Mark Hartigan Blogs from Riga

Former Weyburn and Detroit Red Wing Mark Hartigan has filed his first blog entry about his upcoming season in the KHL.

Welcome to my first Insider Blog. I’m writing to you from Riga, Latvia, where I will be suiting up this season for Dinamo Riga of the Kontinental Hockey League, alongside my buddy and former Columbus teammate Duvie Westcott, not to mention a couple other ex-NHLers.

Even though it’s the middle of summer, things have been real busy for me. I left Minnesota last week, getting on a plane at 7:30 pm and landing in Amsterdam at 11 a.m. the next morning. Duvie and I had a nine-hour layover in Amsterdam, so we rented a hotel room at the airport to get some sleep.

The beds were smaller than a single – I mean, if you roll halfway over, you’re on the floor – and the funny thing was the beds were pushed together, so Duvie pushed them apart and faced them towards the TV. We got comfy and turned on the TV to find the only channel worth watching was CNN – also the only one we could understand. Duvie and I eventually made it to our next flight that had us landing in Riga at 11:30 p.m.

While the Hockey News seemingly has everyone blogging for them, I really enjoyed Jamie McClennan’s Asia League blog and am looking forward to what Hartigan has to say about the KHL.