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Posts Tagged ‘KHL’

Matt Dalton, a Canadian-born goaltender playing for Neftekhimik of the KHL, had had enough of Ak Bars Kazan forward Alexei Tereshchenko.

Tereshchenko was pulling a Tomas Holmstrom, blocking Dalton’s view from the crease, when the goalie delivered a slash to the forward’s groin that immediately cleared the view. Cue the film:

Dalton earned himself five minutes in the box for the slash, along with a small slice of YouTube immortality.

We’ve had enough.

We’re sick of this NHL lockout in its 29th day, of jostling among overpaid executives, of hoping for a partial season one day and the despair of a lost season the next.

We’re sick of hearing about our NHL stars going overseas to play for teams you can’t spell in a game of Scrabble.

Sick of it all.

We’re starting our own season. With NHL players. Every single one of them.

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I can recall several years ago interviewing CBC Analyst and “Battle of the Blades” contestant Brad May. He was in the twilight of his career with the Anaheim Ducks. I was in the dawn of my career as an NHL reporter. May was about to visit Buffalo for the first time in several years — perhaps the first time ever as a visiting player. We talked about those great Sabres teams of the mid-to-late 1990s (Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!) and all the great players he once counted as teammates.

Of course, it didn’t take him long to mention Dominik Hasek.

I figured that I’ve had written this by now, but here it goes: Dominik Hasek has announced his retirement from hockey. The Czech goalie last played in the KHL in the 2010-11 season. Apparently he was looking to come back to the NHL. It would be convenient to say that the lockout cost him that opportunity, but more than likely time had simply run out.

Hasek’s fire was rivaled only by his athleticism. The combination made him one of the best goalies of his era, one of the best of all time, and one of the most likely to still be playing in the NHL at age 47. He was simply remarkable.

Read the story from USA Today, ESPN.com, Toronto Sun, and enjoy this ESPN highlight package:

Like some of you, I watched my first KHL game today.

Praha Lev was playing Dynamo Moscow. ESPN2 was airing the game for some reason — because it can, I suppose. Alex Ovechkin, Zdeno Chara, Marian Hossa and a few other former/fringe NHLers whose names I recognized were playing. Two were named Juraj Mikus, so I only give myself half credit there, but so far the KHL has done a pretty good job of keeping Europe’s best league free of expat NHLers. Barry Melrose was the color commentator. You’d be wrong if you said this was unwatchable.

In fact, for a couple hours this afternoon, I didn’t miss hockey. If ESPN2’s sole purpose for televising this game was so that I would end up writing that sentence and scaring the crap out of Gary Bettman, Bill Daly, Jeremy Jacobs, et. al., it succeeded.

To that end, here are five things I discovered I liked about the KHL.
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One year later and the mind is still numbed at the very thought, how the lives of 44 members of hockey’s global family could be snuffed out in an instant.

Words – fluent and articulate, moving and mournful – have poured forth like a torrent of tears at the advent of the first anniversary of the Lokomotiv air tragedy.

Words have housed a host of tones in the 366 days since the news emerged from the woods near Yaroslavl that something terrible had happened to the aging, wheezing YAK-42D which was to ferry Lokomotiv to its KHL season opener with Dynamo Minsk, less than a minute after takeoff.

Words of shock and disbelief at the horrific news.

Words of contradiction – at first it was reported in error that former NHL veteran d-man Ruslan Salei had cheated death by planning to meet the team in Minsk.

Words beseeching the Almighty to give rest to the souls of the victims, and comfort to the many mourners left behind.

Detroit Red Wings goalie Jimmy Howard decked out the back of his mask to honor three Yaroslavl Lokomotiv crash victims | Photo by Dan Hickling

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