Hours before a game in the Arena Balashikha, the new home of the KHL’s Avangard Omsk, the team’s head coach stands near one of the players’ benches. In his hands he holds a fragment of a watch given to him by LuAnn Snyder 15 years ago this week in an Atlanta hospital room.



Before every game he’s coached since, Bob Hartley takes out the piece of the watch worn by Dan Snyder on his last car ride and puts it in a pocket. Depending on the situation, he’ll sometimes hold the watch remnant in his hand. Then after the game, he tucks it away for safekeeping until the next game.



It’s not a good luck charm and it has nothing to do with winning or losing. But Hartley has kept it close by through tours of duty in Atlanta, Switzerland, Calgary, Latvia (including a trip to the Olympics in South Korea last winter) and now to Russia.



For the six days that Snyder was in a coma after Dany Heatley’s Ferrari swerved on a winding...