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Lokomotiv Crash Was Tragic For Hockey, Red Wings

Three with ties to Detroit died in crash

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Former Red Wings players Brad McCrimmon and Ruslan and Detroit draftee Stefan Liv died in 2011 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl crash.

Hockey is still reeling from the deaths of Johnny Gaudreau and his brother Matt and today is the anniversary of another terrible hockey tragedy, the plane crash that claimed the lives of the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl KHL club.

It was September 7, 2011 that the plane carrying the team crashed into the Volga River shortly after takeoff. They were en route to their opening game of the KHL season.

“It was a huge loss to the hockey world,” Detroit Red Wings vice-president of hockey operations Nicklas Lidstrom said. “It was a tragedy for all of the hockey world.”

Three people with ties to the Red Wings would die in the plane crash.

Coach of the team was Brad McCrimmon. He’d served as a Red Wings assistant coach from 2008-11, deciding to make the move to Russia for the chance at being in charge of his own team.

“He wanted to be a head coach,” Lidstrom remembered. “He wanted to see what it would be like, being a head coach in Russia.”

McCrimmon also played defense in Detroit from 1990-93. Serving as Lidstrom’s first NHL defense partner during the 1991-92 season, McCrimmon was mentoring the future seven-time Norris Trophy winner on the ways of the league.

“Listen kid, this is how it works,” Lidstrom recalled McCrimmon telling him time and again during that first NHL season. “I learned a lot from him.”

Many NHL Luminaries With Lokomotiv

The list of the dead read like a who’s who of NHLers – 1999-2000 Lady Byng Trophy winner Pavol Demitra was killed, as was Karlis Skrastins, who’d set an NHL record of 495 consecutive games played by a defenseman. Igor Korolev, Alexander Karpovtsev, Karel Rachunek and Josef Vasicek were also among the dead.

Ruslan Salei, a Red Wings defenseman in 2010-11 and goalie Stefan Liv, a 2000 Detroit draftee, were among the victims of Lokomotiv Yaroslavl crash.

“I played with him in the Olympics in 2006,” Lidstrom said of Liv. They were both part of the Swedish team that won the gold medal at the Torino, Italy Winter Games.

“He was a funny go-lucky go, always had a smile on his face, was always cracking his teammates up. He was a fun guy to be around.”

Liv’s son Herman is also a goalie. He is playing this season with Orebo in the SHL. He carries a likeness of his father on his goal mask.

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