Slovak goaltender Ján Laco, whose theatrics at the 2012 World Championship landed Slovakia a surprise Silver medal, today announced his retirement from pro hockey at the age of 38.
Continue reading
Author Archives: Master Of This Domain
🇬🇧 🇨🇦 IHLC Classics: Foster & Brenchley Shock The World
From time to time, TheIHLC.com will feature detailed recaps and boxscores of some of the most legendary games in international hockey history, considered to be “IHLC Classics.” To celebrate on what should have been the day of the 2020 World Championship Gold Medal final, instead we recap one of the biggest upsets in Olympic and World Championship history, the fall of Canada at the hands of Great Britain in 1936.
🇬🇧 Great Britain 2-1 Canada 🇨🇦
Olympic Second Round
Olympia-Kunsteis-Stadion, Garmisch-Partenkirchen 🇩🇪
Tuesday, 11 February 1936
It was an Olympics coated in sportive controversy and by the presence of Adolf Hitler, who used the global sports event as a propaganda tool, three years before the outbreak of the biggest catastrophe in the history of mankind.
In the end, history shows that Canada lost the Gold medal and Great Britain won. The process to that result, however, was anything but simple.
Continue reading →
KHL Hands Out Truncated 2019-20 Awards
Despite being forced to cancel the remainder of the 2020 Gagarin Cup playoffs due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Kontinental Hockey League today announced a handful of award winners based on the 2019-20 regular season. Continue reading
🇺🇸 2020 Isobel Cup Final Cancelled Due To COVID-19
With only one game to go in the 2019-20 NWHL season, the Isobel Cup final between the defending champion Minnesota Whitecaps and the Boston Pride, the NWHL today announced the final will be cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Continue reading
🇨🇿 Aleš Hemský Announces Retirement At Age 36
Aleš Hemský, the workhorse Czech winger who spent 15 years in the National Hockey League, today announced his retirement from pro hockey at age 36, after a concussion prevented him from playing for the past three years.
Continue reading
🇨🇦 Canada’s Boycott: 1970-77
With the now-cancelled 2020 World Championships set to have begun today in Switzerland, TheIHLC.com will instead highlight the last time there was a major lack of competition in the century-plus lineage of the IHLC – Canada’s international hockey boycott from 1970-77, and how the IHLC could have looked if just one fateful game in 1970 went another way.
On 04 January 1970, the creator of modern ice hockey and the most dominant team in the game up to that point, Canada, shocked the hockey world when it announced that effective immediately, it was withdrawing from all international competition, including the World Championships, Olympic Games and other exhibition games or tournaments.
Continue reading
2020 IIHF Rankings, Olympic Seedings Released (UPDATED)
With the world on pause, and all international hockey cancelled, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the IIHF today answered a few of many questions coming out of the cancellations of most major World Championship tournaments, today releasing both the 2020 Men’s and Women’s World Ranking, which in turn has officially confirmed the first qualifiers for the 2022 Beijing Olympics.
Continue reading
🇨🇦 🇸🇪 IHLC Classics: The Falcons Capture Inaugural Olympic Gold
From time to time, TheIHLC.com will feature detailed recaps and boxscores of some of the most legendary games in international hockey history, considered to be “IHLC Classics.” To celebrate the centennial anniversary of the first Olympic hockey champions at the 1920 Antwerp Summer Games, today we feature the Winnipeg Falcons, who represented Canada at this historic tournament.
🇨🇦 Canada 12-1 Sweden 🇸🇪
Olympic Gold Medal Game
Palais de Glace d’Anvers, Antwerp 🇧🇪
Monday, 26 April 1920
Seth Howander took one look at the Canadian team and decided the leggings and leather apron he usually wore in net weren’t going to cut it. Then the Swedish goaltender gathered up all the absorbent cotton he could find and covered himself in the stuff.
Continue reading →
🇷🇺 Andrei Markov Retires Following KHL Season Cancellation
Andrei Markov, the Russian workhorse defenceman who anchored top bluelines for over 20 seasons in both Canada and his native Russia, today announced his retirement from Lokomotiv Yaroslavl of the KHL at age 41, three weeks after the KHL season was suspended over COVID-19.
Continue reading
🇸🇪 Tony Mårtensson Announces Retirement At Age 39
Tony Mårtensson, the Swedish winger whose 20 year pro career took him to the United States, Russia, Switzerland and his native Sweden, today announced his retirement from pro hockey at age 39.
Continue reading
🇨🇦 Pat Stapleton: 1940-2020
Pat Stapleton, a defensive star throughout the 1960’s and 1970’s in both the NHL and WHA, and one of just three players on both Canadian Summit Series teams, passed away today at the age of 79.
Continue reading
🇷🇺 🇫🇮 🇰🇿 KHL Suspends 2019-20 Season, Gagarin Cup Playoffs
After multiple attempts to resuscitate the 2020 Gagarin Cup playoffs, today the Kontinental Hockey League announced that they would suspend the remainder of their season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with no Gagarin Cup winner to be crowned in 2020.
Continue reading
🇨🇭 Men’s Top Division World Championship Cancelled By IIHF
The final tournament on the International Ice Hockey Federation calendar, the last hope of any semblance of international hockey this season, today was officially cancelled, as the Top Division of the Men’s World Championship was officially cancelled over COVID-19 concerns.
Continue reading
🇨🇿 Czechia Announces Cancellation Of Euro Hockey Challenge, Carlson Hockey Games Postponement
Away from the multitude of IIHF cancellations due to the COVID-19 pandemic, today two independently-organized tournaments between European federations were officially cancelled, as the Czech Ice Hockey Association today confirmed that both April’s Euro Hockey Challenge and May’s Czech Hockey Games in Brno would be cancelled.
Continue reading
🇨🇿 Vladimír Zábrodský: 1923-2020
Vladimír Zábrodský, the Czech winger who propelled Czechoslovakia to their first World Championship Gold and Olympic Silver in history, passed away today in Stockholm at the age of 97.
Continue reading
🇸🇮 🇵🇱 Men’s Division I Tournaments Cancelled By IIHF
Two of the three remaining tournaments on the International Ice Hockey Federation calendar have now officially been axed as well, with Division IA and IB of the Men’s World Championship officially being cancelled over COVID-19 concerns.
Continue reading
🇸🇪 Staffan Kronwall Retires Following Lokomotiv Elimination
Swedish defender Staffan Kronwall, within the same season as his older brother Niklas, today announced his retirement from hockey after his club team, Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, was eliminated from the KHL playoffs.
Continue reading
🇭🇷 🇮🇸 🇱🇺 🇿🇦 Another Seven Men’s Tournaments Cancelled Due To COVID-19
The next set of tournaments to fall victim to cancellation over the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic were announced today by the International Ice Hockey Federation, with both the Men’s Division II, III and Under-18 tournaments for 2020 now axed.
Continue reading
🇨🇦 🇫🇷 IIHF Cancels 2020 Women’s World Championship, Division IA Tournaments
Due to concerns over the COVID-19 virus that continues to spread rapidly across the world, today the International Ice Hockey Federation announced the cancellation of both the Top Division and Division IA tournaments of the 2020 Women’s World Championship.
Continue reading
🇵🇱 🇪🇸 🇰🇬 IIHF Cancels Seven Tournaments Due To COVID-19
Due to the rapid spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus throughout the world, with particularly large impacts now on European soil, today the International Ice Hockey Federation announced the cancellation of seven World Championship tournaments set to begin in March.
Continue reading
