Lokomotiv Will Play in 2011-12; Memorial Service on Saturday

A significant amount of news has been decided upon in the wake of the tragedy.  The KHL season is officially postponed until Monday, Sept. 12.  The games that were to take place from yesterday's opener through Sunday will be made up at a later date.  This is being done to allow players and league officials to attend the memorial at Yaroslavl Arena for the Lokomotiv team on Saturday, Sept. 10. 

Lokomotiv will play in 2011-12.  The makeup of the team is still yet to be determined, but it looks like it will be made up of players on loan from other clubs, free agents, and players who were on the team's MHL and VHL affiliates.  Reports are that around 30 current KHL players have already volunteered to play for Yaroslavl this season. 

In the meantime, Lokomotiv has a new head coach.  Pyotor Vorobyev, who coached Yaroslavl in their late 1990s heyday and was with their MHL club, will be taking over the coaching duties for the 2011-12 season. 

The KHL looks to be taking over travel arrangements for all the clubs.  Word is that Russian airliner Aeroflat is looking to negotiate a deal with the league to become the KHL's official airliner, responsible for all the teams' air travel. 

The two survivors, player Alexander Galimov and flight engineer Alexander Sizov, have been transfered to a top hospital in Moscow.  They both remain in critical condition.  Galimov was reported to be able to communicate with his father who is at his bedside. 

The two black boxes from the airplane have been located.  All the remains have been pulled from the crash site, and are available to the families for identification. 

Tributes are going on in Yaroslavl, where fans had a candlelight vigil at the Arena last night.  There are also tributes going on in Minsk and in Latvia for prominent national team players Ruslan Salei and Karlis Skrastins. 

Other KHL teams are offering up financial support for both the victim's families as well as the team itself.  Insurance taken out on the players by the team will be redistributed to the families. 

If you haven't cried enough, read this, and see this.  RIP Iron Man. 

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