Tragedy delays Lev Poprad's opener until Monday

Saturday was supposed to be the day that HC Lev Poprad made its debut in the Kontinental Hockey League. However, tragic events that occurred in the league are causing the start of the season to be delayed until Monday.

Captain Lubos Bartečko (#23), mourning the loss of a close friend,
will lead Lev into battle on Monday. Photo: Dominika Handzušová,
hclev.eu.

Instead, Poprad Arena will be the site of a memorial on Saturday. It will honour the victims of the plane crash on Wednesday involving fellow KHL club Lokomotiv Yaroslavl that claimed the lives of 43 people and critically injured two others. At 17:00, the scheduled start time for their home opener against Avangard Omsk, a ceremony will begin inside the arena that will be attended by all players from HC Lev Poprad and HK Poprad of the Slovak Extraliga.

As reported on Lev's website, this is a particularly emotional time for a couple of the team's players, particularly captain Lubos Bartečko and defenceman Martin Štrbák.

Bartečko was a close friend of victim Pavol Demitra. "About two hours before the tragedy, Paľo wrote me an SMS. After practice, I read it and I wrote back. This is a man who was part of my day-to-day life who has suddenly disappeared. May he rest in peace."

Štrbák, meanwhile, played for the Yaroslavl club from 2001 to 2003. "We won the championship that year," he said. "Many of those players were on board."

The season will now begin on Monday, with Lev hosting Metallurg Magnitogorsk at 19:00. The game with Omsk will be re-scheduled to another date, with other changes to the schedule likely being necessary as well. Although earlier reports indicated that the Yaroslavl club would be re-stocked and compete in the 2011-12 season, it now seems that they will take the year off. Presumably, the league's other 23 teams will have to play more games against other opponents to fill their schedules. Lev is scheduled to host Yaroslavl on November 28 and play there on February 24.

With 12 Czechs on the roster, Lev Poprad is likely to draw interest from Czech hockey fans, and Czech Hockey Report will follow the team's fortunes. Below is the roster that the club will open the season with:

#	pos	nat	name	birthdate	age	height	weight	shot	last club
30	G		Tomáš Duba	2.7.1981	30	183 cm	80 kg	L	Zlín
50	G		Ján Laco	1.12.1981	29	181 cm	83 kg	L	Nitra
7	D		Alexander Hellström	17.4.1987	24	190 cm	95 kg	L	Novosibirsk
9	D		Jiří Hunkes	31.7.1984	27	183 cm	85 kg	R	Liberec
88	D		Bohumil Jank	6.7.1992	19	189 cm	87 kg	L	Č. Budějovice
22	D		Tomáš Klouček	7.3.1980	31	191 cm	96 kg	L	Barys Astana
25	D		Grant Lewis	20.1.1985	26	191 cm	88 kg	R	Milwaukee
24	D		Branislav Mezei	8.9.1980	31	197 cm	112 kg	L	Pardubice
56	D		Vladimír Mihálik	29.1.1987	24	203 cm	109 kg	L	Norfolk
29	D		Karel Pilař	23.12.1977	33	185 cm	92 kg	R	CSKA Moscow
5	D		Jonathan Sigalet	12.2.1986	25	185 cm	90 kg	L	Springfield
77	D		Martin Štrbák	15.1.1975	36	191 cm	96 kg	L	Dyn. Moscow
32	F		Rafael Achmetov	31.1.1989	22	186 cm	77 kg	L	Almetievsk
72	F		Stanislav Balán	30.1.1986	25	186 cm	80 kg	L	Zlín
23	F		Luboš Bartečko	14.7.1976	35	183 cm	86 kg	L	MODO
26	F		Dan DaSilva	30.4.1985	26	185 cm	85 kg	R	Worcester
12	F		Karl Fabricius	29.9.1982	28	185 cm	90 kg	L	Lulea
87	F		André Hult	5.12.1987	23	180 cm	83 kg	L	Molot-Prikamie
21	F		Rudolf Huna	20.5.1980	31	178 cm	81 kg	L	Vítkovice
14	F		Martin Chabada	14.6.1977	34	185 cm	85 kg	R	Sodertälje
27	F		Jaroslav Kristek	16.3.1980	31	183 cm	83 kg	L	Košice
51	F		Emil Lundberg	11.2.1982	29	178 cm	86 kg	L	HK Poprad
33	F		Juraj Mikúš	22.2.1987	24	185 cm	84 kg	R	Spart. Moscow
17	F		Ladislav Nagy	1.6.1979	32	180 cm	87 kg	L	MODO
13	F		Václav Nedorost	16.3.1982	29	183 cm	78 kg	L	Novokuzneck
71	F		Tomáš Netík	28.4.1982	29	177 cm	77 kg	L	CSKA Moscow
10	F		Štěpán Novotný	21.9.1990	20	187 cm	86 kg	R	Swift Current
16	F		Peter Ölvecký	11.10.1985	25	188 cm	88 kg	L	KaiPa Kuopio
64	F		Jiří Sekáč	10.6.1992	19	183 cm	79 kg	L	Youngstown
11	F		Rastislav Špirko	21.6.1984	27	175 cm	79 kg	L	Pardubice
				average:	27	185 cm	87 kg