Hier mal ein ganz interressanter Artikel über die russische Liga:

The Russian Evolution:
Hockey League Bounces Back, Lures Some Countrymen Home From the NHL

By Peter Baker and Jason La Canfora
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, April 23, 2004; Page D01

ODINTSOVO, Russia -- The practices come fast and furious, twice a day, lots of hard skating with a few hours of sleep in between. Viktor Tikhonov is getting his national team ready for the world hockey championship and he drives the players with the intensity of an old Red Army colonel.

But as the squads of players in green, yellow and red practice jerseys raced across the ice and slapped shots toward the goal, the legendary Soviet-era Olympic coach returning from retirement had a few weapons he wouldn't have had just a few years ago -- some of the country's star players freshly home from the United States and the NHL.

"I haven't skated so hard in 11 years," former Philadelphia Flyer Dmitri Yushkevich, the bridge of his nose still bright red from a tough hit, said with a weary smile before heading out for another practice the other day. But his homeland made it worth his while to return in November. "The money," he said, "is pretty good here."

After years of decay, Russian hockey is back. Like the country itself, the popular Russian sport has thrown off the economic doldrums of the 1990s and, flush with cash, rebuilt itself into a power player on the international scene. New stadiums, better equipment and more talented coaches have all marked a Russian renaissance on ice. And most of all, fatter contracts have begun to lure the country's NHL experts back home to the Russian Super League.

After Russia's economic collapse in 1998, hockey players were signing for $10,000 or $15,000. Top players now can get $500,000 or $1 million or more, contracts all the more lucrative because of the low cost of living and Russia's 13 percent flat income tax rate.

"This is the second-[best] league in the world now behind the NHL," said Valery Zelepukin, who played in the Stanley Cup finals for the New Jersey Devils in 1995 and now skates for SKA St. Petersburg. "It's good money here. It's not bigger than the NHL, but in Russia life is cheaper than in America."

Cheaper than in America but better than in Russia of the past decade. In the last four years, the economy has expanded by nearly 40 percent, the stock market has grown five times bigger and incomes are on the rise. New shopping malls and restaurants spring up every week in Moscow and increasingly in provinces long left behind.

"If you really think about it," said Dmitri Goryachkin, an NHL agent, "this is not a change in hockey. It is a change in every aspect of Russian life. Ten years ago and 15 years ago, there were shortages in the stores, no food and long lines for gas. Everything is much different now."

The money pouring into hockey has helped to spur a new golden age of young, highly skilled Russian forwards. Alexander Ovechkin, 18, who skates for Dynamo Moscow, is virtually a lock to be the first player chosen in the NHL draft in June. The Washington Capitals currently hold the No. 1 pick.

The best young Russian players such as Ovechkin still aim for the NHL, and many of those returning tend to be older and less able to find spots on North American teams. But the reverse migration both reflects the resurgence of the Russian league and helps perpetuate it. About 50 Russians have returned to play here in the last two or three years, estimates Igor Rabiner, a sportswriter who has a monthly column profiling returning NHL Russians for Moscow's Sport-Express newspaper.

Among those who have come back are Oleg Tverdovsky, who helped the Devils win the Stanley Cup last year, and former Capitals Dmitri Khristich and Sergei Berezin. And they've had an immediate impact. With Tverdovsky's help, Avangard Omsk won the Russian league championship earlier this month.

If the NHL shuts down because of a lockout next season, even more will return, possibly bringing European or other non-Russians with them. Among those making plans to play in the Russian league are ex-Capitals Jaromir Jagr and Sergei Gonchar, and Toronto forward Alexander Mogilny. In anticipation, the Russian league has lifted its cap on foreigners playing for each team.

"I think this is going to be the strongest league in the world for next season if there is a lockout," said Goryachkin, whose IMG firm represents Jagr and Gonchar as well as a host of young Russians, including Capitals rookie Alexander Semin. Another agent said NHL Players Association head Bob Goodenow recently advised agents to prepare clients for 22 months without NHL hockey if the union and owners fail to approve a new collective bargaining agreement by mid-September.

Slava Kozlov, who left Russia in 1991 for the Detroit Red Wings and now plays for the Atlanta Thrashers, is among those with an eye on his homeland if the NHL shuts down. "I am hoping there is going to be a season," he said, "but if not I think if they offer me good money I think I am going to go play in Russia."

The money has certainly changed. Tverdovsky signed a contract with Omsk in Siberia worth $5 million over two seasons, with the team even paying his taxes, according to Russian hockey sources. Yushkevich, 32, reportedly receiving $1 million a year, would not discuss his contract except to say it is less than in the NHL. But, he noted, "a lockout is a very real possibility and I would make more money in two years here than I would in one year in the NHL."

The money comes from deep-pocketed owners, often oil firms, local factories or regional governments eager to build prestige. With the oil boom pumping record profits into firms, Russia has more billionaires than any country in the world save the United States and they are looking to spend their windfall.

The Omsk team, for instance, is controlled by oil tycoon Roman Abramovich, who made a splash last year by buying Britain's Chelsea soccer team and this year is investing in a Russian soccer club. In Tolyatti, Russia's carmaking capital, the Lada automobile factory owns the hockey franchise. In Yaroslavl, the railway ministry sponsors the Lokomotiv team.

It's a money-losing proposition and the league may be playing in the shadow of default if salaries keep climbing. Teams keep finances shrouded in secrecy. However, judging by sketchy information that has become public, it appears the average Super League team spends about $10 million a year and top teams about $30 million. Yet ticket sales from a typical game bring in about $15,000. Unlike the NHL, the Russian league historically has had to pay television stations to air games rather than the other way around.

That's beginning to change too, though. For the first time, the Russian league signed a television contract last year selling broadcast rights. And owners are driven by complex motives, such as earning the favor of local authorities or simply providing an entertainment outlet for one-industry towns.

Owners are investing in fresh stadiums, too. New top-quality arenas in St. Petersburg and Yaroslavl can compete with NHL venues, while Kazan is building an expensive new 10,000-seat stadium. By 2008, all 16 teams are supposed to construct new facilities.

Still, not everything matches what former NHL players have come to expect. Many provincial cities are still run down. Crisscrossing 11 time zones for games is wearying. Players miss creature comforts; invariably they complain about having to wash their own underwear on the road. Many hotels outside major cities have not changed since Soviet Intourist days -- dirty bathrooms, frayed linen. "They look like they were used when Lenin was alive," said Slava Butsayev, 34, a former Ottawa Senator playing for Lokomotiv.

More grating to some NHL returnees is the old Soviet-style mentality. "The transition was much harder here than 11 years ago when I went to Philadelphia because there the only problem I had was I didn't speak English at all," Yushkevich said. "When I got here, I was hoping a lot had changed, but in fact nothing has changed."

When Lokomotiv was wooing him last fall, he recalled, there was lots of talk of change. "But as soon as I signed a contract, they became the same people, still treating me the same way they treated me when I was 20," he said. "I call it totalitarianism. . . . They don't trust the players to get ready by themsleves. I think I know what to do and how to prepare myself. But when you talk to them, it's like, 'No you don't know.' "

Berezin, 32, who returned last winter to play for Moscow's Central Red Army club (CSKA), bristled at the overbearing management and smothering living conditions keeping players sequestered during the season.

Nor are NHL veterans always accorded the status of returning heroes. During a game against Novosibirsk this season, Berezin sat on the bench most of the time, jumping up occasionally, eager to get out on the ice, only to be ignored. Emerging from the locker room afterward, he vented his frustrations. "It's a different mentality and a different attitude and it's very difficult," he said, shaking his head. "For the first week, I couldn't understand what people were saying. I understood the words but I didn't understand what they were saying."

Russian hockey is different on the ice as well. The rinks are bigger and there is no redline. The play is slower and less physical. "The only similar thing between NHL hockey and Russian hockey is the ice and the puck size," said Yushkevich, who keeps landing in the penalty box for what would be clean hits in North America. "Hockey is completely different here."

Others find the slower pace a relief, particularly after years in the NHL. "It's too tough to play in the NHL at this age," said Alexander Semak, who skated in New Jersey, New York, Tampa Bay and Vancouver before returning home. "I'm 38. I'm physically not ready to play in the NHL. But here it's easier to play."

The return of the Russian NHL-ers, though, has elevated the game here. Some teams now have three or more former NHL players. As Coach Tikhonov prepares his national team for the world championship later this month, he looks out on the ice and finds a virtual NHL alumni club.

"Everybody sees the better level game," said Butsayev, "and everybody starts to play better."

La Canfora reported from Washington.

© 2004 The Washington Post Company

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