Fans of the capital CSKA recently honored their favorites at the championship parade. Fans of Ak Bars have nothing to celebrate this off-season, but the mood in Kazan is no worse than in Moscow. And all thanks to the powerful transfer campaign of the Kazan club. This summer, Ak Bars managed to get several star players at once: the captain of the Olympic team Vadim Shipachyov, one of the best defenders of the league Sergei Voinov, ex-player of Dallas Alexander Radulov and others.

In addition to the great masters, one of the strongest domestic coaches, Oleg Znarok, came to Kazan to lead the stellar team to the Gagarin Cup. After such reinforcements, many specialists gave Ak Bars the main KHL trophy in absentia. And at the club’s training base there is even an empty stand with a pathetic inscription “a place for a new champion photo.”

According to the selection of players and the coaching staff, Ak Bars really looks like a champion team on paper. However, Kazan fans with experience know that the abundance of stars in the club is not a guarantee of success.

Super League is the best league in the world

In September 2004, the NHL announced a lockout for the second time in nine years. Negotiations between the league and the players’ union have reached an impasse, which means that hockey arenas will be empty, fans will be left without a spectacle, athletes without work. And if fans could easily switch to American football, then hockey players need to keep fit. So the Enkhaelians fled across Europe, and most of them chose the strongest championship of the old continent – the Russian Super League.

In turn, domestic clubs began to sign star players in batches. Kazan’s Ak Bars showed itself the most on the market, through which 15 NHL players passed in the 2004/2005 season: Vincent Lecavalier, Nikolai Khabibulin, Brad Richards (Tampa), Dani Heatley, Ilya Kovalchuk (Atlanta), Alexei Kovalev (Montreal), Darius Kasparaitis (Rangers) and others. Although Ak Bars stood out with a grandiose transfer campaign, other top clubs in Russia also acquired stars from the North American league, which made the domestic championship extremely attractive in the eyes of foreigners.

This is another reason why I came. There are many guys who speak English. And right now it’s the best league in the world, – this is how Vincent Lecavalier commented on his arrival in Russia.

Gathering the best hockey players in one locker room and winning the championship is too simple a plan for Kazan, which was doomed to failure from the very beginning. So foreigners adapted too hard after the NHL. At the same time, the legionnaires not only got used to large venues and a different style of play, but also to Russia in general.

Most of all they had complaints about the conditions provided by Russian teams. The arenas of the Superleague tops resembled the NHL ones, but the home stadiums of other clubs left much to be desired. After another trip, Kazan goalkeeper Fred Brathwaite complained to American journalists about his everyday life in Russia.

They had one shower. And when I say shower, I mean the faucet you find in the kitchen sink, just sticking out of the ceiling. Try to guess if the water was hot or not,” said Fred Brathwaite.

Fred Brathwaite / Photo: © KHL / Bezzubov Vladimir

The legionnaires did not like hockey itself in the Super League. Hardened in the Stanley Cup playoffs, the players complained about too dirty and rough play in the Russian championship, as well as biased refereeing.

– The ice is bigger, but the arenas themselves are smaller. We are used to playing in front of 18,000 people, but here sometimes we can play in front of a couple thousand or a few hundred. I like the NHL better. Despite all these sweeps, punches, grabs and grabs, I will never complain about the NHL again, said Vincent Lecavalier.

Martyrs or tourists?

At the same time, the constant complaints of Enkhael players to the North American press looked like attempts to explain their weak game. The same Lecavalier received a generous contract from Ak Bars, under which he received about 300 thousand dollars a month, but did not even work out half of its cost. The Canadian scored only 16 (8+8) points in 34 matches. And his teammate Heatley has even more modest statistics – 7 (2 + 5) effective actions in 16 games.

Photo: © KHL / Bezzubov Vladimir

In the eyes of North American fans, they looked like martyrs who have to suffer in Russia in order to play hockey. However, the legionnaires were simply tourists and earned money in the Super League. And the logo on the jersey and the success of Ak Bars did not bother them. Therefore, it is not surprising that Kazan in the regular season took only fourth place and flew out of the playoffs in the first round.

And the Yaroslavl Lokomotiv threw out the stellar line-up of Ak Bars from the relegation stage, where only Alexei Yashin could be considered a full-fledged NHL player. At the same time, the “railroad” confidently dealt with the nominal favorite and won the series with a score of 3-1.

Kazan celebrated its 1000th anniversary that season and waited for Ak Bars to win. In the club, for the sake of the championship, they spent about $ 55 million on contracts, but this did not help even get through the first round of the playoffs.

And now a large number of stars have gathered in Kazan, and as experience shows, it’s not worth giving the Gagarin Cup to Ak Bars in advance for now.