Russian goalie Alexander Pechurski played his first game on Saturday and he was named 3rd star of the match thanks to his 12 saves in 35 minutes. In an interview with Russian website allhockey.ru he talked about his eventful weekend and his NHL experience.
RussianHockeyFans.com offers you a translation.
Former NHL and Team Russia center Alexei Zhamnov decided to lace them up again after more than three years of absence. The 39 years old from Moscow, Russia, spent the last seasons as KHL's Vityaz Chekhov General Manager.
This is what he declared to Sport-Express:
Zhamnov: "It's extremely unpleasant that they consider us guilty for the fight during the game against Avangard. It's not correct, and I want people to talk well about Vityaz. Therefore I decided to return on ice, but for now I will only train with the team so to understand my physical conditions. After this, probably, I will sign a contract with the club until the end of this season."
Alexei Zhamnov played a total of 807 NHL games, with 249 goals, 470 assists and 719 points. He spent 13 seasons in North America, with the Winnipeg Jets, Chicago Blackhawks, Philadelphia Flyers and Boston Bruins. He also played the NHL All-Star Game in the 2001-2002 season.
Russian goalie Alexander Pechurski of the Pittsburgh Penguins played his first NHL match against the Vancouver Canucks at General Motors Place on January 16th. The young goalie played a WHL regular season clash on friday night and then he has been signed by the Pens to a one-game amateur try out after their starting goalie Marc-Andre Fleury suffered from a broken finger and was forced out of the game.
Pechursky had to play in Fleury's pads as the ones he wears in Tri-City don't meet NHL regulations. But even if he didn't use his own equipment, had to travel a lot and played in back-to-back games he showed that he is a NHL-bound player as he stopped 12 shots and has been named the match's third star even if the Penguins lost to the Vancouver Canucks 6-2.
The Magnitogorsk, Russia, native has been iced in the second period with the Pens down 1-5. He allowed only one goal in the thirtheen shots he faced.
Latvian Martins Karsums signed with Dinamo Riga a contract up to April 2010, opposite to the news that were spread through Tampa Bay's official site, which reported that the 23 years old right winger signed with HC MVD.
Instead of his national team head coach Olegs Znaroks, Karsums will join many of his future team mates in 2010 Olympic Games as Team Latvia roster will feature 16 players from Dinamo Riga.
Most likely Karsums will play his first game with Dinamo in their home match against Metallurg Magnitogorsk scheduled for January 16th.
The starting lineup for KHL All Star Game has been announced today as the fan voting has been closed today.
The most voted player has been Kevin Dallman of Barys Astana, with 114,957 votes. Dallman will play for Team Jagr, the International Stars team that will face Team Yashin, Russian Stars.
The second most voted player was Team Jagr's Sandis Ozolinsh, with 113,167 votes, while Alexei Morozov has been Team Yashin's fan favorite, with 105,433 fans' selections.
This is how the lineups look like:
Team Yashin (Russian stars)
Goalkeepers: Georgy Gelashvili (Lokomotiv Yaroslavl) – 55,048 votes
Defenders: Sergei Zubov (SKA St. Petersburg) – 103,136; Ilya Nikulin (Ak Bars Kazan) – 101,261
Forwards: Alexei Morozov (Ak Bars Kazan) – 105,433; Alexander Radulov ( Salavat Yulayev Ufa) – 104,004; Maxim Sushinsky (SKA St. Petersburg) – 99,344
Team Jagr (International Stars)
Goaltender: Karri Ramo (Avangard Omsk) – 104,649 votes
Defenders: Kevin Dallman (Barys Astana) – 114,957; Sandis Ozolinsh (Dinamo Riga) – 113,167
Forwards: Marcel Hossa (Dinamo Riga) – 112,681; Mattias Weinhandl (Dynamo Moscow) – 105,000; Branko Radivojevic (Spartak Moscow) – 98,949
The rest of the lineup will be voted by hockey journalists. The KHL All-Star game is scheduled for January 30th in the brand new Minsk-Arena.
Latvian right wing Martins Karsums has been assigned by the Tampa Bay Lightning of the NHL to KHL's HC MVD. Karsums, 23, has been waived by the Lightnings five days ago.
The Riga, Latvia, native started the season in the AHL with the Lightning's affiliate, Norfolk Admirals, and scored four goals and sixteen points in thirty-six regular season matches. He has a total of 24 NHL games under his belt, six of them played with the Boston Bruins, the rest with Tampa Bay, scoring a total six points.
He will play now under Olympic Team Latvia's head coach Olegs Znaroks, which has called him for the upcoming 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver.
The talk around Ilya Kovalchuk's contract with the Atlanta Thrashers goes on. In an interview with The Atlanta Journal Constitution the Russian superstar said that he feels "very confident" about a new contract.
When asked if he's frustrated about the lenght of time it's taking:
“No, not really. I just try to focus on my game and my goal to make the playoffs. I don’t care about the contract situation. Everybody goes through it. It’s not frustrating at all. … It’s not easy to sign a deal. Whatever it takes, we’ll take our time.”
I feel very confident. Like I said, I like everything that’s been done over time. It’s not an easy thing to sign a long-term deal, and if it has to take until the last second, that’s what it takes. You never know.”
Kovalchuk's five-year, $32 million contract will run out next june. In this season he scored twenty-five goals and forty-seven points thirty-eight matches. Recently he scored his 600th NHL point.
St. Louis Blues' Russian prospect Nikolay Lemtyugov has been traded from Severstal Cherepovets to Ak Bars Kazan.
The former Peoria Rivermen's player has been sent to Severstal for the quick winger Evgeny Ketov, who disappointed in Kazan after being brought there from Lada Togliatti.
Nikolay Lemtyugov scored this year nine goals and twenty-three points in 39 regular season matches, being -1 and gettin an average ice time of about fifteen minutes a game.
Just a week ago Ak Bars got Hannes Hyvonen from Dynamo Minsk.
Russian defenceman Sergei Gonchar of the Pittsburgh Penguins, whose inclusion in Russia's Olympics roster came as no surprise, talked about playing on one line with Andrei Markov of the Canadiens at the Olympics in Vancouver, main rivals of Team Russia, compared the Stanley Cup and the Olympic Games and said that he expected European referees to give more penalties.
RussianHockeyFans.com offers you a translation of Gonchar's interview to Alexander Chekhov of Sport-Express.
Russian superstar Alexander Ovechkin was really close to battle in another NHL fight, but Matt Bradley stole him the scene and fought instead of him during the third period of the Tuesday's match between the Washington Capitals and the Tampa Bay Lightning.
The first brawl was started by Stewe Downie after a clean hit by Ovechkin, but it was quickly stopped by the refs, who gave the two players a minor penalty. When they got out of the penalty box Ovechkin was ready to go as he dropped the gloves and the helmet too, but when he and Downie were approaching each other, Matt Bradley intervened and started fighting Downie himself, not allowing his captain to fight.
"I didn't see him actually," said Ovechkin after the match to the Washington Post. "So I dropped my helmet, dropped my gloves, ready to fight, and Brads jumped in the fight for me. He do a great job."
"We had a guy like that going after our best player, obviously we can't let that happen," Bradley stated to the Washington Post. "I'll bet they would do the exact same thing if someone was squaring off with Stamkos. I mean, you don't let guys like that go after your best players, and he's our best player. And no matter who it is, we're not gonna allow someone like Downie to go after him."
Below is the video of the fight.
Right on Christmas time the Washington Capitals extended Alexander Semin's contract for one more year, with sources from TSN claiming that it was worth around six million dollars. Semin's contract will now run out in June 2011. This was the main topic of an interview that Alexander gave to Slava Malamud of Sport Express.
RussianHockeyFans.com offers you a translation.
The Vice President of the Russian Olympic Committee, Vladimir Vasin in an interview to Russian newspaper Sovetskiy Sport claimed that a KHL player will most likely carry the Russian flag at the Vancouver Olympics' opening ceremony.
Vasin: "The opening ceremony will take place on the 12th of February. Our hockey players will arrive in Vancouver one day before and will play only on the 16th, so it is quite logical to choose the standard-bearer from the hockey players. This player will be from the KHL."
Q. Maybe you should choose Sergei Fedorov, the most experienced player?
Vasin: "Why not."
9 out of 23 players in the Russian Team will represent the KHL, they are: defencemen Ilya Nikulin, Dmitriy Kalinin, Konstantin Korneev, forwards Sergei Fedorov, Danis Zaripov, Sergei Zinoviev, Alexander Radulov, Viktor Kozlov and Alexei Morozov.
Who do you think will carry the Russian flag?
