Russia

Russia is an European country, bordered by Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania (Kaliningrad Oblast), Poland (Kaliningrad Oblast), Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia and North Korea. It is also close to the U.S. state of Alaska, Sweden and Japan across relatively small stretches of water (the Bering Strait, the Baltic Sea, and La Pérouse Strait, respectively). There are a little over 142 million people living in Russia, which capital is Moscow.

Organization
Hockey is a very popular sport in Russia. It's top professional league, the Kontinental Hockey League, is among the strongest in the world. The league was created out of the Russian Superleague and made a major league with the unveiled intent of competing with the National Hockey League.The Vysshaya Liga is the 2nd level of hockey,the Pervaya Liga is the 3rd level and the Vtoraya Liga is the 4th level of ice hockey.

History of hockey in Russia
The first hockey games were played in the former Soviet Union in the 1930's. The first Soviet ice hockey championships league started in 1946-47. Dynamo Moscow were the first champions of the Soviet Union. During the next season, the Soviet league was made up of ten teams.

The country joined the International Ice Hockey Federation in 1952. The Soviet Union made its debut at the World Championships two years later. The team defeated Canada 7-2 in the gold medal game and would remain a power in international hockey until the breakup of the Soviet Union.

Septembre 2011. Plusieurs membres du club de 1e Division, Locomotif, meurent dans un accident d'avion russe dans la cual 43 personnes ont péri.

International
On the international level, Russia is very competitive, continuously ranked in the elite of the world and part of the Big Seven.They won the Gold medal in international competitions in 1993, 2008, and 2009.They won the silver medal in 2002 and 2010. They won the Bronze medal in 2005 and 2007.Russia has also had success in ice hockey at the Olympics, winning the Silver medal in 1998, and the Bronze medal in 2002.

The Russian men's national ice hockey team is the national ice hockey team of Russia and are controlled by the Ice Hockey Federation of Russia. They are currently rated number one in the IIHF World Ranking. The team has been competing internationally since 1993 and follows a long tradition of Soviet teams mostly composed of Russian players. The Russian team replaced the Unified Team of the ice hockey at the 1992 Winter Olympics and the Commonwealth of Independent States team of the 1992 World Championships.

The Russian team has not been as dominant as the Soviet team, winning the gold in the World Championships three times in 18 years, but it remains one of the top teams in the world. Russia finished fourth at the 2006 Winter Olympics. Russia has a total of 84,720 players,[1] about 0.05% of its population. As of February 2010, their head coach is Vyacheslav Bykov.

The top three nominees for the 2009 Hart Memorial Trophy (the most valuable player award in the National Hockey League) all play for the Russian team: Alexander Ovechkin, Pavel Datsyuk, and Evgeni Malkin.

Some great Russian players

 * Viacheslav Fetisov
 * Vladislav Tretiak
 * Valery Kharlamov
 * Igor Larionov
 * Alexander Mogilny
 * Pavel Bure
 * Alexander Ovechkin
 * Evgeni Malkin
 * Ilya Kovalchuk
 * Pavel Datsyuk
 * Sergei Fedorov

National Teams

 * Russia men's national ice hockey team
 * Russia men's national junior ice hockey team
 * Russia men's national U-18 ice hockey team
 * Russia women's national ice hockey team
 * Russia women's national U-18 ice hockey team

Leagues

 * Kontinental Hockey League
 * Russian Superleague
 * Vysshaya Liga
 * Pervaya Liga
 * Vtoraya Liga

Defunct
International Ice Hockey League