MSG to show KHL games; you'll recognize a few of the names

Last night, while checking out a few sites on the internet that I visit from time to time, I came across this little news nugget on the MSGwebsite. The Sports channel that covers the New York Rangers, New York Islanders and New Jersey Devils  has announced that they will show two KHL games this month on their network.

The games will be Friday October 26, (Dinamo Minsk versus Barys Astana) and Wednesday October 31 (SKA. St. Petersburg vs Dinamo Riga.) Both games will be on DirecTV 634. 

Playing for Barys is former University of Wisconsin Badgers defenseman Ryan McDonagh and former Fighting Sioux forward Brandon Bochenski.

Former Wisconsin Badgers forward Joe Pavelski along with former UMD Bulldog Tim Stapleton players for Dinamo Minsk

DINAMO MINSK ROSTER

Head Coach: Alexander Andriyevsky (BLR)

No.      Position           Name                                   Country

89        Def                  Goroshko, Oleg                       Belarus
27        Def                  Denisov, Vladimir                     Belarus
13        For                   Drozd, Sergei                         Belarus
17        For                   Dudko, Sergei                        Belarus
22        For                   Irgl, Zbynek                           Czech Republic
8          Def                  Karalahti, Jere                         Finland
98        For                   Kane, Evander                        Canada
77        For                   Kitarov, Alexander                   Belarus
25        Def                  Krajicek, Lukas                        Czech Republic
11        For                   Kulakov, Alexander                  Belarus
92        For                   Laine, Teemu                         Finland
7          For                   Linglet, Charles                       Belarus
19        For                   Meleshko, Dmitry                    Russia
21        Def                  Murphy, Cory                          Canada
10        For                   Mikhalyov, Andrei                    Belarus
29        Def                  Niskala, Janne                         Finland
88        For                   Pavelski, Joe                          USA
60        For                   Pivko, Libor                           Czech Republic
16        For                   Platt, Geoff                            Belarus
32        Goal                Rinne, Pekka                           Finland
23        For                   Stas, Andrei                           Belarus
18        For                   Stapleton, Tim                       USA
30        Goal                Haugen, Lars                           Norway
86        Def                  Chernook, Pavel                      Belarus
40        Goal                Shelepnyov, Yan                      Belarus

BARYS ASTANA ROSTER

Head Coach: Vladimir Krikunov

No.      Position           Name                                  Country

23        For                   Alexandrov, Viktor                 Russia
80        For                   Antropov, Nikolai                   Kazakhstan
42        Def                  Belyakov, Fyodor                    Russia
41        For                   Boyd, Dustin                         Canada
27        For                   Bochenski, Brandon               USA
33        For                   Gavrilin, Andrei                      Kazakhstan
50        Def                  Grigoryev, Mikhail                   Russia
9          For                   Dawes, Nigel                        Canada
31        Goal                 Yeremeyev, Vitaly                  Russia
8          For                   Zhailauov, Talgat                   Kazakhstan
62        For                   Krasnoslobodtsev, Vadim        Russia
35        Goal                 Lassila, Teemu                      Finland
5          Def                  Litvinenko, Alexei                  Russia
54        Def                  McDonagh, Ryan                   USA
51        For                   Mirasty, Jon                         Canada
4          Def                  Novopashin, Vitaly                 Russia
18        For                   Polishchuk, Fyodor                Russia
1          Goal                 Poluektov, Pavel                   Russia
81        For                   Pushkaryov, Konstantin          Russia
79        For                   Rakhanov, Mikhail                  Kazakhstan
34        For                   Rudenko, Konstantin             Russia
2          Def                  Savchenko, Roman                Kazakhstan
91        For                   Savchenko, Filipp                  Russia
25        For                   Solaryov, Ilya                        Kazakhstan
10        For                   Spiridonov, Maxim                 Russia
48        For                   Starchenko, Roman               Kazakhstan
36        For                   Upper, Dmitry                       Russia
37        Def                  Fadeyev, Evgeny                   Kazakhstan
24        Def                  Hutchinson, Andrew              USA
71        Def                  Hedman, Victor                     Sweden


Wednesday, October 31 – SKA St. Petersburg vs. Dinamo Riga (1:00 p.m. & 8:00 p.m. ET)

SKA ST. PETERSBURG ROSTER

Head Coach: Milos Riha (CZE)

No.      Position           Name                                 Country

2          Def                  Alexandrov, Yury                   Russia
44        For                   Artyukhin, Evgeny                 Russia
72        Goal                 Bobrovsky, Sergei                   Russia
71        For                   Burdasov, Anton                   Russia
77        Def                  Vorobyov, Dmitry                   Russia
37        Def                  Grebeshkov, Denis                 Russia
38        Def                  Dallman, Kevin                       Canada
33        Goal                 Ezhov, Ilya                            Russia
7          Def                  Kalinin, Dmitry                       Russia
83        For                   Klimenko, Gleb                      Russia
17        For                   Kovalchuk, Ilya                      Russia
15        For                   Kucheryavenko, Alexander      Russia
25        For                   Makarov, Igor                        Russia
74        For                   Monakhov, Sergei                  Russia
9          For                   Martensson, Tony                 Sweden
13        For                   Nepryayev, Ivan                    Russia
76        Def                  Pervyshin, Andrei                   Russia
11        For                   Prucha, Petr                         Czech Republic
52        Def                  Semenov, Alexei                    Russia
4          Def                  Serkin, Grigory                       Russia
36        For                   Sigaryov, Andrei                    Russia
91        For                   Tarasenko, Vladimir                Russia
10        For                   Tikhonov, Viktor                    Russia
41        For                   Thoresen, Patrick                  Norway
73        Def                  Chudinov, Maxim                    Russia
40        Goal                 Shikin, Dmitry                        Russia
31        Goal                 Stepanek, Jakub                    Czech Republic

DINAMO RIGA ROSTER

Head Coach: Pekka Rautakallio (FIN)

No.      Position           Name                                 Country

75        For                   Ankipans, Girts                      Latvia
98        For                   Biezais, Elvijs                         Latvia
96        For                   Bicevskis, Maris                      Latvia
71        For                   Bukarts, Roberts                    Latvia
13        Def                  Galvins, Guntis                       Latvia
33        For                   Daugavins, Kaspars                 Latvia
25        For                   Dzerins, Andris                       Latvia
74        For                   Johnson, Jamie                      Canada
12        For                   Giroux, Alexandre                   Canada
41        For                   Ivanans, Raitis                        Latvia
70        For                   Indrasis, Miks                         Latvia
72        Def                  Carle, Mathieu                        Canada
15        For                   Karsums, Martins                    Latvia
2          Def                  Lavins, Rodrigo                       Latvia
87        For                   Meija, Gints                           Latvia
17        For                   Nizivijs, Aleksandrs                  Latvia
14        Def                  Redlihs, Jekabs                       Latvia
9          Def                  Redlihs, Krisjanis                     Latvia
6          Def                  Rekis, Arvids                          Latvia
11        Def                  Sotnieks, Kristaps                   Latvia
32        Goal                Tellqvist, Mikael                       Sweden
44        Def                  Cibulskis, Oskars                     Latvia
19        For                   Schremp, Rob                        USA
38        For                   Szczechura, Paul                    Canada
37        Goal                 Jucers, Maris                          Latvia

A beautiful goal by Zherdev

It's nice to see someone playing some actual hockey and this is a taste of what we're missing. Check out former New York Ranger Nikolay Zherdev as he scored this beautiful highlight reel goal against Spartak in KHL action on Tuesday night. Zherdev plays for Atlant of the KHL and his team beat Spartack 5-2.

Роскошный силовой от Овечкина / Nice hit by Alex Ovechkin

With the NHL Lockout in full swing NHL players are now deciding to play else where and Washington Capitals star Alex Ovechkin is playing with Dynamo Moscow of the KHL - Ovechkin made an impression on his new team with this is a hit that he put on Dynamo Minsk player Libor Pivko.

Ovechkin has made the big and cleah hit in the middle of the ice.
— Pavel Lysenkov (@plysenkov) September 20, 2012

Hump day Links

The summer is really winding down… If my math is correct there are roughly 45 days until UND plays it’s first exhibition game on October 6th, 2012. There are also roughly 23 left for the NHL and the NHLPA to come to an agreement on the CBA without delaying the start of the NHL preseason. If there is no agreement between the NHL owners and the NHL, the league will go from being the National Hockey League to the No Hockey League.

From the Penn State front : Lawyers for Graham Spanier, former Penn State president ousted after Jerry Sandusky scandal, plan to rebut Freeh report

Former KFAN PA and Dubay host Jeff Dubay has resurfaced on the radio this past week. Jeff was on KTWINS for the last two days. [Pioneer Press]

Former Fighting Sioux and two-time all-Western Collegiate Hockey Association goaltender Brad Eidsness has decided to fore go the professional hockey route and go to law school in British Columbia. Here are two articles on this story ‘He’s not your typical kid’ and Eidsness Exercises His Option

The NHL is looking at obstruction – I think this is a bit over-due, especially, after watching all of the obstruction, hooking and holding that has been allowed during the past two NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs. There seems to be two different standards – there seems to be stricter standard during the regular season and then a more relaxed standard for the playoffs.

THE CANADIAN PRESS --- There should be a healthy exchange of ideas with five general managers (Darcy Regier, Lou Lamoriello, Ray Shero, Steve Yzerman, Mike Gillis) and four head coaches (Joel Quenneville, Barry Trotz, Dave Tippett, Adam Oates) in a room with players, referees and members of the league's hockey operations department.

Campbell labelled it a "think-tank for hockey."

The idea came out of the GM meetings in March, when a number of managers expressed frustration with what they believed to be a slip in standard for the way penalties were called. Campbell invited them to submit video of specific incidents, which will be looked at this week.

"Personally, I don't think the hooking and holding has slipped," said Campbell. "I think we have to find out what we want with intereference on the forechecking and interference off the faceoff."

The league's former disciplinarian thinks the discussion might branch off to other rules like slashing.

"Anything that stops a player from scoring," he said.

This will be the first exercise of its kind since the NHL held a major crackdown on obstruction coming out of the 2004-05 lockout. However, Campbell doesn't expect it to have nearly the same impact on the sport in terms of the number of penalties called.

I know this about 12 days old, but according to Shooter from the Pioneer Press, former North Stars radio voice Doug McLeod is a strong candidate for the Gophers men's hockey play-by-play TV job on FSN. I personally, would like to see Kevin Gorg from FSN fill that role.

Former Wisconsin Badgers and current Minnesota Wild forward Dany Heatley has sued his former agent for $11 million dollars. [TSN.CA]

Here is some interesting news. Current ECAC Hockey Director of Officiating and former National Hockey League (NHL) referee Paul Stewart is going to join the Russian Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) as a consultant, where he will be an advisor to KHL president Alexander Medvedev on judicial matters. According to Ken Schott he will also continue working for the ECAC.

Chris Peters from the United States of Hockey, has a good story on Georges Laraque and “it appears” that he is going to be the new head of the CHLPA. [United States of Hockey]

CBA musings

I have been trying to make heads or tails of the new CBA proposal by the NHL owners and let me just say that I have a bad feeling that it could be a long drawn out fight. We should be very worried about the NHL season starting on time – my gut feeling – I am going to predict that the season is delayed until at least November or December.

Jonathan Willis, edmontonjournal.com --- If the NHL gets its way on some of its demands – particularly it’s insistence that players sign five-year deals capped at the rookie maximum – that trickle will expand. To use an Oilers’ example, why would Nail Yakupov be willing to sign for five years on a contract with a base salary of less than $1 million when he could expect to make much more money much sooner in Russia? Particularly if, upon the completion of his five-year entry-level NHL deal, he could look forward to five more years of restricted free agency? Even if he were willing to do so, it seems likely that future drafts would see European players increasingly consider the Kontinental Hockey League as a viable option.

Another interesting wrinkle is the NHL/KHL memorandum of understanding. As things stand, the KHL respects NHL contracts, not poaching talent on deals, and the NHL does likewise. If, however, the NHL starts kneecapping its teams’ ability to compete financially with the KHL, the incentive of the Russian league to respect NHL rules would undoubtedly be greatly reduced.

The possibility exists that the league owners don’t care. What they’re asking for is a huge spike in the amount of money they get to take home, massive restrictions on the negotiating power of individual players, and a much longer time period before talented youngsters start earning big money. With the possibility of huge spikes in take-home money and greater certainty that drafted players will stay in the system for the long haul, an exodus of European talent back to Europe may not bother them in the least.

Initially; after perusing some of the proposals that the owners put forth – I decided that I don’t like the idea of extending entry level deals from three to five years. Why? There is no reason to do that. A player after playing in the NHL for three season should have the ability to get a substantial raise if he has been successful. All that is going to do is steer top European players to the KHL instead of the NHL. I wonder if the Minnesota Wild would miss out on a player like Mikael Granlund?

Also, I don’t think the players are going to take a big cut in pay from the owners especially after some of the ridiculous free agent contracts that have been signed this free agent signing period. Donald Fehr is on record as saying that player’s roll backs are not going to happen on his watch.

Just for comparison purposes the NFL and NBA players are making 47 and 50 percent of their leagues revenues. So it will be interesting to see what the NHL players agree to, I wonder if they would go very far below 50 percent.

By comparison, during labour disputes in the past year, players in the NFL and NBA agreed to revenue shares of roughly 47 percent and 50 percent, respectively. [thespec.com]

Based on the fact that the NHL made 3.3 billion last season – I don’t have a lot of empathy for the owners.

I also think that you might want to plan to do something else during the months of October and November – don’t plan on watching the NHL – because this disagreement is going to take a while if the owners don’t come down off their high horse.

Jaroslav Halak's mask honor's Pavol Demitra

s/t to In Goal Magazine. St Louis Blues goalie Jaroslav Halak's mask will honor the memory of his former Slovakian teammate Pavol Demitra who was killed last week when his KHL team Lokomotiv Yaroslavl team flight crashed after take off.

Related articles

• Blues playoff chances will hinge on Jaroslav Halak (prohockeytalk.nbcsports.com)
• Thousands attend Demitra memorial (canada.com)
• Thousands attend Pavol Demitra memorial (canada.com)
• Slovakia mourns Russia plane crash victim (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• R.I.P. Pavol Demitra (adrianatalkstoyou.wordpress.com)

Another day, another tragedy. Air Disaster in Russia.

Image via WikipediaJust when you think the hockey world couldn't suffer anymore this off season there was a plane crash today in Yaroslavl, Russia that killed 43 of 45 people on board.

Former Wild forward Pavel Demitra was one of the passengers on board. Goon's World would like to extend our sympathy and prayers to the people that perished in this horrific crash.

NHL.COM --- A plane crash near the city of Yaroslavl in Central Russia has claimed the lives of at least 43 people, according to Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry. The majority of victims are believed to be members of the Kontinental Hockey League club, Lokomotiv.

The crash occurred at 12 noon Moscow time and the weather was sunny and clear, according to reports.

Eight crew members are also among the dead, according to reports. According to Russian aviation officials, two passengers survived the crash, but are in critical condition. According to Sovetsky Sport, one of the survivors is Russian forward Alexander Galimov.

Lokomotiv has confirmed that the entire main roster, plus four players from the youth team, was on the plane.

"We have no team anymore," Vladimir N. Malkov, the team spokesman, said in a telephone interview with The New York Times. "All our starting players, and all the service people, they all burned in the crash."

Coach Brad McCrimmon, forward Pavol Demitra, forward Josef Vasicek, defenseman Karel Rachunek, forward Jan Marek and forward Alexander Vasyunov are among the confirmed fatalities.

The agent for Demitra, an ex-NHL star, confirmed he was killed in the crash.

Related articles

• Jet carrying KHL hockey team crashes, killing 43, including Canadian coach (thestar.com)
• 43 Dead After Plane Carrying KHL's Lokomotiv Crashes; Ex-NHL Locals On Team Roster (newyork.cbslocal.com)
• Russian jet carrying hockey team crashes, 43 dead (cbssports.com)
• Plane said carrying KHL team crashes, 43 dead (espn.go.com)
• 36 killed in Russian plane crash (independent.co.uk)