Your Jump-Start Guide to Following the KHL!

Many of you are probably in the same situation I'm in. With the NHL season in jeopardy (as it already begins cancelling games) I have a strong urge to watch some good quality hockey. The KHL has already had a solid reputation (aside from Kieth Jones who famously ripped into the league) and I decided to do some research.

Well I found out the hard way, how difficult it was to just pick up a new sport and I'm still having trouble following the new league. The team names mean nothing to me and I'm yearning for a sense of familiarity. So to help my readers get involved into the sport, I've decided to create some shortcuts to get right into the action.

Before we begin, I have to touch upon the topic of watching these games.

Like I've noted in a previous post, American time and Russian time doesn't exactly line up in the most ideal way (outside of the two Dynamo Moscow-SKA Saint Petersburg games in the Barclays Center this year), making it difficult to watch these games. My best suggestion is to just google what game you're looking for and hope to find a good enough stream to watch it. Beyond that, you're only other option is to move to Russia.

Alright. So the first thing that would probably help is name recognition. If you find a couple of names on one team that ring a bell in your head, it may be a good idea to follow along. One of the best way to get connected to a team is through it's players so it could be a very good idea. So I decided to fish through all the rosters of the 26 team league and documented the recognizable names. These players are either current NHLers, former NHLers, or names that have been found in the hockey world for other reasons.

WEST

Bobrov
Dynamo Moscow-Alex Ovechkin 
Lev Praha-Petr Vrana, Erik Christensen, Jiri Hudler, Marcel Hossa, Jakub Voracek
Donbass Donetsk-Evgeny Dadonov, Ruslan Fedotenko, Alexi Ponikarovsky
Slovan Bratislava-Miroslav Satan, Lubomir Vishnovsky
Vityaz Chekhov-Trevor Gillies, Mark Cullen, Andrei Markov
Dinamo Riga-Alexandre Giroux, Rob Schremp
SKA Saint Petersburg-Evgeny Artyukhin, Maxim Afinogenov, Petr Prucha, Ilya Kovalchuk

Tarasov
Atlant Moscow Region-Nikolai Zherdev
Dinamo Minsk-Tim Stapleton, Niklas Backstrom, Joe Pavelski, Evander Kane
Lokomotiv Yaroslavl-Vitaly Vishnevsky, Viktor Kozlov, Sami Lepisto, Mark Flood, Niklas Hagman,Curtis Sanford, Semyon Varlamov, Dmitry Kulikov
Severstal Verepovets-Niclas Bergfors
Spartak Moscow-none
Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod- Robert Nilsson, Anton Volchenkov
CSKA Moscow-Vladimir Zharkov, Alexander Radulov, Pavel Datsyuk, Ilya Bryzgalov


EAST

Kharlamov
Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg-none
AK Bars Kazan-none
Mettalurg Magnitogorsk-Ari Ahonen, Oleg Tverdovsky, Mats Zuccarello, Evgeni Malkin, Sergei Gonchar
Neftekhimik Nizhekamsk-Nail Yakupov
Traktor Chelyabinsk-Andrei Kostitsyn
Yugra Khanty Mansiysk-none

Chernyshev
Avangard Omsk Region-Karri Ramo, Anssi Salmela, Martin Skoula, Andrew Ladd
Amur Khabarovsk-none
Barys Astana-Nigel Dawes
Metallurg Novokuznetsk-Chris Simon, Brent Soppel
Salavat Yulaev Ufa-none
Sibir Novosibirsk-none

Some food for thought here. Metallurg Magnitogorsk of the Kharlamov division just signed 2 NHL stars, Evgeni Malkin and Sergei Gonchar. That should definitely help with their following. Another noticeable team is Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, the team that unfortunately perished in the plane crash a little over a year ago. Many players rushed to help make a new team and now they have several familiar players there.

Another way I would pick my favourite team would be by it's name. 

Seriously, how sick does Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod sound to you? Music to my ears.

But honestly, if you were doing it by name, I think it'd have to go to Donbass Donetsk. Donbess is a truly awesome name and it wins this league hands down.

Another way of picking a team to cheer for is to simply look at the standings.

It may be a cheap way of getting it done, but in a league where you know close to nothing, you don't want to get stuck cheering for a team resembling the Toronto Maple Leafs. I'm not saying to just take the top team in the league, but it would definitely help to know who's good and who's not.

So below is a photo of the KHL standings as of September 19th:

Yugra=Maple Leafs

In case you were interested, the last four league winners (the Gagarin Cup) were Dynamo Moscow, Salavat Yulaev Ufa, and AK Bars Kazan the previous two times. Just thought I'd mention this.

Well those are two solid ways of getting it done, but the third is definitely my favourite.

The uniforms.

Oh, yes, there's nothing like foreign hockey jerseys and all their glamour. I'll show y'all photographs of all the team jerseys in just a moment, but before I do, you should check out http://store.khl.ru/ to find league/team apparel. The site IS in Russian but most internet browsers translate for you. Additionally, the prices are in rubles so you gotta do the math yourself.

Alright so here are all the KHL uniforms. 

Try not to drool:

Click on Pictures to enlarge

Here are my top 10:

1) Lev Praha

2) Dinamo Riga

3) Dinamo Minsk

4) Slovan Bratislava

5) Neftekhimik Nizhekamsk

6) AK Bars Kazan

7) Donbass Donetsk

8) Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg

9) Barys Astana

10) Atlant Moscow Region

So what are you waiting for? This is essentially all the information you need to get involved in this league.