New season postponed
The start of the KHL season has been delayed following the fatal plane crash involving the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl squad on Wednesday afternoon.
The opening games will be postponed, following a decision taken by president Alexander Medvedev and the chairman of the board of directors Vyacheslav Fetisov on Thursday morning. Information about future game schedules will be announced in the near future.
On Wednesday afternoon an aircraft carrying Lokomotiv to its opening game in Minsk crashed shortly after take off from Yaroslavl’s Tunoshna airport. The news broke during the first period of the season’s curtain-raiser between Salavat Yulayev Ufa and Atlant Moscow Region. That game was abandoned.
On Saturday the 10th of September, at the Arena-2000-Lokomotiv stadium, Yaroslavl, will be a ceremony to say farewell to all the players, coaches and staff of Lokomotiv killed in the air crash.
Decisions regarding strategies for replenishing the Lokomotiv team will not be taken until after this date.
Due to the organization and staging of memorial events in honor of the victims of the tragedy, the Kontinental Hockey League championship 2011/2012 season will now begin on the 12th of September.
Today at 8pm Moscow Time the KHL-TV channel will have a live broadcast from Misnk of the “requiem-evening” event dedicated to the Lokomotiv players. And in memory of the outstanding Yaroslavl team the KHL-TV will only be showing games featuring Lokomotiv until the start of the new season.
