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It was 10 years ago today that 44 people on board the flight carrying the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl hockey team crashed following take-off. Only flight engineer Alexander Sizov survived. Alexander Galimov, a forward, was not killed in the crashed but died days later after being burned in over 80% of his body. Twenty-nine of the dead were players and coaches, many with NHL ties.
Here are links to recent and past tributes to the team and players who were lost on Sept. 7, 2011.
• A beautiful read on the journeys of Brad McCrimmon and Igor Korolev. “It’s 10 years and it still doesn’t let you go. We still don’t believe it. … The plane is not supposed to fall down.” [The Athletic]
• “They were all so familiar to us, even from the periphery of the hockey world, and it sometimes was human nature in the past to take them for granted. But after the Yaroslavl crash, we try our hardest, on their behalf, to appreciate everyone around us and the time we’re given on this planet. Although Lokomotiv eventually moved forward after the tragedy and iced a KHL squad again, the spirit of those who perished still surrounds the team. It really doesn’t feel like it’s been a decade since we lost them. The pain is still raw for their friends, family and teammates.” [The Hockey News]
• Blues and Canucks teammates of Pavol Demitra remember the longtime NHL forward. [The Athletic]
• Here’s the moving tribute to Ruslan Salei that was played in Minsk before the first Ruslan Salei Memorial Tournament.
• “Across every interview, the thing that stood out about Josef Vašíček was how sincerely happy he was to be where he was playing professional hockey and also how humble he was about it.” [Canes and Coffee]
• A look back at the NHL career of Kārlis Skrastiņš, who played 832 games with the Predators, Avalanche, Panthers, and Stars. [Blackout Dallas]
• “The memory of the 44 players, coaches, team staff and air crew who perished in the disaster is indelibly woven into the city. It can be felt at the memorials, both at the crash site and in the Leontievskoye cemetery. It’s reflected in the annual memorial services and commemorations that still close the streets in downtown, 10 years on. And, in this anniversary year, new, lasting tributes.” [KHL]
Players
Vitaly Anikeyenko
Mikhail Balandin
Gennady Churilov
Pavol Demitra
Robert Dietrich
Alexander Galimov
Marat Kalimulin
Alexander Kalyanin
Andrei Kiryukhin
Nikita Klyukin
Stefan Liv
Jan Marek
Sergei Ostapchuk
Karel Rachůnek
Ruslan Salei
Maxim Shuvalov
Kārlis Skrastiņš
Pavel Snurnitsyn
Daniil Sobchenko
Ivan Tkachenko
Pavel Trakhanov
Yuri Urychev
Josef Vašíček
Alexander Vasyunov
Alexander Vyukhin
Artem Yarchuk
Staff
Brad McCrimmon
Alexander Karpovtsev
Igor Korolev
Nikolai Krivonosov
Yury Bakhvalov
Alexander Belyayev
Evgeny Kunov
Evgeny Kuznetsov
Vladimir Piskunov
Evgeny Sidorov
Andrei Zimin
Crew
Nadezhda Maksumova
Vladimir Matyushkin
Elena Sarmatova
Elena Shalina
Andrei Solomentsev
Igor Zhevelov
Sergei Zhuravlyov
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Sean Leahy is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @Sean_Leahy