Send Rangers to Siberia, Caps to Moscow

From our freelance field reporter Emily, also known in higher echelons of blogosphere as EmilyB:

Sport-Express has a good long article up about the planning for the Premiere Series.

The KHL has all sorts of great ideas, but my favorite has to be the plan for the Caps to play Moscow Dynamo, and for Ovi to switch teams halfway through. His Dynamo boss Misha Tyurkin has some interesting and perceptive comments in the interview near the bottom of the page.

I'm also kinda giggly over the offhand dismissal of the Rangers - off to Siberia with you, blueshirts! Omsk is your kind of town, trust us on this.

And I also learned we can all buy our plane tickets, as Medvedev announced at the Channel Cup that this is practically a fait accompli.

Mikhail Tyurkin: "To play against our own adviser would be really cool"

"If Capitals visit Russia, would be great if they'd play vs. Dynamo," said the president of Dynamo Moscow Mikhail Tyurkin to Sport-Express correspondent. "This is not only intriguing, but also natural. Moscow has earned such a game. In addition both clubs represent their capitals. The other argument for that is the fact that the leader of Washington Alexander Ovechkin is Dynamo's alumni. This is as good ad for this game as it could be. Ovechkin against his hometown club.

He's still an acting advisor to the Dynamo.
The fact that the advisor of the club will play against Dynamo is also very cool. The presence of Ovechkin will help to create some pretty slogans and commercials for this game. We must use it and promote it to its fullest. I have no doubt that the game and everything associated with it will be very interesting.

Would you, as Dynamo's president, really want this game?
Of course! From our side we'd vote only "Yes". Will do our best to look decent vs. the team like Washington Capitals.

Do you want to act as an initiator to invite Capitals to Moscow?
We do not negotiate, KHL deals directly with the NHL. In this situation we remain bystanders. If they decide in our favor, we'll be happy.

Does Russia need such games?
Of course! This will give us the opportunity to test our strength, to see and compare NHL and KHL and their level of play. This match will be a test for our team. Secondly I am for openness. Indeed, the iron curtain is long gone and you can move freely around the world. In hockey it should be the same. We do not need any kinds of obstacles. And the more often we meet and play, the better it would be for both leagues. And finally the most important thing is the audience's attention. We'll be sold out for this game. After all this game would be also a great show.

Talking about the freedom of movement or visas for Caps fans: Mikhail Tyurkin is also the head of Russian INS. :)

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