Gagarin Cup is the main trophy of the Continental Hockey League championship. The process of establishing this competition, as well as how the name was selected for the cup, is an interesting and fascinating story.
About the Gagarin Cup
Gagarin Cup was named in honor of the first cosmonaut in the world. At the time of the establishment of the KHL, the organizers considered that such an honorary name of the cup can unite people. Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin, as sports functionaries rightly noted - the person who is associated with the highest achievements among the citizens of our country, he is one of the symbols of the people.
According to the organizers of the League, the name of the cup can help Russian hockey become the first in the world, make a breakthrough, in addition, the name of the astronaut is heard by the inhabitants of the entire planet. At meetings of the League’s working commission participants, the idea to name the cup after Gagarin was unanimously supported. It is noteworthy that the astronaut himself loved hockey and played it. It is enough to recall a song about Yuri Gagarin with words about how the future space explorer went out onto the ice with a stick. Our legendary compatriot has opened the world to space. In turn, thanks to such a sports award as the Gagarin Cup, Russian hockey can re-establish itself in the international arena.
Czech sensation
Almost all Russian fans know about who won the Gagarin Cup in 2014, about the Metallurg club from Magnitogorsk, and the victory of this team, according to many analysts, did not become a big sensation. For some sports experts, the appearance of the Czech team “Lion” in the final was surprising. This is the Gagarin Cup - the results of the opposing teams can be the most unpredictable. The club from Prague has much more modest financial opportunities than many of its Russian rivals. This team, experts say, has no players who could be considered stars.
All Czech hockey players have approximately the same salary, and taxes are much higher than in Russia. Many experts who analyzed the club’s game from Prague came to the conclusion that the Czechs showed an incredible character, the will to win, and therefore deserved to play in the KHL finals. Hockey is sensational and wonderful - the Gagarin Cup of 2014 demonstrated this clearly.
Awards
The main KHL trophy is the Gagarin Cup. Hockey is a game for which the principle is not alien: "The main thing is not victory, but participation." And therefore, many other trophies are established in the League - very interesting, although not comparable in importance to the Gagarin Cup. There is, for example, a prize named after the legendary Soviet hockey player Vsevolod Bobrov. It is awarded to the team that scored the most goals in the League. There is a trophy for the best scorer - it is received by the player who, in total, scored the highest number of points in the “goal plus pass” format.
There is a Golden Helmet prize, which is received by the six best players of the season - the goalkeeper, two defenders and three forwards, forming a "dream team". There are individual trophies - the goalkeeper (with the highest percentage of goals scored), the most valuable player of the season, as well as the most qualified referee of the League. There is a prize awarded to the most successful defender (unlike the attackers, they have few chances to score in the game, which is why the goals scored by the players are valuable).
About KHL
Now let's talk in more detail about one of the largest hockey divisions in the world - the Continental Hockey League (KHL). Gagarin Cup - the main prize of an international competition sponsored by this sports organization. Many hockey experts say that the League can already compete with the strongest league in the world in this sport - the NHL, in which teams from Canada and the USA play.
Now teams from Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Belarus, and also some European countries play in the KHL. The clubs include the most famous hockey players of the world. Such personalities as Jaromir Jagr, Dominic Hasek (both from the Czech Republic), Sandis Ozolins (Lithuania), and many famous Russian players have experience in the KHL. The first league championship was held in autumn 2008 - spring 2009. Many experts noted that the KHL immediately declared itself as one of the most serious and prestigious sports.
The main ideological mastermind
In one of his speeches, Vladimir Putin (then in the rank of the country's prime minister) admitted that the KHL was largely his initiative. The head of the Russian government considered that the competition should return hockey to its former severity, characteristic of the times of the confrontation between Soviet and Canadian teams. Putin explained that re-creating the struggle that had previously taken place between North American and European puck schools is an interesting prospect.
The Prime Minister also expressed the wish that the KHL become a league capable of accommodating teams from the Czech Republic, Switzerland, and Slovakia within its borders and become a full-fledged continental competition - and without regulation by political and administrative structures. It turns out that it was thanks to the state that the KHL and the Gagarin Cup appeared. Hockey in Russia today, as in Soviet times, attracts the attention of the authorities.
2014 season winner
In the KHL season, held in the fall of 2013 - in the spring of 2014, the winner was the Magnitogorsk club Metallurg. Gagarin Cup went to hockey players in a bitter struggle with the Czech “Lion” from Prague. Magnitogorsk (as Magnitogorsk fans often call their team) is one of the strongest clubs in Russia. Even before the creation of the KHL, Metallurg has repeatedly won national hockey titles. In 1999, he defeated the Moscow Dynamo, two years later the Omsk Avangard, and in 2007 the Kazakh Ak Bars. In 2004, Metallurg was the finalist of the Russian League, but lost in the final of the championship to Omsk Avangard.
KHL Championship Structure
The teams participating in the KHL championship are distributed according to the geography of the cities they represent. The league consists of two conferences - Eastern and Western. In each of them there are two divisions (all named after the great Soviet hockey players). In the Eastern Conference - in the name of Kharlamov and Chernyshev, in the Western - in honor of Bobrov and Tarasov. Six teams play in each of the divisions. According to most experts, there is not much difference in class between conference teams, and there are clubs that can achieve the highest results in the championship.
The drawing of the main KHL prize itself is carried out in two stages. The first is the regular season (games in the group), the second is the playoffs (elimination). At stage one, each team plays twice with another from their division in their city, and the same number in the other. On one game - with teams of other divisions. According to the results of the games, groups of playoffs are determined in groups who play the main prize - the Gagarin Cup. Hockey, according to analysts, can differ in entertainment at different stages. If in the championship teams can play openly and beautifully, then in the playoffs they are afraid to miss the puck and adhere to a more closed tactical model.