Plane crash killing KHL team

[Jerry Heyman]

http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=587845 - one time Islander, Josef Vasicek
was on the plane.

Q: what is Yashin doing skating w/the Islanders??


SYOSSET, N.Y. -- New York Islanders goaltender Evgeni Nabokov was having his
first breakfast on Long Island when he heard the tragic news that more than
40 people -- mostly members of the Lokomotiv club in the Kontinental Hockey
League -- died in a plane crash Wednesday.

"I think I knew 80 percent of the team," said Nabokov, who played for St.
Petersburg in the KHL last season. "Either I played with them or I played
against them. You see each other in different tournaments. Some of them
you're really close with, or some them you just say hi and have a couple of
laughs with.

"It struck me when I found out. I was at breakfast and reading the Russian
newspapers and all of a sudden, it popped up. It's almost like you don't
want to believe something like that. It's tough. You have chills and you
just hope that the families will find the strength to fight through
something like that."

The plane crashed near the city of Yaroslavl in Central Russia and claimed
the lives of at least 43 people, according to Russia's Emergency Situations
Ministry. Among those aboard the doomed flight were former Islanders Josef
Vasicek and Alexander Karpovtsev. International Ice Hockey Federation
president Rene Fasel labeled the crash "the darkest day in the history of
our sport."

Former Islanders captain Alexei Yashin, who has been skating with the
Islanders over the past week during some informal workouts, agreed.

"It's a sad day in the history of hockey," Yashin said. "A lot of my
friends were on the plane. I just want to give my condolences to the
families. It's a tough time for everybody in the hockey world -- not only in
Russia, but this should touch everybody in professional sports. There's
nothing really you can say."

According to the reports on the crash, the plane, a Yakovlev Yak-42
passenger jet, went down and caught fire shortly immediately after taking to
the air, crashing less than 2 kilometers from the airport. It was en route
to Minsk, Belarus for a Thursday night game against Dynamo Minsk,
Yaroslavl's opener to the 2011-12 KHL season.

The Russian Emergency Situations Ministry said the plane crashed
immediately after taking off from an airport near the city on the Volga
River, which is approximately 150 miles northeast of Moscow.

Nabokov, who said he was unsure if he would travel to Russia to pay his
respects for any possible memorial services, told NHL.com he has become more
worried about air travel since he became a father.

"To be honest with you, I was never a really scared traveler," Nabokov
said. "But since I had kids, I'm definitely more scared now. When you go on
a plane, you're out of the control. You're in somebody's hands. There's
nothing you can do. You just never want to see anything like that."

Added Yashin: "It's tough, because yesterday they were alive and today
they're not. It's very, very tough."


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