The amazing story of KHL and the comparison with NHL

Published on 11/23/2018 09:01:39

Been a real long time. However, there is still something about it which rings all the familiarity with the concept. A man called Dennis Murphy says that it was nothing more than a weird notion. It is jumped into his head when he was on a flight to LA in the 1970. How about forming a new league, he wondered! A league that could take on the mighty NHL.

He then took this crazy idea seriously and to a next level by talking about it to others. And they quickly concluded that the existing NHL could indeed be challenged. As Murphy talked to Ed Willes in the Rebel League.

The WHA was proven to be both a success as well as failure. However, the same became victorious in changing the entire landscape of the North American professional hockey forever. Hockey has become a global sport today. And the WHA was completely ridiculed and dismissed right up until their Bobby Hull was given a huge sum of $1 million in Winnipeg, so, too, has the KHL been termed nothing more than an annoying affair where all the concerned entries as well as exists are in the hand of NHL.

Comparisons of NHL and KHL

Last week, the KHL came real close to landing its very own Bobby Hull. Ilya Kovalchuk, who has had the bad luck to play in the two markets of New Jersey and Atlanta. The restricted hockey interest is believed to be bestowed with a serious consideration to the overtures of KHL to bail on his New Jersey Devils and to stay with SKA St. Petersburg. The devils stated that he has now affirmed to return to New Jersey for this season of discontent.

If all the reports are to be believed. There is some amount of ignorance and reluctance among these Russian players to let go of something that has had more amount of fascination to them than the NHL would want to consider.

Where on the one side, Nashville’s Sergei Kostitsyn expressed his will to stay on with the Avangard Omsk. Other Russian players too have expressed similar views. Thereby, praising their entire team, league as well as fans.

With this constant shivers crashing the fans and the team both. It is vital to notice that Russia in the year 2013. The same is not the Soviet Union of 1981 that once happened to be the only other time the sportswriter was there prior the WJC decided earlier this month in UFA.

The memory from the time then brings in a lot of misery. Unhappy people resided in the dreary and darkened world where most of them would spend their spare time in lining up for the goods which was often gone by the time they actually reached the counter of the limited few shops which were made open back then.

Money as a significant hint by the comparison

SKA Petersburg has six times the budget as the poorest Medveschak. The Zagreb club dropped out of the play off in the first phase, the Russian SKA lasted a round longer. It is not the rule that teams with a better financial background, achieve better results in KHL. No matter they can buy better players and invest more into the training facilities.

In NHL, the cash gap between the richest and the poorest club is 17,864,000 US dollars, while in the Continental League we are talking only about 34 million dollars. However, as the club's average budget in the KHL is significantly lower than the one of NHL. The differences between rich and poor teams are far more prominent in the Continental League.

Taxes

In a country where the disparity in between the very rich and the very poor continues to expand with each passing day – lie the professional hockey players. Alongside, there also exists a matter of taxes as well as the bane of a number of NHLers who are overpaid.

Rinks are contemporary. Fans are knowledgeable and fanatical. As it was depicted each time the Russian junior took the ice in the popular UFA. If according to the criticism, KHL rinks are half-filled, then what exists to be different between the league and the NHL teams in Texas, Florida and elsewhere in the world?

Hockey Leagues

As far as the quality of hockey is concerned, who can claim where exactly are NHLers humiliating the oppositions in the present European leagues? Likewise, so many questions are being popped up from time to time which are adding the existing insult to injury. Being a star hockey players in your very own country has its very own benefits.

As far as being branded greedy is concerned, what is there to say or put about that the end of this ridiculous and revolting NHL lockout? May be, there rests a weakness in the facade of selfishness and arrogance.

It always displeases some of the fans of North America to reckon that Russians could compete among the greatest stars of the game. However, the facts are always here for the checking. The present MVP of the NHL is Evegeni Malkin. The player who has been voted the most valuable players by others is Datsyuk. The most dynamic player since the last round of knockout is Alex Ovechkin. Besides, Ilya Kovalchuk is in the game as well.

They surely notice in Russia. And albeit it didn’t happen the existing year. The day is certainly coming when a star player would decide to go back home or to simply stay back at his home. And it may, just as done by Bobby Hull some 40 years ago, be the very start of something mighty – that the existing NHL would have to accept and come to terms with – even if it is reluctant to agree to the fact that there might be a real competition for all the player that it considers its very own.

There are many big names that decided to give a try to KHL after their NHL times were over. And that is part of the problem. If you go to retire to a different league, this means the retirement league is in no means better than the original one. KHL will never have big names such as Gretzky, Jagr, Bondra... during their prime. And there is indeed one more problem. The aeroplanes used in KHL are much older and less secure. I guess you all remember Jak-42 and the plane that killed all Lokomotiv Yaroslavl players (34 deaths). Many big names. Demitra, Rachúnek, Vašíček...

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