Lokomotiv Yaroslavl playing to honour the victims of the last year’s plane crash
Last year on this day ice hockey witnessed one of the worst accidents in the sports world as the plane of Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, a Russian team that plays in the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL).
All of the players died and out of 45 people on board, only one flight attended survived. The team was rebuilt once again and everybody was surprised when their new young players topped the Russian League and emerged as the winners.
They were even offered help from KHL management and other teams but they refused and decided to rely on their own young player and their prospects, who were not on plane then. They trusted their own players, which helped them and now they are the champions.
Now they are going to play matches in the memory of all those who died and also to pay tribute to all of them.
Among various people who offered their help to the team that was in a shock, it was Mike Smith, the former general manager of National Hockey League (NHL) teams Winnipeg Jets and Chicago Blackhawks, who revealed that he had contacted the team President but
he decided on rely on his own player, as it has always been their first priority, as he said,
"I contacted [the club] and said I'd be happy to give a hand. They were in deep shock. It was a catastrophic incident. They're used to having a Yaroslavl team. They were going to concentrate on their younger players and youth program”.
Tom Rowe, the current head coach of the team also talked about one of the victims of the incident, Brad McCrimmon, a former NHL player, who represented Boston Bruins, Philadelphia Flyers, Calgary Flames, Detroit Red Wings and Phoenix Coyotes.
Brad has taken the post of coach of Lokomotive in 2011 and he could not coach them in a regular season game as the plane crashed before their first game. Rowe told NHL.com,
"When I was in Lowell, http://www.nhl.com/ice/player.htm?id=8449617 called and said Brad wanted to get into coaching. So Brad came up and we spent a couple of hours talking about coaching. We got to know each other pretty well”.
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