Posts tagged ‘russian hockey’
Dinamo Riga’s Second Home Game Highlights
Dinamo Riga’s second home game turned into a goaltending duel between Atlant Mytischi’s Ray Emery and Dinamo’s own Edgars Masalskis. Emery finally succumed to a couple of goals in the last 10 minutes while Masalskis came up with the shutout. Final score 2-0.
3rd period highlights with some analysis in Latvian. Woohoo, you get to hear what Latvian sounds like (and no, it’s not a Russian dialect… if you speak Russian you do not understand a thing in Latvian).
Highlights of the whole game recorded by a dedicated fan with a camcorder from the stands. Gives a really good idea of how good the crowd atmosphere is in Riga.
Introducing Nikita Filatov
No KHL games to post this weekend, but how about a sweet video compilation of a rising star, Nikita Filatov. Let’s hope he makes Columbus roster this year because with Nikolai Zherdev off to Big Bad Apple, Rick Nash is now the only show in town.
KHL Weekly Round-Up
Robert Petrovicky of Latvia's Dinamo Riga takes out his frustration of having to play the first 5 games in Bumblefuck, Russia on little Anisin of Sibir Novosibirsk.
In this week’s KHL round-up:
- Are Enforcers Really Necessary?
- Top 5 Goals of the Week as Determined by Putin.
- 16-year Old Boy Towering Over Men.
- Is Sarah Palin an Expert on Russian Hockey?
- Is It Time to Question Jaromir Jagr’s Leadership Qualities Yet?
- Has Barry Smith Been in Russia Too Long?
Every Friday there’s now a new show on Russian TV called “Hokkey Rossii” which can be translated as “Russian Hockey” or more accurately “Hockey of Russia” (even though it sounds weird to us for some reason).
This week’s show’s main theme was the discussion on whether the KHL needs enforcers. Tons of Russian league fights were shown while the two pundits in the studio debated the question. The debate got so heated that at one point the host of the show was close to losing control of the situation almost resulting in the commercial break not being shown! The horror.
Alas, order was restored, the commercials went ahead as planned (you can now move off the edge of your seat), no one in the studio was physically harmed, and the mobile fan poll produced the results slightly in favor of the skating pugilists (by about 5%). We figure that fan poll results were a bit skewed due to the fact that none of the old farts who would have surely voted against the imported bourgeoisie penchant for fisticuffs have learned how to use the texting feature on their mobile devices yet.
During the impromptu poll of KHL coaches only Andrei Nazarov of Traktor Chelyabinsk (predictably) was in favor of adding some Hanson brothers action to the KHL while Slava Bykov (note to the Canadian announcers – it is NOT pronounced Bye-kof), the head coach of CSKA Moscow, wondered out loud what the term “policeman” has to do with hockey.
– I know of the following positions in hockey. Center, left wing, right wing, defenseman and goaltender. Last I checked the position of policeman does not exist in hockey and is from another field called law enforcement.
Touche, Mr. Bee-kof, touche.
Now we’re not sure who won the studio brouhaha since the debaters did not resort to fisticuffs and we always have a difficult time determining the winner of a debate when violence isn’t used as an argument. What we’d like to see is Don Cherry invited to such a debate next time. We’d like to see someone put a fist to where Don’s big mouth is.
Oh yeah, they did show some actual hockey on the program, as well. Here are the Top 5 KHL Goals of the Week as determined by Vladimir Putin himself.
Okay, we’re not really sure if Putin picks the top 5 goals, but everyone in the West seems to think that he’s in charge of every single aspect of Russian life so we’ll just pretend that it’s true. Good work, Vladi! Who are we to disagree with Mr. Putin after all? We just blog.
If you’re a fan of seeing someone’s face smashed into the boards (and we know you are, you sick, sick bastards) here’s a video of Spartak Moscow’s Alexei Akifyev painting the boards with his blood during the Moscow derby against the Red Army club courtesy of CSKA’s defenseman, Denis Kulyash. Kulyash sounds almost like goulash to us and in Russia it is apparently a dish better served cold.
Last year’s RSL champions Salavat Yulayev of Ufa finished the first two weeks of their KHL adventure with a perfect record of 4-0 and seemingly have not broke a sweat yet, even in games against top level opposition (like Jaromir Jagr‘s Avangard Omsk). 6-0 was the result of that “battle of the titans”. We have a question for Rangers fans. Is it time to question Jagr’s leadership qualities yet?
Do keep your eye on Metallurg Novokuznetsk’s 16-year old phenom Maxim Kitsyn who scored 3 goals in his first two KHL games. His team is off to a surprisingly good start and we’re very impressed with a high school age kid doing his thing at the KHL level. Not to mention the fact that at just 16 the boy towers over most men in the league.
Dinamo Riga finally returned home after a brutal 5-game road trip to the Far East to start the season (we think Sarah Palin might have even seen their two games vs. Amur Khabarovsk from Alaska, which no doubt now makes her an expert on Russian hockey) and played to a full crowd at Arena Riga. This marked a historic occasion as the famous Latvian club was resurrected as a KHL franchise after a decade of extinction (if only the dinosaurs were so lucky).
They celebrated with a 2-1 win over Hokkeynyi Klub Ministerstva Vnutrennikh Del Balashikha (Moskovskaya Oblast)… sheesh, we are fluent in Russian and that was a mouthful even for us. Okay, you can just call it HK MVD Moscow Region.
On the other hand, Barys Astana, another non-Russian KHL club are yet to win at home in Kazakhstan. And no, Borat is not on their team. Perhaps that’s the problem. We shall see.
Metallurg Magnitogorsk, lovably known as Magnitka, is off to a very slow start, even having suffered a 6-0 humiliation at the hands of Jagr’s Avangard. The reigning European Cup champions will face the NHL’s New York Rangers in the inaugural Victoria Cup come October 1st and on this form might not be the best representative of the KHL. If we were Putin we’d make an executive decision to replace them with Salavat Yulayev of Ufa.
SKA St. Petersburg is also having major issues and started the season far below expectations. After their last loss their head coach Barry Smith, in true Putin style, proclaimed, “I promise to the people of this great city we call St. Petersburg, that they will never see a 2nd period like this from us ever again!”
“And if they do”, he continued, “I will personally see to it that those responsible are held accountable!”
Wow, the chill has run down our spine. Russia is definitely rubbing off on Barry after just over a year. Must be the borscht.
Rest of This Week’s KHL Games Preview
Watch for links to the following games later this week.
Metallurg Magnitogorsk @ Avangard Omsk
Great rivalry game and the chance to see Jaromir Jagr in action. This game would be especially interesting for New York Rangers fans as they get to see Jagr vs. a team the Rangers will soon face in the Victoria Cup.
Dinamo Moscow @ Ak Bars Kazan
Another great rivalry game. Kazan features what is arguably the best line in the KHL, Morozov – Zinovyev Zaripov as well as last year’s Finnish NHLer, Niko Kapanen.
HK MVD Moscow Region @ Dinamo Riga (Latvia)
The terrible Far East / Siberian 5-game road trip Dinamo Riga had to endure is over and there’s been huge buzz among the completely obsessed with hockey Latvians for the first regular season home game in Riga. Should be very interesting to see what the crowd will be like.
Salavat Yulayev Ufa @ Avangard Omsk
Jaromir Jagr’s powerhouse from Omsk is off to a slow start. Jagr himself has one assist in the first 3 games. This will be his first look at last year’s champions from Ufa and their controversial new signing, Alexander Radulov.
Today’s KHL Game Video: Spartak Moscow @ Atlant Mytischi
Spartak Moscow @ Atlant Mytischi
Spartak visits their Moscow region neighbors who started the season exceptionally well.
KHL Game Ends in a Brawl, New Record for Penalty Minutes (277!)
Dinamo Riga’s atrocious 5-game season starting road trip to the Far East and Siberia finally ended with a bad loss in their 2nd game in Novosibirsk 6-1.
It appears that the Latvian players finally had enough of all this long distance traveling business and took their frustration out on Sibir’s players.
This fight actually has some truly hilarious moments. Pay attention to the giant #27 of Dinamo Riga Ronald Petrovicky (in white) and the tiny #22 of Sibir Novosibirsk Mikhail Anisin in blue. Then watch what Dinamo’s #83 Matt Ellison does to Anisin after that tussle is over.
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 