KHL News and Interviews

The KHL is going to send 60 players to the upcoming 2010 Olympic Games. Latvia is topping the list with 17 players from the KHL, Belarus is 2nd with 14 and Russia is 3rd with 9 players. They only teams that don't have players from the KHL are Canada, the USA and Germany.

Among the players are Alexander Radulov, Viktor Kozlov and Sergei Fedorov for Russia, Jaromir Jagr, Petr Cajanek and Josef Vasicek for Czech Republic, Richard Zednik and Jozef Stumpel for Slovakia, as well as Mattias Weinhandl for Sweden and Martin Gerber for Switzerland.

The team that will send the most players is Dinamo Riga, with 16. Dynamo Minsk follows at 10, with Salavat Yulaev Ufa takes the third place in this classification sending seven players to Vancouver. The Olympic hockey tournament will start of February 16th, with the final match being scheduled for February 28th.

RussianHockeyFans.com offers you a breakdown of the KHL players at the next Olympics.

Dynamo Minsk players' celebrations after their victory in 2009 Spengler Cup might have been a little bit over the edge as the trophy crashed on the floor, breaking in pieces. In the picture you can see the team's captain Ville Peltonen, former NHL player with San Jose Sharks, Nashville Predators and Florida Panthers, hanging a bottle in the right hand with the cup, already in pieces, in front of him. Fortunately the trophy was only a duplicate of the prestigious cup, which is one of the oldest tournament in the world, being held first in 1923.

The KHL, Belarussian team beaten 3-1 the hosts of HC Davos in the final match, after topping the group stage with three wins in four matches, losing only to Davos themselves and skating past Team Canada, Adler Mannheim from Germany and Karlovy Vary from Czech Republic.

The team's and tournament's top scorer Sergei Varlamov has been named to the All-Star team, joined by defenseman Duvie Westcott and goalie Andrei Mezin. The other two All-Stars were Team Canada's Shawn Heins and Mannheim's Aarhen Spylo, who played in the KHL last year for Vityaz Chekhov.

The KHL named the players of the month. They are: goalie Vitaly Eremeev, defenceman Dmitri Bykov, forward Sergei Mozyakin.

KHL goalie of December: Vitaly Eremeev, Dynamo Moscow. Eremeev recorded 3 shutouts in 6 games, having 1.33 GAA and 95.5 saving percent.

KHL defenceman of December: Dmitri Bykov, Atlant Mytischi. Bykov scored 2 goals and 4 assists in 9 games, having a plus-9 record.

KHL forward of December: Sergei Mozyakin, Atlant Mytischi. Mozyakin scored 5 goals and 9 assists in 9 games, having a plus-7 record.

Former NHL players Sergei Zubov, Robert Esche, Oleg Saprykin and Kevin Dallman took part in a massive brawl in a Sunday game between KHL's Barys Astana and SKA St. Petersburg.

The game flared up in the end of the 3rd period when SKA scored a powerplay goal to make the score 5-1 to their advantage.

The fans didn't get a chance to witness a goalie fight but instead they saw a goalie-defenceman fight, as Barys keeper Alexei Kuznetsov faced defenceman Alexei Petrov of SKA.

More than half of a season has passed in the KHL and it is time to tally up an interim total.

Below are Top 5 lists of goal scorers, assists, points and plus/minus leaders. Among the highlights are Marcel Hossa of Dinamo Riga topping the scorers rating, Maxim Spiridonov proving his worth after a few bad seasons with 20 goals in 40 games, SKA linemates Maxim Sushinskiy and Alexei Yashin being assists leaders and Sergei Fedorov being the 3rd in plus/minus rating.

Sergei Fedorov, who moved from NHL to KHL past summer, got into a fight with Roman Derlyuk to avenge Derlyuk's dirty hit on Sergei's younger brother, Fedor.

After the game 23-year-old Derlyuk couldn't beleive he fought 40-year-old Sergei Fedorov himself.
"Fedorov is a great player, I remember watching him play when I was a kid. I'd even call myself his fan. And if someone told me that I'd ever fight Fedorov I would... I would... never beleive. It just happened that he went after me, one of his punches reached my head and I... Of course I'd never start a fight against such player as Sergei Fedorov... never," said Derlyuk to Alyona Shilova of vhockey.ru after the game.

Sergei Fedorov is playing for Metallurg Magnitogorsk on a line with his younger brother Fedor. In 36 games Sergei scored 8 goals and recorded 16 assists. His plus/minus rating is +23. It's Metallurg's best and KHL's 3rd best result.

Best moments of the Week 13 in the KHL, brought to you by RT.com.

Includes goals by Alexander Avtsin, Mikhail Anisin, Maksim Sushinskiy and Vyacheslav Fetisov's comeback.

In case you wonder who is this small player in a dark-blue #22 jersey -- it's Mikhail Anisin of Sibir Novosibirsk.

During an interview with Nova Scotia newspaper The Chronicle Herald, Canadian player David Ling, who's playing for Amur Khabarovsk, was asked about the difference in the level between NHL and KHL.

Ling: "[The KHL] is in between the AHL and NHL. Many good players, though. Just a different game."

He also stressed the difficulties of playing on a team whose nearest competitor is more than 3,000 kilometers away.

Ling: "The travel is crazy where I am. The closest team is a six-hour flight. It feels like we are always on the road, even when at home, because we’re battling jet lag. It’s hardest being away from family. They are most important to me. It’s lonely here. I am either at the rink or at my apartment."

David Ling is currently playing his third season in Russia as he spent 2005-06 with Spartak Moscow and the following season with Dynamo Moscow. He's back in Russia this summer after an year in the AHL with the Toronto Marlies and a season split between Switzerland and Finland. This year he scored four goals and 16 points in 25 matches.

On November 25th, the official KHL-TV program "Ledoviy Kontinent" examined the reasons behind Champions Hockey League's failure through an interview to KHL Marketing department vice-president Ilya Kochevrin, who claimed that the main problem was the lack of professionalism. He also stated that he still hopes to work on a joint solution with the IIHF to resurrect the competition.

RussianHockeyFans.com offers you a translation:

Swiss goalie Martin Gerber, who was hospitalized yesterday with a neck injury, underwent advanced examination Monday morning. Fortunately it didn't confirm the preliminary diagnosis "compression fracture of the fourth cervical vertebra". According to the new information Gerber has spinal contusion and recovering will take weeks, not months.

"When Gerber was delivered to the Podolsk hospital he underwent examination that didn't show any fractures. Monday morning computed tomography confirmed there was no fracture but rather a spinal contusion," said Atlant's doctor Andrei Bagdasaryan to Sovetskiy Sport.

"According to the doctors, Gerber's recovering will take weeks and not months. Thus there is no need in searching for a new goalie. However, this is not 100% clear," said KHL Atlant's GM Andrei Verevko to Sovetskiy Sport.

According to the official Atlant website Gerber will be back in 2-3 weeks. It means he will be able to play for Switzerland at the Olympic Games in Vancouver.

Finally there is a video of the episode.

Swiss goalie Martin Gerber, who past summer left the Toronto Maple Leafs of the NHL to play for Atlant Mytischi of the KHL, was hospitalized after suffering a serious neck injury in a game against Vityaz Chekhov on December 13.

According to Russian site lifesports.ru during the second period a Vityaz forward ran into Gerber. As a result Gerber ended up lying on the ice. After being tested by the team's doctors Gerber was put on a wheel stretcher and taken off the ice. He was sent to a Podolsk municipal hospital where he was diagnosed with a compression fracture of the third cervical vertebra.

"The injury is very serious, Martin can forget about hockey for the next 6 months," said one of the hospital's doctors, Igor Suvorov. "Thank God the spinal cord was not hurt and there is no threat to his life. Gerber will soon be sent to a special clinics in Podolsk to undergo computed tomography to ensure the spinal cord is not hurt."

Martin Gerber is expected to stay at the hospital for at least 2 months.

Update:
Russian newspaper Sovetskiy Sport talked with Atlant GM, Andrei Verevko:

"Gerber underwent computed tomography. The preliminary diagnosis is a compression fracture of the fourth cervical vertebra. Monday morning Gerber will have an advanced medical examination."

Update (Monday):
Martin Gerber's injury not so serious. He is expected to be back in 2-3 weeks. Video finally available

The December 11th game won't be remembered only for Vyacheslav Fetisov's comeback, but also because Maxim Sushinskiy of the SKA St. Petersburg scored his 300th goal in the Russian championship, opening the score in the second period of the match.

Sushinskiy is the eleventh player to reach that mark. The Russian championships' top scorer remains Boris Mikhailov with 428 markers, followed by Vyacheslav Starshinov (408) and pioneer Alexei Guryshev (379 - in only 300 matches). In the next couple of season Sushinskiy might reach and surpass Sergei Makarov at 322 and Soviet National Team's all-times top scorer Alexander Maltsev, at 329.