Best Russian KHL teams to go and watch play at home?

[#2eddieshore]

Hi all

I am travelling in Russia this October and wondered if anyone has any recommendations for KHL teams to go and watch at their home arena. Perhaps some arenas have a particularly good atmosphere or are interesting to visit for another reason.

I will certainly go to a SKA St Petersburg and CSKA Moscow game to see the best teams but it would be great to hear any other recommendations for teams in Russia. It's often a good excuse to get off the regular tourist trail and go to a less touristy town.

Thanks a lot

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[vorky]

I wanted to recommend you Green Derby (Salavat Yulaev Ufa vs Ak Bars Kazan), but there is no Green Derby in October. If I were you, I would pick Ak Bars Kazan vs Metallurg Magnitogorsk in Kazan, Oct 22. Do not know about atmosphere, but Ak Bars & Magnitka are two great teams. I heard city of Kazan is nice to watch.

 

[Caser]

I think it mostly depends on your approximate travel route. I mean, we could recommend visiting Vladivostok, but I doubt that you're planning to travel that far.

 

[SoundAndFury]

Yeah, distances in Russia are no joke. Assuming you will mostly be in Western Russia Loko game would be nice I think. I would go there if it was my choice.

 

[tsamolotoff]

In terms of non-gameplay quality, all Moscow teams are very subpar, except when they play on the newest arena (VTB-Arena or something like that, i think it was renamed recently). Otherwise prices are quite high, seats are made of rough plastic, it's very gloomy, damp and mostly unfun inside those arenas.

SKA has a good rink, Lokomotiv is quite good as well (good fans / good arena / good team + one of the oldest cities in whole Russia), Ak Bars is also good (lots of sports in Kazan + good non-sports activities, but I'm not into that so I can't really comment on it). If you want to go into Siberia, both Omsk and Novosibirsk are probably fun to visit, Omsk has the most rabid fans (in a good way) in the KHL

 

[hansomreiste]

There are many good games in October but as stated by other posters, you need to take distances into account, really. In western Russia, best options would be SKA and Loko. For Moscow, I guess I'd pick Spartak over Dynamo and CSKA. Going eastwards, Kazan and Ufa are fantastic cities to visit for hockey - good teams, good fans, good arenas. In Siberia, my favorite place to see would be Novisibirsk yet as far as I know, finding tickets for good games might be a little difficult since the fans are loyal and the arena is not so big. If I was to visit SPB/Moscow, I'd probably pay a visit to Nizhniy Novgorod as well - but I'm not sure how fierce or good the atmosphere in the arena, though they must be a decent team again.

Chelyabinsk, Magnitogorsk and Omsk in particular can offer a good hockey experience yet I'm not sure how appealing those cities are for a tourist. Among those three, I guess I'd pick Omsk. The city is more interesting and bigger. The arena and the team is fantastic. Though I can't see any "big game" for Omsk in October at home.

I really like Loko against SKA (on October 2) and Ak Bars (October 13) in Yaroslavl. The games in St. Petersburg are fantastic as well,

vs Sibir (October 6)
vs Salavat Yulaev (October 13)
vs Ak Bars (October 15)
vs Jokerit (October 21)

This game against Jokerit sounds so awesome. Not sure if SKA sells two or three-game packages but if they do, Ak Bars & Salavat couple may be a fantastic choice as well.

 

[Milos Krasic]

I've always thought Traktor had a good atmosphere. Again, not sure if you're traveling all the way to Chelyabinsk.

 

[#2eddieshore]

Many thanks for the replies. They are very useful.

I will be travelling through Russia to Mongolia by train and therefore will hopefully have the chance to see some of the recommendations you made such as Omsk. Now that i have some recommendations I will see how far off route some of the games are and try and get the timings right.

 

[kaiser matias]

I think it mostly depends on your approximate travel route. I mean, we could recommend visiting Vladivostok, but I doubt that you're planning to travel that far.

Actually going to fly up there in late December. Though I live in Korea now, so its only a two-hour flight for me. Looking forward to some Admiral games though, compare it to the CSKA match I saw a couple years ago.

 

[scud9]

I shall be in Russia in September. Unluckily there is no games in Kazan, planning to go to Dynamo game in Moscow and SKA game in St. Petersburg. The games will start at 19:30, so after the game I can take the metro back to the hostel? Games will end approx at 22:00?

 

[Caser]

I shall be in Russia in September. Unluckily there is no games in Kazan, planning to go to Dynamo game in Moscow and SKA game in St. Petersburg. The games will start at 19:30, so after the game I can take the metro back to the hostel? Games will end approx at 22:00?

Moscow metro works until 1 AM if I'm not mistaken, not sure about St. Petersburg, but it should be about the same.

 

[Acallabeth]

St. Petersburg metro system has different working schedules for different stations, generally around 0, so check and plan in advance.

 

[KingsHockey24]

Can someone familiar with the KHL tell me if the Amur Khabarovsk are any good. I noticed my favorite player (Alexander Frolov) plays for them.

 

[hansomreiste]

Can someone familiar with the KHL tell me if the Amur Khabarovsk are any good. I noticed my favorite player (Alexander Frolov) plays for them.

It's a team pretty much everyone likes but unfortunately it is difficult to say they are good. Loyal fans, exotic Far East outfit yet there is not much to be hopeful about on the ice. I guess it has something to do with finances - they've been consistently below average in recent years, generally languishing in and around bottom of the conference.

Three teams will be removed from KHL at the end of this season and while it is far from certain, Amur might be one of them. The only thing that goes for them is loyal fan base: they regularly fill their 7,100-seater arena but other than that, not much to be hopeful about.

 

[Atas2000]

I shall be in Russia in September. Unluckily there is no games in Kazan, planning to go to Dynamo game in Moscow and SKA game in St. Petersburg. The games will start at 19:30, so after the game I can take the metro back to the hostel? Games will end approx at 22:00?

1.You will be able to take the metro until midnight at least.

2.Taxi is a viable and affordable option if you are late. The ususal apps like Uber, Yandex.Taxi and Gett are your friends.

P.S. Our schedule in Kazan is a mess. No real blockbusters till December