In 2008, a sports organization appeared in Moscow, the founders of which decided to immediately compete with the largest and most powerful hockey league in the world - the North American NHL. They called it almost identically - KHL, Continental Hockey League. More than two dozen participating teams were divided, as in the NHL, into conferences and divisions, within which, after drawing up and publishing the calendar of matches, they began to play for the main prize - the Gagarin Cup.
Come out onto the ice
Having all the rights to show the matches of its teams, the Kontinental Hockey League is actively developing, first of all, its own website. It contains not only preliminary information - like the calendar of matches of the regular season and the subsequent stage of the playoffs. There is even a detailed announcement of each fight, starting from the very first and ending with the final game of the final series of the tournament. There are also reports, tables and a variety of statistics.
At the first stage of the Kontinental Hockey League championship, its participants are distributed, as the KHL website explains, to two conferences - Western and Eastern. Both conferences have two divisions. Each of them assumes the same, but not always respected number of teams from geographically close cities. The divisions are named in honor of the legendary Soviet coaches and hockey players Vsevolod Bobrov, Anatoly Tarasov, Valery Kharlamov and Arkady Chernyshev. The eight best teams from the conferences advance to the second stage, where they compete for the Gagarin Cup.
Not a single site
The official website of the Kontinental Hockey League is not the only Russian and foreign portal where fans can find out the exact date and time of the next game, the opponent and the score of the match with the participation of their Lada, Ugra or Severstal. The composition of the divisions, participating teams, the calendar and the results of the ended matches are immediately published by the official websites of all the clubs in the League, as well as the hockey federations of the country and regions.
You can also find out the schedule of matches and the composition of the League divisions on the websites of major specialized publications. First of all, this concerns such newspapers as "Sport-Express" and "Soviet Sport". Numerous bookmakers, sports forums and portals willingly share this information with fans. Such, for example, as Eurosport, Sportbox, 74hockey, Newsinten, NTV + and many others.
Hockey International
Although the foundation of the KHL was formed by the clubs participating in the Russian championship, the founders of the League immediately announced that they intend to make the tournament for teams from different countries of the continent. And the matches will be shown at least all over Europe. The words of the president of the KHL Alexander Medvedev and his colleagues did not disagree with the case. Already now fans from Belarus, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Slovakia, Finland, Croatia are interested in the calendar of the championship and the schedule of games, and not only for their team.
Not so long ago, and only because of the difficult economic and political situation, the leading clubs of the Czech Republic and Ukraine temporarily refused to participate in the League championship. Hockey teams from Austria, Germany, Italy, Norway, Sweden are seriously considering the opportunity to play in the same tournament with Metallurg Magnitogorsk, SKA St. Petersburg, Dynamo Minsk and Riga, Jokerit Finnish, Medvescak Croatian and Barys Kazakhstan. Even from Korea and Japan.
According to experts, such extraordinary popularity has been achieved not only due to the high sports level of individual clubs and the skill of world hockey stars Alexander Radulov, Ilya Kovalchuk, Sandis Ozolins, Jaromir Jagr or Pavol Demitra who have played or once played in the KHL. The fans also appreciate the ability to quickly receive any information about the life of the League, including statistical information, as well as to see the "picture" of games and goals scored online.
