Posts tagged ‘on demand’
The KHL Season Has Started!
The KHL season has started on September 2nd. The bad news is that I don’t really have the time to cap and post games like I did for a while last season. The good news is that Sportbox.ru is now doing it for me and all I have to do is provide links for those of you who don’t speak Russian.
Here are links to the video of full games from the first 3 days of action that have been posted on Sportsbox.ru so far. Note that you can watch the games in full screen mode by selecting the Silverlight option (you would need to download Miscrosoft’s answer to Flash first) and clicking the full screen icon in the top right corner.
September 4
Vityaz Chekhov @ Atlant Mytischi
The bad boys of Russian hockey, Vityaz, added a major league NHL goon, Chris Simon, to their roster this season. Let’s see if he can contain himself and limit his violence to good ol’ fisticuffs rather than using his skates to inflict pain. Simon joins fellow Canadian goon, Darcy Verot, who is famous across the whole of Russia for trying to punch anything that moves. With the KHL taking a page out of the NHL rule book and allowing fighting (a major change for European hockey) any Vityaz game should not be too boring for the fans of boxing on skates.
September 3
Avangard Omsk @ AK Bars Kazan
KHL debut of a certain player you might have heard about, Jaromir Jagr. Jagr is KHL’s marquee signing and without any doubt the biggest name in the new league. Watch his Avangard take on one of the best clubs in Russian hockey, AK Bars. There’s also a debut of another former NHLer, a Long Island fan favorite Wade Dubielewicz, who is starting in goal for the club from Kazan.
SKA St. Petersburg @ Metallurg Magnitogorsk
Perennial leaders of Russian hockey, Magnitka, take on Gazprom’s own club from St. Petersburg which has been under the leadership of Barry Smith since last year.
September 2
Atlant Mytischi @ Spartak Moscow
Atlant is the new name of the team that used to be known as Khimik Moskovskaya Oblast (Moscow region). Not to be confused with Khimik Voskresensk that was promoted from the Higher League.
Lokomotiv Yaroslavl @ Salavat Yulayev Ufa
Clash of last year’s RSL Playoffs finalists which are tipped to be two of the top KHL clubs this year, as well.
Dinamo Riga @ Amur Khabarovsk
Dinamo Riga, a team I used to follow as a kid (so this is personally very exciting for me), has been resurrected to play in the KHL and this is their regular season debut. The team was built from scratch using mostly Latvian national team players, but also includes a few former NHLers in Slovakian Marcel Hossa (younger brother of the NHL superstar Marian) as well as Canadians Duvie Westcott and Mark Hartigan. For their first game Dinamo travels across 8 time zones to the city of Khabarovsk. Quite possibly the longest inter league trip ever for a pro hockey club.
Russian Hockey 