Just when you thought last year’s benching of head coach Wayne Fleming was the peak of Anatoly Bardin’s insanity, the man pulling the strings for KHL club Avangard Omsk proves that he still has tricks up his sleeve. On the eve of his club’s first round playoff series against ninth seeded Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk, Bardin announced on Wednesday that he had replaced head coach Igor Nikitin with former Finnish national team coach Raimo Summanen.

Nikitin had held the post since Fleming was fired in January 2009.  He’ll remain with the club in the role of Senior Coach, the position he held before taking over for Fleming.  He’ll be joined in that role by Vasily Tikhonov, son of Soviet legend Viktor Tikhonov and father to Phoenix Coyotes prospect Viktor Tikhonov.  The rest of the coaching and training staff remains the same.

Summanen arrives in Omsk having played a combination of 151 NHL games with the Edmonton Oilers and Vancouver Canucks.  In 1995 he was part of the Finland’s only World Championship team to date, and he went on to coach the country’s national team to a second place finish in the 2004 World Cup of Hockey.  In 2002 he won the Kalevi Numminen trophy as the top coach in Finland’s SM-liga.

The reason given for the coaching change was Avangard’s poor finish in the regular season.  The club closed the season with a 2-5-0-2 stretch to finish eleventh in the KHL’s overall standings.

You can watch Numminen’s debut (and the start of Jaromir Jagr’s quest for the Gagarin Cup) live at 11:00am EST Thursday.

The KHL completed its sophomore season on Sunday and kicks off its sixteen team competition for the Gagarin Cup today.  The first round will be a best of five series, with the following match-ups.

SKA St. Petersburg (2) vs. Dinamo Riga (13)
Head coach Barry Smith leads a group of former NHLers that includes Robert Esche, Sergei Zubov, and Alexei Yashin against Dinamo Riga, which is led by former New York Ranger Marcel Hossa, who finished the regular season leading the league with 35 goals and added 19 assists for 54 points in 56 games.  Games 3/10, 3/11, 3/13, if necessary 3/14 & 3/16.

Watch 3/10 (11:00am EST)
Watch 3/11 (11:00am EST)

HK MVD (4) vs. CSKA Moscow (12)
Rangers 2009 seventh round draft pick defenseman Mikhail Pashnin will get his first taste of playoff action after finishing his rookie season with a goal and four assists in 44 games.  Columbus prospect Nikita Filatov will look to make an impression up front after picking up 22 points in in 26 games after leaving the NHL.  Games 3/10, 3/11, 3/13, if necessary 3/14 & 3/16. Games 3/10, 3/11, 3/13, if necessary 3/14 & 3/16.

Watch 3/10 (11:30am EST)
Watch 3/11 (11:30am EST)

Dynamo Moscow (5) vs. Spartak Moscow (10)
Expect a spirited grudge match between to clubs with a history of not liking each other.  Rangers property Ivan Baranka led the Spartak defense corps in points with 32 in 55 games, a mark good for fifth among defenseman in the entire league.  On the other side, fellow Ranger prospect Pavel Valentenko managed to get into only seven matches this season due to injury.  Now apparently healthy, it’s not clear if the defenseman will be able to push his way back into the line-up unless Dynamo suffers an injury.  Games 3/10, 3/11, 3/13, if necessary 3/14 & 3/16.

Watch 3/11 (11:30am EST)

Atlant Mystishchi (6) vs. Lokomotiv Yarolslavl (7)
Nikolai Zherdev, who finished third on Atlant in scoring with 39 points in 52 games, behind league scoring leader Sergei Mozyakin and former Montreal Canadien Jan Bulis, will look to improve his chances of an NHL return with a strong playoff run.  Games 3/10, 3/11, 3/13, if necessary 3/14 & 3/16.

Watch 3/10 (11:30am EST)

Salavat Yulaev (1) vs. Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg (19)
Head coach Vyacheslav Bykov and assistant Igor Zakharkin hope to prove Russia’s Olymic disaster was a fluke by getting past the first round this season.  Last year, their top-ranked club was knocked out early by Jaromir Jagr and 16th seed Avangard Omsk.  Games 3/11, 3/12, 3/14, if necessary, 3/15 & 3/17.

Watch 3/11 (9:00am EST)
Watch 3/12 (9:00am EST)

Metallurg Magnitogorsk (3) vs. Traktor Chelyabinsk (18)
Sergei Fedorov and little brother FedFed look to lead Metallurg over Traktor, a team I admittedly know absolutely  nothing about. Games 3/11, 3/12, 3/14, if necessary, 3/15 & 3/17.

Watch 3/12 (9:00am EST)

AK Bars Kazan (8) vs. Barys Astana (14)
Last year’s champs, now featuring former Rangers prospect Jarkko Immonen, who finished his first KHL campaign with 38 points in 56 games, take on a team led by former NHLer Jozef Stumpel. Games 3/11, 3/12, 3/14, if necessary, 3/15 & 3/17.

Watch 3/11 (11:00am EST)
Watch 3/12 (11:00am EST)

Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk (9) vs. Avangard Omsk (11)
Jagr begins his drive for the Gagarin Cup with Tampa Bay’s Karri Ramo backing him up in net.  Sergei Demagin, who spent training camp with the Rangers two seasons ago, suits up for Neftekhimik.  Games 3/11, 3/12, 3/14, if necessary, 3/15 & 3/17.

Watch 3/11 (11:00am EST)
Watch 3/12 (11:00am EST)

This was written in about a half an hour, so I’m sure there are far more interesting storylines I’m overlooking.  But I wanted to get the links to the live video broadcasts up for folks who want to watch.  I’ll do my best to update this post with links for future games as they become available each night.

The Hartford Wolf Pack made a rare foray north of the border this week and came home with a pair of points, though they continued to chase the elusive “W” in the standings.

Both Saturday’s match-up with the Hamilton Bulldogs and Sunday’s tilt against the Toronto Marlies required extra time to decide a winner, and despite being tied for tops in the league in overtime victories, the Wolf Pack came away the loser in both: Saturday in a shootout, and Sunday with just 1.1 seconds remaining in overtime.

A pair of new faces were on hand for the latest round of losses, while some old friends moved on to greener pastures, victims of the NHL Trade Deadline. New York Rangers General Manager Glen Sather made two moves at Wednesday’s deadline, both with the goal of shoring up weak spots in the Wolf Pack line-up.

The first deal brought 27-year old center Kris Newbury to Connecticut’s capital. A veteran of 48 NHL games with the Toronto Maple Leafs and Detroit Red Wings, Newbury was brought in to fill a gap down the middle that’s been an issue for the Pack since Tyler Arneson left for the KHL and Patrick Rissmiller was dispatched to Grand Rapids of the AHL in October. Newbury paid immediate dividends, potting a goal and an assist in his first weekend with the Pack.

Newbury didn’t come cheap, however, and in exchange for the hard-nosed center, the Wolf Pack sent 23-year old heart-and-soul winger Jordan Owens — recipient of last season’s Fan Favorite Award — to the Motor City.

The second addition was Anders Eriksson, a 34-year old veteran defenseman with almost 600 NHL games under his belt. Eriksson helps shore up a defense corps that’s been depleted by injuries all season, and suffered its latest when Michael Sauer went down with season-ending shoulder injury last month. And while the front office didn’t know it when they acquired him in exchange for goaltender Miika Wiikman and a sixth round draft pick, Eriksson’s arrival would prove fortuitous. On Thursday Matheiu Dandenault, who returned to the Pack line-up only a week ago after spending the majority of the season nursing a groin injury, opted to call it quits after learning he would not receive an NHL contract from the Rangers.

Read the rest of my weekly recap over at SNY Rangers Blog…