occupation dmitri upper
Hockey Club Barys , commonly referred to as Barys Astana or simply Barys , is a professional ice hockey team based in Astana , Kazakhstan . It is one of the founding members of the Kontinental Hockey League ( KHL ). They play in the league ' s Chernyshev Division of the Eastern Conference . Their home arena is the Barys Arena , where they starting to play in the 2015  16 KHL season . ___MASK57___ to 2015 , the team played its home games at the Kazakhstan Sports Palace for 14 seasons , beginning in 2001 . The ___MASK66___ is Andrei Nazarov and the president is Alexander Koreshkov . In ice hockey , the goaltender is the player responsible for preventing the hockey puck from entering their team ' s net , thus preventing the opposing team from scoring . The goaltender usually plays in or near the area in front of the net called the " goal crease " ( often referred to simply as " the crease " or " the net "). Goaltenders tend to stay at or beyond the top of the crease to cut down on the angle of shots . In today ' s age of goaltending there are two common styles , butterfly and hybrid ( hybrid is a mix of the traditional stand - up style and butterfly technique ). Because of the power of shots , the goaltender wears special equipment designed to protect the body from direct impact . The goalie is one of the most valuable players on the ice , as their performance can greatly change the outcome or score of the ___MASK63___ . One - on - one situations , such as breakaways and shootouts , have the tendency to highlight a goaltender ' s pure skill , or lack thereof . Only one goaltender is allowed to be on the ice for each team at any given time . Ice is water frozen into a solid state . Depending on the presence of impurities such as particles of soil or ___MASK64___ of air , it can appear transparent or a more or less opaque bluish - white color . The KHL ' s Chernyshev Division was formed in 2008 as part of the league ' s inauguration . It is one of 4 divisions and part of the Eastern conference since the second season of KHL when the conferences were established . It is named in honor of Arkady Chernyshev ; Soviet ___MASK89___ of Sports , IIHF Hall of Fame inductee and former Dynamo Moscow ___MASK66___ . Belarus ( lat . ',      ), officially the Republic of Belarus , formerly known by its Russian name Byelorussia ( though this name is no longer used in Belarus itself , even in Russian language ), is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe bordered by Russia to the northeast , ___MASK31___ to the south , Poland to the west , and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest . Its capital and most populous city is Minsk . Over 40 % of its is forested . Its strongest economic sectors are service industries and manufacturing . Until the 20th century , different states at various times controlled the lands of modern - day Belarus , including the Principality of Polotsk ( 11th to 14th centuries ), the Grand Duchy of Lithuania , the Polish  Lithuanian Commonwealth , and the Russian Empire . Dmitri Sergeyevich Upper ( Russian :      ; born July 27 , 1978 ) is a Kazakhstani professional ice hockey center who currently serves as captain of the Barys Astana of the Kontinental Hockey League ( KHL ) . He also holds Russian citizenship . Slovakia , officially the Slovak Republic , is a landlocked country in Central Europe . It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west , Poland to the north , ___MASK31___ to the east and Hungary to the south . Slovakia ' s territory spans about and is mostly mountainous . The population is over 5 million and comprises mostly ethnic Slovaks . The capital and largest city is Bratislava . The official language is Slovak , a member of the Slavic language family . Andrei Viktorovich Nazarov ( born May 22 , 1974 ) is a former Russian professional ___MASK40___ . He has formerly managed the Kazakh team Barys Astana ( of the Kontinental Hockey League ' s Chernyshev Division ), the Ukrainian national team and been joint coach of the Russian National Hockey Team . He has been nicknamed " The Russian Bear ", and in his coaching career , " The Russian Keenan ". Finland , officially the Republic of Finland , is a ___MASK75___ state in Northern Europe . A peninsula with the Gulf of Finland to the south and the Gulf of Bothnia to the west , the country has land borders with Sweden to the northwest , Norway to the north , and Russia to the east . Estonia is south of the country across the Gulf of Finland . Finland is a Nordic country situated in the geographical region of Fennoscandia , which also includes Scandinavia . Finland ' s population is 5 . 5 million ( 2014 ), staying roughly on the same level over the past two decades . The majority of the population is concentrated in the southern region . In terms of area , it is the eighth largest country in Europe and the most sparsely populated country in the European Union . Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a ___MASK75___ state between Central Europe , Southeast Europe , and the Mediterranean . Its capital city is Zagreb , which forms one of the country ' s primary subdivisions , along with its twenty counties . Croatia covers and has diverse , mostly continental and Mediterranean climates . Croatia ' s Adriatic Sea coast contains more than a thousand islands . The country ' s population is 4 . 28 million , most of whom are Croats , with the most common religious denomination being Roman Catholicism . Ice hockey is a contact team sport played on ice , usually in a rink , in which two teams of skaters use their sticks to shoot a vulcanized rubber puck into their opponent ' s net to score points . Ice hockey teams usually consist of six players each : one goaltender , and five players who skate up and down the ice trying to take the puck and score a goal against the opposing team . China , officially the People ' s Republic of China ( PRC ), is a unitary ___MASK75___ state in East Asia . With a population of over 1 . 381 billion , it is the world ' s most populous country . The state is governed by the Communist Party of China , and its capital is Beijing . It exercises jurisdiction over 22 provinces , five autonomous regions , four direct - controlled municipalities ( Beijing , Tianjin , Shanghai , and Chongqing ), and two mostly self - governing special administrative regions ( Hong Kong and Macau ), and claims sovereignty over ___MASK61___ . The country ' s ___MASK90___ urban areas include Shanghai , Guangzhou , Beijing , Chongqing , Shenzhen , Tianjin and Hong Kong . China is a great power and a ___MASK90___ regional power within Asia , and has been characterized as a potential superpower . Russia ( from the  Rus '), also officially known as the Russian Federation , is a country in Eurasia . At , Russia is the largest country in the world by surface area , covering more than one - eighth of the Earth ' s inhabited land area , and the ninth most populous , with over 140 million people at the end of March 2016 . The European western part of the country is much more populated and urbanised than the eastern , about 77 % of the population live in European Russia . Russia ' s capital Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world , other ___MASK90___ urban centers include Saint Petersburg , Novosibirsk , Yekaterinburg , Nizhny Novgorod and Samara . The Kontinental Hockey League ( KHL ) is an international professional ice hockey league founded in 2008 . It comprises 29 ___MASK52___ clubs based in Belarus , China , Croatia , Finland , Kazakhstan , Latvia , Russia , and Slovakia and it is planned to expand to more countries . It is widely considered to be the premier professional ice hockey league in Europe and Asia , and second in the world behind the NHL .