EuroVision: Highlights, notes, tweets and photos from across the pond — where the lockout doesn’t quite translate
If you have any money laying around after the holidays, you might want to consider booking a flight to Russia.
Fan voting for the Kontinental Hockey League’s All-Game starting lineups has now concluded, and the results are heavy on locked-out NHLers.
Here are the starting lineups for the KHL All-Star Game: twitter.com/KHL_hockey/sta…
— KHL_Hockey (@KHL_hockey) December 14, 2012
Team West will be backstopped by Colorado Avalanche goaltender Semyon Varlamov (Lokomotiv, 26,344 votes), who squeaked past Nashville Predators star Pekka Rinne (Dinamo Minsk) by a scant 140 ballots.
Protecting Varlamov will be Boston Bruins defenceman Zdeno Chara (Lev Prague, 29,073) and Alexander Ryazantsev (Severstal, 26,760).
The front three for the West is pretty ridiculous: Detroit Red Wings’ Pavel Datsyuk (CSKA, 33,731), Washington Capitals’ Alex Ovechkin (Dynamo Moscow, 31,935) and New Jersey Devils’ Ilya Kovalchuk (SKA, 31,709). Thinking this line could generate a scoring opportunity or two.
As for Team East, netminder Michael Garnett (Traktor 26,396), once drafted by the Atlanta Thrashers, will stand behind D-men Ilya Nikulin (Ak Bars 30,090) and the Ottawa Senators’ Sergei Gonchar (Metallurg Magnitogorsk, 28,699).
The forward line gets a double-shot of Evgeni (or “Evgeny” as the Russians spell it) with the Pittsburgh Penguins’ Malkin (Metallurg Magnitogorsk, 40,569) joined by Evgeny Kuznetsov (Traktor, 30,248) and the Nashville Predators’ Sergei Kostitsyn (Avangard, 30,152).
Which means 66% of Team East is named either Sergei or Evgeny.
KHL journalists get to vote on the teams’ second lines, and fans will be able to vote on the squad’s captains in early January.
Yes, the KHL loves democracy.
As of Friday, voting has also been completed to settle the league’s hotly contested Battle of the Cheerleaders.
“After twelve days of voting, the fans have selected the six most beautiful and most professional group of cheerleaders in the Kontinental Hockey League, and these will perform at the fifth KHL All-Star Game in Chelyabinsk,” reads the KHL’s news post.
Dinamo Minsk’s Ice Girls (54,322 votes) barely edged out the SKA Sisters (52,680).
Here are the Ice Girls in action (from 2011, but still):
Here is a 15-minute feature on Boston Bruins big man Zdeno Chara, who discusses his life and career for a mini documentary:
If you haven’t checked it out yet, do yourself a favour and read Toronto Maple Leafs forward Joffrey Lupul’s fantastic diary on his crazy KHL culture-shock and boombox adventures.
Especially the chapter titled “Day 10: Drinking with Alexei.”
I blog and all that.. @askmenbit.ly/11vMVPy”
— Joffrey Lupul (@JLupul) December 8, 2012
“I was really surprised to see the style and the systems and the big ice and just their philosophy on playing,” Lupul told the Toronto Star this week, regarding his nine KHL games. “There’s basically no forechecking. Everyone just kind of stands back and traps — and waits, actually — at the other blue line. It’s weird. I don’t find it nearly as entertaining to watch. There’s no physical play, not really. . . . But the players definitely have a lot of skill over there. They are a lot smaller. But there’s a lot more passing and less dump-it-in, straight-ahead hockey.”
And finally: This is so good, we thought someone made it up.
Universe aficionado Ilya Bryzgalov comes thisclose to being shuttled into space:
Bryzgalov in his space suit…. and no, it’s not a Photoshop. Taken from Russia 24 TV program segment on Hockey 24 show twitter.com/billmeltzer/st…
— Bill Meltzer (@billmeltzer) December 14, 2012