SKA St. Petersburg coach Andrei Nazarov hit team doctor five times: Report
The team doctor from SKA St. Petersburg said he was hospitalized with a head injury, concussion and a bruised chest after a physical altercation with notoriuously nutty KHL coach and former NHLer Andrei Nazarov. This is according to the Russian newspaper Sport-Express, via the Associated Press,
Said St. Petersburg doctor Egor Kozlov translated from Sport-Express:
But he struck me in the region of five blows to the head with his hands.
When it seemed that the threat had passed, I opened up and removed his hands. At this point, Nazarov stepped back a little, and with full force right foot hit me in the chest - on the left side, in the region of the heart.
According to Fontanka, the fight occurred July 7.
Nazarov had 1,409 penalty minutes in 571 NHL games. The altercation occurred after Kozlov said he would have to think about a proposed severance package. Per the story, Nazarov, who was hired earlier in the summer, tried to get rid of Kozlov claiming the doctor was not qualified.
If Kozlov's story is true, this would not be Nazarov's first brush with craziness in the KHL. There was that time with Barys when he blew a fuse on a too many men on the ice call. He was suspended for six games for this transgression.
And there was that time when he was coach of Vityaz and he tried to fight fans behind the team bench with a stick. Nazarov was suspended two games and fined 500,000 ruples.
There was also this water bottle throwing incident with Barys that gave him a four-game suspension and a roughly $2,200 USD fine.
St. Petersburg, which included former NHLer Ilya Kovalchuk, won the Gagarin Cup last season and Kozlov was named the KHL’s best doctor. Could you imagine if the NHL had that award? I’d totally give it to the Penguins for how quickly they diagnosed Sidney Crosby’s mumps.
The team denied the act occurred via the AP:
SKA's general manager Andrei Tochitsky said on the team website that he had been present at the meeting between Kozlov and Nazarov. There was an "extremely unpleasant" conversation but no violence, he said.
Nazarov has reportedly not publicly commented on the allegations.
Seriously, the KHL needs an all-access 'EPIX Road to the (wherever the road leads in the KHL).'
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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @joshuacooper
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