Meteorite Damages KHL Arena

And the comments about karma can start here...

The meteor that passed 17,000 miles from the planet caused a lot of damage in Russia- over a thousand injured and a lot of buildings got taken out of commission...

There's a lot of cool dashcam video out there like this one from the Chelyabinsk region in the Ural mountains...


But what it did was knock out part of the Traktor arena...

Here's the statement from the league:

The meteor shower which struck Chelyabinsk and its environs has also caused some disruption to the hockey season schedule. The emergency services have confirmed that the walls of the Arena Traktor were among those structures to suffer damage, and therefore large-scale events at the stadium have been postponed. The sporting facilities will undergo an inspection by experts to assess the readiness of the arena to return to full operational use.

The results of the assessment will be made public on Monday, after which it will become clear whether the Chelyabinsk club can stage the first games of the play-offs. The knockout stages of the Gagarin Cup get underway on Wednesday, and as Traktor is already assured of a top four place in the Eastern conference, the team is due to start the play-offs with home games on the 21st and 22nd of February.

At this time, the meteor shower has not affected Traktor’s schedule, as the Chelyabinsk men finish their regular season campaign with a trip on the road to Magnitogorsk on Sunday. However, three events -today’s and tomorrow’s Youth Hockey League games between Belye Medvedi of Chelyabinsk and Magnitogorsk’s Stalnye Lisy and Saturday’s planned opening of the Traktor’s museum - have had to be postponed.

Goalie Michael Garnett is on Traktor's roster and he thought it was something serious:

"I thought for sure there was an explosion, and then I thought it might have been a natural gas leak or it could have been a bomb or a missile or a plane crash," he told CBC Radio.

Traktor is third in the Western Division and are in the thick of the playoffs race, and the team CEO is confident about the arena.

"The damage to the wall is not substantial, and there will not be any severe consequences to the integrity of the building," Vladimir Krechin said in a statement.

"The arena personnel have been evacuated in order for the rescue crew and the Ministry for Emergencies to carry out a further analysis of the situation. I would also like to point out that nobody has been hurt due to this incident; everyone was at their workplaces when this happened and left Traktor Arena immediately as soon as emergency evacuation was in effect."