Ice hockey (frequently simply called hockey in countries where it is the most popular form of hockey) is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use sticks to direct a puck into the opposing team's goal. It is a fast-paced physical sport. Ice hockey
In the aftermath of the plane crash that decimated a beloved Russian hockey team last week, fans clung to one filament of hope: a single player, 26-year-old Aleksandr Galimov, had somehow survived, staggering from the wreckage under his own power and telling a pair of astonished police officers, “Brothers, I am Galimov.”
Over the next five days, Mr. Galimov became a sort of talisman for fans, who flowed out into the street in the tens of thousands to grieve the ...