CSKA Moscow

CSKA Moscow (in Russian: ЦСКА Москва, CSKA being an abbreviation for Центральный Спортивный Клуб Армии, Centraliy Sportiviy Klub Armii, the Army's Central Sports Club) is a professional multisports club based in Moscow, Russia, well-known for its highly successful ice hockey team. Popularly, the team has been refered to as the Red Army Team, due to its past affiliation to the Soviet Army, known as the Red Army.

It was founded in 1946 under the name CDKA (ЦДКА), renamed CDSA in 1952, CSK MO in 1955 to finally take its current name in 1960. Playing in the Continental Hockey League, the CSKA is the most titled club in Europe with 20 IIHF European Champions Cup titles.

Titles

 * European Champions Cup Titles: 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1976, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990).


 * Soviet League Titles: 1948, 1949, 1950, 1955, 1956, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1968, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989.


 * Soviet Cup: 1954, 1955, 1956, 1961, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1988.


 * Spengler Cup: 1991.

History
CSKA has outrageously dominated the Soviet League for the 46 years that the league has existed - in fact, they won every single year since 1955 but six (1957, 1962, 1967, 1969, 1974 and 1976), for a total of 32 titles. By comparision, the most crowned National Hockey League team, the Montreal Canadiens, tops at 24 titles, and has never won more than five years in a row, whereas CSKA won 13 times in a row from 1977 to 1989. The team was no different in European Champions Cup competitions, winning every title from 1969 to 1990 except two (1975 and 1977).

Anatoli Tarasov has been a marking figure in the team history. CSKA player until 1953, Tarasov has been player-coach until that year, then full-time head coach until 1974 (sometimes with co-coaches, most notably Arkady Chernyshev). But the team's most successful period was during the Tikhonov era.

CSKA's domination, while partly explainable by the skills and the burdening discipline commanded by Tarasov and Tikhonov, was in good part attributable to the link between the team and the Red Army. There was a law in the Soviet Union forcing every able-bodied man to serve in the military; therefore, CSKA could use that fact to draft the very best players in the country to the army and have them play on the team, to the point that most of the time, the Soviet National Team roster was, a few players apart at most, CSKA's. This outrageous domination was however a bad thing for ice hockey in the country, as it made attendence figures lower all across the league by the end of the 1980s.

Super Series
Between 1975 and 1991, CSKA, along with other Soviet League teams, played against National Hockey League teams in what was called the Super Series. CSKA played 36 games against NHL teams, of which 34 were part of said Series,and finished with a record of 26 wins, 8 losses, and 2 ties. On New Year's Eve 1975, CSKA played the Montreal Canadiens in a match often regarded as one of the greatest hockey match ever played. It resulted in a 3-3 tie.

On January 11th 1976, the team played defending Stanley Cup champions Philadelphia Flyers. The Flyers, then nicknamed the "Broad Street Bullies" due to their highly physical playing style, did not change the slightest bit in their game against CSKA; Ed Van Impe delivered an extremely hard body check to Valeri Kharlamov that had him stay in pain on the ice for a whole minute. Furious at the fact that no penalty had been called on the incident, CSKA coach Konstantin Loktev pulled his team off the ice to protest against the decision. NHL president Clarence Campbell told them to return to the ice and finish the game, a game that was internationally broadcasted, threatening them not to pay the Soviet Hockey Federation the fees they were entitled to. Eventually, Loktev agreed to resume the game, which the Flyers won 4-1.

After the fall of the Soviet Union, CSKA has remained a powerhouse in the Russian Superleague, but nowhere near the level it had during the Soviet era - the team actually failed to win a championship ever since the Soviet Union broke up into several republics.

CSKA Greats

 * Valeri Kharlamov
 * Vladislav Tretiak
 * Vsevolod Bobrov
 * Alexei Kasatonov
 * Viacheslav Fetisov
 * Vladimir Krutov
 * Igor Larionov
 * Sergei Makarov
 * Pavel Bure
 * Sergei Fedorov
 * Alexander Mogilny
 * Nikolai Khabibulin
 * Sergei Samsonov
 * Alexander Frolov
 * Viacheslav Bykov
 * Boris Mikhailov
 * Vladimir Petrov