2018-19 Champions Hockey League

Champions Hockey League 2018/19

30 August 2018

Cardiff Devils vs. Salzburg

Representing the newly awakened force in ice hockey that is Great Britain, the Devils are hosting the franchise from Salzburg for their first CHL match this season. Let's see whether they can live up to the efforts from last season, where they managed to beat none less than Swiss record champions HC Davos and later on the national team achieved promotion to the IIHF World Championship top division. Salzburg will arrive in Cardiff with Global Reach Aviation on Wednesday:

PAV5086 SZG 1000-xxxx CWL CRJ2 (29/08/18)

PAV5086 CWL xxxx-xxxx VXO CRJ2

Växjö Lakers vs. SC Bern

The Swiss team arrived in Sweden on a Germania A319 that in the early hours of the day brought home a happy bunch of football fans from Zagreb, where Young Boys, Berne's football team, had qualified for the Champions League last night:

ST1040 BRN 0930-1200 VXO A310 D-ASTY (29/08/18)

1 September 2018

Växjo Lakers vs. Salzburg

From Cardiff it's straight off to another away game for the Austrian outfit of Salzburg, playing against the strong Swedish side Växjö Lakers:

PAV5086 CWL 1000-xxxx VXO CRJ2

PAV5086 VXO xxxx-2045 SZG CRJ2 (01/09/18)

Cardiff Devils vs. SC Bern

The other way round, SC Bern is doing the same triangle including Växjö and Cardiff, using different aircraft for every single leg actually:

ATV101G VXO xxxx-1130 CWL F100 (31/08/18)
ENZ186 CWL 0900-1130 BSL BA46 (02/09/18)

2 September 2018

Kärpät Oulu vs. Thomas Sabo Ice Tigers

It's a long trip up north for the Ice Tigers from Nuremberg, a 3h flight from Nuremberg up Oulu, where they will face some stern opposition in Kärpät:

AY7568 NUE 1645-2040 OUL A320 (01/09/18)

AY7569 OUL 1300-1500 NUE A320 (03/09/18)

KHL - Avangard Omsk update

The Avangard Omsk ice rink switch that was announced by the KHL recently has now had further consequences. In fact, 13 regular season matches have now been shifted around the calendar to optimize the logistics, with Avangard now playing some 2200 kms away from home. Six of these matches involve Avangard, while seven others have been moved to get a schedule that fits all purposes. The first match that was moved was the one between Salavat Yulaev Ufa and Dinamo Riga on 3 October 2018, which will now be played in January 2019.

KHL road trips are often optimized in terms of distance. Teams will travel to certain regions, where they will cover three or four (rarely five) away destinations within the same trip. Avangard's visitors so far would have had a game in Novosibirsk and one more mid-eastern destination along the way. Notably, two teams from this region have been moved to the VHL in recent summers. Ugra Khanty-Mansiysk and Metallurg Novokuznezk provided good options for the organization of road trips, their respective sporting powers not withstanding of course.

KHL 3 September 2018

3 September 2018

Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod vs. SKA St. Petersburg

Arriving from what promises to be a feisty start into the season in Tatarstan, SKA travels to the next "hell house", Nagorny Arena in Niznny Novgorod. From there, the journey will take the army men back home after a rather unusually short two-game road trip to start off the season in Kazan and Nizhny Novgorod. 

FV4201 VKO 1930-2030 KZN A319 (01/09/18, ferry flt)

FV4202 KZN 2130-2215 GOJ A319 (01/09/18)

FV4202 GOJ 2330-0125(+1) LED A319 (03/09/18)

By Anna Zvereva from Tallinn, Estonia (Rossiya (Sports Livery), VQ-BCP, Airbus A319-111) [CC BY-SA 2.0  (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

HC Sochi vs. Admiral Vladivostok

Having spent most of the pre-season out in the West, Admiral also kicks off regular season proceedings fairly far west, playing the first match on the shores of the Black Sea in Sochi's Bolshoi Ice Dome:

SVR9421 DME 1935-2200 AER A320 (03/09/18, ferry flt)

SVR9422 AER 2335-0150(+1) DME A320 (03/09/18)

Jokerit Helsinki vs. Kunlun Red Star

After a pre-season tournament in St. Petersburg, Kunlun travels to Helsinki straight away, without even returning to China. In fact, since assembling the squad in Riga, Latvia in July, Kunlun will stay on the road for some time until returning to its origin country in September:

SVR3224 HEL 0125-0355 AER A320 (04/09/18)

More about the Kunlun pre-season activities here:

http://hcredstar.ru/en/news/zdravstvuy-riga-druzhnoy-kompaniey-nachinaem-kampaniyu/

Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk vs. Vityaz Podolsk

Yamal Airlines' newly expanded fleet of Sukhoi Superjets will see considerable amounts of KHL flying this season. Vityaz Podolsk from the outskirts of Moscow is one of the teams to use them, in turn also changing its "home" airport from Vnukovo to nearby Domodedovo:

YC9427 DME 1500-1700 NBC SU95 (02/09/18)
YC9427 NBC xxxx-xxxx KZN SU95 (03/09/18)

Ak Bars Kazan vs. Dinamo Minsk

The KHL's belarussian representation is starting the new season on the road, away in Tatarstan against 2018 champions Ak Bars Kazan. Together with Opening Cup opponents SKA St. Petersburg, Ak Bars will become one of the first teams to have played two matches in the new season. Just like SKA, Dinamo will then travel on to Nizhny Novgorod, where Torpedo has been shifted from the Western to the Eastern Conference.

BRU8741 MSQ 1530-1730 KZN B735 (02/09/18)
BRU8741 KZN 2300-2350 GOJ B735 (03/09/18)

KHL 2 September 2018

2 September 2018

Traktor Chelyabinsk vs. CSKA Moscow

CSKA will start the new season with a road trip in the Ural region, starting with a game at Traktor and then traveling on to Yekaterinburg and Magnitogorsk:

YC9721 DME 1500-1715 CEK A320 (01/09/18)

HC Dynamo Moscow vs. Salavat Yulaev Ufa

The Green Men from Ufa kick off their season away from home, with a trip around the North-Western parts of the league, starting off at Dynamo and then traveling to Cherepovets, Yaroslavl and finally St. Petersburg to round off a four-game stretch on the road:

YC9728 UFA 0950-1050 DME A320 (01/09/18)

YC9727 DME 2255-0020(+1) CEE A320 (02/09/18)

Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg vs. Dinamo Riga

The Latvian team has hosted a KHL pre-season tournament shortly before proper proceedings have kicked off again. Their start into the regular season however takes them further east, on a quick road trip to Yekaterinburg and Magnitogorsk.

BT7701 RIX 1430-1945 SVX B735 (01/09/18)

Metallurg Magnitogorsk vs. Slovan Bratislava

It is a three-game stretch away from home for the Slovak team, starting at Magnitka and then moving on to Chelyabinsk and Yekaterinburg. Their travel arrangements have been a mixed bag in recent years, so it shall be interesting to see what they will be able to come up with this time.


UPDATE: Slovan will get a pick-up by Gazpromavia, though it is yet to be seen whether this will be a Sukhoi Superjet or one of the Boeing 737s:

GZP132 BTS 1310-xxxx MQF (01/09/18)

Spartak Moscow vs. Amur Khabarovsk

The traditional force from the Far East starts off the season all the way to the West, playing the triangle between Spartak, Jokerit and finally HC Sochi.

Lokomotiv Yaroslavl vs. Avangard Omsk

Now essentially based in Moscow, the Omsk team will feel how the trip to the North will suddenly be way shorter than it used to be. They will even just fly in and out of Yaroslavl, but the next away job is not far away, with Cherepovets away after a fixture in Moscow against HC Dynamo.

Severstal Cherepovets vs. Sibir Novosibirsk

Another team to start proceedings far away from home, Sibir kicks off the season away at Severstal and there are rumours that they might bring another airline into the KHL travel business in S7 Airlines. Their initial journey from their hometown to Cherepovets will be done with Gazpromavia however:

4G9607 OVB 1730-xxxx CEE B737 (01/09/18)

KHL 1 September 2018

1 September 2018

Ak Bars Kazan vs. SKA St. Petersburg

The champions of the preceding season have the traditional honour to host the very first game of the new season. Ak Bars Kazan won the 2017-18 championship and thus will host the Opening Cup at Tatneft Arena, where their visitors will be no less than SKA St. Petersburg, one of the most potent outfits in the league that surely will try to challenge for the title again this season:

FV4201 LED 1630-1835 KZN A319 (31/08/18)

FV4202 KZN 1935-2140 LED A319 (31/08/18, ferry flt)

FV4201 VKO 1930-2030 KZN A319 (01/09/18, ferry flt)

FV4202 KZN 2130-2215 GOJ A319 (01/09/18)

2018 Latvian Railways Cup

Latvian Railways Cup

Several teams from within the KHL as well as the Swiss record champions HC Davos are assembling in Riga to prepare for the upcoming season in the tournament format.

Team Arrivals:

Lokomotiv Yaroslavl

LLM9723 DME 1245-1330 IAR A320 (21/08/18)

LLM9523 IAR xxxx-1720 RIX A320 (21/08/18)

2018 Nikolai Puchkov Tournament

23 - 27 August 2018 (in St. Petersburg)

23 August 2018

Severstal Cherepovets vs. HC Sochi

Avangard Omsk vs. Jokerit Helsinki

SKA St. Petersburg vs. Kunlun Red Star

24 August 2018

SKA St. Petersburg vs. Avangard Omsk

Severstal Cherepovets vs. Jokerit Helsinki

HC Sochi vs. Kunlun Red Star

26 August 2018

SKA St. Petersburg vs. HC Sochi

Jokerit Helsinki vs. Kunlun Red Star

Severstal Cherepovets vs. Avangard Omsk

27 August 2018

SKA St. Petersburg vs. Jokerit Helsinki

Severstal Cherepovets vs. Kunlun Red Star

Avangard Omsk vs. HC Sochi

Team arrivals:

Avangard Omsk

YC9724 OMS xxxx-1625 LED A320 (22/08/18)

Team departures:

Avangard Omsk

YC9723 LED 1905-xxxx OMS A320 (28/08/18)

2018-19 KHL Season Preview

The 11th season of the multinational Kontinental Hockey League will start on 1st September 2018 with the first game, the traditional "Champions Cup", where the incumbent winners of the Gagarin Cup face another top shot from the KHL. Tatarstan's very own Ak Bars Kazan has the honour this year after defeating CSKA Moscow in the final of the 2017-18 season. Their opponents will be SKA St. Petersburg, a team under slight reconstruction after a few of the marquee left the club to seek opportunities elsewhere.

As for the travel, some big news hit the league a few days ago. Avangard Omsk will play most of its home games this season very far away from home in Moscow. Their current rink in Omsk, Arena Omsk, is not fit for KHL purposes at the moment, which has forced a switch to Balashikha Arena in Moscow, more than 2000km away from home. The club will try to stage some open air games in Omsk at least, but that will be for proper winter, which is yet to come.

The Omsk arena switch has two major consequences on travel for visiting teams. First up, the convenience of a triangular road trip involving Omsk, Novosibirsk and Astana as three relatively close destinations far away from Moscow is now gone. Add to that the elimination of the Novokuznezk and Khanty-Mansiysk teams in recent years and the Russian Middle East is suddenly becoming something like a hockey desert. The second consequence is that in a sequence of away matches in Astana and Novosibirsk, teams may now have to travel 2200km one-way to Moscow and back to potentially squeeze in an Avangard fixture. Unless some realignment of the schedules is yet in the making, this could generate quite some movement.

New destinations will be added to the KHL road map this season too and that without the addition of new teams. In an attempt to gain exposure outside the traditional markets, Jokerit will take two home games to Tallinn and Slovan Bratislava will do the same in Vienna. Dinamo Riga, struggling for audiences and success on the ice, will take two home matches to Switzerland, making Zurich the second KHL venue in Switzerland after the one match held in Davos a few years ago.

2018 Sochi Hockey Open

2018 Sochi Hockey Open

Some of the KHL's top teams are meeting at the beach, but not to have a drink with an umbrella. They play a serious pre-season tournament at Sochi's Bolshoi Ice Dome, the rink that hosted the 2014 Olympics.

4 August 2018

HC Sochi vs. SKA St. Petersburg

Ak Bars Kazan vs. Russia Olympic Team

5 August 2018

Kunlun Red Star vs. SKA St. Petersburg

Lokomotiv Yaroslavl vs. Russia Olympic Team

6 August 2018

Lokomotiv Yaroslavl vs. Kunlun Red Star

Russia Olympic Team vs. HC Sochi

7 August 2018

Lokomotiv Yaroslavl vs. SKA St. Petersburg

HC Sochi vs. Ak Bars Kazan

8 August 2018

Ak Bars Kazan vs. SKA St. Petersburg

Russia Olympic Team vs. Kunlun Red Star

Team arrivals & departures:

SKA St Petersburg

FV4201 LED 1600-1805 AER A319 (03/08/18)

FV4202 AER 2330-0235(+1) LED A319 (08/08/18)

Lokomotiv Yaroslavl

YC9723 IAR xxxx-1630 AER A320 (02/08/18)

YC9726 AER 1830-2130 IAR A320 (09/08/18)

Ak Bars Kazan

YC9725 KZN xxxx-1300 AER A320 (02/08/18)

YC9723 AER 1820-2110 KZN A320 (09/08/18)

2018 Avangard Omsk pre-season

4 & 6 August 2018

Rovaniemen Kiekko (RoKi) vs. Avangard Omsk

One of the KHL's Eastern powerhouses decided to take the team to Northern Finland for the early preparation, though in the 30 degrees' heat up in Rovaniemi, they might probably rather look for ice cream than for ice hockey:

YC9527 OMS 1200-1330 RVN A320 VP-BCN (27/07/18)

YC9524 RVN 1430-1715 KZN A320 VP-BCN (27/07/18)
YC9825 DME xxxx-1520 RVN A320 (08/08/18)
YC9826 RVN 1630-xxxx OMS A320 (08/08/18)