Afternoon Delight

Winnipeg Free Press:  Jets players hit hard by McCrimmon’s death.  Current Jet and former Red Wings defenceman played under McCrimmon in Detroit.

Brandon Sun(registration required):  Wheat Kings trio off to NHL camps.   Shayne Wiebe will suit up for the Winnipeg Jets in the NHL rookie tournament in Penticton next week.

IceCaps News:

SJIceCaps:  Riley Armstrong to try out with IceCaps.  Riley is the younger brother of NHLer Colby Armstrong.  He (Riley) was mistakenly reported today to being on the Lokomotiv plane that crashed.

SJIceCaps:  IceCaps jerseys will likely look like this.  Now that the Jets jerseys have been revealed, speculation turns to the AHL farm team and what those uniforms might look like.  Nothing is official until it is released by the team.

After the jump we have more on the breaking news out of Russia regarding the tragic plane crash which appears to have wiped out the Lokomotiv team.  In ‘Around the NHL’ news we get a Sidney Crosby optimistic update, the Canucks trying to emulate the 2009 Penguins and the Hawks still have a lot of talent.

KHL Breaking News:

Edmonton Journal:  KHL club Yaroslavl Lokomotiv wiped out by plane crash.  They have a tentative list of the people on board the plane.

NHL.com:  NHL players react to tragedy on twitter.  It is difficult to be eloquent in 140 characters or less but nice that the players in North America, many who probably had friends on that plane, have reached out.

San Jose Mercury News:  Sharks prospect on roster of team in plane crash tragedy.  The news is still not quite clear as to who was on and who wasn’t on the Yak-42 plane that crashed.

Syracuse:  Former Syracuse Crunch David Ling saw Russian tragedy coming.  I wish I could say I’m surprised but it would appear that the standards for aviation outside of the major population centers are not quite what we are used to here in North America.

Around the NHL:

Pittsburgh Post Gazette:  Crosby optimistic about playing next season.  Good news for the NHL, but if you picked that 1st Jets/Pens game I wouldn’t bet on seeing him on the ice.

The Province:  Canucks would love to pull a Pittsburgh.   Much like the Pens did back in 2009, these same Canucks wouldn’t shock the world if they were able to get back and win the Cup in 2011/12.

TSN:  Blackhawks full of premium talent.  The Hawks’ are still quite scary despite the gutting of their roster after the Cup win.