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100 Classic Covers
From championships to star power to the just plain weird, The Hockey News' 2023 Collector's Edition, 100 Classic Covers, explores 75 years of hockey history through the lens of our magazine's front pages. Oh, and keep an eye out for Gritty.
RIVALRY REVELRY
IF YOU KNOW HOCKEY, you know what’s happening on the cover of this special issue, which went hardcore on hockey’s most bitter feuds. As Detroit’s Darren McCarty exacts revenge on Claude Lemieux for a cheap shot on Kris Draper, Colorado’s Adam Foote pursues Brendan Shanahan, himself about to intercept a barrelling Patrick Roy. The Wings-Avs rivalry of the late 1990s and early 2000s was toxic – and unforgettable. The sheer star power on either side made the stakes incredibly high, as both teams were consistently trying to get past each other in the Western Conference en route to a Stanley Cup – something both franchises ended up winning multiple times. In this special issue, we looked at rivalries from all angles: famous enforcers such as Tie Domi and Bob Probert; archrivalries…
NO MORE TRICKS
TO BE SURE, KENT Nilsson was one of the most exciting players of his era, but by the 1985-86 season, the Swedish sensation’s NHL career had come to a crossroads. Consistency was an issue, and Calgary shipped him to Minnesota, with the Flames retaining more than half of his salary. Nilsson scored 46 goals for the Flames just a few years prior, but the answer to this cover’s question turned out to be resounding “no.” Nilsson tallied just 16 times for the North Stars that season and was out of the NHL altogether by 1987. Fun fact, though: the ‘Magic Man’ held up an actual rabbit for a photo that accompanied this article. Another fascinating story teased on this cover concerned collectors of NHL fight videos – keep in mind, this was…
RIVALRY REMATCH
THE EMOTION ON CASSIE Campbell’s face says it all. Taking on archrival Team USA in the gold-medal game, the Canadian women’s team overcame adversity to win its first Olympic championship, getting revenge after a U.S. win four years prior. But the 2002 women’s final was best-known for the lopsided officiating by American ref Stacey Livingston, who at one point called eight straight penalties on Canada. “She might as well have had their jersey on,” said Canadian blueline legend Geraldine Heaney. Ultimately, the whistles couldn’t stop Canada, who won 3-2 on American soil. After the Canadian men’s team got off to a slow start, the nation was muttering quite loudly, and GM Wayne Gretzky went off on a rant that helped take the heat off his troops. We printed the full transcript in…
TOUCHABLE AFTER ALL
SO THERE’S SOME DELICIOUS irony in this particular cover, which features a gangster Joe Thornton as one of the NHL’s ‘Untouchables.’ That was, of course, until the Boston Bruins wound up trading ‘Jumbo’ to the San Jose Sharks just two years later. But you know who wasn’t surprised? Thornton himself, in this very issue. When he was asked about the term ‘untouchable,’ the big center was prescient: “The word doesn’t mean anything,” he said. “It doesn’t mean anything anymore.” Thornton cited his idol, Wayne Gretzky, getting traded from Edmonton to Los Angeles, something that shocked the nine-year-old fan at the time. “I was devastated,” Thornton recalled. “My world kind of revolved around the Oilers.” Thornton’s move may not have been as earth-shattering as Gretzky’s, but it was still massive. The fact that…
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