Hockey in Europe is very popular. At international championships, European teams play at a fairly high level. Given that the Russian Hockey League has long needed to be updated, the leadership decided to take drastic measures.
What does the abbreviation KHL mean?
KHL is an open international Continental Hockey League. The first championship, according to all its organizers, was experimental, because it is impossible in the first year of its existence to take into account all the nuances when organizing the largest hockey league in the world. It was organized on the basis of the Russian Super League. The KHL draw defines:
- Championship Winner. In the KHL championship, the team that scores the most points after holding all the games of the regular season wins.
- Division Winner. It comes to light as a result of all games of the regular season.
- Pairs of playoff game participants. All KHL games are pre-compiled by league management. They are organized in such a way as to arouse the greatest interest among the audience.
Championship format
The KHL Championship consists of two conferences, which are divided according to the geographical principle: East and West. Each conference has two divisions. Based on this, it turns out that there are 4 divisions in the KHL, each of which has 7 teams, with the exception of the Chernyshev division, since recently the Red Kunlun team has been added there, and it has become the eighth in a row.
Each KHL team must play four games with other teams in the division and two games with participants from another division of their conference. In addition, each representative of the league will additionally play 4 games with representatives of his division.
Spectacle system
For a won match, each KHL team takes a maximum of three points. Two points are awarded to a team that was able to win in extra time or by shootings. If the team lost in extra time or on shootings, then it receives only one point. When a team loses a match, no points are awarded.
At the end of the games, the winner of the division is the team that scored the most points. The calculation is carried out taking into account absolutely all the games, and not only according to the results of the games within the division. All results of matches are recorded by the KHL leadership.
The standings presented for the teams and their fans include statistics on the performance of the teams in the conference and separately in each division.
Playoff draw
Each team playing in the KHL can participate in the first stage of the playoffs of the Continental Hockey League championship. To do this, she must take at least 8 places in her conference. The first two places in the playoffs are awarded to teams that took first place in their division. The remaining places are occupied by teams in descending order of points.
As a result of the draw, the winners of the conferences will first be identified. And then these teams will fight in the final. In the Gagarin Cup draw, the club wins, which won all the victories in the games right through. At each stage, participants will hold a series of games with up to four victories.
The first champion of the league was Kazan “Ak Bars”. This club showed strong hockey throughout the season and rightfully took away all the prizes.
League expansion
The KHL is the largest hockey league in the world. Immediately after the founding, 21 Russian teams participated in the draw, and teams from Belarus, Latvia and Kazakhstan also played in the championship to the delight of hockey fans. The KHL is a prestigious and popular league in which many teams want to participate. From the beginning, the number of participants has been steadily increasing.
Now 29 teams are playing in the championship. Representatives from Croatia, Finland, Slovakia and even from the PRC were added. The list of applications for participation from different countries is becoming more and more. But not all comers meet the requirements of the league.
KHL is a prestigious league for participation in which you need a down payment and stable further financing. It also requires the presence of its own stadium, which will meet the established requirements.
Many were surprised at the addition of the Beijing team to the league. It was created specifically for participation in the KHL. The club included Chinese stars and eighteen foreigners. Well-known to all Russian fans, Vladimir Yurzinov, Jr., was appointed the coach . The results in the first season so far the team is doing poorly. But in the future it will certainly grow and compete with the grandees of European hockey.
The Continental Hockey League is developing and striving to become better. In terms of entertainment, it is no worse than the National Hockey League. It is no accident that many leading players leave it in the KHL. Pavel Datsuk and Ilya Kovalchuk after the creation of the league returned to their homeland.