Ha. This is the first time I've seen hockey mentioned on the internet. You must be Canadian, eh? There was always the occasional black player usually from Halifax, Toronto or Montreal where there are fairly large black communities. Tony McKegney was the lone black player for many years. A good journeyman winger who played for Buffalo in the 80's. Since 1989, the NHL has become much more internationalized with a ton of players from the fSU, Czech Repub., Sweden and now the USA. With it, hockey has become less of a working class sport with more yuppies playing it and attending games. The rule now is "whoever has the most Russians wins". Redneck Canadians epitomized by the horrible Don Cherry are lamenting the fact that "our" game is being taken over, all while slobbering in their beer. The influx of international players has been good bringing their clean skills-based European and American style to the game replacing the brutal Canadian knock-your-teeth-out style. The Russians are fun to watch when they play together evoking memories of those great almost otherwordly Soviet teams that graced ice arenas in the 70's and 80's.
Sam Pawlett ex-junior hockey player who had his teeth punched out and hasn't put on skates since.