Hockey Horror

My plan this morning originally included writing part two of my coverage of Tuesday's press conference regarding Penn State's women's team.

Then the news hit like a kick to the mid-section. A plane carrying the members of the Kontinental Hockey League's Yaroslavl Lokomotiv team crashed shortly after taking off from the Central Russian city. Early reports say the "majority" of the team, including several former NHL players, were killed.



The English online edition of SovSport has updates, including news of three survivors.

According to the Russian Federal Air Transport Agency, 34 people including foreign citizen were killed in Yaroslavl plane crash, not 37 as had been reported initially. Three peopke survived, all of them in grave condition. The plane had in total 37 people on board, including the crew.

Yak-42 plane performed a charter flight to Minsk and belonged to Yak-Service airlines. The incident occurred at 16:02 Moscow time (CET+2). The reason is still unknown.

The aircraft’s certificate was valid until October 1 this year, it was in operation since 1993. The first flight was performed ​​18 years and 8 months ago, according to the Russian News Service.

Greg Wyshynski reports on his 'Puck Daddy' blog that former Flyer and Red Wings defenseman Brad McCrimmon was the head coach of Lokomotiv. According to Wyshynski, NHL alumni on the roster included Josef Vasicek, Pavol Demitra, Karel Rachunek, Ruslan Salei, Karlis Skrastins and Detroit goalie prospect Stefan Liv.