"Red car" did not reach the record

The Russian team lost all chances to win in the First Channel Cup already in the first minutes of the meeting with the Finns. At this point, the final siren sounded in a parallel match between Sweden and the Czech Republic. At a traditional building in honor of the wards of Milos Rigi, the anthem of Kazakhstan was mistakenly included. This circumstance, apparently, unsettled the Czechs. They lost (1: 3), which the Russian team categorically did not like.

The football stadium on Krestovsky Island was prepared for hockey quite quickly. As early as December 6, Zenit received Moscow Dynamo here. For the site, the “Canadian” size of 60 by 26 meters was chosen. Red Machine performed at Gazprom Arena for the second year in a row. On December 16, 2018, the Russians, even with Ilya Vorobyov on the coaching bridge, left no chance for the same Finland (5: 0).

That game was visited by 71 381 spectators. Domestic hockey did not know anything like this before. The attendance record for over 60 years belonged to the match between the national teams of the USSR and Sweden at the 1957 World Cup. Over 55 thousand hockey fans came to watch Vsevolod Bobrov, Veniamin Alexandrov, Konstantin Loktev and Nikolai Sologubov.

Some hockey players in the current Russian national team already had experience playing in large stadiums. So, striker Mikhail Grigorenko remembered an open-air match in Colorado as part of the NHL. In St. Petersburg, the audience did not have to freeze. Closing the roof of Gazprom Arena made viewing the hockey quite comfortable, so the St. Petersburg team went to the Euro Hockey Tour meeting with their families. They were not at all embarrassed that there was not much sporting significance in the confrontation.

Before the fight, Grigorenko admitted that the whole team was looking forward to speaking at the Gazprom Arena. Impressions of the last game were remembered by everyone for a whole year. As the player put it, this is always a “cool sight”. And you don’t need to get used to the stadium in a special way, Grigorenko also noted. In addition to more seats, there are no fundamental differences from the usual sports palaces.

Double Slepysheva and shuttle Sorokin

The Russians opened an account already in the debut, having realized the very first majority. Vadim Shipachev was completely alone on the blue line and could throw himself. However, the striker decided to play more cunningly and instead sent the puck to Piglet, where Anton Slepyshev was standing. All that was left for him to do was to carefully place the club. At the end of the third period, the CSKA striker scored a double with a well-aimed hit in the “nine” from close range. In fact, this success predetermined the outcome of the battle.

On the eve of a lot of noise, a goal was made by the goalkeeper of the Finnish national team Frans Tuohimaa to the Swedes. Continuation of his sniper exploits was jokingly feared on Sunday. However, at the Gazprom Arena, Tuohimaa chose to focus on fulfilling his direct responsibilities. He reflected many difficult shots of the Russians and thereby fulfilled the order of his head coach Jukka Jalonen. He promised to play against Russia better than last year. And the result is obvious. However, Tuohimaa’s colleague in the role of Ilya Sorokin spoke even more successfully. In his asset the match "to zero." Witnesses of a significant achievement were 67,877 fans in the stands.

“The impressions of playing at the football stadium are only good. I tried to concentrate on the game, on the puck. If you think that 70 thousand people are looking at you, this will not help, ”Sorokin said, expressing regret that the team could not win the tournament.

If desired, a duel of the former and current SKA mentors could be seen in this game. Yalonen, as you know, coached the St. Petersburg army in 2012-2014, while Kudashov combines posts in the club and team since last summer. Very soon, on December 19, SKA and CSKA will meet at the Gazprom Arena in one of the most intriguing matches of the KHL regular season. According to a statement by a member of the board of directors of SKA and KHL, Alexander Medvedev, the St. Petersburg team initially planned to hold another calendar game at the stadium. However, fears of not gathering 60 thousand people at a meeting with Cherepovets Severstal forced the leadership to abandon this undertaking.

Hockey future of Gazprom Arena

An army derby, by the way, can outperform a national team match in terms of the number of spectators. After all, before the game, the Olympic champion in figure skating Alina Zagitova is expected to perform, which on December 13 announced the suspension of her sports career.

Many sports fans in our country have long dreamed of combining hockey and figure skating events on the same site.

There is more and more talk about the need to hold the Russian Figure Skating Championship at the Gazprom Arena. For example, the next competition will take place on December 24-29 in Krasnoyarsk. In St. Petersburg, more viewers could see them. And the rink is ready.

In addition, the stadium could hold a fight in the NHL regular championship in Europe between Washington (with Alexander Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Dmitry Orlov, Ilya Samsonov) and, for example, Tampa Bay Lightning (with Nikita Kucherov, Mikhail Sergachev and Andrei Vasilevsky).

In addition, the Russian Hockey Federation (FHR) is considering the option of holding a Russia-Canada match at a football stadium. According to the organization’s vice-president Roman Rotenberg, “everyone wants to be with the Russian team, because Red Machine is a brand.”

“The financial factor is very important: when we hold such matches, we consider the economy, this is a matter of business, we must be the engines of the process, generate ideas for us to follow. We should not strive for Canada, but they should strive for us. The Red Car program is now the best in the world, even American and Canadian experts have recognized this. We have our own country and culture, we should not copy anyone, and today was a unique event - this is the world level, but here we must pay tribute to the infrastructure, ”the TASS official quotes.

Rotenberg also plans to organize one of the matches of the Russian national team in the open.