The Yaroslavl Lokomotiv Tragedy

Screenshot from the Yaroslavl Lokomotiv website (translated), Sept. 7, 2011

Everyone has either read, heard and/or blogged about the tragic news by now: yesterday, an airplane carrying the Yaroslavl Lokomotiv hockey team crashed, killing 43 of the 45 passengers on board. The entire Yaroslavl hockey team–save one badly burned player–perished in the crash.

It seemed like this summer could not get any worse for the hockey community, given the accidental death of Derek Boogaard and the suicides of Rick Rypien and Wade Belak.

And then this happens. The darkest day in hockey.

Ten former NHL players were among those who passed away…

Pavol Demitra
Ruslan Salei
Karel Rachunek
Alexander Vasyunov
Karlis Skrastins
Josef Vasicek
Stefan LivĀ 
(appeared as a Red Wings backup in 2006-07)
Igor Korolev
(assistant coach for Yaroslavl Lokomotiv)
Alexander Karpotsev
(assistant coach for Yaroslavl Lokomotiv)
Brad McCrimmon
(head coach of Yaroslavl Lokomotiv)

Of course we all feel for all the players, team personnel, airplane crew and their families.

Screenshot from team website, September 8, 2011
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Author: Sal Barry

Sal Barry is the editor and webmaster of Puck Junk. He is a freelance hockey writer, college professor and terrible hockey player. Follow him on Twitter @puckjunk

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