On September 7, 2011, the professional hockey world was rocked as players and coaches of the Locomotive Yaroslavi lost their lives in a plane crash as a result of the aircraft failing to gain enough altitude during takeoff.

The Locomotive Yaroslavl was one of the top KHL teams, on their way to their first game of the season in Minsk. Their previous season had ended with a 4-2 loss to the Atlant Moscow Oblast in the KHL Western Conference Finals. Among those that were lost in the crash were nine former NHL players. Of the 45 people on board, only Alexander Sizov, a flight crew member, and Alexander Galimov, a Locomotiv player who also played for the Russian national team, survived. Unfortunately Galimov passed five days after the crash as a result of burns that covered over 80% of his body.

Today, teams and players continue to honor and remember those who were lost. Alexander Ovechkin still wears a memorial patch on his shoulder pads.

The Locomotive Yaroslavi:
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, Karei Rachunek, Ruslan Salei, Maxim Shuvalov, Karlis Skrastins, Pavei Snurnitsyn, Daniil Sobchenko, Ivan Tkachenko, Pavel Trakhanov, Yuri Urychev, Josef Vasicek, Alexander Vasyunov, Alexander Vyukhin, Artem Yarchuk, and coaches Alexander Karpovtsev, Igor Korolev, and head coach Brad McCrimmon.

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