HC CSKA Moscow

HC CSKA Moscow (Central Sports Army Hockey Club Moscow, Russian: ХК ЦСКА Москва) is a Russian ice hockey club. It is referred to as the "Red Army Team" for its past affiliation with the Soviet Army, popularly known as the Red Army. HC CSKA Moscow won more Soviet championships and European cups than any other team in history.

History

A Russian hockey powerhouse

CSKA won 32 Soviet championships during the Soviet League's 46-year existence, including all but six from 1955 to 1989 and 13 in a row from 1977 to 1989. By comparison, no NHL team has ever won more than five Stanley Cups in a row. They were almost as dominant in the European Cup. They won all but two titles from 1969 to 1990, including 12 in a row from 1978 to 1990. The team's first coach was Anatoli Tarasov, who would later become famous as the coach of the Soviet national team. Tarasov coached the Red Army Team, either alone or with co-coaches, for most of the time from 1946 to 1975. The team's greatest run came under Viktor Tikhonov, who was coach from 1977 to 1996--serving for most of that time as coach of the national team.

The Red Army Team was able to pull off such a long run of dominance because during the Soviet era, the entire CSKA organization was a functioning division of the Red Army. Taking full advantage of the fact that all able-bodied Soviet males had to serve in the military, it was literally able to draft the best young hockey players in the Soviet Union onto the team. There was a substantial overlap between the rosters of the Red Army Team and the Soviet national team, which was one factor behind the Soviets' near-absolute dominance of international hockey from the 1950s through the early 1990s. By the late 1980s, however, the long run of Red Army dominance caused a significant dropoff in attendance throughout the league. [http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/winter02/hockey/story?id=1326249 ESPN.com - Russians regroup on other side of the red line ] ] Not surprisingly, discipline was quite strict, especially under Tikhonov. His players practiced for as many as 11 months a year, and were confined to barracks throughout that time even if they were married. However, he mellowed somewhat after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

CSKA has remained one of the strongest clubs in Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union, though it has yet to win a championship. Off the ice, the massive exodus of Russian players to the NHL hit CSKA particularly hard, in part because, as mentioned above, nearly all of the country's best players were on the roster. For a time in the late 1990s and early 2000s, it was briefly unofficially known as "the Russian Penguins" after the Pittsburgh Penguins bought an interest in the team.

One of the most feared lines in hockey history was the "KLM Line" of the 1980s. The name came from the last names of the three players, Vladimir Krutov, Igor Larionov, and Sergei Makarov. Together with defensemen Viacheslav Fetisov and Alexei Kasatonov, they were known as the "Green Unit" because they wore green jerseys in practice. The five-man unit formed a dominant force in European hockey throughout the decade. All five players would be permitted to come to the NHL in 1989, with mixed results. Krutov had the shortest NHL career, lasting only one season in Vancouver; Makarov (who won the Calder Trophy in 1990) and Kasatonov were out of the NHL by 1997; Fetisov and Larionov won the Stanley Cup twice together with Detroit before Fetisov retired in 1998; Larionov would win a third Cup with Detroit in 2002, before retiring from New Jersey in 2004.

At the IIHF Centennial All-Star Team, out of 6 players selected 4 players once played at CSKA Moscow.

CSKA and the NHL

CSKA played 36 games against NHL teams from 1975 to 1991 and finished with a record of 26 wins, 8 losses, and 2 ties. 34 of these games were played in Super Series, including a tour of North America in 1975/1976. On New Year's Eve 1975, CSKA played the Montreal Canadiens, widely regarded as the league's finest team (and that year's eventual Stanley Cup winners). The game ended with a 3-3 draw, but was widely hailed as one of the greatest games ever played.

Another memorable game was played on January 11 1976 against the Philadelphia Flyers, who at the time were the defending Stanley Cup Champions and were known as the "Broad Street Bullies" for their highly physical play. The game was notable for an incident where, after an extremely hard body check delivered by Philadelphia's Ed Van Impe, the CSKA's top player, Valery Kharlamov, was left prone on the ice for a minute. CSKA coach Konstantin Loktev pulled his team off the ice in protest that no penalty was called. They were told by NHL president Clarence Campbell to return to the ice and finish the game, which was being broadcast to an international audience, or the Soviet Hockey Federation would not get paid the fee that they were entitled to. They eventually complied and eventually lost that game 4-1, with the Flyers showing that they could play with finesse as well as force.

CSKA Moscow alumni have made a large impact on the NHL; perhaps the largest impact came with the Detroit Red Wings of the mid-1990s. Sergei Fedorov, Vladimir Konstantinov, and Vyacheslav Kozlov had established themselves as key members of the Wings when they were joined by Fetisov and Larionov, forming the Russian Five. These five players would play an integral role in the Wings' consecutive Stanley Cup championships in 1997 and 1998. Dmitri Mironov joined the 1998 squad, following Konstantinov's career-ending injury on 13 June 1997; since Konstantinov was kept on the roster despite his injury, the 1998 squad marks the largest contingent of CSKA veterans (six) to win the Stanley Cup.

ee also

*CSKA Moscow
*1975-76 USSR Red Army ice hockey tour of North America
*Flyers versus Red Army

References

External links

[http://www.cska-hockey.ru/ Team Website]