On 7 September 2011, a Yak-42 carrying the players and coaching staff of Lokomotiv Yaroslavl crashed on take-off from Tunoshna Airport, on the bank of the Volga. Forty-four of the forty-five people on board were killed.
They were a team in the ordinary middle of a day. There had been practice that morning, bags packed for a road game, the small routines that fill the start of a season. The roster and staff came from several countries, players who had crossed borders and leagues to end up on the same bench. Among the dead were men who had won titles and coached national sides, and young players who had barely started.
The league's opening was given over to mourning instead of hockey. In Yaroslavl, people came to the arena and stood outside it for a long time. Fifteen years on, the names are still read there. The Wikipedia article is linked below for anyone who wants to know more.
One man came out of it: flight engineer Alexander Sizov, the only survivor of the forty-five aboard. The aircraft was a Yak-42, chartered to carry the team to their opening fixture.
Constance mentioned once that a hall knows when it is full. The next evening people came to the arena anyway, thousands of them, and stood there with no game to watch and nothing to do but be in the same place. That counts for something.