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Nikolai Zherdev crashes car, gets in hotel fight, has pretty much worst week ever

It’s not exactly been the best summer for Nikolai Zherdev, the former NHL winger that’s had a rather colorful run in the KHL.

The former Columbus Blue Jackets pick, who also played for both the New York Rangers and Philadelphia Flyers, was dropped from Atlant of the KHL after his contract was bought out. The 28 year old found a new home with HC Lev Praha, another KHL team, signing a 1-year deal last week.

Then things went sorta bad.

Like, voodoo curse bad.

According to vesti.ru, Zherdev was involved in a physical altercation at the Barvikha Luxury Village hotel, in a suburb just outside of Moscow. The Fourth Period termed it a “bar fight,” so we’ll go with that.

Then Zherdev crashed his new black Bentley, which cost 10 million rubles ($302,177 US). The damage will cost him another 1 million rubles to repair.

In what is our favorite part of the story: Local residents scrawled obscenities on Zherdev’s car because they were so revolted by his behavior.

So things couldn’t get worse, right? Well, there’s also the pending divorce. From Vesti:

According to the portal Life News, wife of two-time world champion said it intends to file for divorce. On the Internet, it was reported that their success Nikolai Zherdev noted in the company of girls that apparently did not like the wife of a hockey player is not less than the broken Bentley.

There is also information that Zherdev was unable to fly to Prague in time to pack his new team, as the lost passport.

So how is your week going?

Zherdev and his wife have had problems reported in the past, including a violent incident that had conflicting reports.

The director of HC Lev Rashid Khabibulin told SovSport (s/t The Score) that he doesn’t have an opinion on Zherdev’s recent foibles and won’t be canceling the contract (translated):

My attitude? I'm in this not participate. On the other hand - this family problems, which arise, including the known, popular person. Comment on them I'm not going. And if you think that the club will take some steps repressive plan, it will not happen. We will not cancel a contract with Nicholas. If we go into every family conflict, nothing good will come of it. Someone was necessary to file it just the way it is served in this article.”

OK, that’s all well and good … but maybe give the guy a chauffeur for a year? Just sayin’.