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"Canadian" hockey was first demonstrated in the former Soviet Union in Moscow in March 1932. A German trade union team called Fichte played a series of exhibition games against the Central Red Army Sports Club and the Moscow Selects. The games attracted a small number of spectators to an outdoor rink and resulted in a 3-0 win by the Red Army and 6-0 and 8-0 victories by the Selects. The Soviet teams were made up of bandy players (field hockey on ice) and neither the players nor the spectators were impressed with the new game.
Though the sport was not popular, "Canadian" hockey's advantage over bandy was that the size of the ice surface made it possible to play on regulation skating rinks. In 1933, an attempt was made to start hockey in Moscow. The regulations of the Moscow bandy championship stipulated that five clubs were each to be represented by a hockey team as well, with the results of those games to count toward the championship. However, a shortage of proper sticks meant that the hockey plans never materialized.The next serious attempt to introduce hockey to the Soviet Union was undertaken in 1935, but plans for the game were not implemented until the winter of 1938. Efforts to manufacture equipment proved to be unsuccessful and so this attempt to start hockey also failed.Nevertheless, the development of Soviet hockey did not stop. In 1939, the game was introduced into the curriculum of the Physical Culture Institute in Moscow. Arrangements were made to stage demonstrations of games, seminars were planned for players to share their experiences and experts in the manufacturing of hockey equipment were invited to Moscow from the Soviet Baltic republics of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania.
The World War II EraWorld War II interrupted the development of hockey in the Soviet Union, but training resume as soon as the war was over. The opening games of the first official Soviet championships were played on December 22, 1946, and Arkady Chernyshev - future coach of the Soviet national team, scored the first goal. A major turning point in Soviet hockey occurred in February 1948, with the historic visit of the LTC Prague team of Czechoslovakia. Almost every player on the Prague team had been a member of the Czech national squad, which had received a silver medal at the recently concluded Winter Olympics. The results of the three-game series (the Moscow Selects won 6-3, lost 5-3 and tied 2-2) surprised everyone, but even more surprising was the success of the Soviet national team when it entered the World Championships for the first time in 1954.The USSR defeated Canada 7-2 in the gold medal game and would remain a power in international hockey until the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1992.
Since then, Russia has become the successor to the former USSR, though the Russians have struggled on the international scene despite winning a silver medal at the 1998 Olympics in Nagano and Bronze in the 2002 Salt Lake Winter Olympics. Russia has had success at the World Junior Championships, including gold medals in 1999, 2002 and 2003.
The Russian Penguins were "born" in 1993, when Pittsburgh Penguins owner Howard Baldwin bought a 50 percent interest in the struggling Moscow-based Central Red Army team and signed a management contract to run that club's arena. The aim was to provide the team with Western sponsorship and much-needed capital, as well as providing the Pittsburgh club with easier access to Russian players. The partnership lasted two years until Baldwin and other sponsors pulled out.Nikolai Khabibulin is probably the most notable player on the roster. Other roster highlights included first-round draft pick Yan Golubovsky and New Jersey Devils forward Sergei Brylin.
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