Bandy Central

Jacques Rogge: The Worst Person in the World

2008-08-21T17:30:00.003-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- This may or may not be my final post about the Beijing Olympics. I make no promises. Or rather, unlike the Beijing organizers and their stooges at the International Olympic Committee, I will not make promises and then blatantly break them with no foreseeable consequences.

The president of the IOC, Belgian apologist and sailing enthusiast Jacques Rogge, has criticized Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt for his display of exuberance after (and during) his stunning 100-meter victory.

"That's not the way we perceive being a champion," Rogge told Associated Press, the BBC reported, adding that Bolt should "not make gestures like the one he made in the 100 meters."

"He might have interpreted that in another way, but the way it was perceived was 'catch me if you can.' You don't do that. But he'll learn. He's still a young man."

I hope to God that Mr. Bolt does not learn anything from Rogge and the bastards of his ilk. His 100- and 200-meter victories were the truly transcendent events of these Olympics, eclipsing even the astounding accomplishments of Michael Phelps, in my opinion.

Sally Jenkins of the Washington Post skewers this nitwit for his paternalistic comments and his long record of hypocrisy and deceit. Jim Caple over at ESPN.com summed up my own excitement about this phenom quite well.

I hope the transgressions of the Chinese authorities put the final nail in the coffin of the moribund Olympic "movement," but I know that is not going to happen. But should this be the final chapter, then there is no better image to close the Games than Usain Bolt's exuberant swagger into the history books.

NBC Continues to Keep Usain Bolt's Brilliance from the World, At Least Until Primetime

2008-08-20T13:32:00.003-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- NBC's Olympics webpage does not have any video footage of Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt's world record-breaking 200 meter dash, even though the historic race took place several hours ago.

Bolt again demolished the field, clocking in at 19.30 seconds. This time, we can thank the Dutch for providing this video footage so you won't have to wait through hours of NBC's drivel this evening to see it.

Konstantin Savchenko Named Baikal-Energia's New Captain

2008-08-19T22:16:00.003-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- After the tragic departure of their captain Nikolai Kadakin this off-season to the hated Dynamo Moscow, Baikal-Energia Irkutsk had to find themselves a new emotional and offensive leader. They found one in midfielder Konstantin Savchenko.

The 31-year-old Savchenko has played seven of the last eight seasons in Irkutsk, spending the 2005-06 season with now-defunct SKA-Zabaikalets Chita. He has 291 career games to his name, 191 those with either Baikal-Energia or the Sibskana, and 131 goals, 84 of them in an Irkutsk uniform.

It has long been a tradition in the Irkutsk club that the players vote for their captain by secret ballot. Savchenko received 17 votes, while goaltender Alexei Negrun - who has played for Irkutsk since 1990, back when the team was called Lokomotiv, making him the longest-tenured member - finished second with 14. The voting was done August 7 soon after the team completed their training camp in the nearby city of Baikalsk.

Kemerovo Governor's Cup to Start Next Week

2008-08-19T22:00:00.004-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- Five clubs are set to face off in Kemerovo's brand new enclosed Khimik Stadium for the Kemerovo Governor's Cup, also known as the Kuzbass Cup, starting August 31.

Russian clubs Sibselmash Novosibirsk, Uralsky Trubnik Pervouralsk and hosts Kuzbass Kemerovo will be joined by Swedish elite league teams Vasteras SK and Vetlanda BK for the one-week tournament.

The Kuzbass Cup will be the first major matches played at Khimik, one of several enclosed stadiums to open this season in the Russian Bandy League.

The tournament schedule (in Russian) can be found here.

Olympic Boycott Lifted, Immediately Reimposed

2008-08-16T22:04:00.003-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- I was willing to lift the ban on the Beijing Olympics that I have imposed in my own home for one person and one person only. No, not Michael Phelps - the inimitable Usain Bolt.

Last night in a bar I caught a glimpse of the Jamaican's quarterfinal heat, and he was so magnificent I decided I had to see him run the men's 100 meter final. By midmorning I had already learned the result - Bolt shattered his own world record with an electrifying 9.69-second run - so I decided I would tune in to NBC's primetime coverage to catch the race.

After three hours of the women's marathon and a dozen or so swimming races, I still had not seen the final, which had taken place more than 12 hours earlier in China. I was getting sick of waiting. But when I went to NBCOlympics.com, there was not a single highlight to be found of Bolt's historic run. That currently remains the case close to 15 hours after the race - all NBC has bothered to put online is a recap and some still photos.

Rafat Ali of the Washington Post also made note of this glaring omission by NBC here.

NBC has long been touting how they will have the most hours of coverage of any Olympics ever, due in large part to their internet content. I do appreciate the ability to watch fencing online (though only a fencer could actually appreciate it because fencing is a rather complicated sport with arcane rules and scoring, and like many other fringe sports, it is shown online without any commentary), but the 1oo meter dash is one of the marquee events of any summer games, and NBC should probably offer some footage.

Apparently they would rather show you beach volleyball cheerleading, Bela Karolyi shouting, and a Hungarian weightlifter breaking his elbow in a rather grotesque fashion - these are currently some of the top highlights on the NBC site.

So I gave the Olympics a look-in, and it was a total waste of my time. Hopefully you sports fans who are not trapped in NBC's Olympic vortex have been given slightly better coverage.

And here's a little screw you to the folks over at 30 Rockefeller Plaza - footage of the race from French TV:

USAIN BOLT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Uploaded by fifilix

The Team May Be Gone, But the Hat Persists

2008-08-11T23:46:00.006-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- As soon as the temperature starts to approach freezing, I dig into my closet and dig out something that has become the most ubiquitous part of my winter wardrobe for the past six years - my Sibskana hat.

It's starting to look a little worse for wear, and I have thought about perhaps trading it in for a newer blue model. The team has not been called "Sibskana" for several years now, but after the name was changed to "Baikal-Energia," angry fans began shouting one of my favorite cheers to voice their displeasure:

"Байкал - это отдых, Сибскана - хоккей!
Верните нам нашу команду скорее!"

["Baikal is vacation, Sibskana is hockey!
Give us our team back quick!"]

I don't think fans shout this quite so much anymore, but scarfs and hats emblazoned with the old green and white logo are still a common sight at games in Irkutsk. And I'm proud to hang onto mine.

Sibskana really was a wonderful name, as it spoke to the roots of the sport. It was a thoughtful name that showed respect for the game and avoided associations both with old Soviet-style club titles and with commercial sponsorships. "Sib" stood for Siberia, a region that boasts some of the best bandy talent in the world, and "Skana" was short for Scandinavia, the other hotbed of the game. These are also two places with special importance for me personally; one was my adopted home, while the other is the home of my ancestors. Two regions with long traditions and very different styles of play, commemorated in the name of the club.

But now the hat has gained new meaning for me.

As I noted in a recent post, the winter months are still a long way off, but I decided recently to dig out the hat a bit earlier this year when someone very special to me mentioned it. The hat often becomes a conversation piece, especially if I happen to meet someone with a knowledge of Russian. Even to a native speaker, the word is a bit difficult to decipher, as it has absolutely no meaning to anyone unfamiliar with bandy. So I inevitably have to explain what the word is, where the hat came from, and what the hell this odd sport is that I play on a giant sheet of ice. This usually devolves into me singing various Russian songs and shouting the names of my favorite players (most of whom have now departed).

I had such an encounter a few months ago, and thankfully, that conversation has turned into something very special. That person just said to me, "I am so grateful to your Russian hat for introducing us. Thank him for me, okay?"

So, here's my thanks to a hat that has accompanied me to a lot of places, and will continue to do so for a long time to come. I just hope that I can take it back to Irkutsk sometime soon to cheer on the team that will always be "Sibskana" to me.

Condolences to the Community of Mayerthorpe, Alta.

2008-07-30T00:01:00.004-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- The small community of Mayerthorpe, Alberta suffered a tragic loss Tuesday as the town's hockey rink burned to the ground.

A small town of just under 1,500 people located 75 miles northwest of Edmonton, the Mayerthorpe arena was home to an annual memorial hockey game to commemorate the four Royal Canadian Mounted Policemen who were killed there on March 3, 2005.

The four mounties were killed by James Roszco during a property seizure raid. Mr. Roszco ambushed the officers during a raid on his farm with an assault rifle, killing police constables Peter Schiemann, Anthony Gordon, Lionide Johnston, and Brock Myrol. After radio contact with the four officers was lost, the Canadian Forces Edmonton Garrison responded to the scene with armored vehicles. Roszco ended the standoff by turning his gun on himself.

The incident was the largest single-day loss of life by the RCMP in over 100 years. The officers' deaths were commemorated on national television soon after the tragedy, and Queen Elizabeth II paid her respects just two weeks later during a visit to Regina, Saskatchewan. Just one month ago, Prime Minister Stephen Harper officially opened a memorial park in Mayerthorpe in honor of the fallen officers.

The CBC article about the fire can be found here, while a profile of each of the officers killed is here, as well as a documentary about the tragic incident.

Our hearts go out to this community, and we here at Bandy Central are sure the good people of Mayerthorpe will find a way to remember these fallen mounties, even without their arena.

KHL Upholds Radulov's Contract with Ufa, Makes Dumb Argument

2008-07-17T22:25:00.002-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- From Ken Campbell at The Hockey News:

Despite the fact the NHL and the Kontinental League reached an agreement last week not to poach each other’s players under contract, the KHL has ruled it will uphold the three-year, $13 million contract Alexander Radulov of the Nashville Predators signed with Ufa Salavat. [more ...]

Baby, It's Cold Outside

2008-07-16T21:11:00.007-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- Every year around this time, I start to get an itch. As much as I love the summertime, every July I start pining for winter. I miss the cold and the snow. All I want is for hockey season and ski season to start again. And I get especially excited for Christmas. Luckily, we have the interminable NHL playoffs, followed by the entry draft and free agency, and now we have the start of bandy training to tide us over during these hot, hazy months. And soon it will be cold again.

To honor the long summer wait, here is a tribute to one of my favorite songs, Frank Loesser's hit, Baby, It's Cold Outside. So pour yourself a drink, and start dreaming of winter.

Ricardo Montalban and Esther Williams performing the song in the 1948 film Neptune's Daughter, its first wide release:

Zooey Deschanel and Will Ferrell in Elf (2003):

And the story of how this song stirred the imagination of Sayyid Qutb, the founder of modern political Islam, during a visit to Greeley, Colorado in 1949, from the BBC documentary The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear:

(I recommend that you watch this entire documentary).

So, enjoy the warm weather while you can, but take solace in knowing that cold weather is just around the corner.

Radulov Signing with KHL Club Puts New Transfer Deal to Test

2008-07-13T20:35:00.003-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- The NHL, the NHL Players Association, the International Ice Hockey Federation and the seven top hockey leagues in Europe reached a tentative peace over player contracts at a meeting July 10 in Zurich, agreeing in principle to a new transfer regime for the sport.

Though no formal transfer agreement was signed, all the leagues, including those from Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany, Switzerland, and the newly-formed, Russian-based Continental Hockey League (KHL), agreed not to sign players currently under contract in other leagues.

Earlier this year, the European leagues all backed out of the IIHF-brokered transfer deal with the NHL, demanding an increase on the US$200,000 fee they receive when NHL clubs sign their out-of-contract players. Russia never signed that deal, which was reached three years ago, and this has created a great many legal battles over players moving from one league to another, most famously with Pittsburgh Penguins center Evgeni Malkin in 2006. Some teams were reportedly trying to lure the young star back to Russia, which is part of the reason why this meeting was held.

Nashville Predators forward Alexander Radulov has made the whole situation all the more confusing by signing a deal with KHL club Salavat Yulayev Ufa. Though Radulov still has one year remaining on his entry-level contract with the Predators, he signed a three-year deal with the Russian club worth a reported US$13 million.

It remains unclear whether the KHL will honor its new commitments to the NHL and quash the Radulov deal, but the 22-year-old remains determined to play in Russia next year for the reigning league champs. He is scheduled to earn $984,000 before performance bonuses next year in Nashville, according to The Hockey News. Were he to bolt to the KHL, he would be one of the top five highest-paid players in the league.

Emery Signs with Russian Club Altant Mytishchi

2008-07-09T12:57:00.002-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- Former Ottawa Senators goaltender Ray Emery has signed a one-year deal reportedly worth US$2 million with Russian club Atlant Mytishchi, the CBC reported Wednesday.

Coming off an appearance in the Stanley Cup finals in 2007, Emery had signed a three-year, $9 million contract with the Senators last summer. But after an abysmal 2007-08 campaign in which he played in only 31 games due to various injuries and disciplinary problems, Ottawa decided to buy out the remainder of the 25-year-old's contract this summer.

Apparently there was very little interest in Emery's services from NHL clubs, so Russia appeared to be the best option. Undoubtedly, New York Times reporter Michael Schwirtz will chalk this up as a coup for Russian hockey, as another "star" has fled North America for the bright lights of the KHL.

Signing Emery is a significant investment for his new club, formerly known as Khimik, as the Russian league places heavy restrictions on signing foreign-born goaltenders. Teams are limited to only five foreigners on their roster, but goalies count double towards the quota. Additionally, during the regular season, foreign goalies are not allowed to play more than 50% of their team's minutes. There are no such restrictions on playing time during the playoffs.

Emery will be joining a team with several former NHLers, including defenseman Dmitry Bykov (formerly of the Detroit Red Wings), and forwards Alexander Korolyuk (San Jose Sharks) and Igor Korolev (four NHL clubs).

Jagr Returns to Avangard Omsk

2008-07-07T18:54:00.004-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- Jaromir Jagr will be spending next season in the Russian city of Omsk, joining the same club he played with during the NHL lockout in 2004-05, Avangard.

The 36-year-old right winger could not reach a deal with the New York Rangers and decided to leave the NHL when he became an unrestricted free agent. Jagr spent the last four seasons with the Rangers and had just completed the final season of a seven-year, US$76 million contract.

This past season, Jagr had his lowest point total since the lockout-shortened 1994-95 season, netting only 25 goals and 71 points. While playing for Avangard Omsk, Jagr led the league in scoring and helped his club capture the European Champions Cup.

The terms of Jagr's new deal were not disclosed by Avangard.

Red Wings Sign Hossa to 1-Year Deal; Bruins Land Ryder

2008-07-02T11:35:00.004-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- The Marian Hossa sweepstakes are over, and the league's best team just got better as the Detroit Red Wings signed the right winger to a one-year, US$7.45 million contract Wednesday.

Hossa had earlier rejected an offer of six years and $45 million to stay with the Pittsburgh Penguins. He had also drawn interest from the Boston Bruins, Montreal Canadiens, Edmonton Oilers, and New York Rangers.

I must say I am glad the Bruins did not saddle themselves with that millstone of a deal they were rumored to have offered Hossa, and I hope that New York Post report was nothing more than rumor. I am surprised that Hossa did not opt for a multi-year deal, and he got only a modest pay raise (he earned $7 million in 2007-08) from Detroit. But the short deal gives Detroit a great deal of flexibility to re-sign Henrik Zetterberg, who will becomes an unrestricted free agent after next season.

The Red Wings have proven over the years that they are willing to spend to hold onto their best players, and many players have taken pay cuts to stay in Detroit. There is a lot of loyalty in that organization (just look at the signings of Chris Osgood and Darren McCarty), and perhaps that appealed to Hossa. The chance to win a Stanley Cup also probably played a large role in his decision.

Without Hossa to worry about, the Penguins were able to lock up Evgeni Malkin for the next several years, signing the 22-year-old center to five-year, $43.5 million contract extension Wednesday. Malkin is entering the final year of his rookie contract, meaning the new deal takes effect in 2009-10 and lasts through 2013-14.

The Boston Bruins acquired unrestricted free agent right wing Michael Ryder from the Montreal Canadiens, signing him to a multi-year contract Tuesday. Details of the deal were not disclosed, as per team policy.

Ryder will be trying to put last season behind him, a dreadful campaign that saw him score only 14 goals and 31 points and ensured his exit from Montreal. Ryder had previously notched two consecutive 30-goal seasons for the Canadiens. During his rookie campaign in 2003-04, he led all rookies in goals (25), assists (38) and points (63) and finished second in Calder Trophy voting behind Bruins goalie Andrew Raycroft.

For a full run-down of all the free agent signings, visit ESPN.com.

NHL Free Agent Rodeo Kicks off with Huge Deals

2008-07-01T16:38:00.004-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- The NHL's free agent market officially opened at noon E.T. on Tuesday, and several teams were busy snapping up the most coveted commodities on the market.

But perhaps the most sought-after player, Pittsburgh forward Marian Hossa, remains unsigned. Reportedly the Rangers, Oilers and Bruins are interested in acquiring the 29-year-old Slovak's services.

The New York Post has reported that the Bruins are prepared to offer Hossa close to US$100 million over 12 years. Hossa has already rejected a six-year, $45 million offer from the Penguins.

Among the biggest signings were defenseman Brian Campbell's eight-year, $57 million dollar contract with the Chicago Blackhawks. The Hawks also addressed some of their goaltending woes by signing 32-year-old Cristobal Huet away from the Washington Capitals for $22.5 million over four years.

Tampa Bay made some early noise, trading for the rights to negotiate with Pittsburgh forwards Ryan Malone and Gary Roberts and Minnesota's Brian Rolston before the market opened. They managed to lock up Malone on Monday, signing him for $31.5 million over seven years, while Roberts was signed to a one-year deal.

In addition, the Lightning brought back Vinny Prospal, who had been sent to the Flyers at the trade deadline. They also added another former Penguin, forward Adam Hall, and Phoenix' Radim Vrbata.

Tampa had recently bought out the contract of their former number one goalie, Marc Denis, and they signed long-time Washington backstop Olaf Kolzig to a one-year deal. Kolzig will likely backup Mike Smith next year, who had taken over the top spot from Kari Ramo at the end of the season.

The Lightning were unable, however, to lock up Rolston, who signed a four-year, $20 million deal with the club he broke into the NHL with, the New Jersey Devils.

Many of the Toronto Maple Leafs' castoffs found new homes on July 1. Darcy Tucker and Andrew Raycroft, who had both been bought out by the Leafs, were each signed by the Colorado Avalanche. Colorado was in need of goaltending help after losing starter Jose Theodore to Washington, where he signed for $9 million over two years.

Mats Sundin, meanwhile, was reportedly offered a two-year, $20 million deal from the Vancouver Canucks. The Leafs captain and unrestricted free agent is currently in Europe contemplating whether to return to the NHL or retire.

Other than the reported Hossa offer, the Boston Bruins have yet to make a move so far this offseason, choosing instead to lock up some core players from last season by re-signing defensemen Mark Stuart and Aaron Ward to multi-year deals. Goalie Alex Auld, who filled a key role for Boston last season after backup Manny Fernandez suffered a knee injury, was lost to Ottawa, where he signed for two years. Boston's only other unrestricted free angent, Glen Metropolit, has yet to sign anywhere.

This whole affair looks to just get crazier, so unless the Bruins sign Hossa to a Yashin-like contract, or the Leafs bring Doug Gilmour out of retirement (again), I'm not going to post about the free agent free-for-all anymore.

Michael Schwirtz Still Sucks at his Job

2008-06-30T22:33:00.003-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- Some things really get my dander up, and one of them is lazy, stupid reporting. This latest bit of tripe from the New York Times describes a recent report by Human Rights Watch on the growth of violence in the Russian republic of Ingushetia, a region bordering Chechnya. The article was written by one of the Times' resident non-reporters in Moscow, Michael Schwirtz.

The first thing I have to take issue with is that this piece has no corroborating sources. All he did was go to the press conference and quote the one of the report's researchers and an official from the Ingushetian government.

This is most galling to me because several of my colleagues are engaged in research about the diffusion of violence across the North Caucasus region. No sensible person would ever claim that Ingushetia has "long been considered a relatively peaceful enclave in the North Caucasus"; violence has been growing there since the second Chechen War broke out in 1999, and has reached a fever pitch over the past three years. The center of insurgent violence has in fact been moving westward out of Chechnya and into Ingushetia over the past several years. So any claims that the findings of this report are new are either uninformed or disingenuous.

If you would like to find some real information about the distribution of violence in the North Caucasus, look at the research of Jason Lyall from Princeton or my advisor at the University of Colorado, John O'Loughlin. Don't read this garbage.

Swedish Star Patrik Nilsson Signs with Raketa Kazan

2008-06-30T09:57:00.004-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- Patrik Nilsson, the top scorer of the Swedish bandy league the past two seasons, has signed with Russian club Raketa Kazan, the Swedish site Bandysverige.se reported Monday.

The details of the contract agreement have not been released, but negotiations to send Nilsson to the Russian club were first reported back in late May.

The 26-year-old forward has spent the last eight seasons with Sandvikens AIK. In 2007-08 he became the first player in the history of Swedish bandy to notch 100 goals in a season, scoring 114 (94 in the regular season, 20 in the playoffs).

Nilsson had begun negotiations about a possible move to Kazan a year ago, but Raketa's financial troubles put that deal on hold. He will become the fifth Swede on Raketa, joining Anders Ostling, Ulf Einarsson, Johan Andersson and Andreas Bergwall.

Russia Launches Continental Hockey League

2008-06-28T16:27:00.012-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- Every summer I feel the need to get in my truck and drive a few thousand miles around this country. A road trip is great way to run away from your problems, at least temporarily, and you get a chance to visit friends in places you would normally just fly over traveling from one coast to another.

I had hoped to make a pilgrimage to Toronto to visit the Hockey Hall of Fame, but with the American dollar so weak, no free lodging in Ontario, and a carload of contraband fireworks, I thought it best not to risk an international border crossing. Though the trip was light on hockey, I did get in quite a bit of baseball, visiting the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City and catching minor league games on Coney Island and in flood-drenched Des Moines.

Some of the other highlights of the trip included a visit to Petersburg, KY's Creation Museum (you have no idea how crazy this place is until you have visited it - that's me to the right with a dinosaur with a saddle on it), Philadelphia's Eastern State Penitentiary (prison museums are a hobby of mine), and the architectural wonders of Columbus, IN.

But now, onto the news ...

There has been some action on the Russian hockey front this summer. It appears as if Salavat Yulayev Ufa will be the last ever Superleague champions, as the top Russian circuit was dissolved at the conclusion of the season, to be replaced by a new 24-team league that will include teams from other former Soviet republics.

In April, new league president Alexander Medvedev, who is also the deputy chairman of Russian state-owned natural gas giant Gazprom and a member of the IIHF council, announced the creation of the Continental Hockey League (KHL).

The KHL will consist of 24 teams - 20 Russian clubs drawn from the Superleague, as well as Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg and Kazakhstan's Barys Astana, who both formerly played in the Russian Elite League, and Belorusian club Dynamo Misk, from the Belorusian Open Championship. The final club - Latvia's Dynamo Riga (logo pictured left) - was founded in April and will begin operations in the new league. The league championship trophy has been named the Gagarin Cup, after the famed Soviet cosmonaut.

The new league was created to challenge to NHL for both fans and players. "Our goal is to eventually become the best hockey league in the world," Medvedev said in an interview with the Russian paper Sovetsky Sport April 10. The new league president hopes that eventually the KHL will be able to attract top teams from Western European leagues as well.

Medvedev promised that the KHL would have much stricter rules regulating team finances and player transactions in order to prevent the instability and infighting that has plagued earlier incarnations of the Russian professional leagues.

The NHL has already entered into negotiations on a temporary agreement with the new league to prevent either league from poaching players. The initial proposal from the NHL falls short of a transfer agreement, something it has been unable to secure with the Russian Hockey Federation (RHF).

Medvedev has stated that his teams are free to sign whomever they like, whether they are under contract with an NHL club or not. But NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly claimed that he had assurances from the new league that there would be no poaching of contract players. "Mr. Medvedev, on behalf of the KHL, has already agreed to respect the valid and binding contractual obligations of players to NHL clubs," Daly said, as reported by the AP June 25.

Earlier this month, some Russian clubs caused quite a stir when they reportedly offered Pittsburgh Penguins center Evgeni Malkin roughly US$12.5 million per season to return to Russia. Malkin has chosen to stay in Pittsburgh in 2008-09, when he is scheduled to earn $3.8 million.

Malkin was at the center of the transfer agreement conflict when he left his Russian club, Metallurg Magnitogorsk, to join the Penguins in August 2006. Pittsburgh had drafted Malkin second overall in 2004, and a legal battle ensued between the clubs over his rights. Ultimately, US courts ruled that Malkin did not have to honor the final year of his contract with Metallurg, and that Pittsburgh had acquired his services legally.

This is the third major shakeup of Russian professional hockey since 2000, when the Professional Hockey League (PHL) was created as an umbrella organization for the country's top two leagues. Then in June 2006, RHF president Vladislav Tretiak dissolved the PHL and placed its teams under the direction of the federation.

The first proposal to create a regional hockey league to compete with the NHL was floated by Russian minister of sport and Hockey Hall of Famer Vyacheslav Fetisov in 2005. Fetisov proposed forming the Eurasion Hockey League (EAHL), which would include clubs from Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Ukraine and Latvia. That proposal was never enacted but formed the basis for this new league.

[Right: does anything happen in Russia these days without this company's stamp of approval?]

Sergei Lomanov, Jr. Returns to Yenisei Krasnoyarsk

2008-05-21T10:19:00.005-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- Fans of Yenisei Krasnoyarsk had been waiting with baited breath for the club's management to announce the roster for the upcoming season and the team's new sponsorship arrangements.

Head coach Sergei Lomanov, Sr. had big news for the fans Wednesday - not only is the team's financing guaranteed for the next three years, but his son, Dynamo Moscow star forward Sergei, would be returning to Krasnoyarsk, Bandynet.ru reported.

The announcement was supposed to come last week, and the delay was seen by some as a bad omen for the club's future. But with the addition of Lomanov, who fired 56 goals for Dynamo in 2007-08, Yenisei looks to improve on its 10th-place overall finish last season.

Dynamo had added two important players to its already impressive lineup in the past several weeks, snapping up Aleksandr Nasonov and Nikolai Kadakin from Baikal-Energia Irkutsk. Lomanov's move will likely not tip the balance of power back to the eastern division, but the return of one of the game's biggest stars to the east gives some hope for more parity in the coming season.

Among other off-season signings, Yenisei acquired 29-year-old goalie Aleksandr Yevtin. Yevtin played last season for Zorky Krasnogorsk and was a member of the Russian national team.

Russia Tops Canada in OT To Take World Championship

2008-05-21T10:04:00.006-07:00

QUEBEC CITY -- Russia came into the final of the IIHF World Championships Sunday as the underdog to the home team Canadians, who entered the tournament as the defending champions. Russia meanwhile had not won the tournament in 15 years, medaling only three times in that span.

Russia is a shadow of the Soviet Union squad that won 22 world titles, including a string of nine in 1963-1971, a run of dominance unsurpassed in the sport. But Ilya Kovalchuk's goal early in overtime sent the Russians to a 5-4 victory and returned a glimmer of the side's former glory.

From the IIHF:

Ilya Kovalchuk’s goal at 2:42 of overtime broke a 4-4 tie and gave Russia an historic gold medal today at the Colisée in one of the most anticipated finals games in many years. Kovalchuk also scored the tying goal with five minutes left in the third period. [more ... ]

Baikal Captain Kadakin Leaves Team; Earth Ceases to Spin

2008-05-11T23:11:00.004-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- Baikal-Energia Irkutsk's general manager Pavel Levitin announced Monday that team captain Nikolai Kadakin had left the team and was currently seeking a contract with another club as a free agent, Irkutsk newspaper Nasha Sibskana reported.

The reasons for Kadakin's departure remained unclear, but the club has granted him his unconditional release despite the fact that he was entering the second year of his three-year contract with Baikal. Levitin admitted in his conversation with Nasha Sibskana that Baikal would receive no compensation if the midfielder is signed by another club.

Baikal has reportedly signed a transfer agreement to send Kadakin to league champions Dynamo Moscow, though he still has the option to move to another club before the upcoming season.

Baikal is hoping that newly-signed Pavel Dubovik will be able to fill Kadakin's role as the team's principal center midfielder, Levitin said. Dubovik, however, is only 21 years old and scored only nine points last year (5 goals, 4 assists) for Mayak Krasnoturinsk, a far cry from Kadakin's eight goals and 23 assists in 2007-08.

In addition to the Dubovik signing, Baikal has also added forward Andrei Gerasimov, who, though only 20 years old, has tallied 24 goals each of the past two season for Mayak.

Wings' Johan Franzen Scores 26 Goals in 26 Games

2008-05-01T23:41:00.003-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- Detroit Red Wings right winger Johan Franzen has carried his hot streak to finish off the regular season into the playoffs.

Franzen had his second hat trick of the playoffs Thursday night in the Wings' 8-2 dismantling of the Colorado Avalanche to sweep their conference semi-final series. The three goals gave him 26 in as many games.

I haven't been paying attention to the playoffs much since the Boston Bruins were bounced in the first round, but I thought I would make note of this remarkable achievement. Franzen is probably the least known of the seven Swedes who now form the core of the Red Wings team.

That's What You Get

2008-04-22T15:33:00.001-07:00

MONTREAL -- Police say 16 people have been arrested after riotous celebrations swept through downtown Montreal late Monday night, leaving a trail of burned police cars and vandalized shops.

Thousands rushed to the streets for initially peaceful celebrations following the Montreal Canadiens' seventh-game win over the Boston Bruins, which advances Montreal to the next round of the NHL playoffs. [more from the CBC...]

Bruins Force Game Seven Against Montreal

2008-04-21T12:16:00.006-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- The Bruins forced a game seven, and I was there at the Garden to see it.

The Boston Bruins are 0-20 in their history in series in which they have trailed 3-1. They have also never won a series in which they trailed 2-0. But forget about history.

Ever since they built the TD Banknorth Garden, originally known as the Fleet Center, I have always thought it was a sterile, quiet building. But Saturday night was one of the loudest, most raucous hockey games I have ever been to. The atmosphere was incredible, driven by an absolutely thrilling game on the ice.

In the preview I wrote to this series, I said that Boston would have to play its defensive system perfectly to pin down the Habs' speedy forwards. Instead, the Bruins have shown that they can skate all night with the Canadiens, and speedy forwards like Phil Kessel and Marco Sturm have been critical in maintaining Boston's incredible tempo. Carey Price has also looked shaky in the past two games, while Tim Thomas has been his usual consistent self.

If the Bruins hope to complete their stunning upset, they will have to keep up what they've started the last two games. They need to get offensive contributions from all four lines, and they need to keep skating hard in all three zones and not get caught out of position while trying to play too physically (that especially applies Shawn Thornton, Andrew Alberts, and Zdeno Chara, who have all made costly gaffes while trying to line up big hits in this series).

This game will not be won in the neutral zone and it will not be won with defensive systems. It will be won with forechecking and backchecking, because this is going to be a fast, north-south kind of game.

Here we go, Bruins, here we go!

Photo: Tim Thomas, who played the end of game six with his chinstrap in his mouth after his mask broke, could have the game of his career tonight (credit: Andrew Gustafson).

Yankees Unearth Sox Shirt From New Stadium, Act Like Jackasses

2008-04-13T21:47:00.003-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- One of the things I have really been looking forward to this baseball season is to see how crazy the New York Yankees management can be. Ever since they hired Joe Girardi, I have had visions of Billy Martin; and Hank Steinbrenner is already acting like his jerk of a father did during the lean years of the late 70's and early 80's. In short, I am expecting this team to go into another tailspin that will hopefully last a generation.

I think this move by the Yankees bodes well for my prediction.

"The first thought was, you know, it's never a good thing to be buried in cement when you're in New York," [Yankees president Randy] Levine said. "But then we decided, why reward somebody who had really bad motives and was trying to do a really bad thing?"

How is this something "really bad" with "really bad motives"? Isn't it just kind of funny and in the spirit of competition? I don't fault the Yankees for tearing it up, but they could have turned this into more of a light-hearted publicity stunt. These people do not seem to have a good-spirited bone in their body, as evidenced by this:

[Team CEO Lonn] Trost said the Yankees had discussed possible criminal charges against Castignoli [the construction worker who planted the jersey] with the district attorney's office.

What is wrong with you? This team really is run by batshit crazy individuals, and I would be very worried about the team if I were a Yankees fan.

Welcome to the Playoffs, Marc Savard!

2008-04-13T20:12:00.003-07:00

Marc Savard had played in 661 NHL games before making his first playoff appearance, and he has already made his mark. He has three points in his first three games, including the overtime game-winner in game 3 against the Montreal Canadiens.

Though his games total trails Florida's Olli Jokinen, who has 723 games under his belt without a whiff of playoff action, Savard has outscored Jokinen with 576 career points compared to 461. None of that matters now, though, as the Bruins look to even the series 2-2 on Tuesday in Boston.

(Left: Savard 10 years ago playing for the Hartford Wolfpack)

BOSTON -- The Boston Bruins finally found a way to outhit the Montreal Canadiens — even outskate them at times — and, for the first time in three games, outscore them.

Marc Savard scored 9:25 into overtime as the Bruins prevailed 2-1 over the visiting Canadiens in Game 3 of their Eastern Conference quarter-final in front of 17,565 frenzied fans at the TD Banknorth Garden on Sunday night.

As Montreal struggled to regain possession of the puck on a delayed penalty, Savard jumped off the bench in time to bury Dennis Wideman's blind backhand pass for the decisive goal. [More from the CBC...]

Despite Late Boston Rally, Kovalev Gives Habs 2-0 Series Lead in OT

2008-04-12T22:19:00.002-07:00

MONTREAL -- Alex Kovalev scored in overtime as the Montreal Canadiens beat the Boston Bruins 3-2 Saturday and took a 2-0 lead in their opening-round playoff series.

Kovalev scored 2:30 into overtime on a power play. Andrei Markov passed it to Kovalev on the left side, who scored on a high shot from the left circle.

It was Montreal's first power-play goal in 13 attempts in the series. [More from thn.com...]

Boston College Beats Notre Dame 4-1 to Take Third NCAA Title

2008-04-12T22:15:00.004-07:00

DENVER -- Entering this week’s Frozen Four, it was thought that if Boston College were to have a shot at a national title, leading scorer Nathan Gerbe would need to be a major contributor.

After scoring five goals and adding three assists in two games, calling Gerbe a major contributor may be an understatement, but calling the Boston College Eagles national champions is a perfect fit.

Gerbe scored the game’s opening two goals and added two assists on Saturday evening as the Eagles ended Notre Dame’s Cinderella run with a 4-1 victory to take home the school’s second national title this decade and third all-time in front of a capacity crowd of 18,632 at the Pepsi Center in Denver. [More from uscho.com...]

A Few Changes to the Site

2008-04-11T23:52:00.004-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- I've changed the look and the layout of this site a bit, and hopefully this will make information easier to find and the posts easier to read. Here are some of the improvements:

Live feeds from three sites: Bandynet.ru, the leading Russian-language bandy news site, CBC hockey coverage, and Bandysverige.se, a Swedish bandy site

A compact drop-down menu for blog archives

Standings from the Russian Bandy League

A larger, easier to read font

A slideshow of photos from bandy games, which should show up at the bottom of the page as soon as my Flickr account is approved.

A selection of hockey songs, brought to you by muxtape.com

I hope this is an improvement over the old site, and let me know what you think about the changes.

Is the City of Montreal Run By Complete Idiots?

2008-04-11T16:31:00.004-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- Yes. Yes, it is.

I would like to sandblast the damn Habs logo off of every building in that city, but this is just insane. From the CBC:

Montreal 'overreacting' to Habs logos on fire halls, union says

MONTREAL, April 11, 2008

In a move the Montreal firefighters union calls ridiculous, the city has dispatched cleaners to several fire stations painted in Canadiens logos after the mayor called the murals graffiti and ordered them scrubbed off.

More than 60 fire stations across the city decorated their doors and windows with Montreal Canadiens colours this week to support the Habs' bid for the Stanley Cup.

More...

Okay, One More - Chris Drury is From Connecticut, and Therefore Totally Awesome

2008-04-11T13:59:00.006-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- From the site Firejoemorgan.com:

Williams emulates a Twinning formula
Sox GM realizes talent alone doesn't guarantee anything

Talent, as we all know from years of sports journalism dogma, is anathema to winning. Teams win in spite of talent. Talent creates egos, egos create selfishness, selfishness results in too many damn home runs.

Keep your talent. Give me guys who volunteer at soup kitchens. Then I'll have a baseball team.

He spent years watching, studying and even copying it, to the point where it won him a World Series in 2005.

The truth is finally out there: Ken Williams is copying the formula of the 1989 Trumbull, Connecticut World Champion Little League team. Expect a call, Chris Drury.

Even though he plays for the hated New York Rangers, I still like Chris Drury, and his brother Ted, too. And I, like every friggin' sportswriter in America who still can't stop talking about this crap, remember when Drury pitched that game to break the Taiwanese string of three straight victories (all those kids were, like, 17, anyway.) It is totally okay to mock the idea of Drury as a quintessential "winner." Yes, he won the LLWS; yes, he won the Hobey Baker in college; but he has not won anything since the Avalanche won the Stanley Cup in 2001, and has since played on some pretty bad (and some good) teams in Calgary and Buffalo.

He's a great player, but this "knowing how to win" is a bunch of bullshit that keeps getting rehashed by hacky, uninformed, unoriginal sportswriters. Some of the favorite old ropes on this site that pop up again and again in the vast wasteland that is sports journalism include: Darin Erstad was a punter in college, David Eckstein is small and hustly, Derek Jeter is another natural-born winner and therefore a "true Yankee," and home run hitters "clog up the basepaths."

And Trumbull sort of sucks, but whatever.

I Need to Get Off the Interweb and Do Some Goddamn Work

2008-04-11T13:45:00.002-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- I hope I have never used this site to express "personal vendettas, thinly-veiled sexual conquests, cries for help, intellectual masturbation, and career undermining."

I have said some unkind things about Albert Pomortsev, Alexander Tishanin, and the Sochi Olympics, however.

From Gawker.com.

The Catholic Hockey Championship of the World

2008-04-11T11:35:00.006-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- This is usually how I refer to the Boston College-Notre Dame football game, but now these leading Catholic universities are facing off in the NCAA men's hockey final Saturday night in Denver.

I am a dedicated Boston College supporter when it comes to football, considering it was my mother's alma mater; but in hockey, my loyalties definitely move east down Commonwealth Ave to Boston University, of which my father is an alumnus. Unfortunately, the Terriers didn't even qualify for the tournament this year, and they even managed to miss the Beanpot final, which is an extreme rarity.

So I don't really care who wins this game. Tickets to it would be nice, though.

Nasonov Leaves Baikal-Energia, May Sign with Dynamo Moscow

2008-04-10T21:58:00.004-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- Baikal-Energia Irkutsk's leading scorer Alexander Nasonov will not be re-signing with the club, the team's managing director Pavel Levitin said Thursday, as reported by the website Bandynet.ru.

Nasonov has reportedly been in negotiations with league champions Dynamo Moscow. This would be the second major star Dynamo has snatched away from Baikal since rejoining the top league in 2005 - Yevgeny Ivanushkin has scored 206 goals since leaving Irkutsk, including a league-leading 66 this past season.

As for replacing Nasonov and his 49 goals, Levitin said the team was in negotiations to acquire a few midfielders, one forward, and a defender. But he added that he could not divulge their names as they were under contract until the end of the month with their current clubs.

"We don't have the same resources that the soccer club 'Zvezda' has," Levitin said, referring to the fact that there is no planned increase in the club's budget. Over the past year, the team has slashed its payroll, which led to the major exodus of players last fall. And the current administration of the Irkutsk Region, especially governor Alexander Tishanin, has been much more interested in improving Zvevda Irkutsk, perennially mired in Russia's third-tier soccer league, than in supporting Baikal-Energia.

Baikal dropped from second to fifth in the east division standings this season, and they have the potential now to drop further, perhaps even out of playoff contention, if critical holes are not filled. And with the arrival of former Russian national team coach Vladimir Yanko in Kemerovo, Kuzbass looks to continue its domination of the division. The best that we can hope for is perhaps that Baikal won't slip behind regional rivals Lesokhimik and Metallurg.

Bruins Set to Take on Canadiens in NHL Playoffs

2008-04-10T13:50:00.004-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- The Boston Bruins and the Canadiens will face off tonight in Montreal in game one of their first-round playoff matchup.

The Boston Bruins are seeded eighth in the Eastern Conference, finishing the season with a 41-29-12 record, good for 94 points. Montreal is the conference's top seed with a 47-25-10 record and 104 points.

Montreal has an 8-0 record against the Bruins this season, and they are riding an 11-game winning streak against Boston. The Habs have outscored the B's 39-16 this season, and their impressive team speed and league-leading power play have helped them dominate the B's.

Boston will get a slight lift tonight, however, as leading scorer Marc Savard will return to the lineup for the first time since March 22. The team is still without 22-goal man Chuck Kobasew, who is out 4-8 weeks with a broken leg. Patrice Bergeron has returned to practice after sitting out 72 games with a concussion, but he will not return in game one, and perhaps not at all this playoff season.

The general consensus is that the Canadiens will make short work of this overachieving Boston club, as they have done all season. Boston will have to play mistake-free hockey, executing their stifling defensive system to perfection if they hope to contain Montreal's speedy forwards. The Bruin's MVP for most of the season, goalie Tim Thomas, will have to be outstanding in his playoff debut if he hopes to out-duel the rookie phenom in the Montreal net, Carey Price. Boston will have to play a physical game to keep the Habs' attack pinned down, as size and toughness is one of Boston's few edges.

Boston is not as totally overmatched in this series as some have suggested, but the history between these two teams, both recent and distant, does not bode well for the Bruins' chances. The playoff heartbreaks are just too many to count, from Rocket Richard's half-unconscious game-winner in 1952 (pictured right, the raccoon-eyed Bruins goalie Sugar Jim Henry bowing before the bloodied, yet still regal Richard) to the infamous "too many men" incident in 1979. Hopefully this year the Ghosts of the Forum will let the Bruins be.

This is the third time these two teams have met since 2002, but in the previous two meetings, the roles were reversed. In 2002, Boston was the top seed yet lost their first-round series four games to two; two years later, the two-seeded Bruins also made a first-round exit, losing a seven-game series to the Habs after being up 3-1.

Boston has not won a playoff series since defeating the Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals in 1999.

This will be the NHL-record 31st time these two clubs have met in the playoffs, having played each other in 152 games. Montreal holds a substantial 23-7 lead all-time over the Bruins, including an impressive 18 consecutive series wins from 1943 to 1988.

The matchup between the Detroit Red Wings and the Toronto Maple Leafs is second all-time in terms of both number of series (23) and games (117).

Did I Mention I Hate the Olympics?

2008-04-09T23:20:00.005-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- I know in the past I have made mocking reference to the Olympics, in particular to the fact that they are being held in "The Worst Seaside Resort in Europe" (that is according to an informal poll conducted among myself and four of my friends), otherwise known as Sochi, Russia. In fact, I joked about this city's bid to host the Olympics in my very first post, and tragically, that mocking prediction came true.

Which brings me to my point - the Olympics are awful. I have come to hate pretty much everything about them, and I rank the International Olympic Committee below the Community for Democracy and Human Rights (which counts Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Transdnistria among its members), the International Whaling Commission (which counts landlocked Mongolia as a member) and even the NCAA in terms of credibility and transparency.

I can write on and on about the reasons why the Olympics suck, even if someday they do allow bandy into the Winter Games. But I would rather you hear these arguments from one of America's most eloquent and respected sportswriters, Frank Deford, who had this piece on National Public Radio yesterday. Enjoy.

More Bad Journalism, This Time from the Washington Post

2008-04-09T23:10:00.005-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- This post has nothing to do with bandy, but I recently posted about my row with the New York Times, so I thought I would also post this correspondence I had with their sister paper, the Washington Post.

An article appeared in the Washington Post yesterday about a New Jersey restaurateur named Bobby Egan who has had a number of weird diplomatic dealings with the North Koreans. This article shockingly resembles stories that ran last fall in both the New Yorker and Vanity Fair. So I wrote the Post's ombudsman to find out what was going on.

Dear Sirs,

I am writing in regards to the article that appeared on washingtonpost.com on April 9, 2008 titled "Kitchen Diplomacy" by Peter Carlson. I am somewhat concerned as this article is strikingly similar to an article that appeared in the October 8, 2007 issue of the New Yorker, titled "Our Man in Pyongyang" by Rebecca Mead. The articles use many of the same sources, retell several similar anecdotes, and most troublingly, even some of the quotes in the stories are identical. The subject of the story, Mr. Egan, may just be a very predictable person, and he tells all reporters the same stories; if that is true, then ethically, there is probably nothing wrong with the reporting in this story. However, the fact that your paper wrote a story with essentially the same facts and the same angle as the one that appeared previously should be cause for concern. It shows a lack of ingenuity, creativity, and frankly, credibility on the part of your newspaper, and this article should probably never have been written. If your reporter went to interview Mr. Egan, and he gave him the same old rope he did to others, this story should have been left alone. Remember that you are a newspaper, and you should not be publishing old stories.

Sincerely,

Andrew Gustafson

This was their ombudsman's response (note how badly my name is butchered, and I think I'm going to start referring to North Koreans as "NKs" in my daily speech).

Mr. Guftafson:

Peter Carlson wrote me the following explanation. "Yes, the New Yorker did do a story on Bobby Egan last October (So did vanityfair.com) As it happened, I had been talking to Bobby long before either came out. Then he abruptly stopped talking to me, probably because he was talking to VF and the NYer. So I quit calling him. Then he called me out of the blue a few weeks ago to ask why I wasn't calling him and to invite me to come up when the NKs were dining at Cubby's."

Back to me: I don't see nothing wrong with The Post covering something the New Yorker or Vanity Fair did. Their audiences may overlap, but not that much. The anecdotes are similar, Peter said, because all reporters use the best ones. Peter also thinks his story was better than the New Yorker story. I haven't read the NYer story, so I can't say.

I hope this answers your questions.

Washington Post Ombudsman

What a surprise - the guy that wrote it thinks that his piece is better than the original. And the ombudsman did not even bother reading the original story when there are accusations of plagiarism.

But she's probably right - as the ombudsman, she doesn't need to be too concerned about similar stories if the reporter actually did do all the reporting for their story. However, my point about newsworthiness and integrity still stands; no editor should have allowed this story to go out. And what a lame response - "I had been talking to Egan way before either [New Yorker or Vanity Fair] story came out." So what? It doesn't matter who talked to the source first - it's about who got the story first. And this piece added no new dimensions or angles, or even facts, to this story.

I seem to write this letter all the time to newspapers, telling them to stop being lazy and to stop writing fluff crap. And I always get a snarky response. I guess journalists are just like the rest of us - they don't like to work hard either.

Irkutsk to Build New Stadium for Baikal-Energia

2008-04-09T13:14:00.003-07:00

IRKUTSK, Russia -- One of the grand old stadiums of Russian bandy will be closing its doors soon.

The president of the Irkutsk Region Bandy Federation, Vladimir Matienko, announced at a press conference April 3 that Irkutsk would be building a new stadium to host Baikal-Energia, the newspaper Nasha Sibskana reported.

Trud Stadium, the team's current home, was built in the 1950's and has a capacity of 18,500, making it one of the largest bandy stadiums in the country. The stadium has been in desperate need of renovation for several years. Also home to the city's soccer club, Zvezda, a row erupted with the national soccer federation two years ago over the poor quality of stadium's grandstands, forcing the team to install new plastic seats.

Over the past several seasons, Baikal-Energia has played many of their home games - especially early- and late-season games, when the weather is warmer - at the smaller Rekord Stadium, which has the luxury of an artificially-cooled ice surface. The club routinely sells out Trud, so the move to the 6,300-seat Rekord has left many fans out in the cold on game day.

Matienko did not give any details about the size or design of the new facility, saying only that it will be built on Konny Island in the Angara River. Formerly an undeveloped area of the city's downtown, the completion of a bridge across the river in the area of the island has spurred several development projects, including a large shopping center.

The city government has already set aside the land for the stadium, Matienko added, and the construction will be financed by the regional bandy federation. A name for the facility has yet to be determined.

A Piece of Minor League History: The Troy Uncle Sam's Trojans

2008-04-08T20:15:00.009-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- My friend Andrew hails from Lake George, NY, and he likes to make fun of some of the more run-down cities upstate, like Troy, which he and his brother like to refer to it as "Troylet." So I took notice of this little item in the back of this week's Hockey News:

Hometown Hockey: Troy, NY

This small town in upstate New York may not be on everyone's radar, but the hockey lineage there is as fascinating as anywhere else. The seminal local team was the Troy Uncle Sam's Trojans, an Eastern League squad that lasted just one season (1952-53), but has a great story behind it. The Uncle Sam character has roots in Troy, where the stars-and-stripes icon was apparently based on local meatpacker Samuel Wilson. When Troy got a team, it was only natural Uncle Sam be a part of it. Locals currently cheer the NCAA's RPI Engineers, whose alumni include Adam Oates.

Other than for its name, the club was not very notable. Center Art Stone, who would later star for the Ft. Wayne Komets of the IHL, was the lone standout for the Trojans that season, scoring 52 goals and 55 assists for a club that finished in last place. Right winger Vic Howe managed a cup of coffee in the NHL, playing in 33 games for the New York Rangers scattered over three seasons, but defenseman Bill Moe became a Rangers regular for five seasons, playing in 231 NHL games.

The Eastern League was also the home of the Johnstown Jets, the team that was the inspiration for the film "Slap Shot" (the name was changed to the also alliterative Charlestown Chiefs of the Federal League in the movie). My hometown New Haven Blades played in the rough-and-tumble EHL, though they did not join the league until it was reformed in 1954, after the Trojans had folded. New Haven's longest continuously-operating hockey franchise was the Eagles (1926-51), who played in the Canadian American Hockey League and then the American Hockey League. They were succeeded briefly by the New Haven Tomahawks (1951-52) and the Nutmegs (1952-53) before the Blades came town and stayed until the EHL folded in 1974.

If you would like to buy some Trojans merchandise, check out this website, which sells t-shirts with all manner of logos from defunct minor league franchises. You should also check out the Hockey Database's great collection of team logos.

Why Do I Need to Post This Every Year?

2008-03-28T16:27:00.003-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- Dynamo Moscow has won the 2007-08 Russian Bandy Championship, besting second-place finisher Zorky Krasnogorsk by nine points. Kuzbass Kemerovo finished third, and Baikal-Energia Irkutsk landed in eighth out of the 12 playoff contenders.

SKA-Sverdlovsk Yekaterinburg finished 20th overall, meaning they will likely be relegated to the first division next season. Zorky-2, which had competed in this year's Russian Cup, won the first division championship, meaning they will likely take Sverdlovsk's place in the top league.

I am so bored with the same outcome every year.

Finally, greetings to Fredrik in Sweden, who sent me a message about this blog recently. I hope in the future to be posting a bit more about Swedish bandy on this site, as the Russian league is getting pretty tedious.

NCAA Tournament Starts This Weekend

2008-03-28T16:16:00.003-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- I am sure many of you are as sick and tired of the NCAA basketball tournaments as I am, but this week, we get a bracket of our own, though few of the games will be televised, and college hockey will still get almost no national media coverage.

I was thinking about heading down to Colorado Springs this weekend to catch the West Regional Playoff of this year's NCAA Men's Hockey Tournament. But the tickets were $80, and I don't really have a horse in this year's race.

Air Force managed to win the Atlantic Hockey tournament again to punch their ticket for the NCAA's, but they'll be playing in the Northeast Regional in Worcester. They are unlikely to make it to the Frozen Four in Denver, but I'll probably be plugging for them more than any other teams. Boston University is my usual favorite, but they didn't make it this year, nor did perennial long-shots Yale, Quinnipiac or UVM.

No one in my office had any interest in starting a hockey pool, but if I had to make a pick, I'd go with the Red Hawks of Miami University to win the national title (that one is for you, Jamie).

Check out the bracket here, and get the best tournament coverage at USCHO.com.

The Hockey News Scoops The New York Times

2008-03-28T16:07:00.005-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- In their infinite wisdom, The New York Times chose to not print my letter in the previous post. Last week in The Hockey News, however, Ken Campbell wrote a column titled "War for Russians Will Stay Cold" (March 25, 2008 issue) in which he basically makes all the same arguments that I did - small rinks, small revenues, and a lack of organization make the Russian league unable to compete for talent in the NHL.

I guess great minds think alike. I guess I should have sent that letter to a reputable sports publication.

The New York Times Could Learn a Few Things About Russian Hockey, and Reporting

2008-03-08T01:35:00.007-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- I was somewhat upset, but mostly just disappointed when this article appeared in the New York Times last week. Titled "A New Miracle on Ice: Russia Is Luring Back N.H.L. Stars" and written by Michael Schwirtz, the article discusses generally the growing wealth of Russian Superleague clubs, and more specifically about the return of Islanders castoff Alexi Yashin to Lokomotiv Yaroslavl.

Rather than summarize what is wrong with this article again, below is the e-mail I wrote to the Times and to a number of reporters in the Moscow bureau, including Mr. Schwirtz:

I am writing in regards to the article that appeared in today's issue (February 29th, 2008) titled "Russia Is Luring Back N.H.L. Stars" by Michael Schwirtz. As a former reporter for Russia's RTR-Sport television station and a long-time follower of Russian hockey, I must say that the article overstates the case for the growth of the Russian Superleague, relying far too heavily on the opinions of Russian government officials and hockey boosters, and not looking at the story across the wider hockey landscape in Russia.

I have to object to the use of the word "star" to describe a player like Alexei Yashin. Schwirtz seems to suggest the fact that had a $87.5 million contract makes him a premier NHL player, when the fact that neither the Islanders nor any other club wanted him, even without his albatross contract, suggests that he had few options to continue his career other than to return home to Russia. While Oleg Tverdovsky and Darius Kasparaitus have had successful NHL careers, no NHL clubs are currently interested in their services. This is the typical player returning to the Superleague - older veterans who are on the NHL bubble - and they far outnumber the bona fide NHLers who have opted for Russia (like Alexei Morozov or Dmitry Bykov).

During the NHL lockout in 2004-05, more than 70 NHL players, both Russian and non-Russian, flooded into the Superleague, and it truly was the best league in the world, but it still had major shortcomings. NHL players routinely complained about poor officiating, and even Russian players grew tired of the authoritarian attitudes towards training, practice and equal ice time for all that many coaches maintain. Not to mention the fact that, Yaroslavl and other wealthy teams like Ak Bars Kazan aside, most teams' facilities remain sub-par by even North American minor league standards.

A far more telling example of the state of Russian hockey is that of Pavel Datsyuk. A legitimate star for the Detroit Red Wings, he played for Dynamo Moscow during the 2004-05 season. More importantly, following the lockout, Datsyuk was ready to stay in Russia, signing a contract with Avangard Omsk. But a contract dispute erupted between his current and former teams, and with no reliable league regulation or arbitration system, Datsyuk was left in limbo, barred from playing for either side. Fed up with the infighting that plagues Superleague clubs, Datsyuk signed with Detroit and returned to the NHL. Russia's very best young players, like Evgeni Malkin, Alexander Semin and Alexander Ovechkin, continue to leave Russia at a regular clip for the NHL - and without a transfer agreement in place, Superleague clubs receive nothing in return for them. Russia is right to complain that too many players are brought to North America too soon, and they end up languishing in the minor leagues. As part of the new transfer agreement, the NHL should provide assurances that drafted players will be allowed to continue their development in Russia, just as other European players do.

The financial picture of Russian hockey is not so rosy, either. After years of work to establish the Professional Hockey League, a governing body for Russia's two top professional leagues, the PHL was dissolved in 2006 and taken over by the Russian Hockey Federation, and there remain major problems with the league's contract and financial regulations. While many of clubs have experienced a financial windfall in recent years, almost entirely due to the largess of their state corporation sponsors, other storied clubs like Spartak Moscow and Lada Toliyatti have been driven into financial crisis. Fan support is indeed strong, but attracting 10,000 spectators to a game is an outlier - even a rich club like Yaroslavl averages only 7,000 fans per game, while Spartak draws 4,800. With most tickets costing less than $20, these teams remain financially solvent due to the support of sponsors, not fans.

Many of the efforts of the Russian Hockey Federation to foster development of their players and leagues have been laudable, but they have mostly done this by keeping foreigners out, not by attracting Russians overseas back home. The league places limits on the number of foreign players teams can keep on their rosters, and they have to pay hefty fines for every foreign player they sign, especially for goaltenders. Players from Russia and other former Soviet republics (especially Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Belarus) make up more than 90% of the players in the Superleague. By comparison, only 72% of NHL players are American- or Canadian-born.

I do not mean to suggest that the Russian Superleague is not one of the world's premier leagues - it probably ranks second or third in the world behind the NHL, and perhaps the AHL. However, the notion forwarded in this article that it will challenge the NHL is far-fetched, to say the least. The Eurasian Hockey League, which was proposed by Fetisov back in 2005, has not materialized in any form. While most players have been lured back from places like Switzerland and Sweden, where most fled in the early 1990's, the league has done little to attract top-flight talent from outside Russia. The Federation must decide whether it wants to turn the Superleague into an international competitor to the NHL or if it wants to use it to develop homegrown talent, because it can't do both.

And a final correction - Alexei Yashin and Carol Alt are not married, but they have been in a long-term relationship.

Like so much reporting about Russia these days, this article fails to venture outside of the glitz and glamor of the moneyed ring around Moscow. A trip just across town from your office to the dilapidated home of Spartak would tell you a somewhat different story of Russian hockey.

Andrew Gustafson
Boulder, CO

I did receive a response from Mr. Schwirtz, though not from the Times, meaning my letter will not be appearing anywhere, well, other than here. This is what he said:

Dear Mr. Gustafson,

I appreciate your taking the time to write such a detailed and obviously informed response to my article. I disagree with some of the points you have raised, if not with the general thrust of your argument.

I believe that we are in general agreement about the relative strengths of the Superliga vis-à-vis the NHL. I did not set out to make the case that the Superliga can, at this moment, compete with the NHL, only to discuss recent trends in its development. I stated clearly that the best young players continue to opt for the NHL, where the financial incentives surpass what the Superliga can now offer. And, yes, many teams do continue to play in run-down, Soviet-era stadiums. That some can now afford modern facilities, however, is a concrete example of the point I am making about the league's increasing wealth.

I chose to profile Mr. Yashin in the piece because, with his long career in the NHL and successes in the Superliga, he was able to bridge the two worlds. I would argue that Mr. Yashin's NHL record and notoriety in the Superliga certainly qualify him as a "star."

As for the relationship between Mr. Yashin and Ms. Alt, please note the clarification in today's Times.

I can only respond to your last remark concerning "reporting about Russia these days" by pointing out that I wrote the article from Yaroslavl, not within "the glitz and glamour of the moneyed ring around Moscow."

Again, I thank you for your comments.

Sincerely,

Michael Schwirtz

Let me address some of these points.

First, he says that while Lokomotiv's wealth may not be representative of the whole Superleague, it is important to note that some teams are getting richer. While true, the point I was making is that the source of their wealth is important as well. These teams have not grown organically, but instead have simply found wealthy benefactors in the form of state corporations. Just as the collapse of AvtoVAZ nearly put Lada Toliyatti out of business, a change in commodities prices - or perhaps some more sensible management that actually invests in the core business - might force the likes of Gazprom to pull out of the hockey racket.

Second, I will concede that Alexei Yashin is very famous, and he is extremely popular in Russia, but the fact remains that no NHL team had any interest in his services, and even without his absurd Islanders contract that made him untradeable, it is unlikely that he will ever skate in the NHL again.

His final point about the current state of reporting in Russia deserves some consideration. I had wanted to draw more attention to this in my original letter but decided to focus on the hockey issues instead. Firstly, Yaroslavl is an easily-accessible, major city that is just a four-hour train ride from the capital, and I was including it within the "moneyed ring around Moscow." But my larger point is that even a cursory review of the major American and British papers reporting in Russia will show that far too many stories are features about the same thing: Russia's newfound wealth.

There are a number of problems with these types of stories, and Mr. Schwirtz' is by no means the most egregious example, but it is part of a pattern. This view through the eyes of Moscow's (or Yaroslavl's) elite is a total perversion of Russian society. Who cares about a Lamborghini dealership in Moscow when the majority of people live in desperate poverty? This gaze also perpetuates a myth about the accomplishments of Vladimir Putin - the myth that he has provided the "stability" that enabled the growth of the Russian economy over the past eight years. The world needs fewer stories about the habits of Russia's ultra-rich and more about what is going on it the country's more remote and impoverished corners. Or perhaps a mere acknowledgment of the fact that the country's current crop of oligarchs are no less thuggish and criminal than the robber barons of the 1990's that Putin supposedly brought to heel.

This story is also not really news. Many of the developments in the Superleague described in the piece have been going on since 2004. Alexei Yashin signed with Yaroslavl back in July. But this is not unique to this article. The Times recently published a piece by Clifford Levy about the Russian parliamentary elections in Nizhny Novgorod - an event that had taken place two and half months earlier. And much of the voting irregularities he described had been widely reported elsewhere, both in English and Russian. As if to add to the absurdity, the next day Mr. Levy wrote another non-article about reactions to his original piece.

I understand that this hockey piece is a feature, but with so much time to write this article, the reporting still seems slipshod. This is mostly due to the fact that the statements of various Russian hockey officials are left unqualified, leaving the reader with the impression that the Superleague is closing the gap with the NHL.

While I am sure that many readers who were unfamiliar with the Russian Superleague found this article informative and interesting, I see it as another example of the uninspired reporting that is rampant in Moscow. Russia is a massive and massively misunderstood part of the world, and American newspapers have a responsibility to ensure that the public is well-informed about the country. The Russian government is currently waging a propaganda war, clamping down on dissent in the media at home and using its wealth and reach to shape its image abroad. If our reporters are not diligent about getting the real stories in Russia, we are damned to be subjected to state-owned tripe like Russia Today, where the streets of Grozny are safer than New York, every Russian drives a BMW, and Alexi Yashin is a superstar.

Baikal Beats Zorky, Playoffs Enter Final Stretch

2008-03-08T00:43:00.004-07:00

Rekord Stadium, IRKUTSK, Russia -- In a season that has been marked by inconsistency, Baikal-Energia fans have something to cheer about on this International Womens Day as the home side defeated Zorky Krasnogorsk 6-3 in front of a capacity crowd at Rekord Stadium.

Four Baikal players had multi-point games, led by Alexander Nasonov's two goals and two assists. Roman Murzin also scored two goals, while Nikolai Kadakin registered a goal and an assist. Those two tallies give Nasonov 40 goals on the year, good for fifth place in the league.

The decision to move the game from Irkutsk's much larger Trud Stadium was made the night before the game. Warmer weather had severely affected the quality of the ice, team officials said, forcing the move to the artificially-cooled surface at Rekord. The change of venue left literally thousands out in the cold, as Rekord has a capacity of only 6,300, while Trud holds more than 18,000.

The win puts Baikal in eighth place in the standings. There are only four games left to play for each team, and at 7-11, the best Irkutsk can hope for is a .500 finish. Dynamo Moscow sits atop the 12-team table at 15-1.

The playoff format is rather bizarre, and honestly, it just took me about 15 minutes to figure it out even though I have grasped it before, and even written about it. Each team has currently played seven or eight games of their 12-game schedule, which consists of home-and-home matchups with the six playoff teams from the opposite division. Also included in the overall standings are the results of regular season matches between eventual playoff teams (thus Baikal's regular season losses to SKA-Neftyanik are included in the current standings, but its win over SKA-Sverdlovsk is not).

Here is how Baikal has fared thus far:

Rodina Kirov 7:3 Baikal-Energia
Zorky Krasnogorsk 14:6 Baikal-Energia
Baikal-Energia 7:3 Raketa Kazan
Baikal-Energia 6:5 Uralsky Trubnik Pervouralsk
Volga Ulyanovsk 7:6 Baikal-Energia
Dynamo Moscow 19:5 Baikal-Energia
Baikal-Energia 4:6 Rodina Kirov
Baikal-Energia 6:3 Zorky Krasnogorsk

And the remaining schedule:

March 12: @ Raketa Kazan
March 15: @ Uralsky Trubnik Pervouralsk
March 19: vs. Volga Ulyanovsk
March 22: vs. Dynamo Moscow

Baikal is certainly capable of beating the next three teams, but a win in the season finale at home against Dynamo is a lot to ask of this squad. After a season of crushing defections and lowered expectations, a victory in that game would certainly bode well for this young team heading into next season.

Goddammit! Zorky Crushes Baikal 14-6

2008-02-17T23:39:00.004-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- In the words of Carl Brutanananadilewski, I'm pissed. Not only was I unable to find a webcast of today's match in Krasnogorsk, but Baikal-Energia proceeded to lose to Zorky 14-6, dropping them to 0-2 in the playoff tournament.

I knew that the departure of the core of the team during the off-season, save Kadakin and Nasonov, meant that a league championship was out of the question, but this team continues to show itself incapable of playing well against good teams. To the latter's credit, he did manage four goals and an assist in this lopsided affair.

I suppose Baikal's season in many ways mirrors that of my favorite team here in North America, the Boston Bruins. While the Bruins play well enough to stay in the playoff hunt - and, like Baikal, if they make it in at all it will be by the slimmest of margins - they cannot seem to beat any of the elite teams in the league. They simply lack the offensive firepower to compete with the top teams, and were it not for an MVP performance from their goaltender, Tim Thomas, this Bruins team would be sharing the basement with the Lightning.

With a slate of games against some of the best teams in the country still left to play, Baikal's chances of cracking even the top half of the playoff teams are slim. The times are lean indeed, and even Irkutsk's legendary attendance figures have dropped off sharply this season. But I'll leave my screeds about club management for another post.

With the outdoor games that made me fall in love with this club quickly becoming a distant memory, I sometimes wonder when I will get back to see a bandy match in Irkutsk.

Baikal Embarassed in Playoff Opener

2008-02-17T00:06:00.002-07:00

Rodina Stadium, KIROV, Russia -- Baikal-Energia Irkutsk did not start their playoff run well, falling to Rodina Kirov 7-3 on Thursday.

Rodina scored seven goals before Baikal was able to get on the scoreboard. Maxim Blem scored off a corner in the 68th minute to prevent the shutout. He was followed by Roman Murzin, who was assisted by Alexander Nasonov, and Yevgeny Yakovlev capped off the scoring in the 81st minute.

Rodina entered the tournament ranked sixth in the West Division, finishing the season with a 7-9-2 record, so this loss does not bode well for Baikal's performance against the elite teams of the West.

Baikal will next face one of those elite teams, Zorky Krasnogorsk, on February 17th. Zorky finished the season in second place with a 17-1 record, missing out on the top spot due to Dynamo Moscow's outrageous +153 goal differential.

Baikal Slips Behind Yenisei, Qualifies for Playoffs

2008-02-16T23:28:00.006-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- Baikal-Energia Irkutsk split their final two games of the regular season to finish in fifth place in the East Division, good enough to guarantee them a spot in the league playoffs.

Baikal lost to Yenisei Krasnoyarsk on February 6, 6-4. But they finished off the season on a strong note, coming from behind to defeat Sayany Abakan 6-5 on February 9.

Alexander Nasonov continued his hot streak, netting three goals in the two games to give him a team-leading 24 on the season. He also led the team in points with 29, followed by Yevgeny Yakovlev with 18 and Konstantin Savchenko's 16.

Baikal-Energia finished the season with a 9-8-1 record, good for 28 points in the East Division. Here are the final standings:

Team (W-L-T-/Pts.)
1. Kuzbass Kemerovo (17-1-0/51)
2. SKA-Neftyanik Khabarovsk (15-1-2/47)
3. Sibselmash Novosibirsk (10-5-3/33)
4. Yenisei Krasnoyarsk (10-7-1/31)
5. Baikal-Energia Irkustsk (9-8-1/28)
6. Lesokhimik Ust-Ilimsk (5-11-2/17)
7. Mayak Krasnoturinsk (5-12-1/16)
8. Sayany Abakan (4-11-3/15)
9. SKA-Sverdlovsk Yekaterinburg (4-13-1/13)
10. Metallurg Bratsk (3-13-2/11)

Under the playoff format established last season, the top six teams from each division reach the second round, a round robin tournament in which the teams must play each team from their opposite division twice. The overall leader in the standings following this tournament is declared the league champion.

Here is the schedule of Baikal's playoff matches:

February 14th: Rodina Kirov 7:3 Baikal-Energia Irkutsk
February 17th: @ Zorky Krasnogorsk
February 21st: vs. Raketa Kazan
February 24th: vs. Uralsky Trubnik Pervouralsk
February 27th: @ Volga Ulyanovsk
March 1st: @ Dynamo Moscow
March 5th: vs. Rodina Kirov
March 8th: vs. Zorky Krasnogorsk
March 12th: @ Raketa Kazan
March 15th: @ Uralsky Trubnik Pervouralsk
March 19th: vs. Volga Ulyanovsk
March 21st: vs. Dynamo Moscow

The teams that finished ranked 7th-10th in their respective divisions will also play a round robin tournament to determine the 13th-20th places. The team that finishes in last place will be relegated to the first division, while the winner of the first division playoffs will be invited to the elite league next season.

Solution for Tampa's Goaltending Woes?

2008-02-16T22:42:00.004-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- The Tampa Bay Lightning currently sit in last place in the Eastern Conference, and though they have suffered some devastating injuries (most importantly to power play quarterback Dan Boyle, who recently returned after a three month absence), their atrocious goaltending can be blamed for much of their struggles.

The presumptive starter at the beginning of the season, Marc Denis was assigned to the AHL back on December 29th and has not had a whiff of the NHL since. Johan Homqvist has managed 20 wins, but he is terrible in every other statistical category, and his inconsistency has allowed rookie Karri Ramo to challenge him for starts.

This season may be a lost cause for the Lightning, but far-off Russian club Ak Bars Kazan may have provided them with an opportunity to sign their goaltender of the future.

In 2002, Tampa drafted Russian goalie Vasily Koshechkin in the eighth round, 233rd overall. Koshechkin was trained by the legendary Lada Toliyatti hockey school, and he has developed into one of Russia's few blue-chip goalie prospects. He starred for the big club for two years, posting an overall record of 34-22-12 with goals against averages of 1.56 and 2.08 in 2005-06 and 06-07, respectively.

Though Lada was an excellent defensive club during those seasons, Koshechkin performed spectacularly behind the solid defensive corps and took his team farther than expected in the Superleague playoffs. Koshechkin is also a big goalie, standing at 6'6", with remarkable quickness for his size. You can read the whole scouting report on him here, from russianprospects.com.

Before this season, Koshechkin nearly signed with the Lightning, but instead he signed a two-year deal with perennial powerhouse Ak Bars. He has struggled so far this season, posting a 5-9 record, and conflicts with domineering coach Zenitula Bilyaletdinov caused him to leave the team several weeks ago. On Monday, Ak Bars announced that Koshechkin had been given his release.

Though Koshechkin certainly will not be available for Tampa this season, his lack of a contract in Russia may make him available to challenge for a spot on their roster next season, as the Lightning can avoid paying a transfer fee to a Russian club.

It certainly is not a solution for this season, but Koshechkin's upside is tremendous, and the 24 year old deserves a chance to shine on an NHL rink.

Above: Koshechkin in goal for Lada in a game against Spartak Moscow in 2005 - notice that Russia continues to employ goal judges, who have been an unfortunate casualty of the "new" NHL (Andrew Gustafson).

Good Old Pond Hockey

2008-02-16T21:19:00.011-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- Today's New York Times had a story by Charles McGrath about playing pond hockey while growing up in New Jersey. Where I grew up in Connecticut, playing hockey outdoors was one of the highlights of my childhood. Granted, some winters were better than others, but we could always get in at least a couple of days skating outdoors, either on Johnson's Pond in Hamden or Wright's Pond in Orange.

My senior year of high school was a particularly cold winter, and my friend Anthony and I managed to briefly play on our school's biology pond during a free period. It was only about 30 feet across, and after a couple of passes, a custodian came over to chase us off the pond. When we refused, telling him that the ice was several inches thick and perfectly safe, he enlisted the help of our headmaster, and we begrudgingly surrendered the pond. After being thrown off the only patch of ice at our school, we roamed the halls brandishing our hockey sticks shouting at anyone who would listen that the headmaster should learn a thing or two about winter weather or go back to Texas (we assumed that was where he was from, though I actually have no idea. Regardless, it was someplace where pond hockey is unknown.)

Left: Playing bandy at Irkutsk's Lokomotiv Stadium, Red Wings vs. White Power (yes, unfortunately the team calls themselves that in English), February 2005.

Out here in Colorado, the nearby town of Nederland has constructed an outdoor rink, and I look forward to their Sunday morning shinny sessions every week. The corners are a little rough, especially if you're tracking down pucks behind your own net as a defenseman, but there's always at least one goalie, and the bracing wind and thin mountain air make for the best early morning exercise imaginable.

Of course, as bandy players and fans, hockey outdoors is simply a fact of life. We have various methods for dealing with the cold.

Baikal Moves into 4th Place with 5th Straight Win

2008-02-03T15:15:00.000-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- It has been a busy couple of weeks for Baikal-Energia Irkutsk (8-7-1), and they have clawed their way back into the playoff hunt with their fifth consecutive win.

The streak started with a narrow victory over regional rival Lesokhimik Ust-Ilimsk back on January 20th. That came on the heels of embarrassing losses against Mayak, SKA-Sverdlovsk, and SKA-Neftyanik.

Here are the rest of their results:

January 23
Metallurg Bratsk 4:1 Baikal-Energia
January 26
Baikal-Energia 5:2 Sayany Abakan
January 29
Baikal-Energia 7:2 Sibselmash Novosibirsk
February 3
Baikal-Energia 7:3 Metallurg Bratsk

In that span, Alexander Nasonov has come alive, netting 16 goals to give him 21 on the year to lead the team. Yevgeny Yakovlev has also performed well, scoring six goals along with one assist for 16 points on the year.

Kuzbass Kemerovo still leads the division with a 16-1 record, while SKA-Neftyanik is just two points behind with a game in hand. Baikail has a game on Sibselmash, but they remain seven points ahead with 32. Currently Yenisei Krasnoyarsk is tied with Baikal with 25 points.

Bruins Pay Tribute to O'Ree

2008-01-19T12:05:00.000-07:00

TD BankNorth Garden, BOSTON -- During their game against the New York Rangers this afternoon, the Boston Bruins paid tribute to Willie O'Ree, who became the first black player to play in the NHL 50 years ago Friday.

There is an article about O'Ree on the NHL website here.

In the United States, hockey is often thought of as a game for rich, white suburban kids. While this characterization is probably true for the majority of players, thinking of hockey and hockey players in this way also belittles those players who don't fit that stereotype. The black player is still seen by many as some sort of sideshow. But black players have reached and continue to reach the highest achievements in hockey, players like Hall of Fame goaltender Grant Fuhr and former league scoring champ Jarome Iginla.

O'Ree's accomplishment was not heralded at the time as a great step forward for civil rights - he was just a young kid from New Brunswick who's dream came true when he got the call up to put on the black and gold and skate for the Bruins in the Montreal Forum. Just like every other kid, black or white, from Canada, the US, Sweden, wherever (Johnny Oduya has player on the Swedish national team).

I can say with complete confidence that no black player has ever played in the Russian Bandy League, but I wonder who the first black player was in the Russian Superleague? Perhaps Fred Brathwaite, who joined Ak Bars Kazan in 2004?

Neftyanik Beats Baikal 6-2

2008-01-17T16:05:00.000-07:00

Neftyanik Stadium, KHABAROVSK, Russia -- SKA-Neftyanik Khabarovsk's battery of former Baikal players again proved too much for the reeling Irkutsk side as they swept the season series with an impressive 6-2 home win.

Maxim Koshelev assisted on Sergei Yusupov's goal in the 13th minute to open the scoring for the home side. Another former Baikal forward, Maxim Gavrilenko, also had an impressive game, scoring one goal and assisting on another.

Khabarovsk held an impressive 5-0 lead well into the second half. Baikal managed their first goal in the 71st minute, when Andrei Veselov connected with Andrei Stolnikov off a corner try. Their second goal came in the final minute, an unassisted tally from team scoring leader Yevgeny Yakovlev.

Brutal temperatures that dipped below -20F limited the crowd to only 2,100 spectators.

Neftyanik also beat Baikal-Energia back on November 21 at Irkutsk's Rekord Stadium, 9-1.

Dynamo, Zorky Hold Top Spots in World Rankings

2008-01-17T15:36:00.000-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- Dynamo Moscow remains the world's top bandy club, according to the rankings released Tuesday by Bandynet.ru.

Zorky Krasnogorsk, Kuzbass Kemerovo and SKA-Neftyanik Khabarovsk rounded out the top four, and Russian clubs hold six of the top 10 rankings. Edsbyns IF was the top Swedish club at #5, followed by Sandvikens and Vasteras.

Tornion PV was the top-ranked Finnish team, at #19, and Stabaek JF led all Norwegian clubs at #41.

Despite their poor showing this season, Baikal-Energia managed to move up one spot from the January 1 poll, to #16. Though they currently sit in ninth place in their division, Baikal was ranked behind only Kuzbass, Neftyanik, and Yenisei Krasnoyarsk from the Russian league's eastern group.

The rankings, compiled by Bandynet, are released every two weeks and based largely on a team's performance in that period.

#		Team	Rating
1		ХК "Динамо" Москва, Russia	11036	32
2		ХК "Зоркий" Красногорск, Russia	9426	-118
3		ХК "Кузбасс" Кемерово, Russia	9075	-107
4		ХК "СКА-Нефтяник" Хабаровск, Russia	8869	98
5		Edsbyns IF, Sweden	8535	-138
6		Sandvikens AIK BK, Sweden	8450	44
7		Västerås SK BK, Sweden	7914	15
8	+1	СК "Уральский трубник" Первоуральск, Russia	7790	71
9	+2	ХК "Ракета" Казань, Russia	7624	450
10	-2	Hammarby IF BF, Sweden	7591	-234
11	-1	ХК "Родина" Киров, Russia	7270	-411
12		ХК "Волга" Ульяновск, Russia	7064	7
13		ХК "Енисей" Красноярск, Russia	6786	-92
14		Vetlanda BK, Sweden	6723	-89
15	+1	Broberg/Söderhamn BIF, Sweden	6368	-139
16	+1	ХК "Байкал-Энергия" Иркутск, Russia	6345	-115
17	+2	ХК "Сибсельмаш" Новосибирск, Russia	6344	31
18	-3	Villa-Lidköping BK, Sweden	6249	-283
19	+3	Tornion PV, Finland	6181	449
20		ХК "Маяк" Краснотурьинск, Russia	6150	-144
21		Bollnäs GoIF BF, Sweden	6113	12
22	-4	ХК "Водник" Архангельск, Russia	6081	-278
23	+3	IFK Motala BK, Sweden	5857	326
24	+1	ХК "Старт" Нижний Новгород, Russia	5778	246
25	-2	ХК "Лесохимик" Усть-Илимск, Russia	5737	58
26	-2	IFK Vänersborg, Sweden	5703	33
27		ПХК "Саяны" Абакан, Russia	5698	179
28	+5	BS Boltic/Göta, Sweden (Allsv.)	5574	526
29	+2	OLS, Finland	5536	261
30	-1	Kalix Bandyförening, Sweden (Allsv.)	5408	0
31	-3	IK Sirius BK, Sweden	5227	-243
32		Tillberga IK, Sweden	5183	34
33	-3	Helsingin IFK, Finland	5172	-222
34	+1	Falu BS BK, Sweden	5057	166
35	+6	Gripen BK Trollhättan, Sweden	5032	495
36	-2	ХК "АМНГР-Мурман" Мурманск, Russia	4929	-91
37		Örebro SK Bandy, Sweden (Allsv.)	4637	-196
38	+4	ХК "СКА-Свердловск" Екатеринбург, Russia	4632	191
39		ХК "Металлург" Братск, Russia	4623	-98
40	+3	ХК "Динамо-Сыктывкар" Сыктывкар, Russia	4518	92
41	-5	Stabæk JF, Norway	4481	-375
42	+2	ХК "Локомотив" Оренбург, Russia (1st Div.)	4480	263
43	-3	Solberg SK, Norway	4451	-151
44	+3	Västanfors IF/BK, Sweden (Allsv.)	3524	35
45	+7	Finspångs AIK, Sweden (Allsv.)	3231	273
46		SSK Sundsvall Bandy, Sweden (Allsv.)	3171	-345
47	-2	OPS 90, Finland	3153	-465
48	+1	Kampparit, Finland	3031	-64
49	+1	Ljusdals BK, Sweden (Allsv.)	3007	-67
50	+4	Haparanda Tornio BK, Sweden (Allsv.)	2921	303

Metallurg Magnitogorsk Defeats Sparta Prague for European Champions Cup

2008-01-14T10:38:00.000-07:00

From the IIHF:

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia - The fourth European Champions Cup in St. Petersburg ended with the fourth triumph of a Russian team. Metallurg Magnitogorsk beat Sparta Prague 5-2 and will play the Victoria Cup against an NHL team. more ...

Shut up, Bobby Clarke

2008-01-13T10:20:00.000-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- I guess I'm a little keyed up after the Bruins' overtime victory over the Flyers on Saturday, so I thought I'd mention something that Flyers Senior Vice President Bobby Clarke said about a week ago.

I've made my opinions clear about this year's installment of the Philadelphia Flyers. I think they are a bunch of gutless thugs who are collectively a discredit to the game of hockey. Two Bruins players have been victims of their reckless play, and both, Patrice Bergeron and Andrew Alberts, remain out of the lineup with concussions months later. This disgusting display by Clarke illustrates how low the Flyers have sunk, and proves my claim that this dangerous style of play is encouraged by the organization from top to bottom.

While being interviewed on Canada's TSN, Clarke defended a shameless play by Steve Downie - the same Steve Downie who leveled Dean McAmmond with a vicious headshot during the preseason - in which he sucker punched Toronto's Jason Blake.

After the McAmmond hit, which garnered a 20 game suspension from the league, Blake suggested that Downie should have received a stiffer penalty, perhaps even a lifetime ban. Apparently for Clarke, this is justification for sucker punching a guy several months later. But Clarke wasn't finished there - he also went on to defend Downie's hit on McAmmond.

"The hit that Downie threw on McAmmond was not a whole lot different than the hits we all, including myself, admired that Scott Stevens used to throw in open ice," Clarke said.

One astute reader of The Hockey News had this to say about Clarke's argument:

"Apparently Bob hasn't looked at the rulebook lately! According to the NHL's own rules, Steve Downie was guilty of four separate offences in his hit.

1 - Downie left his feet; charging.
2 - Downie took more than three strides with the intention of hitting a player; also charging.
3 - Downie used his elbow as the lead part of his body making contact with McAmmond; elbowing.
And finally, 4 - Downie maliciously and without regard for the well-being of McAmmond, went after his head; intent to injure.

I've seen clips of Stevens' most devastating hits in his career. I'll concede that Stevens did jump on some of the hits. He did not, however, do any of the other three offences to another player that Downie is clearly guilty of."

Here's a clip of Clarke's comments, which includes footage of the Blake punch and the hit on McAmmond.

Neither play is even remotely defensible, and Clarke should be ashamed. But we shouldn't expect very much from him, as he showed very little shame for various despicable acts throughout his career as a player and a GM. Thanks again for showing the world what an idiot you are, Bobby.

And by the way, Downie did not receive a suspension from the league for his punch, which garnered only a double minor in the game.

I guess after these last few posts you can start calling me "Captain Video." Now if only there was a way to reliably get video highlights of the Russian Bandy League.

WCHA Admits Ref Blew Call on Wisconsin Goal

2008-01-13T08:58:00.000-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- The controversy swirling around the last-second no-goal in Friday night's DU-Wisconsin match-up continued Saturday when the WCHA league office issued a press release saying the referee made the incorrect call to disallow Wisconsin's game-tying goal.

"The Wisconsin goal in question occurred as time expired, but according to the video replay system available to the referee, the puck was still in the crease when the clock in the available replay showed 0:00. But the game tape showed that the puck was in the net and back out of the net prior to 0:00," the press release stated, as reported by the website collegehockeynews.com. "The league regrets the error, and acknowledges that the goal should have counted."

As you can see in this replay, the goal light clearly comes on before the green light signaling the end of the game, meaning the goal should have been allowed.

The announcement came just hours before the two teams were set to face off again at Magness arena Saturday, with referee Randy Schmidt - the same ref who blew the call - set to call the game again.

Pioneers coach George Gwozdecky was upset about the league's decision to issue the press release before the game. “I think our league office put that official in a no-win situation, especially having released that press release apologizing for his error and then putting him right back into the spotlight tonight, that’s just not fair,” he said, according to USCHO.com. “I apologize on behalf of our league office for that; I was shocked to see that."

But Wisconsin more than made up for the error the night before, drubbing DU 7-2. For a full recap of Saturday's game, click here.

Hockey Arenas on Google Earth

2008-01-12T13:32:00.000-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- While fiddling around on Google Earth Community, I found this incredible layer featuring nearly every hockey arena on earth. There are over 1,200 arenas in this database, which was created by a French fan of the Montpellier Vipers.

The layer was first posted to the French hockey site hockeyarchives.com, which is a pretty good resource on European (not Russian) hockey, provided you speak French, which I do exceedingly poorly. New York Times blogger Jeff Klein wrote this piece about the layer, which is called the World Ice Hockey Arenas Project.

Unfortunately, this layer does not show any of the world's bandy stadiums. So what I've done is created a layer that includes the geographic locations of all the hockey and bandy arenas I've been to, and each is linked to a ticket stub from each of those places. That should be posted soon on Google Earth Community.

Denver Tops Wisconsin in Wild Finish

2008-01-11T22:57:00.000-07:00

DENVER -- In a matchup of top-20 WCHA teams, the University of Denver squeezed out a victory over the Wisconsin Badgers on Friday night at Magness Arena, 3-2.

The game should not have been as close as the score suggests. The Pioneers came flying out of the blocks, scoring two goals in the first 10 minutes and dominating every facet of the game. Wisconsin looked slow-footed and over-matched offensively, and by the beginning of the third period, the margin had grown to 3-0.

But with 1:26 remaining in the second period, a power play goal put Wisconsin back in the game. The goal was originally credited to top prospect Kyle Turris, but was later changed to Aaron Bendickson, giving Turris an assist.

Wisconsin carried this momentum into the third period, cutting the deficit to one less than two minutes in. The Badgers also started to pick up their physical game, and the period was marked by several scuffles and a number of roughing penalties on both sides. Turris, coming off an inspired performance in the World Junior Championships, seemed to be in the middle of a lot of the action, earning himself a stint in the box.

A late high-sticking penalty appeared to kill Wisconsin's chances to tie it up, but they pulled their goalie and kept up good pressure on the DU netminder, Peter Mannino. That's when the craziness started. With just 2.7 seconds remaining on the clock, Tyler Ruegsegger had a shot at the empty Wisconsin net, but missed and iced the puck, bringing the faceoff down to the Denver end.

People had been filtering out of the arena during the last couple minutes of the game. As they exited past me, I started to think of all the times I'd witnessed a team score to tie or win a game in the closing seconds. I thought of a Bruins game back in 1998 I went to in Boston against the Panthers - Scott Mellanby tied it with 18 seconds remaining. I thought of Mats Sundin's last second effort to save the Leafs' season in the 2002 conference finals. Just this week, Marco Sturm scored against the Devils with .6 left in the second period. This game might not be over, I thought.

Then it happened.

DU had called a time out, and when they lined up for the final faceoff, 2.6 seconds on the clock, I immediately questioned DU's formation. The faceoff was to the left of Mannino, and coach George Gwozdecky's had decided to put all five players on the right side of the circle. The Pioneers wanted to simply fall on the puck and prevent any chance at a shot on goal.

The puck dropped, five DU players lunged toward it while the Badgers were digging away, trying to pick the puck from this scrum.

I understand the logic behind the coach's decision, but honestly, I would rather put my goalie in a position where he can see the puck and make a save, which was impossible with so many bodies in front of him. Obviously, you want to win the faceoff, but even if Wisconsin won it cleanly, you still have a chance to clog their shooting lanes from a normal formation with only two seconds to play.

Somehow, a Wisonsin player got enough wood on the puck to slip it through five hole. Game tied. No time left on the clock.

With the Badgers celebrating and the DU players and fans in shock (there seemed to be almost as many Wisconsin faithful as Denver fans in the building), the referee sent it upstairs for review. It was no goal - time had expired before the puck crossed the goal line - and Denver escaped the upset.

I'm glad I decided to stay until the bitter end. Luckily, I have no place to be.

There was one more thing to note about the game. During a break, there was a trivia question posted on the jumbotron asking which of the following was a sports headline in the Denver Post on January 11. The correct answer was a 1982 headline about former Pioneer and Hartford Whaler great Kevin Dineen scoring some game-winning goal - I don't remember the exact details - but I only mention this because when they posted the correct answer, his name was written as Kevin Dineed. Come on, guys, keep it together.

The Hartford Whalers get no respect.

Baikal Midgets Advance to Final Round of Russian Championships

2008-01-11T10:36:00.000-07:00

KRASNOTURINSK, Russia -- The big club has given fans little to cheer about this season, but Baikal-Energia's 16 and under squad has advanced to the final round of the Russian Championships, the club reported Friday.

Baikal finished third in the East Division round robin tournament, held in Krasnoturinsk. They recorded victories over Yenisei Krasnoyarsk and Sibselmash Novosibirsk, 4-1 and 9-1, respectively, and tied the home side Mayak 3-3. Their only loss came against Kuzbass Kemerovo, 3-1.

Timofei Beznosov led all Baikal scorers with six goals, good for fourth place in the tournament. Last season Baikal won the 15 and under championship, and Beznosov was named to the tournament all-star team.

In the West Division, Zorky Moscow Region captured the top spot with a perfect 4-0 record and led all teams in scoring with 28 goals. They will be joined in the finals by Vodnik Arkhangelsk and Volga Ulyanovsk.

Merry Christmas and Farewell, Zabaikalets; AMNGR to Join Them?

2008-01-10T20:28:00.000-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- SKA-Zabaikalets-Energia Chita announced December 26th that they would no longer be competing in the Russian Bandy League due to financial difficulties, the website Bandynet.ru reported.

Before the season began Zabaikalets was facing money troubles, as they were forced to fire their coaching staff and still had player salaries in arrears from last season. The team was also plagued by problems with its stadium and lost its lease at SKA SibVO due to its inability to pay rent.

Zabaikalets played their last game December 24th in Kemerovo, a 10-2 loss to Kuzbass. The Chita side made the trip with a skeleton crew of players, and just two days later announced they were folding.

After the announcement, Chita's coach Viktor Zakharov was beside himself. "I have [players] here who came to games hungry - they didn't get paid, they were thrown out of their stadium. There's no one here; clearly, nobody needs hockey," he said.

In other troubling news, AMNGR-Murman Murmansk canceled their road trip to Pervouralsk and Ulyanovsk for matches scheduled January 6th and 9th. The team said the cancellation was due to money shortages.

The Murmansk hockey association has issued a request to the Russian Bandy Federation to reschedule to games against Uralsky Trubnik and Volga for later in the season. But could this be a sign that the West Division will also be cut to 10 teams if AMNGR cannot get the resources together to continue their season?

Mini 1-on-1: New England Hockey Institution Returns

2008-01-10T19:14:00.000-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- This season the Boston Bruins have revived one of the great New England hockey institutions, the Mini 1-on-1.

Being a kid growing up in New England, Mini 1-on-1 was one of the highlights of watching Bruins games on TV with my dad (in addition to watching the likes of Ray Bourque, Cam Neely, and Adam Oates kick some ass).

It's great to see the next generation of American hockey players on television screens across the region. One of the great strengths of the Bruins as an organization has been their ties to the local hockey community. Putting on the Bruins jersey has been special for a lot of local kids who played from mites through college in the Boston area, guys like Steve Heinze, Ted Donato, and Chris Nilan.

Mini 1-0n-1 is a shootout tournament featuring youth hockey teams from all over Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine and is shown during the intermissions of Bruins games. There are three brackets, including boys mites (8 and under), girls mites, and boys squirts (9-10).

The Bruins are an organization that has fallen on hard times of late (they just lost their eighth straight game to the Montreal Canadiens, 5-2), but the return of Mini 1-on-1 is a good sign that the team is interested in rebuilding its fan base.

Last month Sports Illustrated ran a great article by Michael Farber, "In Search of ... Hockeytown, U.S.A.," in which they crowned St. Paul America's new hockey capital. It won the title largely on the strength of its support for grassroots hockey:

"This is the unwritten hockey schedule in the Twin Cities: boys' hockey Tuesday night, girls' hockey Thursday night, the University of Minnesota Friday and Saturday nights. Boys and girls also play on Saturday afternoon. It is no coincidence that the Wild often plays on Wednesday and Sunday. This is a franchise respectful of the game, aware of its niche and almost obsequious in its treatment of fans."

New Englanders also have a rabid interest in their youth and college hockey, and the Bruins should do everything they can to support what remains the second-largest player producing region in the country (after Minnesota, of course). The other contenders to be named "Hockeytown" were Philadelphia, Buffalo and Detroit - Boston wasn't even part of the conversation - but perhaps sometime in the near future, Boston will again be the hockey hotbed it was during the Big Bad Bruins days of the 1970's.

First Half Roundup: Baikal Loses to Mayak and SKA-Sverdlovsk. Seriously?

2008-01-10T18:42:00.000-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- Baikal-Energia Irkutsk's season seems to be meeting all of the low pre-season expectations. In the span of one week, they lost to fifth-place Mayak Krasnoturinsk 4-2 and last-place SKA-Sverdlovsk Yekaterinburg 2-0.

Baikal has managed only 10 points in its first 10 games, and its 3-6-1 record has been good for eighth place in the East Division.

There was one bright spot in the season's first half, when Baikal defeated arch-rival Yenisei Krasnoyarsk 3-2 on December 25th. Baikal's two other victories this season came against Lesokhimik Ust-Ilimsk and Sverdlovsk.

Baikal remains a rather stingy team defensively, allowing only 41 goals on the season - good for middle of the pack in their division - but they have great trouble scoring goals, netting only 29. New addition Yevgeny Yakovlev has not disappointed, leading the team in goals and points (6 goals+3 assists=9 points), and Nikolai Kadakin (4+5=9) and Alexander Nasonov (5 goals) remain reliable contributors. But it has been impossible to replace six of the team's leading scorers who moved over to SKA-Neftyanik Khabarovsk in the offseason.

Nefytaynik, incidentally, is undefeated and sits in second place with 28 points after 10 games, while Kuzbass Kemerovo continues to dominate the division with 39 points in 14 games.

Last season's second place finish in the division is totally out of reach, but hopefully the bounces will go Baikal's way in the second half.

378 PIMs for Ak Bars and Traktor in Superleague

2008-01-10T17:04:00.000-07:00

Tatneft Arena, KAZAN, Russia -- This story has been all over the Internet, and was even featured on Sportscenter last night, but I thought I'd include it here. In case you missed it, in their matchup Tuesday night, Russian Superleague teams Ak Bars Kazan and Traktor Chelyabinsk managed to rack up 378 penalty minutes in a bench-clearing brawl at the end of the game.

The fight started after Traktor forward Alexei Zavarukhin thought he scored with 34 seconds left in the third period, but the puck crossed the line after the referee had whistled the play dead. Ak Bars took exception to the extra effort, and Zavarukhin was leveled in the corner by two Kazan players, sparking the melee.

The referees made a feeble effort to keep the players from leaving the bench, but within seconds it was 22-on-22 in a bruising brawl that lasted more than five minutes. As the fight started to wind down, the Ak Bars fans can be heard chanting "Молодцы!" which translates roughly to, "Good job, guys!"

Ak Bars won the game 7-5 and currently sits in sixth place in the Superleague, while Traktor remains mired in 14th.

Here's a video of the whole affair, courtesy of my old employer, RTR-Sport.

On Thursday, the Russian Hockey Federation announced suspensions for 12 players. The longest went to Kazan forward Alexander Stepanov, who received three games for leaving the penalty box. He could receive another six games unless he pays a fine of 30,000 rubles (approximately US$1,200). Traktor forward and former Hartford Whaler Andrei Nikolishin received a one game suspension plus three games should he not pay the fine.

Speaking of the Whalers, this brawl brings back memories of the legendary tilt between the New England Whalers and the Minnesota Fighting Saints on April 11, 1975 in the old World Hockey Association. That fight set a WHA record for penalty minutes in a game at 217, a paltry total when compared to this Superleague fight.

You can watch a short piece about that night at the Hartford Civic Center below, or you can listen to the call from Bob Neumier here.

I must say that in all my years of watching Russian hockey, I have seen very few fights in the Superleague, and none at a live game. I'm not saying fighting doesn't happen over there, but don't think that this incident means the rough and tumble hockey of the NHL in the 1970's can now be found in Russia. Fighting remains much rarer than it is in North America, but probably more common than in other European leagues.

UPDATE: This was one of my favorite stories from the Superleague last year. Good job, Traktor fans.

Salavat Yulayev Bans Traktor Fans, Receives Fine

December 12, 2006 -- Salavat Yulayev Ufa has decided that fans of Traktor Chelyabinsk are no longer welcome at their stadium. The announcement came after a December 6th incident in Ufa when a person, identified as a Traktor fan by Salavat Yulayev officials, tossed a smoke grenade onto the Ufa bench during a game. The fan was immediately arrested and charged. Salavat Yulayev has also begun comprehensive searches of all persons and their belongings entering the stadium, and fans expressing support for Traktor will not be allowed to attend any games. Salavat Yulayev officials stated that they held Traktor entirely responsible for the incident, but the Russian Hockey Federation still fined the home side 300,000 rubles (US$11,500), because according to federation rules, the home team is responsible for the behavior of all fans in their arena, regardless of their leanings.

Gutless Pukes Strike Again

2007-11-26T22:18:00.000-07:00

PHILADELPHIA -- The Boston Bruins traveled to Philadelphia for their first game against the Flyers since October 27th, the game in which Bruins center Patrice Bergeron was leveled from behind by defenseman Randy Jones and has been out of the lineup ever since with a concussion and a broken nose.

To nobody's surprise, the Flyers continued to take cheap shots; this time the victim was defenseman Andrew Alberts. After dropping to his knees to settle a puck with his body, the prone Alberts was blind-sided by Scott Hartnell and crumpled to the ice. He did not return to the game, which the Bruins won, incidentally, 6-3.

Alberts was able to leave the ice on his feet, and there is no word yet as to whether he sustained any injuries. Regardless, Hartnell made no effort to pull up on hitting a defenseless player, and instead drove Alberts' head right into the dasher. Hartnell received a five-minute major and a game misconduct penalty for the hit.

I hope Hartnell gets a suspension, but I won't be shocked if he doesn't. But as I said before, it's time for the NHL to send a message to the Flyers. Suspend the coach. Fine Ed Snider $100,000. Do something to show the Flyers that indiscriminate shots to the head will not be tolerated.

And to the rest of the teams in the league, I say this: kill 'em. Run at the Flyers. Make 'em fight game in, game out, shift in, shift out. Make life miserable for their gutless midget, Daniel (now he is, inexplicably, known as "Danny") Briere. The Flyers don't know where to draw the line between tough hockey and dirty hockey, and I'm tired of players getting hurt as a result of their recklessness and disrespect.

Mike Comrie, Don't Be a Creep

2007-11-06T20:42:00.000-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- I know a lot of NHL news is seeping into the blog, but soon I'll give some updates on this past weekend's Russian Cup final in Moscow (in which Baikal-Energia did not participate.)

But first, 27-year-old Islanders center Mike Comrie is dating 20-year-old triple threat sensation Hillary Duff. That's just creepy. I'm sure all the fans in Edmonton think he's a creep, too. Comrie is not that good, or famous, and he should neither be hanging around in Hollywood, or dating someone who is only barely not a teenager.

But that's just my opinion.

Russian Clubs Hold Top 3 Spots in World Rankings; Baikal Ranked #15

2007-11-01T14:39:00.000-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- Dynamo Moscow is currently the best bandy club in the world, according the the latest ratings (including matches from October 16-November 1) by the website bandynet.ru. Just behind the Moscow club sit Zorky Krasnogorsk and Kuzbass Kemerovo.

The highest ranked team from outside Russia is Sweden's Edsbyns IF, which finished second in this year's ExTe World Cup to Dynamo. Finland's Tornea PV topped all other Finnish clubs at #20 despite losing all three matches in Ljusdal. Stabaek Bandy, also winless at the tournament, was ranked the top Norwegian club at #40.

All 21 teams from the Russian Bandy League made it into the top 50. Dynamo-Syktyvkar received the lowest rating, finishing 47th. Baikal-Energia's disappointing pre-season has them mired in the 15th spot, with nine Russian clubs ranked ahead of them.

The rankings, conducted last season by the Krasnoyarsk-based website RedYarsk, were begun this fall by Bandynet. They are based mostly on the performance of each club during the two-week period of the ranking.

This weekend: the final leg of the Russian Cup!

Jones Gets 2 Games; Colin Campbell is a Joke

2007-10-29T15:18:00.000-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- My prediction that the NHL would come down hard on Randy Jones and the Philadelphia Flyers organization for the hit on Bruin Patrice Bergeron was incorrect. Jones was suspended two games, and the league did not level any sanctions against the team or the coaching staff.

NHL Dean of Discipline Colin Campbell had this to say about the hit and the light suspension: "He did deliver a hard check to a player who was in a vulnerable position," Campbell said, according to the AP. "There have been suggestions by some that this hit was comparable to incidents earlier this season where players received significant-game suspensions for blows to the head. These comparisons and suggestions are wrong."

If anything is certain about Jones' hit it is that he drove his forearm into Bergeron's head. Intention is immaterial on this matter; remorse on the part of Jones is irrelevant. If the league wants to crack down on headshots - and the organizations that encourage them - they need to send a clearer message than two games, which will have absolutely no impact on the Flyers' culture of goonery.

This suspension is a joke. Colin Campbell is a joke. Any stance the league took about cracking down on dangerous play at the beginning of the season - throw it out the window. The spineless weasels in the league office should be ashamed.

Junior hockey has taken a strong stand against hits to the head and from behind. Any hit that results in a blow to the head, intentional or not, is at minimum a penalty, and the major junior leagues have been issuing suspensions liberally. Every player in major junior, and in many other leagues, has a STOP sign stitched to the back of their jersey to remind the opposing player to think twice about making a dangerous and illegal hit from behind.

Has the level of disrespect and sheer stupidity in the NHL reached such a level that they have to resort to this? Do players have to be constantly reminded not to try and kill one another each and every game? It seems that they probably do, but the league is doing nothing to get that message through the thick skulls of the Broad Street Morons.

Should Campbell ever show his face in Boston, I suggest the Bruins faithful give him a greeting similar to the one given another Campbell - Clarence - at the Monteal Forum in 1955.

ESPN.com commentator Scott Burnside shares some of these sentiments in his Monday column. He had this to say about the Flyers' disregard for their opponents:

"The Flyers have essentially robbed their opponents of a chance to compete through their flagrant disregard for the rules. McAmmond has yet to play for the Senators. As for Bergeron, the most talented of the three victims, it is not overstating the case to suggest he is crucial to the Bruins' return to the playoffs. Now, Bergeron's return to action is in question and one wonders what effect it might have on the Bruins' strong start."

Edit: I shouldn't have called the executives at the league office "spineless weasels." Instead, I should have used better judgment and employed a Mike Milbury turn of phrase, "gutless pukes."

If ever there was a case to be made to repeal the instigator rule, it's the 2007-08 Flyers.

Red Sox Win! Red Sox Win!

2007-10-28T23:00:00.000-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- Tonight, the Red Sox won the World Series, and nothing can bring me down. I got wasted with other Sox fans, but I did not get in a fight or set a car on fire.

But seriously, what is up with Dusty Baker's hat? We already know that you're an idiot, but why do everything you can to look like an idiot?

To quote my friend Willy, "Who woulda thought back in '03 that we would win it all twice in 4 years?! Fuckin awesome! Enjoy it!"

I will, Willy. I will.

Photo courtesy espn.com.

Happy Halloween, Baikal-Energia Fans

2007-10-28T13:30:00.001-07:00

Dynamo Moscow Defeats Edsbyns for ExTe Cup

2007-10-28T10:00:00.000-07:00

LJUSDAL, Sweden -- Dynamo Moscow defended their ExTe World Cup title by defeating Swedish side Edsbyns IF 5-0 in the final. Rinat Shamsutov scored a hat trick in the victory, while Ivan Maximov and Maxim Chernykh also added goals.

Dynamo had to defeat rivals Zorky Krasnogorsk to reach the final, besting them 4-3. Dynamo jumped out to a 4-0 lead thanks to goals from their big four scorers - Sergei Lomanov, Maximov, Yevgeny Ivanushkin, and Sergei Obukhov. Zorky rallied in the final 15 minutes, as Yury Loginoy's goal was bookended by a pair from the tournament's leading goal scorer, Sami Laakkonen.

In the "third-prize match," which, strangely, involved the two worst teams in the tournament, Norway's Stabaek Bandy defeated Finnish side Tornea PV 4-3.

Update: Bergeron Suffers Concussion, Broken Nose

2007-10-27T22:58:00.001-07:00

BOSTON -- Bruins center Patrice Bergeron suffered a concussion and a broken nose as the result of a vicious hit from behind by Philadelphia's Randy Jones on Saturday.

According to a statement released by the team, Bergeron has regained consciousness and has full feeling and movement in all of his extremities, and medical tests have not revealed any additional injuries to his head or neck.

The NHL will likely issue a ruling on whether to suspend Jones on Monday.

Here's some video from the hit, and you can hear the Flyers commentators try to justify it. Despicable.

Dynamo, Zorky to Meet in ExTe Cup Semifinals

2007-10-27T15:39:00.000-07:00

LJUSDAL, Sweden -- Russian sides have been dominant at the ExTe World Cup of Bandy, as three of the four teams that will meet in the semifinals are from the Russian League. Five of the six Russian clubs in the tournament advanced to the quarterfinals.

The biggest match-up of the semifinals will likely be between defending champions Dynamo Moscow and perennial powerhouse Zorky Krasnogorsk. Sweden's lone hope to recapture the cup lies with Edsbyns, who will take on Uralsky Trubnik Pervouralsk for a spot in Sunday's final.

While Zorky enters the semifinals with a perfect 4-0 record, Dynamo stumbled in the qualifying round, playing Vasteras SK to a 2-2 draw, but they still managed to win their group.

The only Russian squad left out of the elimination round was AMNGR-Murman Murmansk, who finished the tournament 1-2. They did however manage a victory over tournament hosts Ljusdal BK 6-3.

Meanwhile at the Entos Cup in Lidkoping, parity has been king as no team has been able to assert themselves thus far in the tournament, though the hometown team has been best at 1-0-1 thus far.

Scores:

ExTe World Cup
Quarterfinals

Zorky Krasnogorsk 5, Vasteras SK 3
Dynamo Moscow 9, Vodnik Arkahngelsk 0
Uralsky Trubnik Pervouralsk 1, Rodina Kirov 0
Edsbyns IF 2, Broberg 1

Semifinals

Zorky Krasnogorsk vs. Dynamo Moscow
Uralsky Trubnik Pervouralsk vs. Brodberg

Entos Cup

Villa Lidköping 11, IFK Vänersborg 6
Gripen Trollhättan 6, BolticGöta 2
IFK Vänersborg 5, Gripen Trollhättan 4
BolticGöta 5, Villa Lidköping 5

Bruins' Bergeron Seriously Injured by Flyers' Randy Jones

2007-10-27T14:01:00.000-07:00

BOSTON -- Boston Bruins center Patrice Bergeron was seriously injured by a hit from behind by Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Randy Jones in the first period of the teams' match-up on Saturday at the TD BankNorth Garden.

Bergeron was hit into the endboards behind the Flyers' goal at 16:07 of the first period. Jones hit Bergeron while chasing a loose puck with his elbow driving the Bruin's head and neck into the glass. Bergeron immediately slumped to the ice and remained motionless for several seconds.

Following the hit a melee ensued when Bruins forward Chuck Kobasew immediately went after Jones. Jones was assessed a major penalty for boarding and a game misconduct. Kobasew received two minutes for roughing.

Bruins and Flyers medical staffs worked on Bergeron for several minutes, strapping him to a backboard to immobilize his spine and carting him off the ice on a stretcher.

According to the Bruins, Bergeron was knocked unconscious by the hit. He was then rushed to Mass General Hospital by ambulance. There is still no word as to the extent of his injuries.

"Just to look at that hit by itself, it's wrong," NESN broadcaster Andy Brickley commented during the game's first intermission. "[Bergeron] did not put himself in a position to get hit from behind, he was a straightforward skater to that puck to make a play, and the player Jones zeroed in from behind, and he hit him high."

Jones will most certainly receive a suspension, making him the third Flyer this season to be sanctioned by the league for a vicious hit.

Forward Steve Downie was suspended for 20 games by the league for a head shot on Ottawa's Dean McAmmond September 28th, a hit that left the Senator with a concussion. Jesse Boulerice was then suspended 25 games for cross-checking Vancouver's Ryan Kesler in the face on October 11th, the longest single-season ban ever issued by the league.

Bergeron's parents had traveled from their home in L'Ancienne-Lorette, Quebec to attend the game.

Our thoughts and prayers are with Bergeron and his whole family, and we hope that he can make a full recovery after this horrific episode.

As for the Flyers, I think it's time for the league to take stiffer action against the team than just suspending players. The NHL should consider a suspension for coach John Stevens and a serious fine for the organization. Throughout this young season, this team has shown utter disregard for the safety of their opponents and continues to take cheap shots to the head. How many more players need to get seriously injured before the Flyers will stop this behavior? Three illegal hits in less than a month lead me to believe that this sort of dirty play is, on some level, tolerated by the organization and reinforced by the coaching staff. This needs to be nipped in the bud before we return to the brutality and pure idiocy of the Broad Street Bullies.

ExTe World Cup Starts Thursday in Ljusdal, Sweden

2007-10-23T20:38:00.000-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- The ExTe World Cup, the biggest international club competition of the year, starts on Thursday, October 25th in the Swedish city of Ljusdal and will feature six teams from the Russian Bandy League.

The four-day tournament includes a 20-team field divided into five qualifying groups. Of the remaining teams, 10 hail from Sweden, and two each from Finland and Norway. Defending champion Dynamo Moscow is perhaps the favorite to win the tournament, and they will be grouped with Swedish sides Bollnas GIF and Vasteras SK. Other Russian clubs competing are Uralsky Trubnik Pervouralsk, Zorky Krasnogorsk, Vodnik Arkhangelsk, Rodina Kirov and AMNGR-Murman Murmansk.

Formerly know as simply the Bandy World Cup, the tournament is one of the longest-running club competitions, beginning as the DAF Cup in 1974. Ljusdal, a town of about 7,500 people, is located about 220 miles north of Stockholm.

Weather conditions in Ljusdal look to be somewhat warm - between 3C and 7C - but it should stay cool enough to keep the outdoor rink frozen throughout the tournament. Uncooperative weather in the past has forced organizers to move games to before sunrise so ice surface would remain frozen. Project manager for the event Per-Arne Weglin has said that the city would like to build an indoor facility to host the tournament. Several representatives from Ljusdal will soon be traveling to Russia to look at rinks similar to the one that they would like to build for themselves.

For complete schedules, results and information about the ExTe World Cup, click here.

Also this week in Sweden, the Entos Cup will be held in Lidkoping. The tournament is an annual four-team club competition between teams in Sweden's top league. This year's competitors are Villa Lidkoping BK, Boltic Gota, IFK Vanersborg and Gripen Trollhattan BK. Although it is only in Swedish, tournament information can be found here.

Photo courtesy of www.zorky.ru.

The Colorado Rockies Are Not Serious

2007-10-23T13:15:00.000-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- I have been posting so much today because I am stuck at home, fruitlessly attempting to buy tickets online for the upcoming World Series games in Denver. The Rockies' server completely crashed yesterday, so they had only sold roughly 500 tickets to the three games before they restarted sales today at noon. Now, I am just watching the page automatically reload over and over again in the hopes that I can get through to buy even just one Rockpile ticket (for $65, up from the regular season price of $4).

Despite what people may say, I am in no way torn about this World Series. I hope the Red Sox crush the Rockies in four games.

Alright, coming up next - a post actually about bandy.

Update: Tickets for games 3 and 4 are sold out. I'm making a half-hearted effort to get tickets for game 5, but the prospects do not look good.

Update: Game 5 tickets are sold out. It looks like I'll be watching the World Series from the comfort of some sports bar.

A Deserved Ranking?

2007-10-23T12:56:00.000-07:00

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado -- Coming into the opening weekend of the college hockey season, the Quinnipiac Bobcats (who hail from my hometown of Hamden, Connecticut) were ranked 14th in the nation in the USCHO/CSTV poll. The Bobcats were heavily favored to beat Air Force in their two-game set, despite the fact that Air Force won the Atlantic Hockey Association title last year, booking their first trip to the NCAA tournament.

Instead, the Falcons trounced Quinnipiac 4-1 on Friday and 3-1 on Saturday (I was fortunate enough to make it to the latter game). As a result, Quinnipiac is out of the top 20, and Air Force was the top vote-getter among unranked teams in the USCHO/CSTV poll.

I'm hoping Quinnipiac will bounce back to challenge for the ECAC title (The Hockey News picked them to finish second, behind Clarkson), but don't pay any attention to polls, especially pre-season polls.

Maybe Kevin Lowe Isn't So Dumb?

2007-10-23T12:05:00.000-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- I was pretty harsh on Edmonton Oilers GM Kevin Lowe for signing winger Dustin Penner to a US$21.25 million, five-year offer sheet this summer (you can read the post here). But in their most recent issue (October 23), The Hockey News offers some compelling evidence that Lowe's move maybe wasn't so dumb after all.

For years, the NHL's salary structure foolishly rewarded players for past, rather than future, performance; as a result, the highest paid players in the league were aging stars well past their prime (for an example of this, see the 1997-2004 New York Rangers). Only time will tell if Lowe's gamble on Penner will pay off - he currently has two points through eight games for the Oilers - but historically, you're better off spending your money on younger players than on the likes of unrestricted free agent Peter Forsberg.

Here's the evidence from The Hockey News:

"Consider the fate of the NHL's top 100 all-time scorers:

- 86 percent of their 40-goal seasons occurred when the players were under 30.
- Only 24 percent of the time did these players reach 80 points in a season after the age of 30.
- 61 percent of the point leaders and 52 percent of the goal leaders set their career high in points or goals by the age of 25.

Meantime, the majority of players at the top of the NHL scoring lists are in their 20s. Over the past 20 years, 85 percent of players in the top 10 were 30 or under - and only six times has a player over 34 finished in the top 10."

And those six seasons belong to Wayne Gretzky, Joe Sakic (each with two), Ron Francis and Mario Lemieux. So unless someone like that is up for grabs, save your money and spend it on some youngsters (like Tampa's Brad Richards). And this will only get easier to do with the age of free agency set to fall to 27.

Although Lowe was excoriated for inflating salaries with the Penner deal, maybe he has set the NHL is the right direction towards the true (young) stars getting the biggest rewards, rather than wasting millions on aging underachievers. A look down the salary listings for this season shows the trend is in that direction in the salary cap era.

Bandy Gets Mention in Hockey News Special

2007-10-23T00:00:00.000-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- Our beloved bandy got a brief mention in a special publication from The Hockey News, "Sixty Moments That Changed the Game." The issue counts down the most important moments and developments in hockey in the sixty years since The Hockey News hit newsstands for the first time in 1947.

The reference comes in Moment #6 - the 1972 Summit Series between Canada and the Soviet Union that opened the eyes of the world the dominance of the Soviets. Despite losing the series 4-3-1, the Russians proved themselves capable of icing a team that could compete with the brightest stars of the NHL.

As author Denis Gibbons notes, "The Soviets adopted many of their tactics from the game of bandy, which is played with a stick, ball and skates on an ice-covered soccer field." As I always say, there is no better training for "box hockey" (a term Russians use for traditional ice hockey referring to the confinement of the boards and glass) than skating for 90-minutes straight, 100 yards end to end, when it's -25F outside. After that, a four-minute penalty kill is a cakewalk. And the likes of Esposito, Orr, Henderson and Clarke don't seem so intimidating, especially since most of those guys were on hot dog and beer diets back in those days.

No Russian Cup This Season for Baikal

2007-10-22T10:14:00.000-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- Baikal-Energia Irkutsk's disappointing (pre-)season continued as they finished the second round of the Russian Cup mired in third place in their group, eliminating them from the final round tournament, to be held in Moscow November 3-5.

The second round began Wednesday in the cities of Moscow, Kirov, Kemerovo and Krasnoyarsk. The top two teams from each group qualify for the finals.

Kuzbass Kemerovo won the third group, going undefeated on their home ice. They were followed by Sibselmash Novosibirsk with a 2-1 record. Baikal's 1-2 finish put them in third, followed by Mayak Krasnoturinsk, who went winless.

After starting Wednesday's action with a 7-1 win over Mayak, Baikal was blown out by Kuzbass 13-5 (an all too familiar outcome over the past couple of seasons) on Thursday. Despite a two-goal effort from Yevgeny Yakovlev, they lost 5-2 to Sibselmash Saturday to book their tickets back to Irkutsk to await the opening of the regular season.

Joining Kuzbass and Sibselmash in Moscow will be Zorky Krasonogorsk and Dynamo Moscow. Zorky scored a surprise victory over Dynamo in the final game of the tournament, beating the defending cup champions 9-5 on the strength of five goals from the Nordic trio of David Karlsson, Sami Laakkonen and Ville Aaltonen. Vodnik Arkahngelsk and Start Nizhny Novgorod, who allowed a tournament-high 37 goals in three games, rounded out the table.

From Kirov, home side Rodina and Uralsky Trubnik Pervouralsk finished 1-2, each with two victories. Volga Ulyanovsk also registered six points, but their -3 goal differential put them in third place, while Raketa Kazan finished winless.

Finally, SKA-Neftyanik Khabarovsk put in a dominating performance in group 4, outscoring the opposition 26-4. Yenisei Krasnoyarsk finished second, while Sayany Abakan and Lesokhimik Ust-Ilimisk failed to qualify.

The regular season opens for Baikal on November 21st at home against SKA-Neftyanik.

Baikal-Energia Squeaks into Round II

2007-10-05T08:58:00.000-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- I have not reported in a while because, to be honest, I was scared to watch Baikal-Energia after their dismal performances against SKA-Neftyanik, Mayak and Kuzbass. And I was correct to not watch them - they went 2-3 for the rest of the first round, just barely taking the sixth spot to guarantee a place in round 2.

After the Kuzbass loss, they were trounced again by Yenisei Krasnoyarsk, 8-3 on September 9th. Two days later, they bounced back, though only slightly, besting Sayany Abakan 3-2 (the team that fell to seventh place, just one point behind Irkutsk.) A 3-1 win over Mettalurg Bratsk was only temporary consolation, as they lost their final two games, against Sibselmash Novosibirsk 8-5, and lowly Lesokhimik Ust-Ilimsk, 6-5.

Ugh - the prospects for Baikal in Moscow do not look too bright for this year's team. Maybe Lesokhimik is a better bet ...

Round 2 begins October 17th.

Bandy in the Olympics? (For real this time)

2007-08-31T12:31:00.000-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- Vitaly Afanasev has recently written an article for the SKA-Neftyanik Khabarovsk website, Far Eastern Bandy Forum, making the case for bandy to be included in the 2014 Winter Olympics, to be held in the Russian city of Sochi.

Many times on this site, I have mocked the idea of both bandy being in the Olympics, and the Olympics being held in Sochi. Well, the later has come true, so perhaps the former is possible as well.

I will be posting a translation of the article soon, but here's a link to the Russian text as it appeared on Bandynet.ru.

I'm Speechless...Kuzbass 13, Baikal 1

2007-08-28T10:10:00.000-07:00

Khimik Stadium, KEMEROVO, Russia -- Tournament hosts Kuzbass defeated Baikal-Energia Irkutsk 13-1 Tuesday, putting them in danger of falling out of the top six spots in Group II of the Russia Cup.

The top six teams in each group advance automatically to the second round, while the remaining teams must play in a qualifying tournament to determine the final two spots.

This game was such a one-sided thrashing, it is not worth the time or effort to recount it. Nikolai Kadakin scored Baikal's lone goal, in the 37th minute, when the score already stood at 7-0.

Coming into the tournament, this was thought to be a marquee match-up, as these teams finished first and second in the final east division standings last season. But Baikal's mediocre play leading up to this game indicated that it would likely not be a fair contest. Even the fans knew this, as only 1,000 spectators showed up.

Other Scores:

SKA-Neftyanik Khabarovsk 14:3 SKA-Sverdlovsk Yekaterinburg (Group II)
Mayak Krasnoturinsk 4:4 SKA Zabaikalets-Energia Chita (Group II)
Uralsky Trubnik Pervouralsk 18:1 Zorky-2 Krasnogorsk (Group I)
Vodnik Arkhangelsk 6:3 Start Nizhny Novgorod (Group I)
Dynamo Moscow 16:6 Volga Ulyanovsk (Group I)

Current Standings:
GP/Pts./GF-GA

Group I

1. Dynamo Moscow - 4/12/50-9
2. Uralsky Trubnik Pervouralsk - 5/9/44-19
3. Volga Ulyanovsk - 4/9/15-11
4. Zorky Krasnogorsk - 3/7/26-6
5. Vodnik Arkhangelsk - 4/6/19-25
6. Rodina Kirov - 3/5/22-9
7. Raketa Kazan - 3/4/18-23
8. Start Nizhny Novgorod - 4/3/13-36
9. Stroitel Syktyvkar - 3/0/10-38
10. Zorky-2 Krasnogorsk 5/0/11-62

Group II

1. SKA-Neftyanik Khabarovsk - 5/15/40-15
2. Kuzbass Kemerovo - 5/12/62-15
3. Sibselmash Novosibirsk - 4/9/23-12
4. Sayany Abakan - 4/9/14-11
5. Yenisei Krasnoyarsk - 4/7/16-10
6. Baikal-Energia Irkutsk - 5/7/19-30
7. Mayak Krasnoturinsk - 5/5/27-29
8. Metallurg Bratsk - 4/3/13-23
9. SKA Zabaikalets-Energia Chita - 5/2/16-42
10. Lesokhimik Ust-Ilimsk - 4/1/12-22
11. SKA-Sverdlovsk Yekaterinburg - 5/1/19-52

AMNGR-Murman Receives Funding from Regional Government

2007-08-27T10:46:00.000-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- Struggling bandy club AMNGR-Murman Murmansk received good news Monday when the government of the Murmansk Region announced it would provide funding for the team this upcoming season, according to the regional news agency Bi-Port.

The funding comes as part of a budget passed for supporting physical education and sports in the region in 2007-2010. As a result, the team will now be able to participate in the regular season tournament as well as some international play.

Due to financial difficulties, the team has been unable to play in the first round of the Russian Cup, currently taking place in Moscow.

The team got into these dire straits partly as a result of changes to the play-off format last season. AMNGR-Murman was forced to make several road trips to Siberia and the Far East for play-off games, and the unanticipated travel costs totaled approximately 5 million rubles (US$200,000), according to the governor of the Murmansk Region.

The new funding package for the team includes discretionary funding for this season should similar unexpected costs arise.

Struggles Continue for Baikal, Tie Mayak 4-4

2007-08-27T10:20:00.000-07:00

Khimik Stadium, KEMEROVO, Russia -- Alexander Nasonov finally broke out offensively, netting a hat trick. But it was not enough as Baikal stretched their winless streak to two games, tying Mayak Krasnoturinsk 4-4 on Monday.

Nasonov opened the scoring in the 4th minute, and in the 28th, he doubled the lead off a pass from Andrei Stolnikov. Former Baikal forward Yevgeny Igoshin cut the lead to one , followed by a tying goal from Mayak captain Pavel Dubovik.

Before the close of the half, Baikal put a lot of pressure on, trying to take the lead going into the locker room. Shortly before the break, a scuffle broke out on the ice, and Dubovik, Igoshin, and Baikal's Yury Timofeyev and Nikolai Kadakin were sent off for 10 minutes. Almost immediately after the restart, Konstantin Savchenko delivered a pass to Nasonov to make the score 3-2.

The discipline that head coach Alexander Shishkin had so stressed throughout the tournament fell apart completely for Baikal in the second half. Penalties to Nasonov (for playing with a broken stick) and Timofeyev (hooking) put Baikal down two men early in the half. Just moments before the penalties were to be released, Mikhail Kopty tied the score.

Savchenko recorded another assist on what should have been the game-winning goal from Kadakin in the 62nd minute, but 10 minutes later Vladimir Charykov tied the score, robbing Baikal of two points and sending them further down the tables.

If Baikal hopes to recover in the tournament, they couldn't have a tougher road ahead of them - tomorrow they take on tournament hosts and last year's bronze medalists, Kuzbass.

Other scores:

Kuzbass Kemerovo 18:3 SKA Zabaikalets-Energia Chita (Group II)
Volga Ulyanovsk 4:2 Start Nizhny Novgorod (Group I)
Dynamo Moscow 12:2 Vodnik Arkhangelsk (Group I)

Former Teammates Embarass Baikal, Neftyanik Wins 8-4

2007-08-26T15:22:00.000-07:00

Khimik Stadium, KEMEROVO, Russia -- Baikal-Energia Irkutsk fans had been waiting for this match for weeks, ever since six players left the team amid bitter contract disputes for rival SKA-Neftyanik Khabarovsk.

Within minutes, Khabarovsk proved that these were players Baikal could not afford to lose.

For Baikal, 19-year-old Ilya Novitsky made the first start of his career in goal, and he did not impress, allowing seven goals in just the first 30 minutes.

"Our goalie was nowhere," Baikal head coach Alexander Shishkin said. "He had to step up at certain moments, and he basically didn't step up at all."

Shishkin admitted that Khabarovsk, who finished last season well behind Baikal in the standings, was the stronger team now.

"Of course, in some areas, Khabarovsk is in a higher class," he said. "But to play so disorganized in the first half - for us that was nonsense. In skill, in technique, we're behind Khabarovsk."

Two goals each from Yevgeny Stebletsov, Stanislav Ismagilov and Sergei Yusupov, as well as an unassisted tally from Yevgeny Mavrin opened up a massive 7-0 lead.

Baikal bounced back with three goals, starting with one from Konstantin Savchenko in the 54th minute. That was followed by Pavel Naumov in the 64th, then Alexander Nasonov in the 75th - his first of the tournament.

Four minutes later, Ismagilov capped off his hat trick to halt Baikal's rally. Maxim Blem cut the lead back to four in the 82nd minute, off a corner delivered by Savchenko. That assist gives him eight points for the tournament (two goals, six assists), which leads the team.

Other Sunday scores:

SKA Zabaikalets-Energia 5:5 SKA-Sverdlovsk Yekaterinburg (Group II)
Vodnik Arkhangelsk 8:5 Zorky-2 Krasnogorsk (Group I)
Uralsky Trubnik Pervouralsk 7:4 Volga Ulyanovsk (Group I)

Current Standings:
GP/Pts./GF-GA

Group I

1. Dynamo Moscow - 3/9/38-5
2. Zorky Krasnogorsk - 3/7/26-6
3. Volga Ulyanovsk - 2/6/15-13
4. Vodnik Arkhangelsk - 3/6/15-13
5. Rodina Kirov - 3/5/22-9
6. Raketa Kazan - 3/4/18-23
7. Uralsky Trubnik Pervouralsk - 3/3/19-14
8. Start Nizhny Novgorod - 3/3/11-32
9. Stroitel Syktyvkar - 3/0/10-38
10. Zorky-2 Krasnogorsk 3/0/10-44

Group II

1. SKA-Neftyanik Khabarovsk - 4/12/26-12
2. Sibselmash Novosibirsk - 4/9/23-12
3. Sayany Abakan - 4/9/14-11
4. Yenisei Krasnoyarsk - 4/7/16-10
5. Kuzbass Kemerovo - 3/6/31-11
6. Baikal-Energia Irkutsk - 3/6/14-13
7. Mayak Krasnoturinsk - 3/3/19-21
8. Metallurg Bratsk - 4/3/13-23
9. Lesokhimik Ust-Ilimsk - 4/1/12-22
10. SKA Zabaikalets-Energia Chita - 3/1/9-20
11. SKA-Sverdlovsk Yekaterinburg - 4/1/16-38

Congratulations to Tim Taylor on New Position with USA Hockey

2007-08-25T12:16:00.000-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- Congratulations to former Yale University hockey coach Tim Taylor on being named an assistant coach for USA Hockey's National Team Development Program. As a life-long Yale fan and former neighbor of his, I know Taylor was a great teacher and mentor to his players and one of the true treasures of the university.

"Tim Taylor is one of the most respected American coaches of our time," said Jim Johannson, assistant executive director of hockey operations for USA Hockey, as reported by USCHO.com Friday. "He is a terrific teacher of the game and we couldn't be more pleased to have him join our staff."

Taylor served as an assistant coach for the US Olympic hockey team in 1984, eventually moving up to head coach for the 1994 Games in Lillehammer, Norway. His other national coaching experience includes leading the US to a second-place finish in the 1991 Canada Cup, as well as four years as head coach at the World Championships (1989-1992).

"I couldn't be happier to join such a wonderful program," said Taylor. "I am excited to help the young men of the National Team Development Program become better hockey players, and teach them things that they will carry with them both on and off the ice throughout their lives. It will be a thrill for me to work with such motivated athletes and also a great coaching staff."

Taylor spent 28 years as the Yale head coach, winning six Ivy League titles to go with 19 ECAC playoff appearances. He was awarded ECAC coach of the year three times, in 1987, 1992, and 1998, a season in which he also won the Spencer Penrose Award as NCAA Division I coach of the year. In 1997-98, he guided the Bulldogs to a school-record 23 wins, an ECAC regular-season crown and a berth in the NCAA tournament.

His career record at Yale was 342-433-55, and he coached more games than anyone else in ECAC Hockey League history.

Kadakin Scores 4 As Baikal Tops Chita 6-2

2007-08-25T11:51:00.000-07:00

Khimik Stadium, KEMEROVO, Russia -- Nikolai Kadakin's natural hat trick in the first 24 minutes were enough for Baikal-Energia Irkutsk to record their second victory in as many games in the first round of the Russian Cup, besting SKA Zabaikalets-Energia Chita, 6-2.

"Right now the goal for the team is move onto the next round," said Baikal-Energia head coach Alexander Shishkin, as reported on the team's website. "Therefore we have to find new line combinations that include our young players. All of that is essential for creating an effective team, able to confront serious tasks ahead in the regular season."

Mikhail Yefimov got Chita on the board in the 39th minute, but they would never cut the deficit to less than two. Kadakin scored again off a pass from Alexander Nasonov shortly after the break, but Alexander Trufanov answered again for Zabaikalets, making it 4-2.

Yevgeny Yakovlev, the captain and leading scorer for Chita last season, added an insurance goal in the 88th minute, followed by Denis Nokhrin a minute later to cap off the scoring.

Effective corners were again a key to this match, as Baikal scored three goals this way, two off of perfect passes from Konstantin Savchenko. More importantly, however, the team played much more disciplined than in their first match.

"In the first game, we told the team to play very calmly - the message was discipline. But it turned out that everyone played with a lot of nerves," Shishkin said. "There's always going to be nervousness in the first game. In the second game, everything changed, and the results were different."

A player who certainly shook off some nerves was teenage goalie Yevgeny Utin, who recorded his second win in his second start after a somewhat shaky debut. Baikal's next game will be on Sunday against SKA-Neftyanik Khabarovsk.

Other scores:

Friday, August 24

Kuzbass Kemerovo 10:5 Mayak Krasnoturinsk (Group II)
Volga Ulyanovsk 6:2 Vodnik Arkhangelsk (Group I)
Dynamo Moscow 15:0 Start Nizhny Novgorod (Group I)

Baikal-Zabaikalets

2007-08-24T02:07:00.000-07:00

Khimik Stadium, KEMEROVO, Russia -- Nikolai Kadakin - I anoint you King of All Media. Four goals, and still a lot of hockey to go.

Vitaly Labun is Crazy Fast

2007-08-24T01:30:00.000-07:00

Khimik Stadium, KEMEROVO, Russia -- I'm listening to the Baikal-Energia - Zabaikalets-Energia game, and I miss Vitaly Labun. That guy was a joy to watch, because he was supernaturally fast. Too bad he's with Chita, but we're up 3-0, thanks to...

Kolya Kadakin, o-o-o-o-o!!!

Baikal-Energia Starts Russian Cup with Win Over Sverdlovsk

2007-08-23T18:03:00.000-07:00

Khimik Stadium, KEMEROVO, Russia -- Baikal-Energia won their first game of the Russian Cup, albeit not very impressively, barely besting SKA-Sverdlovsk Yekaterinburg, 4-3.

Five minutes in, forward Sanya Nosonov tried to get the offense moving, firing a shot off the post. But Sverdlovsk counterattacked, slipping one by 18-year-old goaltender Yevgeny Utin in the seventh minute as Vitaly Pozdnyakov scored off a pass from Dmitry Stepchenkov.

Nasonov's next move would even the score, however, as he delivered an assist to Konstantin Savchenko (pictured right) in the 13th minute. Sverdlovsk kept up the pressure for the remainder of the first half, but to no avail. Despite their offensive difficulties, Irkutsk did manage to work corners into a pair of goals - Savchenko delivered passes to Maxim Blem and newcomer Yevgeny Yakovlev to put Irkutsk up 3-1 going into the locker room.

Ten minutes after the break, Nasonov set a play in motion that would result in the game-winner. From beyond the center ice line, he delivered a perfect aerial pass to Savchenko right in front of the opponents' net. After stickhandling past two defenders, he placed the ball right on Yakovlev's stick, who fired it in from beyond the circle.

Baikal's poor defensive play nearly proved its undoing. Before the game had reached the 60 minute mark, Sverdlovsk would cut Irkutsk's lead from three to one, as Yury Marinov and Alexei Shevchenko scored in quick succession, but Utin managed to hold off the offense and record the victory.

Baikal-Energia's next game will be Friday against SKA-Zabaikalets-Energia Chita.

In Neftyanik's 9-2 win against Zabaikalets, former Baikal-Energia player Sergei Yusupov scored a pair of goals, while Maxim Gavrilenko had a goal and two assists. Here are the rest of the Russian Cup scores:

Wednesday, August 22

SKA-Neftyanik Khabarovsk 5:3 Mayak Krasnoturnisk (Group II)
Kuzbass Kemerovo 18:2 SKA-Sverdlovsk Yekaterinburg (Group II)
Uralsky Trubnik Pervouralsk 13:1 Start Nizhny Novgorod (Group I)
Dynamo Moscow 15:1 Zorky-2 Krasnogorsk (Group I)

Thursday, August 23

SKA-Neftyanik Khabarovsk 9:2 SKA-Zabaikalets-Energia Chita (Group II)
Vodnik Arkhangelsk 5:2 Uralsky Trubnik Pervouralsk (Group I)
Volga Ulyanovsk 11:0 Zorky-2 Krasnogorsk (Group I)

Hooliganism A Big Problem In Bandy

2007-08-22T13:55:00.000-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- While searching on the Internet for bandy videos to show to a friend of mine, I came across a website, Bandyhools.com. This site is dedicated to bandy hooligans, people who only go to games to get outrageously drunk and start fights with the rival team's fans, or whoever is unfortunate enough to get in their way.

Hooliganism is a rampant problem in European sports, perhaps nowhere more pronounced than in Russia, but I had always thought that bandy was relatively free of this scourge. In all my years of watching the sport, only once did I ever hear of a case of severe hooliganism - a bunch of thugs overturned a bus in Irkutsk after a match with Yenisei Krasnoyarsk in 2002 - and even then I was not myself witness to it. Irkutsk is by no means a city without violence, but for a club that routinely attracts 15,000 fans, all are pretty well behaved. The brawls in the stands and the hurling of road flares so common in other stadiums is unheard of.

Sports hooliganism is prevalent everywhere, even in my own town. But in North America, it is usually of a different character; while often no less destructive, American hooligans are usually just people who act incredibly foolish while in the throes of sporting exuberance, fueled by alcohol and stupidity. In few places will you find the skin-headed, jack-booted thugs who roam around stadiums looking only for fights, supposedly in the name of their favorite team, like you see in nearly every Russian stadium.

While working for a Russian television station, I worked with a guy in his mid-twenties who was a dedicated Dynamo Moscow hooligan. It did not matter what the sporting event was - soccer, hockey, bandy, volleyball, archery - he and his crew were there to start trouble. He defended the hooligan culture as just young me trying to have some fun. There was never any real danger, he said, and no one got seriously hurt. He decided to leave his thug life behind, though, when a 15-year-old fan was murdered at a soccer match in St. Petersburg between hometown Zenit and Dynamo in 2000. (For a good discussion of soccer hooliganism, check out Franklin Foer's "How Soccer Explains the World").

I was somewhat heartened to see no mention of Baikal-Energia on this hooligan site. Our fans are more interested in actually watching and playing bandy than in kicking people while they are on the ground, though getting outrageously drunk is not out of the question.

So, cut the shit, hooligans. You thugs suck.

SKA-Neftyanik Buys Up Baikal Stars

2007-08-20T12:35:00.000-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- I am writing this post with a heavy heart indeed. It's been a foregone conclusion for a while now, but nine players from last year's roster have left Baikal-Energia Irkutsk, six of them going to divisional rival SKA-Neftyanik Khabarovsk, including my favorite player, Sergei Yusupov (pictured right).

I had been holding off posting this terrible news, hoping some of them might return, but it was confirmed when Neftyanik announced their roster for the Russian Cup.

Along with Yusupov, Maxim Gavrilenko, Konstantin Yeryomenko, Sergei Rogulyov, Maxim Koshelev, and Andrei Kovalyov have moved to Khabarovsk. In addition, Dmitry Sokolov and Vasily Levi have moved to SKA-Zabaikalets-Energia Chita.

The offensive contributions of Yusupov and Rogulyov will be difficult to replace, as last season they scored 27 and 25 goals, respectively; Rogulyov led the team in overall scoring with 45 points, while Yusupov finished fourth with 31.

Finally, Baikal will be without defenseman Alexei Petrov, who has left after four years with the club, though it is still unknown where he will play this upcoming season.

But Baikal has a number of new additions. Forward Yevgeny Yakovlev and midfielder Yury Timofeyev have both moved over from Chita; Yakovlev led Chita in goal scoring last season with 22. Also, defenseman Andrei Veselov has arrived from Sayany Abakan, and midfielder Andrei Artyomenko has come over from Yenisei Krasnoyarsk.

On Friday, the Russian Bandy Federation also approved the transfers of defenseman Andrei Stolnikov from Volga Ulyanovsk and midfielder Pavel Naumov from Swedish side IFK Malmo.

Yusup, you will be missed. But tune in to Rambler audio to hear him play against his old club at 2am ET on Sunday, August 26 (this broadcast will be, of course, in Russian).

Baikal-Energia's first Russian Cup match will be on Thursday against Yekaterinburg, also at 2am ET (blame the 13 hour time difference).

Here's an updated version of their full Russian Cup first round schedule (all times Eastern):

August 23 - SKA-Sverdlovsk Yekaterinburg, 2am
August 24 - SKA-Zabaikalets Chita, 2am
August 26 - SKA-Neftyanik Khabarovsk, 2am
August 27 - Mayak Krasnoturinsk, 2am
August 28 - Kuzbass Kemerovo, 5am
September 9 - Yenisei Krasnoyarsk, 8am
September 11 - Sayany Abakan, 8am
September 12 - Metallurg Bratsk, 11pm
September 15 - Sibselmash Novosibirsk, 8am
September 16 - Lesokhimik Ust-Ilimsk, 8am

Update: Forward Nikolai Semyashkin has also joined Baikal-Energia from Vodnik Arkhangelsk, though he was only listed on the team's roster for the Russian Cup, according to rosters filed with the federation August 8. Former Baikal defenseman Alexei Petrov has joined Chita, but he is also currently only on the Russian Cup roster.

Canada/Russia Junior Super Series Starts Next Week

2007-08-18T18:19:00.000-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- Junior national squads from Russia and Canada will square off in an eight-game series starting August 27 to mark the 35th anniversary of the 1972 Summit Series between Canada and the Soviet Union.

The first four games of the series will be played in the Russian cities of Ufa and Omsk, while the last four will be played in Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Red Deer and Vancouver.

The tournament will be a good warm up for the World Junior Championships, which will be held in the Czech Republic in December. Canada has defeated Russia three years in a row in the gold medal game of the WJC, and they have met in the finals five out of the last six years.

The head coaches of both teams are NHL veterans, as Sergei Nemchinov will guide the Russian team, and Brent Sutter will be behind Canada's bench.

Canada won the historic Summit Series 4-3-1, after winning three games in a row to erase a two-game deficit. The series-clinching goal was scored by Paul Henderson with just 34 seconds remaining in game eight in Moscow, giving Canada a 6-5 win. The goal is widely regarded as the most memorable moment in Canadian hockey history.

For complete rosters and other tournament information, visit the Hockey Canada website.

Here's a complete tournament schedule, and all games will be televised live in Canada on Rogers Sportsnet or TSN/RDS (all times Eastern):

Game 1: August 27, Ufa, Russia, 9am
Game 2: August 29, Ufa, Russia, 9am
Game 3: August 31, Omsk, Russia, 8am
Game 4: September 1, Omsk, Russia, 8am
Game 5: September 4, Winnipeg, 8pm
Game 6: September 5, Saskatoon, 8pm
Game 7: September 7, Red Deer, 10pm
Game 8: September 9, Vancouver, 8pm

If You See This Man...

2007-08-18T17:29:00.000-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- ...please do whatever you can to stop him from pitching again for the Red Sox.

I know this site isn't about baseball, but Eric Gagne is unspeakably bad. He did it again against the Angels Friday, allowing a walk, three hits and three runs, all earned.

In the span of just over a week, he has recorded two blown saves and blown another big lead in Baltimore that eventually cost the Sox the game, while allowing seven earned runs in three innings over his last four games. That's criminal. The bullpen is so stacked, why do they keep sending this guy out there? And now the Sox' lead in the division is a mere four games.

Hopefully, Friday's game was the last straw for Tito Francona.

So, please, whatever it takes, stop him from taking the mound again if you want to beat the Yankees.

Update: Russian Cup Gets Underway in Moscow, Kemerovo

2007-08-18T12:30:00.000-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- The first leg of the Russian Cup began on Tuesday, with Moscow playing host to the West Division teams in Group I, and Kemerovo hosting Group II.

The tournament is a round robin that lasts until September 16. The top six teams in each group will then move on to the second round. The 7th-11th place finishers from round 1 will then play anther round robin tournament in two groups of five teams; the first- and second-place finishers in each group will continue on to the second round, bringing the total field to 16 teams. For round 2, the 16 teams are divided into four groups, and again they play a round robin tournament. Finally, the first- and second-place finishers in each group of the second round move on to the single-elimination finals, to be held in Moscow November 3-5.

This upcoming season, the citizens of Orenburg will not be able to see their team, Lokomotiv, take part in the Cup or play in the top league, as their last place finish relegated them to the lower division. Their place in the West Division will be taken by Zorky-2, Zorky Krasnogorsk's alternate squad.

AMNGR-Murman Murmansk has decided not to participate in the Russian Cup, citing financial difficulties, and there is some question as to whether the club will be able to play in the top league this season, meaning Group I will consist of only 10 teams.

Editor's Note: The added or corrected portions are in bold. It was originally reported that the top eight teams from each division will reach the second round of the Russian Cup.

Updated Russian Cup Scores

2007-08-18T11:46:00.000-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- Here are the latest scores from round 1 of the Russian Cup:

August 16

Lesokhimik Ust-Ilimsk 3:3 Yenisei Krasnoyarsk (Group II)
Rodina Kirov 12:1 Stroitel Syktyvkar (Group I)

August 17

Sibselmash Novosibirsk 3:1 Sayany Abakan (Group II)
Metallurg Bratsk 6:2 Lesokhimik Ust-Ilimsk (Group II)
Zorky Krasnogorsk 11:1 Raketa Kazan (Group I)

August 18

Yenisei Krasnoyarsk 7:1 Metallurg Bratsk (Group II)

Raketa Kazan Still on Shaky Financial Ground

2007-08-15T12:27:00.001-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- Raketa Kazan was looking forward to the 2007-08 season - with new financial backing, the club had bought nine new players, including five Swedes and two Finns. These purchases turned the perennial also-ran into an immediate contender, but their new-found wealth has all but disappeared, and club officials fear they may not be able to operate at all this season, Sovetsky Sport reported in its July 23 issue.

Former club president and principal sponsor Nikolai Kolesov signed these new player deals, reportedly offering salaries of US$20,000-$25,000 per month, sums almost unheard of in professional bandy. But in May, Kolesov was appointed governor of the Amur Region of Siberia, and since leaving Kazan, he has failed to pay any of the team's bills or player salaries.

Kolesov remains the official president of the team, but general manager Valery Nosov and the accounting staff have been unable to contact him to resolve the financial crisis by either receiving funds from Kolesov or seeking new sponsorship, which would also require his approval, Sovetsky Sport reported.

Five of the new players have already been released by the team - these players had existing contracts with other clubs, and Raketa had never paid transfer fees, meaning they returned to their old teams without ever setting foot in Kazan. These players included Petteri Lampinen and Per Nilsson from Edsbyns IF, Patrik Nilsson from Sandvikens AIK, and Johan Andersson and Daniel Mossberg from Zorky Krasnogorsk.

As for the players signed who were not under contract, Andreas Bergwall has returned to Swedish club Hammarby IF, while Sami Lakkonen has returned to Zorky. The two Russian players - Pavel Frantz and Alexei Chizhov - have decided to leave the team as well, signing with their previous Russian clubs.

Raketa's former sponsor was Elekon, a state-owned factory that manufactures heat exchangers. Last year Elekon sold the club to Kolesov, along with a promise that the company would support the team for the next 10 years. However, it appears as if Elekon has withdrawn its financing, and Kolesov is nowhere to be found.

Raketa is still searching for new sources of funding, as well as its former boss, but they have managed to field a team for the Russian Cup, one that is likely to come up well short of the promises made this off-season.

Russian Cup Gets Underway in Moscow, Kemerovo

2007-08-15T11:01:00.000-07:00

BOULDER, Colorado -- The first leg of the Russian Cup began on Tuesday, with Moscow playing host to the West Division teams in Group I, and Kemerovo hosting Group II.

The tournament is a round robin that lasts until September 16. The top eight teams in each group will then move on to the second round, in which the 16 teams are divided into four groups, and again they play a round robin tournament. Finally, the first- and second-place finishers in each group of the second round move on to the single-elimination finals, to be held in Moscow November 3-5.

This upcoming season, the citizens of Orenburg will not be able to see their team, Lokomotiv, take part in the Cup or play in the top league, as their last place finish relegated them to the lower division. Their place in the West Division will be taken by Zorky-2, Zorky Krasnogorsk's alternate squad.

Here are the scores from the first two days of competition:

August 14

Zorky Krasnogorsk 12-2 Stroitel Syktyvkar (Group I)
Sayany Abakan 6-4 Metallurg Bratsk (Group II)
Sibselmash Novosibirsk 8-4 Lesokhimik Ust-Ilimsk (Group II)

August 15

Raketa Kazan 5-5 Rodina Kirov (Group I)
Sayany Abakan 2-1 Yenisei Krasnoyarsk (Group II)
Sibselmash Novosibirsk 8-2 Metallurg Bratsk (Group II)

Baikal-Energia Irkutsk does not begin their Russian Cup season until August 23, when they will take on SKA-Sverdlovsk Yekaterinburg. Here's the rest of Baikal's first round schedule (all times Eastern):

August 23 - SKA-Sverdlovsk Yekaterinburg, 2am
August 24 - SKA-Zabaikalets Chita, 2am
August 26 - SKA-Neftyanik Khabarovsk, 2am
August 27 - Mayak Krasnoturinsk, 2am
August 28 - Kuzbass Kemerovo*, 5am
September 9 - Yenisei Krasnoyarsk, 8am
September 11 - Sayany Abakan, 8am
September 12 - Metallurg Bratsk, 11pm
September 15 - Sibselmash Novosibirsk, 8am
September 16 - Lesokhimik Ust-Ilimsk, 8am

*Games marked in bold are key match-ups and/or regional rivalries for Baikal-Energia

What Package Should I Get for Watching Hockey?

2007-07-28T10:08:00.000-07:00

QUECHEE, Vermont -- It may appear as if I watch a lot of bandy and/or hockey, but I really don't. I don't have cable, meaning the only NHL games I get to watch are either in bars or whenever NBC shows it. I do go to a lot of games, but these are mostly college and minor league games, and that is, at most, 30 games a season. Most of the hockey, and all of the bandy since I moved out of Russia, I listen to on Internet radio. But I am tired of hearing about my beloved Boston Bruins through my computer's tinny speakers and never getting to see them.

So I have discovered three options to boost my hours of hockey watching, in descending order of price:

1. Get cable with the NHL Center Ice package

2. Get cable and rely on Versus, Altitude (the Colorado Avalanche flagship channel) and ESPN for hockey

3. Get the NHL Center Ice Online package

Does anyone have Center Ice? How much does it cost, and is it worth it? What about the online version - are the quality and reliability decent?

If you would like to help me out with my conundrum, write me an email or post a comment on this blog. And keep supporting bandy - maybe one day there will be a Russian Bandy League cable package.

Khattab the Dog, Michael Vick the Fool

2007-07-28T09:35:00.000-07:00

QUECHEE, Vermont -- I don't want to weigh in on the whole Michael Vick dog fighting affair, but I thought I would re-post something I blogged earlier this year about dog fighting in Russia to give people a lit bit of perspective on this whole sad and barbaric affair (well, I guess I just weighed in, didn't I?) Here's the blog entry from February 13th, with all the previously dead links restored:

BOULDER, Colorado -- This has nothing to do with hockey, but it does have to do with Russia, and my friend Tyler insisted that I include it in my blog.

Apparently, the sport of dog fighting is becoming quite popular in the former Soviet Union. I will admit that I do have some interest in blood sports of this type, but what I found especially pleasing about this article from the New York Times (there was little to take pleasure in, honestly) was that one of the dogs was named Khattab, supposedly named after Khattab the Lion, a Saudi-born jihadist who became a prominent rebel commander in Chechnya. He was killed in 2002 by Russian security forces by means of a poison-soaked letter.

Check out the video as well.

Oilers' Lowe Desperate to Save Job

2007-07-28T08:32:00.000-07:00

QUECHEE, Vermont -- It's been nearly four months since my last post, but I've been working diligently to launch the new and improved Bandy Central website. But the bandy season is fast approaching, and the posts will start up again even while the new site is still under construction. But before we get into the bandy news (something is really brewing in Kazan ... news coming soon), I had to comment on some of Friday's developments in the National Hockey League.

Edmonton Oilers GM Kevin Lowe submitted an offer sheet to Anaheim restricted free agent Dustin Penner for US$21.25 million over five years.

Penner possesses imposing size and good hands around the net, netting 29 goals while playing on the second line of the Stanley Cup champs; some have even compared the 245-lb, 24-year-old to a young John LeClair or Todd Bertuzzi. But Penner has only one full season of NHL service, and the offer would increase the left winger's salary nearly 10-fold per season over the league-minimum $450,000 he received in 2006-07.

Ducks GM Brian Burke was rightfully irked by the offer sheet, which he referred to as a "gutless" move by Lowe.

"I have no problem with offer sheets," Burke said, as reported by the Associated Press. "If you can identify a player and pay him appropriately and make him an offer, that's fine. At some point, the deals you make, the offers you extend, whether the team matches it or not, impacts all 30 teams, including your own," he added.

Another of Burke's comments struck more to the heart of the matter, though: "It was an act of desperation by a general manager fighting to keep his job," he said, according to the Globe and Mail.

Lowe has been scrambling during this free agent season to find players to help improve his failing club. Last season, Lowe's team landed 25 points out of the playoffs, just one year after coming within a game of the Stanley Cup title.

In addition to this latest move, earlier this month Lowe offered $50 million over seven years to Buffalo's Tomas Vanek. While Vanek is a legitimate NHL star, netting 42 goals for the club with the league's best record last year, $7 million per season is quite a price to pay for a player with only two years of NHL experience.

But then again, Buffalo GM Dacy Regier may have found himself in the same position as Lowe - with lots of salary cap room and nothing to spend it on. With the departure of captains Chris Drury and Daniel Briere, it was a no-brainer for Buffalo to match any offer for Vanek, no matter how generous.

As in most sports, every off-season some GMs look to make a big splash with big signings, no matter how weak the free agent class. Lowe clearly missed the big fish, and now he's looking to grab headlines by overpaying for a second-liner.

The NHL's salary cap was supposed to reign in player salaries that had spiraled out of control. What we are seeing now is the teams that haven't yet learned how to manage the cap - in addition to drafting poorly and trading poorly - are left with gaping holes in their payroll that they are willing to fill with anything that comes along, no matter the price.

Burke has not said what he is going to do about Penner. Scott Niedermayer and Teemu Selanne are leaning towards retirement, which would give Anaheim much more cap room and the means to match Edmonton's sheet, but Burke has said that Anaheim's initial offer to Penner was nowhere close to the Edmonton offer sheet.

Hopefully, Burke will have more sense than to match the Oilers' offer. Let Penner go for crazy money, and let Lowe dig his own grave when his team misses the playoffs yet again.

Update: The Anaheim Ducks chose not to match Edmonton's offer to Penner, meaning the winger is now an Oiler, the Associated Press reported August 3. In exchanger for signing him, Edmonton must give up its first, second and third round draft picks in 2008 to the Ducks.

"We don't believe these salaries make sense. If I believe these salaries don't make sense and I match, then I'm just as dumb as the team that extended the offer," said Anaheim GM Brian Burke.