Soviet Hockey

If you haven't yet heard, Russia's Continental Hockey League (KHL) - also comprised of teams from Belarus, Latvia, and Kazakhstan - will hold their inaugural All-Star game outdoors. Top leagues holding special outdoor games has become wildly popular in recent years, with enormous crowds braving the elements to bear witness.

The NHL's inaugural Winter Classic was held last season on January 1 at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Buffalo, with Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby defeating the Sabres with a shootout goal in a thrilling, frigid, snowy game in front of over 70,000 spectators. (The BD Blog's namesakes can give first-hand accounts from the historic event.) This New Year's Day, the Winter Classic will take place at Wrigley Field between old time rivals Chicago and Detroit. I for one hope the NHL continues to hold one outdoor game each year, a New Year's Day tradition of the Winter Classic. The game can be in a new location each year (except for Phoenix, Dallas, Tampa Bay, or any warm-weather city - the game must have the possibility of a blizzard). The game doesn't even have to be played in an NHL city. A rumored future Winter Classic may be played at Penn State University between the Penguins and Flyers, a neutral site for Pennsylvania bragging rights.

This, however, was not the NHL's first outdoor game this century. More than 57,000 watched Montreal defeat Edmonton in the Heritage Classic in November 2003, played at 18 degrees below zero in Edmonton.

The recent outdoor hockey trend started in October 2001 with a college game between rivals Michigan State and Michigan at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing before a world record crowd of 74,544 (the match ended in a 3-3 draw). Then in February 2006, Wisconsin hosted Ohio State at Lambeau Field in front of over 40,000.

The KHL won't even be the first European league to hold an outdoor game. Swiss rivals SC Bern and SC Langnau played their 100th game in January 2007 before over 30,000 fans at one of Switzerland's largest soccer stadiums. The game was so popular that it sold out just two days after tickets went on sale.

So welcome aboard, Russia. But their All-Star game may be the most historic and breathtaking game of any. The location: Moscow's Red Square. This is where Soviet/Russian military parades of past and current generations have been held. Beneath the shadows of Saint Basil's Cathedral (what a beaut), The Kremlin, and Lenin's Mausoleum, Team Yashin (led by Alexei "The Turtleneck" Yashin, comprised of Russian players) will take on Team Jagr (a team of non-Russian players led by Jaromir "Check Out My Flow" Jagr). The two former NHL superstars give the new KHL a decent amount of credibility, especially since the league has poached young star Alexander Radulov from the NHL and brought him back home - sparking a bitter contract dispute between the two leagues.

The KHL has quickly reached deep into their pockets and could become a potentially legitimate rival to the NHL for world-class young European talent (Jagr and Yashin, though still NHL-calibre, are at the ends of their careers). The league could make NHL brass nervous, especially with the departure Nashville's Radulov. However, rumors are that both Jagr and Radulov would like to return to the NHL. Yashin, on the other hand, would be lynched both in Ottawa (where he held out an entire season for more money) and on Long Island (where the Senators ultimately traded him for Zdeno Chara and the Jason Spezza pick) if he returned. The KHL even has plans to expand from 24 teams to 30 and possibly more, with the league potentially expanding to Finland, Sweden, Germany, Austria, Ukraine, and the Czech Republic.

Regardless of any friction with or the potential competition from our Russian counterparts, I'm excited for their All-Star game. I'm just hoping it's picked up by Versus or ESPN Deportes.