By Brian Metzer
Many in the hockey world are still reeling from the events of Wednesday morning that saw a plane crash take the lives of all but one member of the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl KHL team that was en route to the first game of its season in Minsk. Watching the pain and suffering of all involved as been tough for all of us, but no one has felt it worse that the many Russian born NHL players that have intimate ties to many of the teams in the KHL and specifically Lokomotiv Yaroslavl.
Over the past couple of days those Russian born players have been sending condolences, thoughts, and prayers to their grieving nation and on Friday it was Evgeni Malkin’s turn. Though he issued a statement earlier in the day that Dmitry Chesnokov reported in his twitter feed, he filmed a video statement that the Penguins released via their official site. The statement is below in both Russian and English…
English version:
Russian version:
Statement from Dmitry Chesnokov’s twitter feed:
“It is difficult to describe with words everything that happened. I cannot comprehend it still. I have a heavy heart. My sincere condolences to the close ones and the relatives, wives and children, to the entire city of Yaroslavl who support their team we are all sincerely worried [about them] and are sincerely supporting them. If there is any help we can provide we always will I talked to a lot of players who are overseas now, everyone is worried and is supporting you. This is a difficult tragedy and we have to live through this together,we have 2 stay together &move forward. I know that Russia will get on their feet,will keep moving forward.”
