Salavat Yulayev’s Alexander Svitov (remember him, NHL fans? He played 179 games for the Columbus Blue Jackets) laid a brutal knee on SKA’s Max Afinogenov (remember him, NHL fans? He had four 20-goal seasons, three with the Buffalo Sabres). Svitov was given a five-minute major and ejected from the KHL contest, which took place on Thursday. Over the weekend he was banned five games (the, uh, max for such an offence) by Russia’s Voltron version of Brendan Shanahan — the KHL Sporting and Disciplinary Committee — for this bit of knee-on-knee atrociousness:
St. Louis Blues-turned-Vitkovice HC defenceman Roman Polak received a five-minute major and a game misconduct for some blatant boarding on Sunday. You can watch the cringe-worthy infraction here.
Defenceman Cody Franson looks to be the next Toronto Maple Leafs player hopping on a long flight instead of a cab ride to Ricoh. According to Swedish newspaper Sport-Expressen, Franson is finalizing a deal with Brynas, defending champions of the Swedish Elite League.
Add the Detroit Red Wings’ (next captain?) Henrik Zetterberg to the list of NHLers whose insurance would grossly outweigh their pay overseas:
Lugano have made an offer to Henrik Zetterberg. 53,000$ per month for insurance, 2,000$ per month as salary. Via Blick. #NHL #RedWings
— Matias Strozyk (@MaStrozyk) October 1, 2012
And you can watch Alex Ovechkin play a little pre-game soccer, wearing his Washington Capitals colours, with his new Dyanmo teammates (via Dmitry Chesnokov):