Here’s a piece I wrote for The Hockey News a couple of months ago but forgot to post here. Anyway, this is Victor Hedman. Don’t worry, you’ll hear that name again in the future, many times.
Click the image to get the pdf.
THN: Hedman
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Canada
Back in the rowdy 1990s, I worked at the Canadian Embassy in Helsinki, helping Canadian companies to find business partners in Finland. Sounds glamorous, I know. And it was. Oh, those forestry seminars in Brussels. I wish I could tell you about them but it’s still too early for that.
Anyway, working for Canada was great. They even made me an honorary Newfoundlander after I passed the initiation rite: drank screech and kissed a cod. In that order.
Can’t wait to see what it takes to become an honorary Quebecer (or Quebecois).
ESPN.com: Koivu
Cough, cough. Dusting off the old archives again. The Bruins took the Habs to Game 7, so I’d better get this one out while I can.
Without further ado: “Maybe not this year, but Koivu will return to glory” on ESPN.com in May, 2006.
IIHF.com: HV71
HV71 took home the Swedish championship last night.
It would take a leap of faith and a lot of courage to call Johan Davidsson’s playoff beard and moustache cool. Yes, that style was cool in the 1620s when d’Artagnan and Arhos, Portos, and Aremis were involved in the English-French intrigues, but maybe now is not the time to bring it back.
THN: Worlds
Yes, the World Championship tournament begins in 14 days.
And don’t forget, every May, the World Championship gives thousands of hockey fans a nice excuse to travel around the world, mostly in Europe, see some great hockey, paint their faces in their national colors, and enjoy life.
Click the image to get my take on the tournament in this week’s Hockey News.
Another lesson
And another nod to William Goldman:
The Worlds
In two weeks, I’ll be in Quebec City, getting ready for the World Championships, and I’ll turn this blog into a World Championship blog for about three weeks.
NHL.com: Ovechkin
Ovechkin fever is raging in Russia. I spoke with a couple of Russian fans today.
“I’ve been an NHL fan since 1994 and I try to follow it every possible way. I read NHL.com, TSN and ESPN, I even followed the Ducks run to the Cup in 2003, but back then, it was impossible to watch the games at home, and the only place to see them was a fancy sports casino,” Shelestenko says.
Just be patient
Here’s something to give us hope:
Watts figures, if you rewound the world to 1982, Madonna would likely remain a total unknown–and someone else would have slipped into her steel-tipped corset. “You cannot predict in advance whether a band gets this huge cascade of popularity, because the social network is liable to throw up almost any result,” he marvels.
So, keep your head down, your underwear on top of your clothes, and work hard. Maybe the word-of-mouth will make you a star.
Podcast: Doug Shedden
Here’s something a little special. Audio.
A few weeks ago, I met with Doug Shedden, the Canadian head coach of Team Finland, for a story I wrote to a magazine that’s going to be out soon. Since the story is going to be in Finnish, and I only used parts of the interview, I thought it’d be a) OK and b) interesting for you to hear some of that interview now.
Here it is. In case you want to throw the file in your iPod and listen to it on the bus, in the car, at the rink, here’s the file. This was recorded after a practice so the sounds you hear in the beginning are some goofy hockey players, obviously exhausted after a practice. Enjoy!