Jari Kurri, an underrated member of the Edmonton Oilers dynasty of the 1980s, celebrates his 53rd birthday today. Sometimes overshadowed by the likes of Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier, Kurri was definitely a driving force in the five Stanley Cup championships in Edmonton. Playing alongside Gretzky may boost your stats, but Kurri proved to the ...
Over the years, the Stanley Cup has been awarded to a multitude of teams that have battled their way to hockey immortality through blood, sweat, and tears. The road to the Stanley Cup is seldom an easy one, and sometimes it takes some heartbreak for a team to ultimately win hockey’s most prized possession. While ...
On the 40th anniversary of the WHA’s first-ever champions, the New England Whalers, we take a look back at how it began, what made it important and how it impacted the thriving NHL. As the National Hockey League continued to prosper in the early 1970s, there was a demand for more teams in ...
Many have questioned whether or not the Edmonton Oilers were good enough to make the playoffs. There have been doubts about the defense, goaltending and team toughness, and how all of the young players on this team would come together to find success. But no one ever questioned that this team has skill, and last night against the Vancouver Canucks, it was on full display.
Infomercial Heaven While going through the Internet the other night checking statistics and watching highlights, I came across a commercial by accident. This commercial was such an ode to building your own backyard ice rink. Obviously YouTube pays close attention to your personal interests, and boy did they hit me close to home. In fact, they ...
Next Goal Wins!: The Ultimate NHL Historian’s One-of-a-Kind Collection of Hockey Trivia By Liam Maguire, with a foreword by Wayne Gretzky. (2012, Toronto: Random House Canada. Softcover. Pp. 227. $19.50 US / $22.95 CAN. ISBN 978-0-307-36340-4.) Everything you ever wanted to know about hockey trivia but did not know what to ask – that is ...
Remember that show, The Wonder Years? The TV series was basically following Fred Savage around, from ages 12 to 17 going through the trials and tribulations while growing up in American suburbia. I could somewhat relate to the main character: how to gain social status, what to do about studying, girls, peer pressure and so ...
Blake Wheeler took a bit of a different path to the NHL than most others, and as my colleague Mike Rappaport pointed out he: “pulled the Justin Schultz move before Justin Schultz did.” In 2004 NHL Entry Draft the Phoenix Coyotes selected Wheeler 5th overall, but he had already committed to playing college hockey with ...
99 : My Life in Pictures, by Wayne Gretzky. Foreword by John Davidson. Edited by Dan Diamond. (1999, Toronto: Total Sports. Hardcover. 240 pages. ISBN 978-1-8921-2919-2) On April 19, 14 years will have passed since Wayne Gretzky, holder of 61 NHL records and known as ‘The Great One’ for numerous reasons, played a competitive NHL ...
It’s a great myth that the 1994-95 lockout inflicted lasting damage on the careers of many veteran NHL stars. After 1993-94, the league suffered a well-documented drop in scoring that would continue into the next decade, skewing the lockout season’s stats. And while there certainly may have been some attrition because of 1994-95′s 48-game dash, ...
