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)
Watch 3/13 (10;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)
Watch 3/13 (9:00am 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.

Photo: Dynamo Moscow

New York Rangers prospect Pavel Valentenko is expected to miss three months after undergoing shoulder surgery last week.  The 22-year old defenseman, acquired this summer as part of the deal that sent Scott Gomez to Montreal, suffered the injury while playing in a preseason game for KHL team Dynamo Moscow.

“The cartilage is torn and, in addition, a piece of the collar bone is broken,” Valentenko told Sports.ru.  “I won’t be able to play for three months.”

The initial injury occurred during an exhibition game in Switzerland in late August and was exacerbated upon the team’s return to Moscow. “I took a hit In Switzerland and felt pain in my shoulder,” Valentenko explained.  “And then here in a game the shoulder gave out completely.”

Valentenko made headlines last fall when he was given permission by the Canadiens to leave their AHL affiliate in Hamilton, Ontario and return home to Russia to attend to a family matter.  Once there, he gave in to pressure from his parents and signed a three year deal with Dynamo.

His contract in Moscow includes an out-clause allowing him to return to North America after this season, and Valentenko has expressed interest in taking advantage of it in the past.

Things haven’t gone well for Valentenko since his return to Russia.  Last season, he missed six weeks with a back injury, and — once healthy — struggled to get back into the line-up amid rumors that he would leave Dynamo in the offseason due to friction with Dynamo president Michael Golovkov.  Those rumors proved false, and the Nizhnekamsk native was enjoying a successful preseason for Dynamo prior to his injury.

“Everything went wonderfully in the preseason,” Valentenko shared with Sports.ru. “I played on a pairing with [Dmitry] Vorobiev.  Little got past us, and then bam!”

The Kontinental Hockey League kicked off it’s 2009-2010 season on Thursday with a rematch of last spring’s Gagarin Cup final between champions AK Bars Kazan and runners-up Lokomotiv Yaroslavl.  AK Bars reprised their Cup victory in dramatic fashion when Alexei Morozov scored his second of the game with just nine seconds remaining in overtime to give his team a 3-2 victory in the lone game on the KHL schedule.

Former Pittsburgh Penguin prospect Janne Pesonen scored the other goal for Kazan, while Gennady Churilov and former Carolina Hurricane and New York Islander Josef Vasicek provided the goals for Yarsoslavl.  Radek Bonk, most recently of the Nashville Predators, was in the penalty box for Morozov’s overtime game-winner.  Former Ranger prospect Jarkko Immonen made his KHL debut for the reigning champions, finishing scoreless and a  +1 in just under 15 minutes of playing time.

Eight more teams will get their seasons underway on Friday.  Of particular note to New York Rangers fans will be the season opener between Moscow rivals CSKA and Dynamo.  Rangers 2009 seventh round draft pick Mikhail Pashnin is expected to make his KHL debut for CSKA, while the status fellow defenseman Pavel Valentenko, acquired as part of the trade that sent Scott Gomez to Montreal this summer, remains uncertain following an injury suffered two weeks ago.  The game will be available live online starting at 11:30am EDT.

As I did last season with Avangard Omsk, I’ve set up pages containing the schedules for both CSKA and Dynamo and will update them with scores and links to online broadcasts and highlights (when available) for those who want to keep tabs on the Rangers’ two KHL-based prospects.  And for those who still wish to follow Jaromir Jagr and Avangard Omsk, I’ve once again posted the Avangard schedule and will update it with links and results throughout the season.  (All three schedules can also be found in the “Links” section to the left.)

Avangard’s season gets underway on Saturday when they face Barys Astana at 5:00am EDT.  That game is scheduled to be shown live on the new and much improved KHL web site, which was re-launched today to coincide with the start of the new season.  (Unfortunately, the — extremely limited — English-language content that existed previously appears to have been lost in the transition.)