Translated material
The stretcher incident
There are still shortcomings in the medical support of the KHL
Another tragedy almost happened in the Russian Open Hockey Championship, after which it became clear that the medical teams present in the arenas during matches were completely unprepared for difficult situations. It’s good that the injury to player Martin Kariya from Dynamo Riga was not serious.At the end of the match between Spartak and Dynamo Riga, the hosts' defender Jaroslav Obshut, according to the rules, pinned Kariya to the boards, and he fell very unsuccessfully, hit his head on the ice and was unable to get up. At the same time, we immediately note that the Spartak player was not at all to blame for the opponent’s injury. He was not even punished with a two-minute penalty after a special meeting - everything was clear. Kariya lay there and did not move. They called doctors from the ambulance on duty. They only recorded the bruise and said that the player needed to be moved to the locker room. Then it turned out that there were no normal stretchers. The player was supposed to be carried on the hard surface due to a suspected neck problem. But there was only a tarpaulin, on which Martin was taken to a quiet place. At the same time, he was almost dropped, because the exit to the site in Sokolniki is very inconvenient and does not mean that someone will have to be carried.
Fortunately, nothing serious happened. Kariya was diagnosed with a concussion, he spent the night in the Botkin hospital and on Sunday went to Riga by train, since it is not recommended for him to fly on airplanes. But this is pure luck, and for now it is clear that medical teams at Kontinental Hockey League matches cannot help players in the event of some serious situation.
If we talk about the match, it turned out to be amazing. The team, which did not score a single point in this championship, defeated the leader with a score of 5:1. The Riga team played very carefully in defense, and goalkeeper Martin Prusek, who once played for Spartak, played his best match of the season. Perhaps the defeat would not have happened, but the hosts' coach, Czech Milos Rzhiga, removed the goalkeeper twice, and both times unsuccessfully, the Dynamo hockey players invariably hit the empty goal.
“It’s good that we lost,” said the head coach of Spartak after the match. “Now they won’t write about us as a leader, and we will work calmly.” Let us note that the first goal in the Kontinental Hockey League was scored by Sandis Ozolins. The notorious defenseman from Latvia, who was being treated for alcoholism, returned home, ending his NHL career. In the first three matches, Ozolins only retired, getting used to the rules.
By the way, about the rules. Hockey players are growing dissatisfied with the innovations, according to which now any presence in the goalkeeper's area before the puck is punishable by the cancellation of the goal. Everyone believes, for example, that Avangard Omsk lost two true goals in the match against Dynamo, and on Saturday Metallurg Magnitogorsk lost to SKA with a score of 0:1 and also faced a goal being canceled.
“All this leads to the fact that there will be no power struggle at all in the patch,” says Avangard striker Anton Kuryanov. “And this is a completely different sport, not hockey.” Many are also irritated by the fact that after almost every goal, the referee, who is in a special booth and looks at scoring chances, calls the referees of the match to him and delays the game, making sure that the rules have not been broken.
So in Magnitogorsk, Sergei Fedorov’s clean goal was not counted, as a result, the Urals were defeated and lost first place in the Eastern Conference, losing to the Ufa “Salavat Yulaev”. The St. Petersburg team, on the contrary, led the “West”, displacing “Spartak” from there. “Too many working goals are not counted in our league,” SKA leader Alexey Yashin also complains. - The most interesting thing is that we are repeating the mistakes of the NHL. They introduced a similar innovation, but canceled it after a season. I don’t understand why Russia is adopting this experience.”
In transfer news, we note the next return of a Russian NHL player to Russia. The passions for Nikolai Zherdev, who signed a contract with Atlant, had not yet had time to subside, when a new sensation was on the doorstep. Carolina defender Anton Babchuk accepted the offer from Omsk Avangard. It is expected to arrive in Siberia in the middle of next week. It is not yet known how much Anton will receive, but in the KHL no one has ever been offended with money.
Tolyatti Lada, on the contrary, refuses hockey players and threatens not to come to the national championship match. Despite the promise from the authorities, the club still does not have cash, the hockey players do not receive salaries, and the team’s head coach Pyotr Vorobyov talks about the plight at every press conference. It comes to the point that the general director of the club, Alexander Chebotarev, admits: the club does not have the funds to travel to Astana (the Barys - Lada match is scheduled for September 22).
Results. Continental Hockey League - Open Championship. Regular season. September 17. "Amur" - "Vityaz" - 4:2, "Metallurg" NK - "Torpedo" - 3:2, "Sibir" - CSKA - 2:1 (bullet point). "Avtomobilist" - "Atlant" - 2:1 (bullet), "Metallurg" Mg - "Severstal" - 2:0. "Traktor" - SKA - 3:2. September 18. "Lokomotiv" - HC MVD - 4:1, "Dynamo" M - "Avangard" - 2:1, "Dynamo" Mn - "Barys" - 1:2. September 19. "Salavat Yulaev" - "Amur" - 4:2, "Metallurg" Mg - SKA - 0:1, "Spartak" - "Dynamo" R - 1:5. September 20 . "Traktor" - "Avtomobilist" - 4:3, "Ak Bars" - "Neftekhimik" - 2:3, "Lokomotiv" - "Vityaz" - 3:2 (from). The leaders are: Salavat Yulaev - 10 points (4 games), Metallurg MG, SKA, Spartak - Traktor 9 (4).