Theo Fleury, Russ Courtnall and Russian figure skaters on for Battle of the Blades
While our dream of pairing Sidney Crosby and Olympic champ Tessa Virtue won’t become reality for this year’s Battle of the Blades, and Tie Domi has declined an encore performance, the list of participants for CBC’s smash hit provides ample reason to tune in for another Kurt Browning-hosted season of awkward NHL/silver blade skate-offs. The theme for this season is “the Russians are coming,” which explains the inclusion of Russian-born figure skaters Violetta Afanasieva and Ekaterina Gordeeva (the latter an Olympic gold medallist in 1988 and 1994), and former Habs and Flames winger Valeri Bure, who enrolled on the request of his wife. New NHL recruits include Russ Courtnall and Theo Fleury, while Shae-Lynn Bourne and Jamie Salé will return. The full list of participants, after the jump.
Hockey players
Patrice Brisebois
Valeri Bure
Russ Courtnall
Kelly Chase
Theo Fleury
Georges Laraque
P.J. Stock
Todd Warriner
Figure skaters
Violetta Afanasieva
Shae-Lynn Bourne
Isabelle Brasseur
Jamie Salé
Ekaterina Gordeeva
Christine Hough-Sweeney
Kyoko Ina
Anabelle Langlois
Battle of the Blades premieres on September 26.
• Meet the new teams for Battle of the Blades [Toronto Star]
I hope another hockey wife won’t live to regret it, like Craig Simpson’s wife must be doing! Oh well at least Theo is probably safe, since Jamie Sale seems to have bagged Craig Simpson who has now left his wife and 3 kids. Tessa meanwhile is too busy at the moment with David Pelletier, Jamie’s ex. Pelletier’s affair with Tessa was what got the whole ball rolling in the Sale-Pelletier breakup way back last year. It seems they are still together.