Russia's NY Rangers go down

Canada.com reports:

YAROSLAVL, Russia (CP) - The most expensive and star-studded hockey team in the world this season has been knocked out in the first round of the Russian league playoffs.

AK Bars Kazan, which acquired 15 NHLers since the lockout started in September, was eliminated in four games against Lokomotiv Yaroslavl in the best-of-five quarter-final series.

Lokomotiv, with eight NHLers of their own, defeated AK Bars 2-1 on Tuesday to end the season for a club which has spent unprecedented salaries in European club hockey and has been given the nickname New York Rangers East by European sports media.

Despite the likes of Dany Heatley, Vincent Lecavalier, Alexei Kovalev, Alexei Morozov, Ilya Kovalchuk, Slava Kozlov, Denis Arkhipov, Alexei Zhitnik and Darius Kasparaitius, AK Bars managed only five goals in the four games against Lokomotiv goaltender Marc Lamothe - a 31-year-old native of New Liskeard, Ont.

I watched the end of the second game yesterday when Heatley scored on the tenth (!) shootout attempt. But it turned out they were just lucky. The displined Lokomotiv, a slightly more offensive minded replica of NJ Devils, overplayed them and tied 'em down.
All those millions wasted...
In the ongoing lockout I tend to be sympathetic to the players side somewhat more. But honestly, this is just another evidence to the argument how grossly overpriced some NHLs are..