On Wednesday, ex-NHL player and coach Gerard Gallant was hired by a team in the Kontinental Hockey League. But, instead of just saying it, the team introduced its new coach with one of the most bizarre videos I think I've ever seen. The KHL has most of its teams in Russia, but it also has one team based in China. Until last week, that team was called Kunlun Red Star, and it was started as a way to prepare China for the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. This is the team that most of the Chinese National team played for — including North Americans who were given Chinese passports — in the lead up to the Games. However, last week, the team announced plans to relocate to Shanghai and change its name to the Shanghai Dragons (although this year they'll play in St. Petersburg, Russia). To break the news, a slick new video was dropped: It seems the Shanghai Dragons like to make announcements with a big video because just a few days later, the team announced that it was hiring Gallant. But the video it made? It was interesting… Did… did I miss something? I don't understand why the video game angle was used. Probably just because some badass animations could be dropped in, perhaps with a little help from AI, especially on those weird Jaromir Jagr and Artemi Panarin (I think) characters. But then the big one was Gallant himself in traditional Chinese armor getting possessed by some kind of… hockey coaching spirit, I guess? I don't know, we've all seen many head coaching introductions, but one with that much Mortal Kombat flavor is something new. That said, it's a solid coaching hire for the team. Gallant last coached in the NHL during the 2022-23 season, during which he was behind the New York Rangers bench. His biggest success came when he led the Vegas Golden Knights to the Stanley Cup Final in their first season in 2018. Before that, Gallant had head coaching stints with the Florida Panthers, New York Islanders, and Columbus Blue Jackets.