Team point: Russia won the First Channel Cup not without adventures
The Russian national hockey team won the First Channel Cup in St. Petersburg for the second time in a row. They were seriously challenged by the Belarus national team, which almost won the match with Russia, scoring three goals in 108 seconds. An important event was the resumption of games at SKA Arena, the most spacious hockey stadium in the world. All matches involving the Russian national team gathered over 20 thousand spectators. Now the SKA St. Petersburg SKA will start playing in the KHL again at this facility.
How the First Channel Cup was held
Until 2022, the First Channel Cup was one of the stages of the Eurohockey Tour, in which the national teams of Russia, the Czech Republic, Finland and Sweden participated. This competition was held from November through April and was considered a preparatory event before the World Championships and Olympic Games. It consisted of four stages held in each of the participating countries.
Since 2022, when Russian athletes were suspended from almost all competitions, the Channel One Cup has lost its status as a stage of the Euro Hockey Tour. Finland, Sweden and the Czech Republic refused to participate. But the tournament survived. It became the only one in the year when residents of Moscow or St. Petersburg could see the Russian national team.
Apart from it, the Red Machine only gathers in the spring, at the end of the season, when it plays a series of matches in Kazakhstan, Belarus and Russian regions - usually Chelyabinsk, Omsk, Krasnoyarsk and Tula.
In addition to us, the sanctioned Belarus national team and Kazakhstan, which is using this opportunity to prepare for the World Cup, will also participate in the First Channel Cup starting in 2022.
The debut Channel One Cup in the new format in 2022 was unexpectedly won by Belarus. A year later, Russia took the trophy in St. Petersburg.
This year, the organizers went for an experiment, organizing as the fourth participant the KHL World Team, consisting of legionnaires of Russian clubs. It included American forward Sasha Chmielewski of Salavat Yulaev Ufa, American goalie Jeremy Smith of Kunlun Red Star China, Canadian forward Nick Merkley of Avtomobilist Ekaterinburg, Swedish defenseman Robin Press of Metallurg Magnitogorsk, Czech defenseman Libor Shulak of Admiral Vladivostok and many others.
The legendary Canadian Mike Keenan, who led the New York Rangers to a Stanley Cup victory in 1994 and won the Gagarin Cup with Metallurg Magnitogorsk 20 years later, was appointed head coach of this team.
His assistant at Magnitogorsk, Mike Pellino, went on to win a similar trophy with that club while on Ilya Vorobyov's staff, and then worked on the staffs of Avangard Omsk, Lokomotiv Yaroslavl and Ak Bars Kazan. He became Keenan's assistant and in the KHL World Team at the First Channel Cup. Also on the staff were Kunlun head coach Mikhail Kravets and Admiral head coach Leonid Tambiyev.
Considering the fact that the team was assembled from scratch, its performance can be called good - a defeat of only 1:4 from Russia, as well as a victory over Kazakhstan 3:1. However, the last meeting with Belarus was a 1:5 setback.
Russia was the clear favorite in St. Petersburg. It assembled the strongest lineup, including the KHL's most star player this season, Evgeny Kuznetsov. He moved to SKA in the summer, returning to Russia after 11 years in the KHL. The two-time world champion and 2018 Stanley Cup winner with the Washington Capitals hasn't always shown his best hockey yet. But they are trying to utilize his media potential to the fullest.
In the Russian national team, Alexander Ovechkin's longtime Washington partner hasn't fared too badly either. He was recognized as the most valuable player of the First Channel Cup. And Russia won the tournament. In addition to the KHL World Team, it also defeated Belarus (4:3) in overtime and Kazakhstan (3:1) in regulation time.
Metallurg Magnitogorsk goalie Ilya Nabokov was recognized as the best goalie of the tournament. The best forward was Marat Khairullin of SKA.
- I was very happy to be in the Russian national team for the first time, it's a great honor for me to play for my country's national team under the Russian flag, - Ilya Nabokov told Izvestia. - I'm glad we won. It was nice to play in such a big arena with a huge number of fans in the stands.
It's also worth noting that the Belarusian team again resisted Russia. In a face-to-face match with us, it led 3:2 after the first two periods. And only in the last twenty minutes our team equalized, and in overtime finished off our neighbors. Otherwise, Dmitry Kvartalnov's wards defeated the Kazakhs (3:1) and the KHL World Team (5:1).
It's interesting that in recent seasons the Belarusians have not used naturalized foreigners, as they did back in the 2010s, and rely only on local hockey players, having raised a lot of talented youngsters.
Hockey has returned to SKA Arena
"SKA Arena" began to be built for the 2023 World Championship, which was to be held in St. Petersburg. After February 2022, the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) moved the tournament from the Northern Capital. Therefore, the construction of the stadium was no longer forced.
As a result, it was ready by the end of 2023. Last December, it hosted the KHL All-Star Game. "SKA Arena" has become the largest in the world. Its capacity is 21.5 thousand spectators. Previously, the record belonged to the Bell Center in Montreal (21.3 thousand). The first game in the KHL was held at the new SKA stadium. February 11, 2024 for the game with "Sochi" came 21,481 spectators.
Subsequent games in February-March, before the departure of the Army Men from the Gagarin Cup, traditionally gathered almost full stands, even in games with not the strongest opponents. But already at that time it was noted that the stadium was deficient in some places. And in June there was a fire that damaged part of the stands and the stadium bowl.
SKA announced that due to problems with fire extinguishing systems for safety reasons in the season-2023/24 will not play in the new arena. And returned to the 12,000-seat Ice Palace where it had played before. It seemed that SKA Arena was closed for a long time. The more unexpected was the news in November that it would host the First Channel Cup. All the malfunctions were eliminated. More than 21.4 thousand spectators attended all three matches involving the Russian national team.
- It was a joy to play in front of so many spectators," said Marat Khairullin in a conversation with Izvestia. - Many thanks to the fans for coming to the games and supporting us. It's nice to come back to SKA Arena and play there. We are ready to take the ice at this stadium now in the KHL.
SKA hockey players will play their first KHL game after returning to SKA Arena on December 17 against Lokomotiv Yaroslavl.
