I don’t know how many hours I’ve spent playing hockey, and even less, how many hours I’ve spent sitting in a locker room, or in the parking lot, talking to teammates about the games, and … stuff.
Or how many hours I’ve spent watching, listening to, or reading about hockey.
Let’s just say that I started about 35 years ago, and haven’t quit yet.
Here’s one from the archives, from the pages of Off The Post. A story about Father, Son, and the Stanley Cup.
Finnish goaltender Antti Niemi is one of the big stories in this year’s Stanley Cup Playoffs. I wrote a piece about him for The Hockey News June 7 issue:
“One day, my father called me to tell me he had been at the local rink to see a junior game and had seen a goalie that impressed him,” said Markus Lehto, Niemi’s Helsinki-based European agent. “My father is no super scout, but he used to be the CEO of another rink and a team manager with Jokerit, so he knows his hockey.”
Still, when his father mentioned “Antti Niemi,” Lehto thought his dad was kidding. The only Antti Niemi he knew was the Finnish national soccer team’s goalkeeper. But Lehto made a note and went to see the kid.
Read the story here (pdf, 3.1MB).
Well, yeah, I guess I can do anything.
It’s playoff time and those not playing anymore just have to hit the links.
STOCKHOLM – We all love winners, and many a book has been written about what exactly makes a winner, without a definite answer. They come in all shapes and sizes, and they come from the east and the west. They’re nice guys and they’re tough guys, and they’re forward, defensemen and goalies.
Looking at a young player, it can be difficult to predict, or tell, who the true winners will be. They’re competitors, sure, but a lot of people compete without winning. There’s something special about the players who always seem to be able to win.
Naturally, they’re easy to spot after the fact – just look at their records – but none as easy as Mats Näslund, the former Tre Kronor and Montreal Canadiens star, who turns 50 on Saturday.
On Wednesday, September 30, 2009, on the day that the NHL teams had to file their rosters, and make the final cuts, Mats Sundin announced his retirement at the Grand Hotel in Stockholm, Sweden. Grand Hotel is the hotel where the Nobel Prize laureates spend their time in Stockholm when they come to town to collect the award in December. That’s where the stars stay when in Stockholm. Across a small bay, there is the Royal Palace where the King of Sweden has his office.
Some 15 kilometers north of Grand Hotel, there is Edsbacka krog, one of two restaurants with two Michelin stars in Sweden. The inn is in the heart of Sollentuna, next to the Edsbergs castle, which in turn overlooks Edsviken, the Baltic Sea bay, a beautiful public park where Swedes go for picnics, and walks and runs, and, on the other side of the water, a hockey arena.
Quiet here?
This is why:
Sean Simpson channels Herb Brooks?
Sulander gets belated respect
“No love for Hallenstadion”
“We underestimated them”
“ZSC on top of the world”
For Sulander, it’s now or never
And now I’m in Finland, my old country.
