Russian Plane Crash Kills KHL Team

Former NHL stars Pavol Demtria, Karel Rachunek, and Ruslan Salei are among the 43 killed in a plane crash in western Russia.

Thirty-six members of a hockey team in Russia's Kontinental Hockey League have been killed in a plane crash near the city of Yaroslav. Only one person aboard the plane survived, with reports suggesting that the team aboard the plane, the KHL's Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, had just taken off for Minsk, Belarus to begin this year's season. Among the former NHL players who were playing in Yaroslavl include Pavol Demitra, Ruslan Salei, Karel Rachunek, Josef Vasicek and Karlis Skrastins. While there has yet to be confirmation of their deaths, this is truly one of the worst accidents to befall a sports team in years. The KHL has become the second-largest professional hockey league in the world after the NHL, and attracts players from all over Europe and increasingly, North Americans who didn't make the NHL.

Updated: Reports are now saying that 43 were killed in the crash, including Lokomotiv head coach Brad McCrimmon. McCrimmon was one of the NHL's top defencemen in the 1980s, playing stints with the Boston Bruins, Philadelphia Flyers, and the 1988-89 Stanley Cup-winning Calgary Flames.

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