Russian ice hockey official says Lokomotiv Yaroslavl will play again

Hockey fans wore team colours and lit candles in the provincial Russian town Yaroslavl, where a community has been devastated by a plane crash that killed most of the players for the local ice hockey side.

Talk was of how much the dead would be missed — and of rebuilding.

One day after a deadly plane crash killed 36 Lokomotiv players and staff, and seven aircrew members, thousands of flowers — most in bouquets of red or white carnations — crammed the Arena 2000’s main entrance.

Hundreds of fans left notes, a few cried, and some 200 walked down a city street, carrying Lokomotiv emblems and slowly clapping their hands.

“We love you Lokomotiv — forever,” read a poster pasted on a wall near Yaroslavl’s Arena 2000 ice stadium, home to one of Russia’s most titled hockey sides.

Aleksandr Medvedev, president of the Russia-dominated Continental Hockey League (KHL), at an impromptu Yarsolavl conference with fans and media said Lokomotiv would rebuild.

Already, Mevedev said, players throughout the league — which compares with America’s National Hockey League in skill and level of play — had volunteered to move to provincial Yaroslavl.

“We have put the word out to guys in KHL that played at one time or another for this outstanding club,” Medvedev said in comments reported by Interfax.

The response, Medvedev said, has been overwhelming, 36 players already having agreed to take the ice for Lokomotiv.

They would have to obtain a release from their current clubs, Medvedev said, adding: “But under the circumstances, I think they will be able to play.”

Lokomotiv’s ranks will be filled out by the team’s youth side and, although there will be little time for training, both veterans and untested rookies will face a special responsibility as they defend the team’s red-white-and-blue livery, he said.