HC SKA (what is it?)

To date, SKA SKA is one of the most successful clubs in Russia. The St. Petersburg team claims from year to year to win the Gagarin Cup - the main trophy of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL).

Early period

HCA SKA was formed in the postwar period, in 1946. It was then that the club took part in the first USSR championship. The Leningrad officers held their debut game against the team of Vasily Stalin, the VVS MVO. The result was a major defeat of the Leningrad army team with a score of 3: 7.

The army team received their actual name only thirteen years after their official birth in 1959. The club has since been called SKA. What does this abbreviation mean ? SKA is a sports club of the army. Also, the Leningraders had, so to speak, "relatives" in the capital - CSKA (the central sports club of the army). Muscovites have long been considered the flagship of Russian hockey, and their confrontation with "colleagues" from the northern capital is considered a real army derby.

Being in the shadow of more status rivals from Moscow (CSKA, Dynamo, Spartak, Krylia Sovetov), SKA in the Soviet period was able to win a single gold in the domestic arena. The club's main achievements were three wins in the Spengler Cup (1970, 1971 and 1977). Between them there was a place and a long-awaited bronze in the USSR championship. It happened in the 71st year successful for the army. Prior to this, only the fourth place was the best achievement of the SKA. What could be possible, believed not very strongly, but at that time the Leningraders were led by Nikolai Puchkov - one of the greatest specialists of the time. He was a supporter of an organized and disciplined game, which puts in priority an unerring game on the defensive.

The second bronze came to the Leningraders very soon: only in 1987. The philosophy of the team was radically different from the one that Puchkov instilled in his SKA. What happened to the team? Changed the style: the club began to show an aggressive attacking game, aimed primarily at the opponent's gate.

Modern period

In the nineties the team had a difficult period, but this is also SKA! What are the difficulties for a club with such traditions? CSKA had to play even in the First League, but the team quickly returned to the elite.

Nevertheless, in fact, because of the SKA, it began to enter only in the two thousandths. In 2007, a significant event happened for the team: the first foreign coach came to the team. They became the Canadian Barry Smith. Before that, he worked only with the teams of the National Hockey League (Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Detroit, Phoenix), so this was also a challenge for him. This appointment did not become a failure, but with Smith SKA did not go beyond the quarterfinals of the playoffs, which could not please either the leadership or the fans.

His fourth Spengler Cup in 2010 SKA won already under the leadership of Czech Vatslav Sikora. In the final between the national team of Canada and SKA the score was 4: 3 in favor of St. Petersburg.

Trekking the Gagarin Cup

Further more. Two years later, SKA was the finalist of the Western Conference. However, on the way to the army stood Moscow "Dynamo" - the future champion of the KHL. In the next season, SKA already conquers the Continental Cup - a trophy given to the best team on the basis of the regular season. Also the composition of the army is supplemented by such masters as Ilya Kovalchuk, who for a long time shone in the NHL (in the already defunct Atlanta Thrashers, as well as in the New York Rangers and New Jersey Devils), and Sergei Bobrovsky is perhaps one of the The best goalkeepers of our time (now playing in the Columbus Blue Jackets). However, it was not possible to take the Gagarin Cup again, it was limited to bronze medals. Interestingly, the best scorer of the Gagarin Cup was, nevertheless, SKA forward Victor Tikhonov, who later also tried to force the Ocean in the club "Arizona Coyotes" (formerly "Phoenix").

Triumphal for SKA was the year 2015, when the club for the seventh year in the KHL finally took the Gagarin Cup. All decided the fifth match of SKA and Kazan "Ak Bars" in the final series.

Confrontation with CSKA

The game with the sign of SKA-CSKA today is considered one of the most striking in the entire championship of the KHL. The newest history of confrontations between two large army clubs begins in 2007. The advantage, oddly enough, is on the side of the Petersburgers. It is interesting that during the last two finals of the Western Conference the spectator could watch the incredible hockey of SKA-CSKA. Two years ago, SKA won, CSKA a year ago, and the score in the final conference was devastating - Muscovites won with a score of 4: 0.

The most notable players of SKA

SKA is a team in which some of the best hockey players of Russia and Europe have played for a long time already. Now the main stars of the club are strikers Ilya Kovalchuk, Pavel Datsyuk, Sergei Plotnikov, Vadim Shipachev and Evgeny Dadonov. Among the defenders can be identified Vyacheslav Voinov, Anton Belov and Eugene Chudinov. There are, of course, talented youth: for example, twenty-one-year-old goalkeeper Igor Shesterkin and nineteen-year-old defender Yegor Rykov.