Hockey Brotherhood memorial unveiled in Yaroslavl

A memorial called “Hockey Brotherhood” was opened in Yaroslavl, a city located 160 mi to the northeast of Moscow, to commemorate the second anniversary of the death of the Lokomotiv (Yaroslavl) hockey team, which tragically died in an air crash on September 7, 2011. The monument was unveiled outside the Arena-2000 sport complex. Its authors are a group of architects from Yaroslavl and the town of Ivanovo. Thirty-seven steel hockey-sticks (by the number of Lokomotiv’s players, coaches and doctors) are folded in a way that represents a falling bird or an ascending plane from various angles. Alexander Medvedev, the president of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL), Vladislav Tretyak, the president of the Russian Hockey Federation, and Yuri Yakovlev, the president of the Lokomotiv hockey club, took part in the ceremony held on September 7. “We should remember them. Not only should we keep their names in our memories but do what we should do - playing hockey, honest hockey. I am sure that the hockey world changed after that terrible tragedy. If we manage to make it better, it is going to be the best monument to Lokomotiv. Go, Lokomotiv!” Alexander Medvedev said. The unveiling of the Hockey Brotherhood memorial ended commemorative events devoted to the second anniversary of an air crash that killed the entire Lokomotiv hockey team. A Yak-42 (Yaakov) plane with the Locomotive players, coaches and other staff crashed in Tunisia village on September 7, 2011. The crash claimed the lives of 44 people, including the hockey players, coaches and the plane’s crew.