I disappointed a great many people yesterday on Twitter when I reminded / told people that Tore Vikingstad had retired from international competition. That's right, hockey fans, there is now no reason to watch the World Championships in Germany. Or, at least, there's no reason to watch Norway. (They don't have those swinging-cool curling pants in hockey, either, you know.)
Much of the Vikingstad's newfound North American celebrity was almost entirely due to two things. One, he's a hockey player. And two, his last name contains the word "Viking" in it. And that's pretty much it. (As a side note, and those of you who watched the Olympics probably remember this, his name's approximately pronounced "toe-ra vee-king-staadt".)
Well, that got me to thinking...what are some of the pretty cool hockey names out there? Past and present - why limit ourselves? Not nicknames, though that might be for another day. I'm talking real names.
What makes a good hockey name? To me, it's a strong name that flows off the tongue that can be fun to say. It's classic and withstands the test of time. Simply put, it's a name that you read or hear and immediately think to yourself, "that guy has got to be a hockey player."
So this is the audience participation part of the program, boys and girls. Leave your candidates in the comments, and let's see who can come up with the best names. Maybe I'll put up a poll in my post next week and have the people decide on who has the best hockey name. In the meantime, I'll get you started with my own list. In no particular order....
- Felix Potvin
- Jeff Beukeboom
- Gerry Cheevers
- Henrik Lundqvist
- Zarley Zalapski
- Mikko Koivu
- Stan Mikita
- Miroslav Satan
- Dino Ciccarelli
- Trevor Linden
- Marcel Dionne
- Igor Larionov
- Adam Deadmarsh
- Aki Berg
- Jean Beliveau
- Olaf Kolzig
- Al Iafrate
- Per Johan Axelsson
- Zenon Konopka
- Gordie Howe
- Alexei Ponikarovsky
- Bernie Geoffrion
- Stu Grimson
- Mats Sundin
- Vladimir Konstantinov
- Antero Niittymaki
- Howie Morenz
So what do you got?
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