During the off-season, Red Wings goaltender Joey MacDonald was unsure of his future in the NHL. He knew he wanted to keep playing hockey but he also wanted the best opportunity that was out there. He knew he didn’t want to spend more time in the American Hockey League so like many other players in the same boat as MacDonald he started thinking about the KHL and the possibility of continuing his hockey career in Russia.
“My mind was pretty much set at the end of the season that I was going over there,” MacDonald said. “I talked to a few teams and had a couple of two-year deals pretty much all figured out.”
According to Ansar Khan of Mlive.com, one of the teams courting MacDonald was Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, the same KHL team where the vast majority of players and coaches were killed in a tragic plane crash earlier this week. The same team that also consisted of former Red Wings assistant coach and player Brad McCrimmon, former Wings defenseman Ruslan Salei and former Red Wings goaltending prospect Stefan Liv.
What has to take MacDonald’s breath away is he could very well have been on that plane too if it wasn’t for him signing a two-year contract with the Wings this off-season.
Khan writes that the MacDonald and the rest of the Wings continue to try and cope with the terrible tragedy that took many of their friends…
“I talked to Rusty (Salei) and Beast (McCrimmon) over the (past) year about going over,” MacDonald said. “I’m speechless.
“It’s tough, especially with me talking to (Lokomotiv) in March. If I would’ve known (McCrimmon and Salei) were going over there, I probably would’ve signed with them.
“If the Wings hadn’t come knocking on the door, I probably would have been playing over there right now. And you never know what would have happened.”
Many current and former Wings however maintain that the KHL and Russia is a safe place to play Ansar Khan writes…
“I know (Lokomotiv) is a great organization,” MacDonald said. “I talked to (former Red Wings and Griffins goalie) Marc Lamothe, a friend of mine, and he played over there (in 2004-05) and loved it.
“Even last year I talked to Dom (former Detroit goalie Hasek) about it. Dom said it’s the best league outside of the National Hockey League. When it’s coming from a goalie like Dom, you got to believe it.”
But many who have played in Russia have expressed concerns about the safety of air travel.
“People say different stories, some good and some bad, about travel,” MacDonald said. “The last three or four years, everything seemed to be good. Teams were paying good. A lot of NHL guys seemed to be going over there.
“(A crash) can happen anywhere. When you step on a plane, you never know what’s going to happen. Unfortunately for us, we had a lot of good friends on board.”
Former Red Wings goalie Manny Legace spent six weeks with Russian club Khimik Voskresensk during the NHL lockout in 2004-05 but appeared in only two games before returning home.
“It was a different way of life and we weren’t allowed to go out in that town (Voskresensk),” Legace said. “If we wanted to go for lunch or dinner, we had to go a half-hour, 40 minutes away.
“They just didn’t want us to be around that town. We don’t know why. We all stayed in a little dormitory near the rink.”
Legace said the planes were older, but he felt safe. Still, some doubts entered his mind.
“You’re not too sure about the inspections and how a lot of things go under the radar,” Legace said. “You don’t know who they’re paying off and what’s going on.
“Igor (former Red Wings center Larionov) assured me everything would be OK, and it was.”
Legace was on the Red Wings team plane that made an emergency landing in Sacramento due to a mechanical issue after a game in San Jose on Jan. 15, 2001.
“Accidents will happen, it’s a part of life,” Legace said. “If you want to play this game, you have to fly.”
Source: Mlive.com