University of Turku Faculty of Humanities Baltic Sea Region ... - Doria

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space, who would be dreaming of going to play overseas, sometimes at a very early age,
which put Russian hockey in the position of donor countries in relation to the host NHL
countries like the United States and Canada.
In the Russian hockey community, the period of the 1990s and early 2000s has
been characterized as the “times of troubles” of national hockey. 85 The post-Communist
Russian system of hockey, being the “outsider” in the professional hockey management,
has struggled to keep pace with the superior business standards of the western
professional leagues. The poorly organized post-Soviet leagues like the International
Hockey League (IHL) and the later Professional Hockey League of Superliga, (“Super
League”) were a desperate national response to “emulate” the patterns of “the established
groups” like the NHL but lacked the financial resources and necessary business culture
and expertise to compete against the well-established western leagues to retain the hockey
talent at home or recruit players from abroad. 86 Due to the unstable economic situation in
Eastern Europe, the ex-Soviet Russian players would still prefer to settle in the more
economically lucrative Western European leagues or even go to the minor North
American leagues rather than stay in their home country. Although there was a certain
degree of pride exuberated by an outstanding profile of the Russian hockey superstars in
the NHL, the highly successful performance of the Soviet school overseas did not
transpire in the international competition on the same level to satisfy the always higher
expectations set in the Russian hockey community. 87 After the sole victory in 1993,
Team Russia had significantly lowered its performance on the global stage, being unable
to achieve a major victory in the international competition during the next 15 years.
This failing performance on the international stage was also greatly caused by the
ongoing conflict between the Ice Hockey Federation of Russia (FHR) and the NHL
legionnaires. In the 1990s, the relations of the FHR’s representatives with the overseas
superstars were plagued by hostility and mutual charges. Since the collapse of the USSR,
Russian superstars were often accused by the FHR for not committing enough and being
85 The analogy traces back to the times of interregnum in the 17 th Century’s Russia.
86 On “emulation” or “resistance” of “the established groups” by the “outsiders” in global sports
development see the Section “Power, Culture and Global Interchanges.” In Maguire, European Body
Cultures and the Making of the Modern World: Zones of Prestige; On the labor migration patterns in
professional hockey and how it affected the European hockey leagues in mid 90s see Maguire, Blade
Runners and Elliott and Maguire, Getting Caught in the Net.
87 Aleksei Dospehov, Все Российские Oбладатели Кубка Стэнли [All Russian Holders of the Stanley
Cup].” Коммерсантъ. 06 Jun. 2008, Web. Mar. 1. 2013. . For
instance, since 1994 (except 2001) to 2002, at list three Russian players represented the winners of the NHL
Stanley Cup.