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Yakupov would like to see more towel twirling in the KHL

2012 NHL Entry Draft - Portraits

PITTSBURGH, PA - JUNE 22: Nail Yakupov, drafted first overall by the Edmonton Oilers, poses for a portrait during Round One of the 2012 NHL Entry Draft at Consol Energy Center on June 22, 2012 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Jamie Sabau/Getty Images)

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Nail Yakupov wishes the KHL experience was more like the NHL experience.

Specifically, the first overall pick in the 2012 NHL draft has been disappointed with the atmosphere at Russian rinks when he’s suited up for HC Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk.

“I dream that in Nizhnekamsk they’d give out blue and white rally towels to the fans at the entrance, and that when we score a goal or create a dangerous chance, they’d all hold them up and start twirling them, like in the NHL,” Yakupov tells R-Sport.

“We don’t have that, and they don’t know, they haven’t seen how it is.

“And I’d like different music for a goal, and for the lights to go out. Well, so everything isn’t bland.”

And then he started singing that Zombie Nation song.

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