finals. Unfortunately, as Steve Smith […]

I had the pleasure of covering the opening-day activities at the IIHF Semi-Annual Congress in Vancouver today. From IIHF.com: VANCOUVER, Canada — September 20 — As the IIHF Semi-Annual Congress kicked off in Vancouver, Canada today, perhaps the biggest news for hockey fans and member federations was the possibility of seeing the IIHF World Championship […]

At the 2004 World Championship, a senior IIHF official confessed to me that he barely knew anything about Matt Cooke prior to the tournament in Prague and Ostrava, but by the end, he was wowed by the relentless, effective physical play of this Vancouver winger en route to Canadian gold. Earlier that same spring, Cooke […]

When the Russians flopped with a tenth-place finish at the 2004 IIHF World Championship in the Czech Republic, head coach Viktor Tikhonov blamed it on “the mistakes of the players” and “the lack of time” to prepare for the tournament. Tikhonov, predictably, refused to acknowledge that his 1984-style methods just hadn’t worked, and that his […]

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 […]