Back when the Icebats were their playing last season at the nearby rink, I frequently would run into a music professor who commuted between Austin and Philly. Obviously we yakked about the Flyers and Phantoms but I remember one particular conversation regarding the former goalie Robert Esche. He had a promising career in the NHL despite his last year being terrible and losing the number one gig to the overrated Antero Niitymaki (now the backup for Marty Biron). My team letting him walk away was no surprise since he was yet another victim of “blame the goalie” for their defensive woes and Stanley Cup drought. I figured he’d at least land a back-up position with a weaker team because he had playoff experience and had been on Team USA’s short-list for goalies. No dice. It seemed Esche fell off the face of the earth. The professor heard he retired and I assumed he was right due to his residency in Philadelphia.
Last night, I was trying to find a way to vote in the KHL’s upcoming all-star game. KHL? It’s Russian for Continental Hockey League, I guess K is used in place of C for the word.
By the way, you think the upcoming outdoor game between Chicago and Detroit at Wrigley Field will be cold? The KHL is holding theirs at Red Square in January! The NHL will have to play in the Arctic Circle to top that.
Anyway, I found an English version of the KHL website since this league was formed to pre-empt the NHL’s possible expansion into Europe. I never did find the voting section but I spotted a goalie who resembled Esche. After an hour of digging through the Russian-based sites (the Widget in 10.5 was NO HELP), I proved it was him. He’s the starting goalie for SKA (St. Petersburg, Russia) and he’s having a pretty good, winning season under an American coach (Barry Smith). It would be tempting to score a jersey for my collection with his name in Russian on the back (Somara gave me one of the Moscow Spartak years ago). Then I noticed the team logo has the old Soviet-style hammer and sickle on a red star incorporated in it. Wearing this in Texas would be unwise. We still have morons of all ages around here who believe the movie Red Dawn was a documentary.
I only hope Robert has a prosperous and safe career in the KHL. May it lead to his triumphant return to the NHL and not hepatitis, a fate some NHL’rs suffered during the last lockout.
Hi there, Bob Esche was doing well, Evgeni Nabokov just took his place. I am now very glad about that, because I received the original Bob Esche (ЭШ, in Cyrillic) goalie shirt (the newer logo on it is a Star, wich would be great in Texas…). Met the whole team at an international tournament in Switzerland, great experience!