Team included teammates of former Canuck Pavol Demitra
A plane crash near the Russian city of Yaroslavl carrying the local professional hockey team has left 44 people dead, including teammates of former Vancouver Canuck Pavol Demitra. According to local authorities, the plan lilted left as it took off from the Yaroslavl airport, crashing just 500 metres away. An official told Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency that only one person survived the plane crash. The incident led to the cessation of the KHL’s first regular season hockey game of the year partway through the first period. League president Alexander Medvedev said “the players of both teams considered playing after their friends and colleagues died to be absolutely impossible.” The team’s roster consists of several former NHL players and league prospects. Former Calgary Flame Brad McCrimmon, who won the Stanley Cup with the Flames in 1989 and the team’s coach, was among those killed.