The Hockey Goddesses » Thorkhild

KHL Air Tragedy: ‘This City Breathes Hockey’

Thorkhild — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 15:33:44 +0000

[Editor's note: Our KHL correspondent based in Russia checks in with some thoughts on the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl tragedy.]

The 2011-12 Lokomotiv squad poses for a picture in August.

It was one the best teams in Russia. It was one of the most respected teams in Russia. It was team number one in Yaroslavl. This city breathes hockey. I have been there three times to see Lokomotiv play, it was unforgettable. I wanted to go there this season. I can’t imagine why an elite professional team would fly on a really prehistoric airplane. What a horrible tragedy.

As far as I’ve learned, no one survived. We have lost some of the best players of Russia and Europe, as well as the Canadian coach Brad McCrimmon. I cannot believe that.

All my prayers to friends and families. RIP Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, you will always be remembered.

Pre-season video

Russian media from the place of tragedy

Photograph: Lokomotiv Yaroslavl team picture from the KHL.

Alex Kovalev officially goes to KHL

Thorkhild — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 05:49:53 +0000

Alex Kovalev

38-year-old forward Alex Kovalev returns to Russia after 18 seasons in the NHL. He has signed a two-year contract with the Gagarin Cup finalist “Atlant”. As Canadian press marks, it’s not surprising, because Kovalev, who signed a $10-million contract with the Senators in 2009, never came close to fulfilling expectations. Nevertheless, Alex was a real star in the NHL – during his long career he scored 428 goals and 596 assists in 1,302 regular season games and had another 45 goals and 55 assists in 123 playoff games.

CEO “Atlant” Andrew Ropes said he had called Alex, as soon as he learned about his intention to return to Russia. “The conversation went very businesslike. I immediately outlined his role in our young and ambitious team, which desperately needed leaders – experienced and respected players. He knew right away I became interested. He was attracted by the figure of a new head coach “Atlant” Gustafsson”, – marked Ropes.

He added that Alex would join his new team in the coming days. “He himself can not wait to begin preparations for the season”, – said Ropes (according to “Atlant” official web-site).

…and Gagarin Cup goes to Salavat Yulaev

Thorkhild — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 05:34:26 +0000

Salavat Yulaev and their Gagarin Cup

The 2011 winner of Gagarin Cup is Salavat Yulaev from Ufa. They managed to finish the final series against Atlant (Mytischi — a suprising finalist, as no one expected they would play in the final) in five games. The head coaches of Salavat are from Russia’s national team: Vyacheslav Bykov and Igor Zakharkin. So I suppose quite a few of the champions will be present at the coming IIHF Worlds in Slovakia. Some fantastic photos can be found here — at one of the best Russian sports photographers: http://vladimir-pesnya.livejournal.com/644925.html

Here are some videos after the final game. The players share their joy and happiness, I think these are always the best moments of any big victory!

20110416174400_vruchenijekubkagagarina_2_001 20110416174700_aleksandrradulovmyluchshije_2_001 20110416175100_viktorkozlovkhoroshochtovytashhi_2_001 20110416185200_vacheslavkozlovetobolshojprazdni_2_001 20110416194100_salavatodolelatlant_2_002

Slava Kozlov Joins New Team for Playoff Push

Thorkhild — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 17:29:43 +0000

Slava Kozlov will chase the Gagarin Cup with a new team.

Former NHL star and current KHL player, Slava Kozlov, has changed his club right before the playoffs. His former team — CSKA Moscow — is having a poor season and the move enables him to continue his career on a more successful team. Kozlov has joined Salavat Yulaev — one of the strongest clubs in the KHL. The team’s coach, Slava Bykov, is a former player and a current manager of Russia’s national team.

On Salavat Yulaev Ufa, Slava joins several other former NHLers including Viktor Kozlov, Dmitri Kalinin and Alexander Radulov. According to the official Salavat site, Slava will wear No. 32.

The player himself commented his transfer, saying that his new colleagues were masters and it was pleasant to be with them on one team. Let’s see now how far Salavat will go through the playoffs.

Photo: Vyacheslav Kozlov from Salavat Yulaev’s official website.

KHL All Star Game: Jagr beats Yashin. Again!

Thorkhild — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 17:30:47 +0000

Jagr team vs Yashin team

KHL All Star Game 2011 took place in Saint-Petersburg. As usual, teams were divided under Jaromir Jagr and Alexei Yashin’s names. The show started with skills competitions, which was quite fun. Here’s the full list of winners according to the KHL official website.

Yashin 4-3 Jagr

Superskills competition

TEAM YASHIN 4
TEAM JAGR 3

Fastest skater
Team Yashin: Lauris Darzins, Leo Komarov, Maxim Afinogenov – 13.96 sec.
Team Jagr: Lukas Kaspar, Roman Cervenka, Evgeny Kuznetsov
1-0

Longest shot
Team Yashin: Denis Grebeshkov, Sandis Ozolins, Jozef Vasicek
Team Jagr: Janne Niskala, Konstantin Korneyev, Martin Skoula
1-1

Puck control relay
Team Yashin: Sergei Mozyakin, Maxim Sushinsky, Jozef Vasicek, Alexander Guskov, Matthias Weinhandl
Team Jagr: Lukas Kaspar, Patrick Thoresen, Alexei Morozov, Janne Niskala, Alexander Radulov
2-1

Shooting accuracy
Team Yashin: Sandis Ozolins, Chris Simon – 5 shots on 4 targets, Alexei Yashin
Team Jagr: Kevin Dallman, Sergei Fedorov, Jaromir Jagr
3-1

Hardest shot
Team Yashin: Maxim Solovyev, Alexander Guskov, Karel Rachunek
Team Jagr: Konstantin Korneyev, Ilya Nikulin, Denis Kulyash – 177.58 km/h
3-2

Shootout
Team Yashin: Sergei Mozyakin, Maxim Sushinsky and Matthias Weinhandl vs. Stefan Liv
Team Jagr: Roman Cervenka, Evgeny Kuznetsov and Alexander Radulov vs. Dominik Hasek
3-3

Fastest skater team relay
Team Yashin: Konstantin Barulin, Denis Grebeshkov, Peter Podhradsky, Leo Komarov, Lauris Darzins, Maxim Afinogenov
Team Jagr: Mikhail Biryukov, Konstantin Korneyev, Kevin Dallman, Petri Kontiola, Lukas Kaspar, Alexei Morozov
4-3

The most awesome moment to my opinion was Evgeny Kuznetsov shootout with Hasek. BTW, Evgeny asks everyone to call him “Kuzya” :)

KHL All Star Game 2011 Evgeny Kuznetsov Breakaway Challenge Winner

KHL All Star Game 2011 Shots competition

KHL All Star Game 2011 Hardest Shot 110.3 mph Denis Kulyash

The game itself was rather fun, too. It ended with a new record 18:16, and Jagr once again beat Yashin. Here’re the highlights.

KHL All Star Game 2011 highlights

KHL: Evgeni Nabokov Released by SKA

Thorkhild — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 18:01:45 +0000

Evgeni Nabokov of SKA during Atlant - SKA game in the KHL (c) thorkhild

One of the most famous Russian goalies Evgeni Nabokov has been released by his new team — SKA from Saint-Petersburg. On its official page the club informs that it happened because of “family circumstances,” but there are rumors that it was because of rather poor Nabby’s performance.

Evgeni’s agent Sergei Isakov gave an interview to Sovsport.Ru, in which he gave his version of what had happened. “Nothing special took place. Zhenya just had some unpredictable family circumstances. He phoned me on Sunday, and on Monday morning I came to Saint-Petersburg to talk to SKA leaders. Nabokov asked to break his 4-year contract. He had to do this because of the family. He has to fly to the North America. I will not tell you about what had happened in the family of my client,” Isakov said.

Nabby’s agent stressed that Evgeni was not going to end his career as he is still demanded both in the NHL and in Russia.

Slava Kozlov Speaks Out on the KHL

Thorkhild — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 07:29:10 +0000

CSKA Moscow winger Slava Kozlov.

Former NHLer and newly acquired CSKA Moscow forward Slava Kozlov says he hasn’t had any problems adapting to his Russian club.

- I had been preparing to my comeback to Russia. When I played for Atlanta I already planned to try myself in the KHL. It turned out that in the end I got back to CSKA — to the club which I had left 18 years ago. So I don’t have any troubles with adaptation in Russia.

-I’m surprised by the new league. The KHL has a very high level of hockey. Organizational issues in the CSKA are OK, too. We have all the conditions to show our best game.

CSKA Slava Kozlov

Photos and interview (c) official CSKA website.

Check Out Ex-Red Wings Star Sergei Fedorov

Thorkhild — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 15:07:26 +0000

Sergei Fedorov in his Metallurg Magnitogorsk uniform during the game with Dinamo Moscow on November, 7, 2010. Dinamo won 4-1.

SKA Saint-Petersburg vs Carolina Hurricanes

Thorkhild — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 07:36:34 +0000

On October, 4, SKA played against Carolina in the show game “KHL vs NHL”. It was a nice show, with lots of goals and fights. SKA won 5:3.

St. Petersburg coach Ivano Zanatta explains to IIHF.com:
“This meant a lot to the national hockey pride of Russians. The Olympics left a scar in the Russian hockey soul. What we did tonight was to start mending that scar a little bit,” said the Italo-Canadian who is entrusted with the monumental task of jelling this star ensemble into a cohesive group.

His counterpart was also quite happy with his team’s performance, but not with the way the SKA, according to Paul Maurice, took liberties with some of his star players.
“In the NHL when players have an issue they are allowed to solve it by themselves,” said the Hurricanes coach. “And then you continue to play. But this is not possible in international hockey, there is a different tradition.”

This is the second time that an NHL-team will face a KHL-club. In the inaugural Victoria Cup on October 1, 2008, the New York Rangers rallied from a 3-0 deficit to defeat European club champion Metallurg Magnitogorsk, 4-3, with Ryan Callahan netting the winner with 20 seconds remaining. The game was played in Bern, Switzerland, reminds the IIHF website.

Here are some photos, taken from championat.ru, sovsport.ru and other open sources

Slava Kozlov Goes to CSKA

Thorkhild — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 09:38:23 +0000

Slava Kozlov to KHL.

One of the most prominent Russians in the National Hockey League, Vyacheslav Kozlov, will play in the Kontinental Hockey League this year. The Russian press reports Slava has signed a one-year contract with CSKA Moscow.

Kozlov will swap his trademark No. 13 jersey for No. 72. He joins former NHLers Stephen Valiquette and Yan Stastny, and former Ottawa Senators prospect Ilya Zubov on the Red Army team.

A two-time Stanley Cup winner with the Detroit Red Wings, Kozlov was the last member of the vaunted “Russian Five” to play in the NHL. His signing with CSKA, however, reunites him with fellow Russian Fiver Viacheslav Fetisov, who is the club’s president.

Kovalchuk Trains in Moscow

Thorkhild — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 04:59:39 +0000

Here you can watch a video from the Russian news about New Jersey’s Ilya Kovalchuk who is training in Moscow.

The correspondent says Ilya looks as if there wasn’t this loud story on Ilya’s contract. Ilya was in a good mood because he had been right back from his hometown — Tver — and was heading to Miami, Florida to his wife and kids.

In this video you can also see Nikolai Zherdev now of the Philadelphia Flyers, who is training at the same arena.

Kovy Takes on Ovie in Charity Game

Thorkhild — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 23:23:26 +0000

Kovalchuk and Ovechkin at the game.

Russian hockey stars Ilya Kovalchuk and Alexander Ovechkin organized a charity game “With all the heart” in Moscow’s Sokolniki Arena. All the money will be sent to people who suffered from the recent forest and other fires in Russia. The original idea belonged to Ilya.

Many famous current and former players took part in the Ovie vs Kovy game including: Evgeni Malkin, Nikolai Zherdev, Slava Kozlov, Alexei Kasatonov, Slava Fetisov, Alexander Kharlamov, and Dominik Hasek. Many top Kremlin officials, KHL President Alexander Medvedev and various celebrities were in attendance.

Kovalchuk and Ovechkin invited their first coaches to participate in the game as managers.

After the game Kovalchuk admitted that it had been a pleasure for him to play at Sokolniki — at his home arena (where HC Spartak Moscow plays). He also said he and his family had suffered from the Moscow smog. For those who haven’t heard, the city of Moscow and its surrounding areas were recently blanketed in smoke from fires burning near the city, as the Russian capital endured extraordinarily high summer temperatures.

Ovechkin said that such charity activities should be developed in Russia. He added that he had been in the Moscow smog, too.

Former Atlanta Thrasher Slava Kozlov admitted he hadn’t defined his future career yet. He asked not to link his visit to Russia with contract talks — his purpose there was to visit his parents. Kozlov also said that the New Jersey Devils didn’t call him — only Kovalchuk asked him to join.

Here’s a video from the show which ended 13:13.

And here are photos from the Russian media and various open sources

Semin in ‘Small’ Wreck and More Russian Hockey News

Thorkhild — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 06:25:15 +0000

Semin's car accident - lifesports.ru

Washington Capitals star Alexander Semin got in a very small car accident last week in Krasnoyarsk — reportedly, his car was slightly hit by another. Semin said he even hadn’t realized what had happened. No one was hurt.

Here’s a small video in which a person tries to learn what has happened and is told not to take the video – Semin car accident

More Hockey News — Straight Outta Russia …

Former Thrasher Maxim Afinogenov scored for SKA Saint Petersburg at a summer tournament in Switzerland. As for his return to Russia, Afinogenov said: “I realized – it’s time to go back home.” He promised not to change his style of play and to stay himself. Max also said he’s living in the same hotel as former San Jose Sharks netminder Evgeny Nabokov, noting that they often go out together. And, finally, Max insists he’s forgotten about the NHL already.

One of Russia’s most talented young players, Nikita Filatov, is going back to Columbus. Again. Filatov promised to work hard and to play his brand of hockey.

Little Viktor Tikhonov is going to move his way into Phoenix and the NHL. His agent admitted — it’s the main goal for Viktor.

Slava Kozlov will be waiting for offers from the NHL til the end, but if he doesn’t get them, “we’ll start talks with him,” said CSKA president Slava Fetisov.

Finally, the ‘unfriendly ghost’ and current SKA coach Darius Kasparaitis has got a son! His girlfriend gave birth to their son in Saint Petersburg. Kasparaitis already has three daughters.

via Russian press

Nabokov and Grebeshkov Debut in SKA Colors

Thorkhild — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 19:58:03 +0000

As you already know, two former NHL Russians — Denis Grebeshkov and Evgeni Nabokov — signed their new contracts with SKA Saint Petersburg of the Kontinental Hockey League. SKA seems to be amassing quite a team of former NHL players, including Sergei Brylin, Petr Cajanek, Vitaly Vishnevskiy (according to SKA’s site), (Goddess Kaatiya favorite) Sergei Zubov, Andrei Zyuzin, Alexei Yashin and Maxim Afinogenov (Kaatiya cries at this).

SKA is a Russian abbreviation for “Sports Club of the Army.”

Here’s a little gallery of photos from their press conference. Enjoy!

Photos: From the Russian media.

Russian Media Roundup: Datsyuk to College and More

Thorkhild — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 05:01:10 +0000

Kozlov reportedly has his sights set on the KHL.

Here’s a brief summary of some of the hot hockey stories making the rounds in the Russian press this week.

- SKA Saint Petersburg signed ex-San Jose Sharks goalie Evgeni Nabokov to a 4-year, $24 million (USD) contract.

- Reportedly, former Atlanta Thrashers player Slava Kozlov wants to play in Russia. He is in talks with several clubs.

- Kontinental Hockey League studies details on 23-year-old SKA player Igor Misko’s sudden death.

- The Washington Capitals took four Russians to their summer camp.

- Detroit Red Wings and team Russia forward Pavel Datsyuk has entered the university in his native city of Ekaterinburg. He will study sports management.