#Amur Khabarovsk

[chunkletskhl]

Scenes from the KHL's Far-East Derby (December 20, 2023 edition), with both visitors Amur Khabarovsk and home team Admiral Vladivostok wearing special uniforms for the occasion!

Top: Amur's Vyacheslav Gretsky asks some questions of Admiral d-man Leonid Metalnikov and goalie Vasily Demchenko. They have answers.

Middle Left: Admiral take the lead in the 3rd! Semyon Pankratov (#99) tips the puck past Amur goalie Igor Bobkov...

Middle Right: ...But with less than two minutes to go, Amur tie it up. Yegor Korshkov (not in photo) takes advantage of Vladislav Barulin's screen to beat Demchenko and level the scores.

Bottom: And Korshkov's in this photo, as he celebrates his second goal of the game, in OT, to give Amur the honours out in GMT+10 this time around.

(Image Sources: hcamur.ru and hcadmiral.ru)

[alexxx-malev]

Komsomolsk-on-Amur 10 by Alexxx Malev Via Flickr: Russia. Komsomolsk-on-Amur. Amur River Комсомольск-на-Амуре. Амур

[dailyoverview]

The Amur River passes through the city of Khabarovsk, spreading out into a dramatic braided pattern on its path through eastern Russia. As the world’s tenth-longest river, the Amur flows 1,755 miles (2,824 km) to form much of the border between the Russian Far East and Northeastern China. The first permanent bridge across the Amur was built in Khabarovsk in 1916, allowing the Trans-Siberian Railway to cross the 1.6-mile (2.6 km) span more efficiently.

48.536111°, 135.000000°

Source imagery: Planet

[flagwars]

Russian Federal Subject Flag Wars: Round 1

This tournament will focus on the flags of Russia’s 83 federal subjects, which includes 21 republics, 9 krais, 46 oblasts, 2 federal cities, 1 autonomous oblast, and 4 autonomous okrugs. It will not include the flags of the land stolen from Ukraine.

The tournament will be followed by the Regional Flag Wars, a huge competition featuring the flags of regions/administrative divisions, with only one flag per country. Over the past year, I’ve released numerous polls to decide which regional flag will be included for each country. Russia is the final country on the list, and it is receiving its own tournament due to having so many administrative divisions. I hope everyone enjoys this tournament and is looking forward to the Regional Flag Wars! The Russian Federal Subject Flag Wars will begin this week.

Round 1:

1. Tver Oblast vs. Amur Oblast vs. Jewish Autonomous Oblast vs. Kamchatka Krai vs. Karelia

2. Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug vs. Bashkortostan vs. Tambov Oblast vs. Udmurtia vs. Kursk Oblast

3. Samara Oblast vs. Pskov Oblast vs. Adygea vs. Chukotka Autonomous Okrug vs. Khakassia

4. Khabarovsk Krai vs. Kalmykia vs. Altai Krai vs. Zabaykalsky Krai vs. Mordovia

5. Moscow Oblast vs. Dagestan vs. North Ossetia–Alania vs. St. Petersburg vs. Saratov Oblast

6. Primorsky Krai vs. Yaroslavl Oblast vs. Leningrad Oblast vs. Astrakhan Oblast vs. Komi Republic

7. Krasnoyarsk Krai vs. Irkutsk Oblast vs. Omsk Oblast vs. Lipetsk Oblast vs. Kabardino-Balkaria

8. Moscow vs. Ingushetia vs. Kostroma Oblast vs. Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug vs. Tomsk Oblast

9. Perm Krai vs. Orenburg Oblast vs. Stavropol Krai vs. Volgograd Oblast vs. Belgorod Oblast

10. Mari El vs. Kaliningrad Oblast vs. Sverdlovsk Oblast vs. Sakha vs. Arkhangelsk Oblast

11. Krasnodar Krai vs. Penza Oblast vs. Buryatia vs. Nizhny Novgorod Oblast vs. Kurgan Oblast

12. Chelyabinsk Oblast vs. Nenets Autonomous Okrug vs. Karachay-Cherkessia vs. Murmansk Oblast vs. Altai Republic

13. Novosibirsk Oblast vs. Tuva vs. Vologda Oblast vs. Smolensk Oblast vs. Novgorod Oblast

14. Tatarstan vs. Sakhalin Oblast vs. Ulyanovsk Oblast vs. Ryazan Oblast vs. Chechnya vs. Tyumen Oblast

15. Ivanovo Oblast vs. Chuvashia vs. Vladimir Oblast vs. Rostov Oblast vs. Magadan Oblast vs. Bryansk Oblast

16. Kaluga Oblast vs. Kemerovo Oblast vs. Oryol Oblast vs. Kirov Oblast vs. Voronezh Oblast vs. Tula Oblast

[pwlanier]

Dyatala Alexander Nikolaevich (1933-1978).

Woman and child 1960’s

Canvas, oil. 70 x 51 cm.

Bottom right: "Dyatala." (on the edge of the canvas).

On the back: "Dyatala."

Graduated from the State Pedagogical Institute named after A.I. Herzen, Department of the Peoples of the Far North. By nationality, he is a Ulch, a representative of a small people living in the Khabarovsk Territory. By the time Alexander was born (in the village of Kolchem) by 1933, there were only a few hundred ulcha people. Alexander Dyatala is the only ulch artist so far. He wasn't even ten years old when his mother, a fisherman, drowned in the waves of Cupid. Soon he lost his father, a participant of the Great Patriotic War. The boy accepted the orphanage and prepared him for further training.

Alexander dreamed of the profession of an artist since childhood, and his dream came true: he became a student, a student of the famous artist-professor I.A. Serebryany. While studying, A. Dyatala began to cooperate with magazines and newspapers, performing various graphic works. From Leningrad, the artist moved to Moscow, where he was given attention to such masters of painting as Nurenberg, Katsman, Chuikov.

Alexander Dyatal has accumulated a lot of works: portraits of poets - Alexander Prokofiev, Ilya Selvinsky; northerners Vladimir Sanga and Yuvan Shestalov; Ulcha workers - hunters, fishermen, teachers, craftswomen of ornament... He devoted his thesis work to the patriotic topic connecting the Ulch village with the capital: "Moscow says, and it is listened to by ulchi, listens to the heartbeat of the fatherland!"

After graduating from the institute, Dyatala went to his native land. He settled in Khabarovsk and drove around the region, spent the nights on the banks of the Amur, walked in the taiga with hunters, studied the life of the Ulch village, the ancient traditions of his fellow villagers and the signs of the new, which came into everyday life. Both the new way of life and the ancient "bear holiday" of the ulcha gave him motives and subjects for new paintings. The artist spent most of his life in St. Petersburg.

Artistic Auctions

[kiki-de-la-petite-flaque]

Con la Transiberiana ci volevano dieci giorni per arrivare a Mosca. Un viaggio che tocca il profondo di chiunque lo faccia. Bowie scelse di viaggiare in un vagone deluxe, due cuccette, una toilette e un bagno da condividere. Rimase quasi da subito chiuso nel suo scompartimento, forse ancora prigioniero di Ziggy Stardust, dell’uomo caduto sulla terra, ma durò pochissimo. Non poteva non accorgersi di cosa c’era oltre il suo scompartimento, oltre quello spazio privilegiato. Non esiste alcun modo di evitare il mondo, soprattutto in un vagone della Transiberiana. Si accorse della prima classe, con quattro cuccette per scompartimento. Notò la classe inferiore, con le cuccette fino al soffitto e la gente che dormiva per terra.

Il treno fermava a ogni stazione e dopo quasi ottocento chilometri, quando il viaggio non era che all’inizio, a Khabarovsk Bowie dovette cambiare treno. Dal finestrino scorrevano forme del mondo ancora vicine e comprensibili. Una casa bianca con il tetto azzurro spiovente. La vegetazione ai lati del binario. La campagna, i passaggi a livello, qualche vettura. Sulle cime alte degli alberi denudati qualche volatile aveva costruito il nido dove far crescere i piccoli. Il ponte sul fiume Amur. La distesa ampia e grigia delle acque. Le nuvole basse all’orizzonte. I primi segnali di una terra desolata. Un bosco di betulle. Ogni quindici minuti il treno si fermava a una cittadina dimessa e povera. Qualcosa cominciava a mutare. Il paesaggio attinge sempre a elementi semplici, una casa, un monte, una nuvola, per cambiare. Fino a quando, però, non arriva la Siberia. Perché quel che si vedrà allora sarà completamente diverso da quel che si è visto prima.

Federico Pace, Controvento, Einaudi

[jackredfieldwasmyjacob]

i just spent more than an hour doing this first-division world map quiz in jetpunk and these are my results:

i scored 609/3795 so 16%. i'm actually very embarrassed cause i had multiple brain farts and i couldn't remember some very very easy ones (don't worry i WILL talk about them). but first of all, the most embarrassing one of all. i missed la rioja 💀💀💀

i'll talk more about my cagadas (and not cagadas) after the read more cause it could get lengthy lol

first of all, I'M SO SORRY ALL OF LATAM 😭😭😭😭

let's start with mexico... when i tell you i wrote 'california del sur' like dozens of times and was genuinely shocked it wasn't counting it like correct like the quiz was bugged or something lol. i will never forget it's baja california and not del sur i promise. there's also so many of these i should've got: campeche, durango, cuanajuato, méxico, puebla, querétaro, quitana roo, san luis potosí, sinaloa, and veracruz AT LEAST.

for argentina, chubut gave me so much trouble... like i knew i knew it but my brain just wouldn't told me. and as you can see, i didn't got it 😔. also i hate that if i had guessed la rioja i would've gotten 2 points en fin.

i have no idea why the netherlands were like this... i was so ready to name the provinces i actually know quite a few of them

i know it's the easiest to get, but i got all belgium :)

also all pakistan :)

brazil 😔😔😔 i should've gotten bahia, espírito santo, goiás, and rio grande do norte & do sul...

i can't believe i missed new brunswick in all US + canada

so so sorry portugal :( i should've gotten bragança, évora, leiria, santarém, setúbal, viana do castelo and vila real

i'm not putting the china one cause it's too large but when i tell you i wrote like 20 times heilongjiang cause i knew it and where it was but did not. write it correctly. at any point.

i'm also not putting russia for obvious reasons but i had so many brain farts with it. i can't believe i missed chukotka, amur, irkutsk, ivanovo, magadan, murmansk, nizhny novgorod, novgorod, samara, smolensk, volgograd, vologda, voronezh, yaroslavl, adyghea, buryatia, ingushetia, karelia (this one gave me so much trouble yall), tuva, udmurtia, khabarovsk, and primorsky, all of them i perfectly knew :/

i knew all four of these but only kosrae came to mind rip me i guess

france gave me SO MUCH TROUBLE i kept coming back to those two last regions in mainland france and i could just not remember their names. the worst thing is at one point i wrote 'val de seine'... so close 😔

germany and italy humbled me so much. i thought i was gonna know every single division and i did horribly lol

i might've not gotten all of the divisions in my country correct but at least i got all greece (not counting mount athos) :)

I WROTE JIJU INSTEAD OF JEJU 😭😭😭😭 also for the life of me i could not remember train to busan

india is also a long one but it gave me sooo much trouble i couldn't remember ANY. en fin, i should've gotten AT LEAST arunachal pradesh, manipur, mizhoram, tripura and uttar pradesh.

i don't know what's worse, that i almost got all israel or that i forgot tel aviv 💀💀

en fin. that's all. maybe i'll try again some other time.

[aviaposter]

Yakovlev Yak-40 Nikolayevsk-on-Amur Air Squad

Registration: RA-88251 Type: Yak-40k Engines: 3 × Ivchenko AI-25 Serial Number: 52-05 First flight: Feb 1977

Nikolayevsk-on-Amur Air Squad was the oldest air company at the Far Eastern region and was based on Nikolayevsk-on-Amur airport, Khabarovsk Krai, Russia. Its history began on January 9, 1930, when Mikhail Vodopyanov's plane made its first landing on water here. The official date of the foundation of the Nikolayevsk airline, as part of Aeroflot, is August 8, 1934, it was then that the Nikolayevsk-on-Amur air company was organized.

Poster for Aviators. aviaposter.com

[darkmaga-retard]

“The Far East has become a crucial factor for strengthening Russia’s standing in the world, and our flag-bearer in the new global economic reality. The further development of the Far East will largely determine the future of our country as a whole,” President Putin said at the Eastern Economic Forum on Thursday.

Here’s why that’s the case:

Natural Resources

Representing nearly 41% of Russia’s total land mass (some 6.95 million square km, or nearly the size of Australia), the Russian Far East is home to an array of untapped resource riches. The territory accounts for 100% of Russia’s antimony production, 98% of its diamonds, 90% of borax production, 50% of gold, over 40% of tin, 14% of tungsten, about a third of Russia’s coal and hydroengineering reserves and resources, and 40% of Russia’s fish and seafood output. The region is rich in an array of ores, metals and rare earths materials, lime and building stones, and other resources, and represents some 30% of Russia’s total forested area – representing part of the world’s two forest ‘lungs’ (one in Siberia and the other in Brazil’s rainforest).

Despite its vast economic potential, the Far East could use more people, with Khabarovsk and Vladivostok – the territory’s largest cities, having about 613,000 and 600,000 residents, respectively, and the territory as a whole having a population of just 8 million. With this in mind, along with incentives for business, the government has come up with the so-called ‘Far Eastern Hectare’ program, offering residents a free hectare of land to develop as they see fit. The program is open to Russian citizens, and foreign nationals living in Russia for five years or more.

Logistics

The Far East is also a crucial strategic transport hub, home to the easternmost part of the Trans-Siberian Railway, and much of the Baikal-Amur Mainline, which is now undergoing modernization and expansion. It’s also home to important port infrastructure, including the port of Vladivostok. Its infrastructure potentially represents part of China’s global, multi-trillion dollar Belt and Road Initiative, which seeks to link Europe and Asia via a modern-day Silk Road.

[thoughtlessarse]

Not too long ago, tension over possession of islands in the rivers that form the Russian-Chinese frontier led to armed confrontation. These days the same islands are declared “a place of friendship.” But those feelings of amity may not run deep. Heixiazi, the Chinese half of a divided island at the confluence of the Ussuri and Amur rivers, looks “like Disneyland,” according to Akihiro Iwashita, a Japanese scholar who is an expert on Russia’s border issues with China and Japan. He first visited the island, known on the Russian side as Bolshoy Ussuriysky, in 2008. At that time, the Chinese had made major improvements to its side, building a large nature reserve, border defenses, including a watchtower, and a bridge from the mainland to the island, Iwashita told Eurasianet in an email interview. When he revisited in 2017, the Chinese wetland park was attracting more than 600,000 tourists a year. Other attractions, including a wild bear reserve, were quickly added to the complex. Meanwhile, the Russian side remained largely undeveloped, Iwashita said. The only major improvement he noticed was the Amurskaya Creek Bridge, a car crossing that connects the island to the Russian mainland and, strategically, to the city of Khabarovsk. -Two decades have passed since the formerly contested island was divided between China and Russia on a “50-50” basis. “One island two countries” became the motto. In May of this year, the island hit the headlines during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Beijing. There, the Russian leader agreed to a roadmap for the island’s joint development. In June, officials announced plans to build a transit checkpoint with China. By 2030, up to 1.5 million passengers and more than 1.3 million tons of cargo could pass through the crossing annually, Russian officials suggest. The Russian Far East Development Ministry was euphoric: The island is becoming a “place of Russian-Chinese friendship.” But is everything as rosy as it seems?

continue reading

[ourworld111]

Khabarovsk Bridge across the Amur used to be the longest in Imperial Russia and Eurasia.

William

[mitchbeck]

HOCKEY NEWS AND NOTES

By: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings HARTFORD, CT - The rampant rumors of the return of the Hartford Whalers following the defeat of the arena proposal in Tempe, Arizona has just one salient point, money exists in Connecticut, primarily in Greenwich, the home of high finance. After that, there is nothing to suggest that there is even the faintest hope that NHL hockey is returning to Hartford. Listen to our long-time source, who wishes to remain anonymous. "While I think the fans, and the media, get suckered into this every time it surfaces, the only reality is the hedge fund money in the Greenwich area. They have the sort of money it would take to bring hockey to Connecticut. Still, Gary Bettman, the NHL commissioner, has shown zero interest that he wants to vacate Arizona, no matter how obvious it may seem. "Once you get past that, there are too many other negatives. There's no regional TV network, no new building in sight, the Boston Bruins, and the player pool is diluted now, are four I can name off the top of my head, and there are more. It's a pipe dream and fantasy. The politicians are looking to get their 15 minutes of fame." Outgoing Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin and Governor Ned Lamont did themselves no favors by violating Bettman's primary rule of no public pronouncements. He dislikes owners-in-waiting, who are too loquacious. Former Quebec City Mayor Régis Labeaume (2007-2021) blew it by going public. They're still waiting to hear from the NHL. Relocation is a possibility, not a certainty, and given the owners and potential suitors who have tried to outwit the Commissioner are gone from the scene, i.e., original Coyotes owner Jerry Moyes and Jim Balisilie, the Blackberry founder who's bankrupt and gone. Yet Bettman is still here and in the NHL Hall of Fame. So if you're betting on this one, put all your chips on Bettman and no team in Hartford. PLAYER MOVEMENT Ex-Hartford Wolf Pack, Vitali Kravtsov, has left the Vancouver Canucks, where the New York Rangers sent the Russian after they traded him at the trade deadline for Will Lockwood. Kravtsov departed Vancouver and is headed back to Russia again after signing a deal with Traktor Chelyabinsk (Russia-KHL) for a third time. Jonathan Marchessault, the ex-Connecticut Whale, who the Rangers misevaluated the undrafted QMJHL free agent product they had signed. He scored 32 goals and led the team in his rookie pro year in Hart City. The thought was that he would only be an AHL player. Whoops? After scoring in a 6-0 series clincher Monday night, he is now heading to his second Stanley Cup final appearance and just completed his second conference final to play the Florida Panthers for the Stanley Cup. Marchessault is making $30 million with the Las Vegas Golden Knights. Vegas also has as a backup goalie Jonathan Quick (Hamden/AOF), and their coaches are ex-Whalers assistant John Stevens Sr. and goalie Sean Burke. CONNECTICUT CONNECTIONS Scouts are ex-Whalers Jim McKenzie (Pro Scout), Connor Jones (Amateur scout), the former Quinnipiac University/Sound Tiger, and ex-Whaler, Alex Godynyuk (European scout). The Florida Panthers have ex-Yale goalie, Alex Lyon, ex-Hartford Wolf Pack/Ranger Marc Staal, former Sound Tiger Carter Verhaeghe, and former Whaler coach Paul Maurice, ex-Pack Sylvain Lefebvre is the Panthers' assistant coach. Pro Scouts Sean Backman (Cos Cob/Yale/AOF) and P.J. Fenton. Ex-Pack Yevgeni Grachev was the first mercurial Russian in Hartford before Kravtsov. He had a short stay. He switches Russian KHL teams from HC Vladivostock to Amur Khabarovsk. In the IIHF World Championships, Canada won the gold medal. Ex-Pack Sammy Blais scored twice, including the first goal in a 5-2 win over a pesky German squad. In the semifinal, Blais scored a perfect top-shelf goal from the right wing that helped Canada to a 4-2 come-from-behind win over Latvia. The US bid to play Canada for the gold medal was derailed by Germany in a 4-3 overtime win in the other semifinal by Frederik Tiffels, ending captain Nick Bonino's (Unionville via Farmington/AOF) journey as they went home without a medal losing to tourney co-host Latvia 4-3 in the bronze medal game. EX WOLF PACK Ex-Pack Andres Ambühl, 39, and his Swiss teammates lost in the quarterfinals, and has played in a record 131 WC games for the Swiss. The Quebec Remparts opened the Memorial Cup in fine fashion with an impressive 8-3 win over host Kamloops Blazers, who the Pack's Dylan Garand played for last year. The Pack's Matt Rempe's former junior team, the Seattle Thunderbirds (WHL), took on future possible Wolf Pack teammate Brennan Othmann and the Peterborough Petes in their first games for each team and won 6-3. Othmann had one assist and was a minus-two. The Petes also feature Devils draft pick Chase Stillman, Kamloops came back in their next game, wiping out Peterborough 10-2. Then Monday, Quebec beat Kamloops 3-1. MORE EX-PACK Ex-Pack Ty Ronning and Stefan Matteau Jr., a Wolf Pack training camp invitee several years ago and son of the former Ranger, Stefan Sr., who was a Wolf Pack promotional guest earlier this year, were both released by ERC Ingolstadt (Germany-DEL). Ronning signed with Eisbären Berlin (Germany-DEL). Ex-Pack Jake Elmer leaves HK Nitra (Slovakia-SLEL) for Odense (Denmark-DHL). Cédric Lacroix, an ex-Sound Tiger, and late Wolf Pack training camp cut two years ago, who played this year at Grand Rapids (AHL), Toledo (ECHL), and Trois-Rivières (ECHL), signs with Vorarlberg (Austria-IceHL) next year. Cole Maier (Taft School) heads from Manitoba to Nuremberg (Germany-DEL) next year; Sampo Ranta, after one year and a minus-11, leaves the Colorado Eagles and heads to MODO (Sweden-SHL) as he joins the large AHL contingent to Sweden. Ben Tardif, who played with Hartford for 15 effective games mid-season before being sent to the Jacksonville Icemen after playing out West for the Colorado Eagles (AHL) and for their Double AA affiliate in Utah Grizzlies (ECHL), is heading to Europe and KooKoo (Finland-FEL). Tardif, Ranta, and Maier make 23 AHL'ers heading to Europe. PLAYERS MOVING AROUND The Islanders sign for next season Kyle MacLean to a one-year, two-way deal for $825,000K-NHL/$82,500K-AHL and Daylan Kuefler completing his junior career playing for Kamloops in the aforementioned Memorial Cup to a three-year ELC deal at $925K-NHL/$82,500K-AHL.Both players will likely be in Bridgeport in the fall. Roman Kinal, the former UCONN Captain, signs an extension with the AHL San Jose Barracuda. Alex Gagnon of Division III independent Albertus Magnus College (New Haven) becomes the 26th Division I or III player to head to Europe. He joins teammate Charlie Risk in going to Mont-Blance (France-FFHG Division-1). The Division I player conference pro signings breakdown is as follows; Hockey East-37, NCHC-36, CCHA-31, Big Ten-29, ECACHL-24, and AHA-20, NCAA Independent schools-13, and just one is transferring to the Canadian college school or university system. Division III is 31. Undergrads leaving school early are 37. In-school transfers, 47, and grad transfers, 38. Ex-CT Whale Kelsey Tessier retires from hockey as a champion after two years with the HC Rouen Dragons (France-FREL). The team won their 17th Magnus League title in the 100th year of French hockey. Sam Bitten, the younger brother of Will Bitten, will join his older brother in Springfield next year. He played with HC Plzeň (Pilsner)  this last season. He has played all of his pro career so far in Europe. CT HIGH SCHOOL HOCKEY NEWS The CT high school hockey landscape was changed dramatically with the announcement that two of the Big Four, West Haven and Hamden, have downgraded their programs to Division-2 after 75 years as Division I powerhouses. West Haven went co-op last year with Seymour, Oxford, and Shelton and finished 3-17 with their only D1 win of the three they had was against an out-of-state opponent, St. Domenic (Auburn, Maine). The Hamden High Green Dragons, another part of the long-time unique high school hockey clique along with West Haven, Notre Dame-West Haven, and Fairfield Prep, were the Montreal Canadiens of high school hockey in the late 1960s through the 1970s into the late 1980s. Much like West Haven, they have had dwindling numbers after a sub-par season of their own with its three wins-two over West Haven and the other against Sheehan of Wallingford, have had just six coaches in the program's history. The local involvement in hockey, trying out for their teams, has not been good, and both towns' youth programs have begun admitting kids from neighboring towns over the last several years to pump up the numbers. So Hamden could be next in line in a few years. West Haven AD Joe Morrell Jr., who was the head coach for 21 years of the Blue Devils (one of six coaches in the program's history) after being an assistant coach at cross-town rival ND-WH for six years was matter-of-fact regarding this momentous decision. "It was a tough decision to make, a very tough pill to swallow. Put a lot of time coaching and playing for this program, we were in agreement-to be able to compete we had go to Division II. Some day we will be back at Division I." The current WH coach is Steve Harris, who played four years at ND-WH and a PG year at Gunnery (Prep) School (now Frederick Gunn School) (Washington) before playing Division III at Johnson and Wales (Rhode Island) and is set to remain was all in with the tough decision. MORE HIGH SCHOOL NEWS A far cry from 30 years ago, when Connecticut held the Connecticut Classic at Ingalls Rink at Yale against Massachusetts schools. The West Haven Blue Devils won its last title in 1994, and then WH head coach Art DeLucia forecasted the program's decline when he saw the youth numbers then and stepped aside. He told this reporter then, 'We graduated the smartest championship team academically ever and likely the last WH school championship.' It led to the West Haven AD, the late Tom Hunt, with DeLucia's resignation letter in his back pocket trying to back door in, now out of high school hockey Steve McCarty, then the WH assistant coach, to become the head coach. Hunt ran afoul of the WH Board of Education, who requested an open process in the coach selection. That led to the three-year tenure of former New Haven Blades and Nighthawk player plus former NHL defenseman Gordie's Smith's tumultuous reign and conflicts with Hunt. Smith's brother is Billy Smith, the great Islanders goalie who won four Stanley Cups. Morrell followed Smith. A sad day indeed. HOME HARTFORD WOLF PACK Read the full article

[alexxx-malev]

Amursk 19 by Alexxx Malev Via Flickr: Russia. Amursk. Amur River Амурск. Амур

[pwlanier]

Dyatala Alexander Nikolaevich (1933-1978).

Chukchi are listening to the radio. 1964.

Oil on canvas.

Bottom right: "Adyatala// 1964".

Graduated from the State Pedagogical Institute named after A.I. Herzen, branch of the peoples of the Far North. By nationality, he is an ulch, a representative of a small people living in the Khabarovsk Territory. By the time Alexander was born (in the village of Kolchem) by 1933, there were only a few hundred ulches. Alexander Dyatala is the only ульч artist so far. He was not even ten years old when his mother, a fisherman, drowned in the waves of Cupid. Soon he also lost his father, a participant in the Great Patriotic War. The boy was accepted by the orphanage and prepared him for further training.

Alexander dreamed of the profession of an artist from childhood, and his dream came true: he became a student, a student of the famous artist-professor I.A. Serebryany. While studying, A.Dytala began to cooperate with magazines and newspapers, performing various kinds of graphic works. From Leningrad, the artist moved to Moscow, where he was paid attention to such masters of painting as Nurenberg, Katsman, Chuikov.

Alexander Dyatal has accumulated a lot of works: portraits of poets - Alexander Prokofiev, Ilya Selvinsky; northerners Vladimir Sangi and Yuvan Shestalov; Ulchi workers - hunters, fishermen, teachers, masters of ornament... He devoted his thesis to the patriotic theme connecting the Ulch village with the capital: "Moscow speaks, and the Ulchi listens to it, they listen to the heartbeat of the fatherland!"

After graduating from the institute, Dyatala went to his native land. He settled in Khabarovsk and traveled around the edge, spended nights on the banks of the Amur, walked the taiga with hunters, studied the life of the Ulch village, the ancient traditions of his fellow villagers and the signs of the new that came into everyday life. Both the new way of life and the old "bear holiday" gave him motifs and subjects for new paintings. The artist spent most of his life in St. Petersburg.

Nikitskiy

[opticandmasturbation]

"The Khabarovsk regional court dismissed the complaint of the prosecutor's office and approved the acquittal of the artist from Komsomolsk-on-Amur Yulia Tsvetkova (included in the register of media-"foreign agents" in Russia) in the case of distribution of pornography"

--BBC

[chunkletskhl]

Got to thinking the other night, for no particular reason, about the Nadezhda Cup (the “Cup of Hope”), the KHL’s short-lived post-season tournament for teams that missed the playoffs.  It ran for two seasons, won in 2012-13 by Dinamo Riga and in 2013-14 by Avangard Omsk.  Dinamo Riga’s Roberts Bukarts, top left photo, was the tournament’s all-time scoring leader (13 gp, 7-7-14), with Avangard Omsk’s Nikita Pivtsakin, top right, the top-scoring defenceman (11 gp, 5-4-9). Alexei Kuznetsov appeared for both Amur Khabarovsk and Ugra Khanty-Mansiysk in the Nadezhda Cup (the bottomphoto shows him with the former), and his 18 games played in the tournament leads all netminders in that category.  

(Image Source 1,2,3)