November 1st 1999

Ice hockey, a club’s financial firepower and feebleness, stars and fans. What do these combinations of words have in common? The answer is simple: numerous problems in the hockey industry need to be solved.

It is well-known that the problem of losing "traditional hockey cities" exists in Canada but there is hardly any person in North America who could guess that Russia has recently experienced the same thing.

Not so long ago, four famous Russian clubs - "Spartak" Moscow, "Krilya Sovietov" Moscow, "Tractor" Chelyabinsk (the club where Sergey Makarov started his brilliant career) and the "Khimik" Voskresensk (many current NHL players and four Stanley Cup owners got their preliminary and secondary hockey education in this club) - were respected participants in many international tournaments and were full members of the Soviet Championships, which was renamed the Russian Hockey Super League after the breakdown of the Soviet Union. Now, regardless of numerous former achievements, they had to fight for the right to be full members of the RSL in the minor championships – similar to that of the American Hockey League or so-called farm teams. The explanation of their failure is simple - the lack of financial support and the mass departure of hockey experts and young talented players abroad or in prosperous industrial provincial hockey teams. As a result, in the near future the heart of Russia may be deprived of youth hockey schools, which are well-known all over the world. It looks like great national tragedy.

For many years the most prominent and successful teams included "Dynamo", CSKA Red Army, Krilya Sovietov and "Spartak", which historically has been the most popular team among spectators. Moscow had four good hockey teams. Today everything has changed. In the past, the state and its hockey system were considered one and indivisible. The more wins our teams had on the international arena, the more glory the state received.

With the breakdown of the Soviet Union and the disappearance of strong governmental hockey control, only two Moscow clubs managed to survive in the heart of Russia. The first one is "Dynamo", which could be characterized as wealthy and prosperous and able to compete with rich and strong industrial provincial clubs in the race for the championship title. It is the only Moscow club which maintains the dignity and reputation of hockey in the capital city. The other club is the less wealthy CSKA, which is suffering from no longer being able to get the best players through military enrollment. Using the auspices of the military, CSKA always had the first chance to "enlist" men into the Red Army only to use their hockey skills. Viktor Tikhonov was adept at using this rule to lure some of the brightest names in the game. Igor Larionov, Valery Kamensky, Valery Zelepukin, Vyacheslav Kozlov (all the natives of the former industrial hockey town, Voskresensk, located near Moscow) and Sergei Makarov (a native of Chelyabinsk) played for CSKA.

Later, "Dynamo" Moscow inherited the right to "enlist" men into the Army to use their hockey skills, but not the way as it was in the past when the young, talented players were brought to Moscow by force to play for nothing for several years.

Today, many young players prefer to escape from the army in one of three ways:

People may question how "Dynamo" has managed to save its authority when all other Moscow teams failed to fight against provincial industrial club backing?

The answer is simple. "Dynamo" has belonged and still belongs to the military unit comprised of border guards and secret police (known in the past as KGB). They know where and how to get money and the people who belong to this organization are considered very clever. In a word they are all elite. Thanks to their efforts, not only has the club kept its leading position in the Russian Championships, but it has kept its productive youth hockey school as well. In the ‘70s and ‘80s , all the boys of Moscow and Russia craved to be enlisted in the school of CSKA but now everything has changed. Their only desire now is to get in to "Dynamo". Now its school has approximately 200 young players - 25 men in eight age groups. In today’s top team, there are 10 graduates of "Dynamo" hockey school. But everything is not as good for the other clubs in and around Moscow.

There is still some tension between the teams. For the last few years there have been two CSKA Red Army clubs. In 1995 the original CSKA retired Viktor Tikhonov because he was past the mandatory retirement age for an officer. Tikhonov responded by revealing that he was the leaseholder for the ice arena where CSKA played and formed his own club called HC CSKA. As a result, Russia got two weak and financially sick teams: CSKA headed by Boris Mikhailov and HC CSKA governed by Viktor Tikhonov. These two independent organizations still fight for their rights on the lease for the ice arena and players. All these changes were mainly caused by recent and sudden changes in the country’s policy.

The Soviet Union, a strong social state became the democratic and capitalist Russia. It gave people the right to own private property. So new economic relations started to spring up like mushrooms and men who managed build up a fortune by taking advantage of unstable economic policy appeared. There was talk of the Russian Mafia controlling Siberia’s coal mines and steel, aluminum, nickel, oil, gas industries. Can you imagine such a great change happened only in 10 years? Of course it influenced the development of Russian hockey as well.

In recent years, regional team in eastern Russia like "Torpedo" Yaroslavl, "AkBars" Kazan and "Metallurg" Magnitogorsk have become the most powerful in the sport.

To understand the different franchises is to know their names. Russian teams have some significance attached to their titles that tells you the primary industry in the town. Usually clubs are named after the industry in the town or factory that supports them. "Metallurg" Magnitogorsk, for example, is named after the steel mill in the town of Magnitogorsk; Metallurg is the Russian word for steel foundry. Others include "Lada" Togliatti- the Lada car factory is in Togliatti (formerly known as STAVROPOL city); "Torpedo" Yaroslavl, for the motor factory, and so on.

On the one hand it is pleasant to realize that nearly every Russian club belongs to some new successful businessmen who can offer big contracts to the young, gifted players and recently have managed to get back from overseas’ minor leagues players such as former Russian NHLers Alexei Kudashov, Oleg Mikulchik, Vitaly Prokhorov, Dimitri Filimonov, Nickolay Tsuligin, Denis Tsygurov and others.

On the other hand, a problem still exists. All clubs don’t yet have their own productive youth hockey schools, and still a lot of time, about 10 years, is needed for their development. So why not support former legendary Russian clubs in their desire to promote young talented hockey players? They have great experience, traditions and there is no need to invent something new.

Fortunately there are still some people in Russian hockey who believe in its future and work with the youth not only for the sake of money but for the revival of its old traditions. There are a lot of young talented guys in our championships and it’s obvious that despite Russia’s confusing history of the game causing plenty of controversy, it produced wonderful players and continues to to do so to this day. After all do you remember which national team won the recent World Junior Championships held in Canada?