Tuukka Rask makes his debut for his Czech team. Photo from hcskoda.cz
Three of the Boston Bruins who made plans to play in Europe due to the NHL lockout are over there now: one each in Switzerland, the Czech Republic and Russia. Here is more information about what each player did recently, what’s up ahead and how their teams are doing.
Tyler Seguin in his first game appearance wearing the advertisement-laden sweater of EHC Biel. Photo from ehcb.ch
Tyler Seguin had his debut with Switzerland’s EHC Biel on Sept. 29 as the team took on the Rapperswil-Jona Lakers. He had one point, an assist on Biel’s first goal of the night, but the home team lost 6-3 despite eclipsing Rapperswil-Jona 52 to 22 in terms of shots on goal. Plus, Seguin was on the ice for four of those Lakers goals.
Next for EHC Biel is a home game against EV Zug on Oct. 2. Zug has NHLers Damien Brunner, Raphael Diaz and Linus Omark on the lineup.
The team is currently in seventh place in the Nationalliga A standings.
Anton Khudobin makes a save against Vityaz Chekhov. Photo from atlant-mo.ru
Anton Khudobin had a win and a loss recently in net for Russia’s Atlant Moscow Oblast, a team that had a real need for him due to an injury to their goalie Stanislav Galimov. On Sept. 28, Khudobin notched a 5-4 shootout win against Vityaz Chekov, a KHL team with a reputation for fighting that would make even the Hanson brothers declare their unworthiness like in Wayne’s World. (There was one game that ended after a mere four minutes when more than 600 penalty minutes were awarded.) However, on Sept. 30, he wasn’t so lucky as Atlant lost 3-2 to Dinamo Minsk. Minsk also has an NHL goalie on the roster right now in Pekka Rinne.
Next for Atlant is Severstal Cherepovets on Oct. 2. In the standings, Atlant is eighth overall or fifth in just the Western Conference. In their Tarasov Division, though, the rebuilt Lokomotiv Yaroslavl is in first place.
The first HC Skoda Plzen roster sheet to feature Tuukka Rask. Photo from HC Plzen on Facebook.
Tuukka Rask played his first game for HC Skoda Plzen in the Czech Republic on Sept. 30 as Plzen won 5-4 over the last-place HC Sparta Praha. Rask played the entire game and stopped 27 of the 31 shots he faced. Next for Plzen is an Oct. 2 meeting with HC Kometa Brno. Fun trivia: Kometa features Boris Valabik, who was traded along with Rich Peverley up to Boston in 2011. Plzen sits in fourth place in the Extraliga standings.
Interestingly, Plzen is scheduled to play HC Mountfield on Oct. 7, the date Andrew Ference has set for his Mountfield return. The idea that he might be ready and rarin’ to play after a grueling transatlantic flight, though, may be farfetched. However, Ference is the kind of guy who voluntarily wakes up before the crack of dawn on Wednesday mornings to go run up stadium stairs, so who knows?
More of these articles will chronicle the European movements of the Bruins until the time when they are called back to America for the start of the NHL season.
