We’ve been here before. It’s very embarrassing for NHL fans, who live and die with their teams. Like many, I would love nothing better than to go to games but since the league/owners are being douches, I don’t care anymore. If this is what they want, fine. If it takes the players holding out all year to get a point across and maybe even oust Bettman and butt buddy Bill Daly, so be it. Even if that means a lost year for Henrik Lundqvist and the Rangers, I can deal.

Already players are signing in the KHL including arguably the best player Evgeni Malkin and top sniper Ilya Kovalchuk. Alex Ovechkin and Pavel Datsyuk could be joining them soon. The NHL might not boast as big a percentage of Russians anymore but the four I just listed are big reasons our sport is great. Whereever they wind up, you may as well follow them. Fortunately, the KHL has an official site complete with team rosters, game summaries, boxscores along with team sites.

There are plenty of choices. AK Bars. SKA. Avangard. CSKA. Dynamo. Metallurg. Spartak. Atlant. Lokomotiv. Lev. It’s impossible to list them all as there are 26 teams split up into two conferences. Sound familiar? Just going through a game first overall Lev won 4-0 over Dinamo, two of the scorers are guys we’ve heard of. Jiri Novotny and Marcel Hossa each tallied in the win. One-time Pen Tomas Surovy also had a helper.

Randy Robitaille was the star in Metallurg’s 4-3 shootout victory over Donbass, notching a goal and the decider in the skill competition. Vaclav Nedorost also tallied. Kovalchuk’s soon to be SKA teammates had a good night with goals coming off the sticks of ex-Ranger Petr Prucha and Slovak legend Miro Satan as they doubled up Slovan 4-2. Russian star Alexei Morozov’s two markers and a helper powered AK Bars past Avangard 5-zip. Former NHLer Niko Kapanen had an assist. Konstantin Barulin recorded the shutout by stopping all 38 shots.

Alexander Radulov had the winner in a 5-4 shootout win for CSKA over Vityaz. Alexander Korolyuk scored twice to help Vityaz force extras and Ilya Zubov scored for CSKA.

If you want to keep track of KHL scoring leaders, Patrick Thoresen’s 10 points (3-7-10) place second behind Jori Lehtera (4-8-12). Washington prospect Evgeny Kuznetsov is tied for fifth with six points (4-2-6). Believe it or not, former Devil Ari Ahonen ranks fourth in goals-against-average with a 1.33 GAA in three games for Metallurg. Ex-Ranger Chris Holt is 1-1 with a 1.95 GAA for Avtomobilist.

That’s all for now. We’ll try to keep you updated on your favorite NHLers, players and prospects.