Brad McCrimmon remembered by Flyers family

RICK TOCCHET remembered Brad McCrimmon for the small things in life.

"He sat in the back of the bus; we'd call it 'Beast's Corner,' " Tocchet said last night as a guest on Comcast SportsNet's "Daily News Live." "He would strip down and take off his pants and wear tiny little gym shorts on bus trips. He used to make all of us laugh."

One half of the greatest defense pairing in Flyers' history, McCrimmon, 52, left the Detroit Red Wings in May to pursue a head coaching opportunity in Russia's Kontinental Hockey League.

Yesterday, McCrimmon left the earth far too soon. McCrimmon, coach of the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, was one of 43 to die in a plane crash in Central Russia, according to Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry.

Lokomotiv confirmed that the entire main roster, plus four players from their youth team, were on the plane. The crash, one of the worst in the history of sports, occurred at 4 p.m. Moscow time immediately after takeoff. The weather was sunny and clear.

Two passengers survived the crash, including a male flight attendant and Russian forward Alexander Galimov, but both are listed in "grave condition."

The chartered Yak-42 jet was carrying the team to Minsk, the capital of Belarus, where it was to play today in its opening game. Of the 45 people on board, 36 were players, coaches and team officials; eight were crew.

"This is the darkest day in the history of our sport," said Rene Fasel, president of the International Ice Hockey Federation. "This is not only a Russian tragedy - the Lokomotiv roster included players and coaches from 10 nations."

"We have no team anymore," Vladimir N. Malkov, team spokesman, said in a telephone interview with the New York Times. "All our starting players and all the service people, they all burned in the crash."

McCrimmon, who spent five seasons (1982-83 through '86-87) with the Flyers during his 18-year playing career, was not the only Lokomotiv member on board with NHL ties. Forward Pavol Demitra, defenseman Ruslan Salei, forward Josef Vasicek, defensemen Karel Rachunek and Karlis Skrastins were also among the fatalities. Assistant coach Alexander Karpovtsev also formerly played in the NHL.

"It's a tragedy," said Flyers goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov, who lives 150 miles southwest of Lokomotiv in the offseason. "I know a lot of the guys on that team and it is a big loss. It's different when old people die, but when young people die in sudden death, it's tough to accept. They were young people full of life with opportunities in front of them and most of them have young kids."

Flyers chairman Ed Snider said "The Beast" was "one of the toughest defensemen ever to wear the black and orange."

"I'm personally saddened to hear of the tragic death of one of our former players, Brad McCrimmon, and his team," Snider said in a statement. "He gained the nickname 'The Beast' for his tenacity on the blue line and his ability to shut down our opponents. Off the ice, Brad was a true gentleman. He was a kind, caring and wonderful human being."

McCrimmon touched a lot of lives over the years. He spent 10 seasons in the NHL as an assistant coach with Calgary, Atlanta and Detroit after a playing career that spanned from 1979-1997.

He helped lead the Flyers to the Stanley Cup finals in 1985 and 1987. In 1985-86, McCrimmon was an astounding plus-83 while partner Mark Howe was a plus-85 as the two logged upwards of 30 minutes in ice time per night.

After a bitter contract dispute, McCrimmon was traded to Calgary after the '86-87 season. When the Flames won the Stanley Cup in '89, McCrimmon couldn't help but think of the Flyers' two near-misses.

"We bled and we fought and I just wish so much that one of those times we could have done it so those guys could feel what I do now," he told the Daily News' Jay Greenberg. "They deserved to feel that way. Just as much as these guys I'm with now."

McCrimmon was a defensive partner with some of the game's greatest blue liners, including Howe, Nicklas Lidstrom, Ray Bourque, Paul Coffey, and Chris Pronger.

But he also had time for 18-year-old rookies like Tocchet.

"It's really tough," Tocchet said. "He's probably one of the most influential guys in my career. He took me under his wing and taught me how to be a pro. He was the first guy to give you money on the road if you needed it. I want to remember him for those stories because he was a great teammate."

Howe called McCrimmon one of his "three closest friends." Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren played with McCrimmon and coached him in Philadelphia and Hartford.

McCrimmon left the Red Wings, where he was an assistant, to pursue an NHL head coaching opportunity, "the right one" with a solid franchise. Sadly, he never got to show his hand, passing away tragically on the way to his team's first game.

"I'm scratching my head as to why he never really got an opportunity in the NHL," said Tocchet, who coached the Tampa Bay Lightning for 148 games from 2008-10. "A lot of people got a shot before him to coach in the NHL. That's something that will never make sense to me. If you sit down with Brad McCrimmon, he knows hockey as well as anyone I played with or know.

"That's what I'm sad about. He should have been a coach in the NHL. Even when I coached in Tampa, he would call me every 2 to 3 weeks and tell me to keep my head up. He's a special guy."

According to eye witnesses, the plane apparently struggled to gain altitude before hitting a signal tower and breaking apart along the Volga River near Yaroslavl. The plane, a Soviet-built, short- and medium-range Yak-42, was built in 1993, and plans were in place to take it and others like it out of service. Tocchet, who flirted with a coaching opportunity in Russia, said players have long talked about the questionable air-safety standards with planes that service the KHL.

In recent years, Russia and the other former Soviet republics have had some of the world's worst air-traffic safety records.

"Something needs to be done about air safety over there," Tocchet said. "I don't want to speak out of turn, but guys I know who played in Russia were talking about the horror stories over there, that paint was falling off these planes and seats were ripped up."

McCrimmon, who resided in Northville, Mich., leaves behind his wife, Maureen, daughter, Carlin, and son, Liam.

Daily News wire services contributed to this report.