By Joe Haggerty
CSNNE.com Bruins InsiderFollow @hackswithhaggs
WILMINGTONThe Lokomotiv Yaroslavl plane crash has brutally affected people all across the hockey world, and unfortunately the young and talented Bruins prospects at rookie training camp are no different.
Bs 2011 second round pick Alexander Khokhlachev grew up in the Russian capital city of Moscow and has watched all of the news and reports out of his home country with wide-eyed horror over the last week while working out in North America for his first NHL training camp.
Its been very difficult for Khokhlachev being so far away from home when tragedy struck at the heart of his mother country, and things hit very close to Kokos heart when the crash took the lives of a pair of his friends the talented center grew up playing with.
Khokhlachev played for a pair of junior Russian National teams with 18-year-old Maxim Shuvalov and also knew 21-year-old Sergei Ostapchuk, who had played a pair of seasons in the Quebec Major Junior League before joining on with Lokomotiv in the KHL. Both young men were lost before the prime of their lives when the Yak-42 plane ripped apart in Yaroslavl.
Khokhlachev mourns the loss of both comrades.
I went to one school with Ostapchuk. This is just terrible. It was the first Lokomotiv road trip of the year, so they brought some of the young guys that I knew. Just really terrible news, said Khokhlachev. There were a couple of young guys there. It was shock first thing when you heard and then you just felt really bad for all of those guys. Its a really bad time. I dont even know how to explain it.
The crash came at the end of a challenging summer for Khokhlachev, who scored 30 goals with the Windsor Spitfires last season while learning English and mastering the North American game before heading home to Moscow for a couple of weeks.
Boston Bruins
Then Khokhlachev headed to Toronto for the NHL rookie combine, hit Minnesota for the NHL draft and then flew to Boston for a prospect camp that he wasnt quite physically prepared for after the Bs tapped him in the second round.
Once the Bs prospect camp was over Khokhlachev went right back to Ontario to begin working out in Windsor with some new instructions and training tips from the Bs training staff.
The whirlwind summer appeared to be winding up on a high note with Bs training camp on the horizon and Khokhlachev celebrating his 18th birthday on the first day of rookie camp. But that was all cast in a different light when he saw the Russian plane go down immediately after take-off, cutting down the lives of so many good hockey people.
It was really tough when you dont know everything thats going on, said Khokhlachev. Ive been reading the news every day and checking on things. I think theyre going to find out in the next couple of days what actually happened with the plane. So we just wait for now.
Khokhlachev knows that it will be important to impress when he plays in the two rookie games against the New York Islanders at Nassau Coliseum over the next two evenings, but the Russian scorer will be doing so with a bit of a heavy heart.
Joe Haggerty can be reached at jhaggerty@comcastsportsnet.com. Follow Joe on Twitter at http:twitter.comHackswithHaggs