Category Archives: 2019-20
Looking Ahead in the KHL
And just like that, the 2019-20 hockey season in Russia has come to an official end — probably. Most leagues have either finished their season (the ZhHL) or have declared the current campaign cancelled (the KHL, VHL, and PVHL as of last week), and only the two junior leagues are still holding out any hope of completing their playoffs at a future date. For all intents and purposes, we are now into the off-season, and beginning the consideration of the 2020-21 campaign. Read on, therefore, for some early KHL storylines as we look ahead (with any luck) to this Fall!
Read the rest of this entryKRS Vanke Rays!
The season is done, and the Women’s Hockey League has a new champion! KRS Vanke Rays Shenzhen, who joined the league just last summer after a couple of campaigns in the CWHL, finished off a three-game Final sweep of defending champions Agidel Ufa earlier today with a 4-2 victory in the decider. Read on, for a look back at, and some thoughts on, the Final series!
Read the rest of this entryHockey and the Coronavirus: Updates
Below the jump, an attempt to put together a running list of hockey competitions that have been cancelled, suspended, or otherwise disrupted by the outbreak of COVID-19. The list will be updated, and heads-up notes etc. will be much appreciated! Read on, and do check back for further updates…
LATEST UPDATE: March 26th (international hockey update)
Read the rest of this entrySad News
KRS Vanke Rays Shenzhen down Agidel Ufa 3-1 earlier today to take a 1-0 lead in the ZhHL Cup Final, but sadly that was not the biggest women’s hockey news of the day. The tweet above lays it out in start terms; the 2020 senior Women’s World Championship of the top division, scheduled for next month in Halifax and Truro, Canada, has been cancelled due to the situation with the COVID-19 outbreak.
That means, among other things, that the international women’s hockey calendar for the season is finished, at least in terms of World Championships (h/t to @nicktheiihffan). The senior Women’s Worlds for Divisions 1A, 1B, and 2A havey been cancelled for the same reason, while the Div. 2B and Div. 3 tournament have already taken place. The Men’s U18 Worlds in Divisions 2A, 2B, 3A, and 3B have also been cancelled, as has the senior men’s Division 4 competition, and the entirety of the Asian Challenge Cup. There are likely more cancellations to come, too, and the IIHF will meet at a later date to decide what to do about the promotion and relegation between the different groups in the cases where that is an issue. A very sad state of affairs for international hockey fans, although under the circumstances it is difficult to be too critical of the IIHF’s decisions (especially because those decisions were made in consultation with public health officials and with the host cities).
It has been reported that the Halifax and Truro will now host the 2021 edition of the senior Women’s Worlds, and that will have a trickle-down effect as well. That tournament, in keeping with the IIHF’s tradition of alternating the tournament between Europe and North America, was expected to be awarded to Ufa, Russia. Now, however, it looks like Ufa’s opportunity to host will be pushed back to 2023 (the 2022 tournament will be superseded by the Olympic Games in China). Nothing 100% confirmed about that yet, and we wait for further developments.
Preview: The Women’s Hockey League Final!
In the wee hours of Saturday morning, North American time, the 2019-20 Women’s Hockey League championship Final will get underway in the Bashkir city of Ufa. Agidel Ufa, our two-time defending champions, are back for a shot at a third straight title, but they will face very stiff competition in the league’s newcomers, Chinese club KRS Vanke Rays Shenzhen. Read on, for a look at both rosters!
Read the rest of this entryThe KHL Salary Cap, Revisited
In a post last month on the appointment of Alexei Morozov to be the KHL’s President, I mentioned that one of the first issues he was likely to face in his new job would be a disagreement with the Russian Hockey Federation over the league’s hard salary cap, which will be instituted beginning next season. Well, that disagreement came to the fore late last week, when the FHR reportedly sent a letter to the KHL requesting that they raise the cap from its planned 900 million rubles to 1.3 billion rubles per team per season. And early test for the new President KHL — read on, to find out how, and what, he did!
Read the rest of this entryKHL Playoff Storylines!
The 2019-20 Gagarin Cup playoffs are underway, which series now one game in! High time, therefore, to check in on some of the storylines we’ll be following as this post-season rolls along. Some of these tales will fall by the wayside, or at least be of brief duration, while others we will still be discussing in April. Read on, therefore, for a very quick look at each of the eight first-round series!
Read the rest of this entry2019-20 ZhHL Playoff Preview, Round 1, Part 2!
Agidel Ufa opened their first-round series against Biryusa Krasnoyarsk earlier today with a 4-1 victory, and can advance to the Final by winning again on Sunday. You can see our preview of the Agidel-Biryusa series here, but now it’s time to look at the other Round 1 pairing. That one has second-seeded KRS Vanke Rays Shenzhen, newcomers to the ZhHL this season, taking on former champions Tornado Moscow Oblast — read on, for some thoughts on what to expect from that one!
Read the rest of this entry2019-20 ZhHL Playoff Preview, Round 1, Part 1!
In just a few hours, the opening faceoff of the Women’s Hockey League‘s 2019-20 playoffs will take place, in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk. Home team Biryusa will be facing the two-time defending champions, and 2019-20 regular-season winners, Agidel Ufa in that semi-final; the other, between KRS Vanke Rays Shenzhen and Tornado Moscow Oblast, will begin on Friday. With that in mind, we’ll give each series its own post for previewing purposes, so read on for a look at what we might expect between Biryusa and Agidel!
Read the rest of this entryHome Stretches: The MHL
Regular seasons are wrapping up, or have wrapped up, in leagues across Russia, and over the past week or so we’ve been looked at some of the playoff races. Today, we’ll take a peek at the MHL, Russia’s top-level men’s junior league — read on!
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CONWAY'S RUSSIAN HOCKEY BLOG 