Search for your favorite player or team
© The Hockey News. All rights reserved. Any and all material on this website cannot be used, reproduced, or distributed without prior written permission from Roustan Media Ltd. For more information, please see our Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.
November 23, 2015
The Hockey News has been providing the most comprehensive coverage of the world of hockey since 1947. In each issue, you'll find news, features and opinions about the NHL and leagues across North America and the world.
FAR AWAY FANDOM
JIM TAMAN’S GRANDFATHER unknowingly planted a seed for the Habs in Western Canada when he gave Jim a jersey. Jim has been a loyal fan for almost 60 years, and for almost half that time, he has been bringing supporters together. Twenty-six years ago he formed the Western Canadian Montreal Canadiens Fan Club. It now has 20,000 members spanning 17 countries plus every province, territory and state in North America. THE BRITISH PENGUINS FAN Club keeps supporters across the United Kingdom up to date on everything Pittsburgh hockey. It’s relatively new, founded in 2013, but it has plenty of followers, including more than 5,000 on Twitter at @BritPens-FanClub. Members of the club call themselves “Brinzers” and, like the Eurolanche, some have ventured “across the pond” to catch a Pens game.…
THE SUPER FAN
Isit really Nov. 5, 1991, at the Pacific Coliseum? It’s printed on the tickets and programs. But you’d swear it was playoff time. The 16,000 Vancouver Canucks faithful quake with anticipation. It’s finally time to see what he can do, the brash young Russian kid, imported from the Red Army who goes by the name of Pavel Bure. The hype is so great that coach and GM Pat Quinn delayed Bure’s debut a game so it wouldn’t steal thunder from Stan Smyl’s jersey retirement. And in the blink of an eye, Bure takes his first stride toward becoming the franchise’s greatest player ever. He carries the puck the length of the ice, splitting the Winnipeg Jets defense. He’s so fast his body arrives in the slot before the puck. He has…
PUTTING THE FUN BACK IN FLINT
THE FIRST FOUR SUB-TOPICS that pop up when you type “Flint, Michigan” into Google Images are pretty harrowing: Ghetto, Ghost Town, Crime, Abandoned. So when the OHL’s Plymouth Whalers were moved this summer to Flint, the rechristened Firebirds had a bit of a PR battle on their hands. The team had a solid veteran core with NHL picks such as goalie Alex Nedeljkovic (Carolina), right winger Connor Chatham (New Jersey) and defenseman Alex Peters (Dallas), but they were Plymouth holdovers. Would it be harder to retain and bring in talent when parents look at their teen son’s potential new mailing address? “That’s what we focused in on this summer,” said coach John Gruden. “We showed them the arena, the high school and the Grand Blanc area, which is really coming alive.” Grand…
JUST CALL HIM NAIL MCYAKUPOV
WHEN THE EDMONTON OILERS drafted Connor McDavid last summer, they didn’t just get a generational talent described as the best player since Sidney Crosby, they got a bonus first overall pick thrown in for free. Nail Yakupov. Yakupov, 22, had been dying on the vine since the Oilers took him in 2012, playing limited minutes on the third line, struggling to score and amassing the league’s worst plus-minus over the past two years (minus-68). The effort and determination were there, but he couldn’t channel his energy in the right direction, resulting in a fast-paced but often aimless game that bore little resemblance to anything a coach drew on a whiteboard. As the minuses piled up and the goals didn’t, whispers of “busted pick” began filtering through press boxes. Then came McDavid and new coach…
Made possible with the support of
