International Legends of the Day

Each day until the Sochi Olympics I will be highlighting two international hockey legends. One will be Russian, the other will be an international star.

Russian Hockey Legend of the Day

Vsevolod Bobrov: Long before Pavel Bure was even born, the Russian Rocket was putting on goal scoring displays that not even Pavel can imagine.

Vsevolod "Seve" Bobrov was nicknamed the Russian Rocket as he was compared to the best player in the world at that time, Rocket Richard. He never displayed Richard's temper or intensity, but was every bit as explosive and hungry for goals.

Here's the full Vsevolod Bobrov profile.

International Hockey Legend of the Day

Tumba Johansson - One of the greatest legends of early European hockey was center Sven Johansson, better known as "Tumba". He got the nickname from his birthplace in Tumba, in the suburbs of Stockholm, Sweden where he was born on August 27, 1931.

Tumba was a big fellow at a solid 6'3" and 210lbs. He had a little Gordie Howe in him. He was very hard to stop and impossible to separate from the puck. Tumba's strength was his heavy and quick shot that always seemed to be on target. With his combination of physical strength and good hands he was a scoring threat whenever he had the puck.

His weakness was that he didn't pass the puck as much as he should have. He didn't use his teammates very often which in one way made him a little bit of a one dimensional player. But why should he pass when he scored seemingly at will? His teammates didn't seem to mind, as was was very well liked because of his easy going attitude off the ice.

Here's the full Tumba Johansson profile.