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.
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Category Archives: World Championship
🇨🇦 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.
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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.
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🇷🇺 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.
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🇸🇪 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.
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🇨🇭 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.
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🇨🇿 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.
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🇸🇮 🇵🇱 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.
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🇸🇪 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.
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🇭🇷 🇮🇸 🇱🇺 🇿🇦 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.
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🇵🇱 🇪🇸 🇰🇬 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.
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🇦🇹 Thomas Vanek Retires From Pro Hockey At Age 36
Thomas Vanek, the most decorated Austrian hockey player in history, today announced his retirement at age 36 after not being claimed during the 2020 NHL Trade Deadline, ending his 15 year professional career with stops in eight cities.
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🇩🇪 Marcel Goc Announces Retirement From Adler Mannheim
Marcel Goc, the longtime centre who was part of the first wave of German NHL stars during his NHL career from 2004-15, announced his retirement from Adler Mannheim of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga, capping a 22 season pro hockey career.
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🇷🇺 Alexander Skvortsov: 1954-2020
Alexander Skvortsov, a Soviet winger part of the Red Army juggernaut that dominated international hockey throughout the late 1970’s and 1980’s, passed away in Moscow on 04 February at the age of 65.
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IIHF Hall Of Fame Announces 2020 Inductees
The IIHF has announced the Hall Of Fame Class of 2020, to be inducted at May’s World Championships in Zürich, Switzerland, with two native Swiss players highlighting the class, as the IIHF will induct Ryan Smyth, Alexei Yashin, Kimmo Timonen and countrymen Mark Streit and Mathias Seger to the Hall.
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🇸🇪 Jimmie Ericsson Announces Retirement Following Failed Achilles Rehab
Swedish winger Jimmie Ericsson, a longtime member of Tre Kronor and a standout in the Swedish Hockey League, today announced that after failing to rehab an injured Achilles tendon, he would retire from hockey at the age of 39.
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IHLC 2019 In Review – Men’s
The International Hockey Lineal Championship this year stayed within the confines of the Euro Hockey Tour, with only Russia, Czechia, Sweden and Finland holding the title over the course of 28 games throughout 2019.
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🇷🇺 WADA Hands Russia Four Year Ban On International Sports
This morning in Lausanne, Switzerland, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) unanimously agreed upon a four year ban for Russia not only from the 2020 Summer and 2022 Winter Olympics, but also for its member sport federations (of which the International Ice Hockey Federation is a part) to ban Russia from participating in or hosting any events between now and 2023.
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🇨🇿 🇸🇰 IHLC Classics: The Velvet Reunion
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.” Today, in honour of Czech Independence Day, we look back at Czechia’s third World Championship from the year 2000, won in a tense battle over neighbouring Slovakia in their first major elimination game since the split of Czechoslovakia.
🇨🇿 Czechia 5-3 Slovakia 🇸🇰
World Championship Gold Medal Game
Ice Palace, Saint Petersburg 🇷🇺
Sunday, 14 May 2000
Proving that breakups of countries don’t have to result in bloodshed, Czechoslovakia split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia on 1 January 1993, an event sometimes called the Velvet Divorce.
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🇩🇪 Dennis Seidenberg Announces Retirement At Age 38
German defender Dennis Seidenberg, a permanent fixture on Germany’s blueline and a longtime NHLer, who made history as just the second German to win the Stanley Cup, announced his retirement from pro hockey at age 38.
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