Now that I'm back from my European adventure, I want to make a few points before returning to reality:

1. That was not reality. At least when it came to seeing NHL stars – and I saw several, including Evgeni Malkin, Pavel Datsyuk, Zdeno Chara and Jaromir Jagr – that was a temporary, alternate reality.

Evgeni Malkin and other locked-out NHLers can be seen in the KHL for the cost of a fast-food lunch. (Y! Sports)The only reason they were there was because of the NHL lockout. Ordinarily, you couldn't buy a ticket to see Malkin for little more than what a Big Mac meal costs at McDonald's. You couldn't stand 10 feet away as Chara ducked his head out of the dressing room door – not in a privileged club area, just the regular concourse, right in front of the fans – every time he came on or off the ice.

[Related: Malkin feels right at home during 'special' time for Russian hockey]

It was romantic, like stepping back in time – old arenas, low prices, few frills, less distance between the players and the people. When you're starved for hockey, any hockey seems great, and when rich men are fighting

PRAGUE – "It might surprise some people for me to say this," Erik Christensen said, standing outside the Lev Prague dressing room the other night, leaning against a concrete wall. "The hoopla of the NHL, it kind of wears off as you get a little older and you have some experience."

Erik Christensen chose an everyday job in the KHL over surviving on the fringes of the NHL. (Y! Sports)Christensen wasn't ripping the NHL. It is the best league in the world – with the best talent, the best arenas, the best perks – at least when it isn't mired in a lockout. Even though he left for the Kontinental Hockey League, Christensen is still the same Canadian kid from Edmonton who grew up idolizing Wayne Gretzky. He doesn't seem bitter.

It's just that the NHL isn't for everybody, and there's a larger world out there. Once you've played on the same team with Mario Lemieux, once you've skated at Madison Square Garden, it isn't about making the NHL anymore. It's about making a living. It's about doing what you really set out to do – play.

And so here is Christensen, living in Prague, making more

KLADNO, Czech Republic – Who's the owner around here? Seriously. Something needs to be done. It looks like this arena hasn't been renovated since it was built in 1949 – at least since they put the roof on 10 years later.

Jaromir Jagr owns and plays for HC Kladno, giving him a unique lockout perspective. (Josef Polacek/Rytiri Kladno)Though it can fit 8,000 people, it can seat only 1,600. The rest have to stand on the concrete risers that wrap around half the rink. The halls are full of dark wood paneling, covered with nicks and scratches, and everything needs a coat of paint or three.

The scoreboard over center ice is small, with old Atari graphics. At least it works. There is another one near the rafters in an end zone, next to an analog clock, but it sits dark the whole game.

There are no luxury boxes, unless you count the cafe with windows to the ice. Almost all of the concession stands are outside under tents, because there isn't enough room inside for a concourse.

And then there is the dressing room. We'll just say it isn't up to NHL standards.

Isn't the owner taking grief?

"Oh,"

LIBEREC, Czech Republic – The morning after, Wayne Simmonds still had no idea. He opened his laptop in his apartment, and he logged onto Twitter. The first post he saw was from a Czech apologizing for what happened.

A Czech Republic newspaper ran a story on Wayne Simmonds being subjected to racist taunts by fans. (Y! Sports)"What is this guy talking about?" he thought.

He scrolled and saw another post, and another, and another, and another. His roommate and close friend, Chris Stewart, walked in and asked why he hadn't told him. Stewart had already seen the video.

"What video?" Simmonds asked.

Then Simmonds saw it for himself. He was playing Sunday for Liberec of the Czech Extraliga – Stewart was out sick – when a scrum broke out. Simmonds was a small part of it. Still, some fans in Chomutov singled him out. They chanted in Czech.

"Opice! Opice! Opice!"

The word means "monkey." Simmonds is black.

At the time, Simmonds was oblivious. He doesn't speak Czech, and European fans chant all the time. When other fans booed and whistled down the chants, it was just noise to him. How

MOSCOW – He defected. Remember that. Remember that as Sergei Fedorov does a TV interview surrounded by CSKA Moscow memorabilia – red stars on the sofa, a red star on the banner looming behind him. Remember that as he sits in his office at the Soviet arena on Leningradsky Prospect, the new head manager of what once was literally the Central Sport Club of the Army.

Sergei Fedorov has taken on the tall order of turning historic Central Red Army into a winner again. (Y! Sports)This is a story about evolution. The country has changed. Fedorov has changed. Look at them now: Moscow's streets are choked with the fancy cars Fedorov once left to drive in America, and Fedorov has returned to the club he abandoned to build a modern professional hockey organization upon that Central Red Army foundation – with guidance from none other than Viktor Tikhonov, the legendary Soviet taskmaster.

"It's very exciting, because my former head coach is still here," says Fedorov, who first joined Tikhonov and CSKA when he was only 15. "If he walks in right now, don't be surprised. We always have that connection. He

MOSCOW – "What about Pasha?" the agent asked.

Pavel Datsyuk has been invaluable to CSKA Moscow both on and off the ice. (Y! Sports)Pasha? As in Pavel? As in Pavel Datsyuk, the Detroit Red Wings superstar?

Sergei Fedorov couldn't believe it. As the new head manager of CSKA Moscow, the fabled Central Red Army club, Fedorov had told Datsyuk months before to keep him in mind if there was an NHL lockout. But even though Fedorov was once a Detroit superstar himself, he never thought he would have a chance. He assumed Datsyuk would join one of his former teams, Ak Bars Kazan.

"What about him?" Fedorov asked the agent. "How's he doing in Kazan?"

"There is no Kazan."

"Yeah, yeah."

Fedorov still couldn't believe it. Sitting in his spartan office at the Soviet-era rink on Leningradsky Prospect, Fedorov was supposed to be talking to the agent about another center – the Toronto Maple Leafs' Mikhail Grabovski. It wasn't going well. Maybe this was a ploy.

"You're joking," Fedorov said.

"Nope. I'm offering you."

"I don't believe it, but let's talk about it."

[Nick

MOSCOW – The line stretched the length of the hall of the Luzhniki Ice Palace, the grand old Soviet arena of Greek columns and marble that hosted the final four games of the 1972 Summit Series. There were hundreds of people, actually thousands. They had come to see one of their modern Russian hockey heroes, Alex Ovechkin, only to find he wasn't playing because of illness – only to find they would be able to see him, anyway.

Alex Ovechkin was swamped by autograph seekers during the intermission of a Dynamo Moscow game. (Y! Sports)The announcement came during the second period of Dynamo Moscow's game against Dinamo Riga on Monday night: Ovechkin, the locked-out captain of the Washington Capitals, would be signing autographs on the second-floor concourse during intermission. Even though it was a one-goal game, the stands emptied immediately. The fans lined up behind metal barricades. They leaned over the third-floor overhang, knowing they would have no chance to meet him there, but a better chance to see him.

They waited.

And then there he was, surrounded by three guards, wearing his

MOSCOW – The adventure began on a North Carolina lake. Paul Maurice was on his boat with his dad, fishing for bass, when he received a call on his cell. Would he like to coach in Russia?

"Well," his dad said, "that might be interesting."

Paul Maurice has a few NHL stars he can lean on in Magnitogorsk, including Evgeni Malkin. (Y! Sports)That's where it stayed until a few days later, when Maurice received another call. Russia? Really? Maurice had coached in the OHL, AHL and NHL. He had coached in the Stanley Cup final with the Carolina Hurricanes, and he had coached in the crucible with the Toronto Maple Leafs. He had more than 1,000 games of NHL experience.

But he was still only 45 – too young to retire, not too old to learn new tricks, still looking to improve and return to The Show. He needed to work. He wanted to work. And since he had started coaching so young, after suffering an eye injury in junior, he had never really done anything else. He had never had a chance to see the world. Maybe it was time to try the KHL – the Kontinental Hockey League.

[Nick Cotsonika: Evgeni