The NHL (and the Rangers) win the Victoria Cup

With every player on the Magnitogorsk team offered a hundred thousand dollar bonus for victory against the Rangers, the financially strong KHL was looking to flex its new found muscle on the world stage and for two periods the validation the Russian authorities were seeking against the greatest league in the world looked to be set in stone. A weak New York Rangers display suffered with poor penalties and even poorer netminding from Lundqvist as his opposite number Andrei Mezin shone for the Russians, but a third period turn around in which the Rangers asserted their offensive dominance paid off with a last gasp tie breaker from Ryan Callahan.

Perhaps expecting a traditional continental style of hockey, the Rangers entered into the game against Magnitogorsk after routing a young SC Bern on the same Swiss ice a night previous. However the Russians proved a much tougher and schooled nut to crack with a puck possession game that landed them a two goal lead at the end of the first albeit through some dubious efforts from the Rangers number one and a legless Rangers performance.

Making hay into the second Magnitogorsk extended their lead, capitalizing on the Rangers poor zonal coverage burdened by an overtly adventurous forecheck. The subsequent raft of penalties saw Magnitogorsk plot what looked a certain route to victory with a third goal, their second on the powerplay, when Zavarukhin scored on a deflection. As the pace increased in the latter stages of the second however, Magnitogorsk started to look tired and two quick fire penalties allowed the Rangers back into the game with a late 5 on 3 conversion by Chris Drury.

With the bit between their teeth the Rangers began to pressure the Russian puck carriers in the third and the slick Metallurg passing game began to unravel into numerous turnover and penalties. The Rangers, now looking more like the dominant team, began asserting their offensive supremacy and a quick fire Dan Fritsche goal saw the gap close to one. With momentum on their side against a flagging Mettalurg Magnitogorsk the Rangers tied the game up on a Gomez powerplay goal with nine minutes left on the clock.

As the game began to wind down into certain overtime, the umpteenth turnover of the period saw Ryan Callaghan gather the puck just outside the offensive zone, with the play going the other way Callaghan split the Metallurg D and pulled a move to slot the puck past an often spectacular Mezin with less than twenty seconds on the clock ending the game in the Rangers and, more pertinently, the NHL’s favor.

For the Rangers it was a last period rally to save NHL face, rarely dominated by Magnitogorsk, the Rangers did look awfully poor on the penalty kill against a team struggling in special teams in their native division whilst also looking defensively threadbare against a good passing side. Whilst the first two periods made a very real statement for the KHL and its new brand of mature versatile hockey, the score and the third period will be what the game is remembered for.

The NHL is still king, but it was dreadfully close to going horribly wrong.

The Victoria Cup: Metallurg Magnitogorsk vs New York Rangers

For hosts SC Bern, the Victoria Cup is a pertinent reminder of how far European hockey has come, not in the game itself, but as an increasing spectacle in the digital age. Recently noted as Europe’s most successful side in terms of attendance averaging nearly 17,000 fans a night for the comparative backwater rigors of the Swiss League, the thinking behind Switzerland’s hosting of one of hockey’s most momentous inaugurations is not solely down to the landlocked nation being birthplace to the current president of the International Ice Hockey Federation Rene Fasel, but also an recognition of how far European hockey has come on as a rival to the NHL.

Named for the Victoria Skating rink in Montreal where the first documented game of indoor ice hockey took place on March 3rd 1875, the showcase game between the European Champions and a representative of the worlds most elite league has become a centerpiece for the IIHF centennial celebrations and an watershed effort of co-operation between the global games disparate governing bodies. Perhaps even more significantly the game offers up a mouth watering confrontation between the NHL and the KHL in an increasingly disparaged competition for global dominance not unlike the Super Series seen throughout the 70's and 80's. However, where the Super Series games were played out on North American rinks to the fanfare of North American fans, the Victoria Cup will be played out to European specifications and rules.

Despite the celebratory backdrop, the game will remain vehemently competitive, firstly owing to organizational pressure from both the NHL and the KHL and the matter of 1,000,000 Swiss francs to the victor. Regardless, the NHL have managed to make a farce out of co-operating with the international governing body for which it has recently found itself at loggerheads regarding trade pacts. Originally touting the cup as match up between European and Stanley Cup champions, the game was later remarketed as a challenger competition between European holder and NHL owing to reluctance on the side of the Detroit Red Wings. Indeed the games timing comes at a particularly poor nexus in IIHF-NHL relations after a year of torrid emergency trade talks ended in failure.

There was little surprise that Europe’s G7 (minus Russia) were keen to re-open negotiations in December 2007 following the tremendously lopsided player trade agreement ratified less than a year previous. Citing the collapsed agreement between Russia and the NHL in 2005, many an analyst believed the NHL’s attitude to European hockey clubs hardened. The subsequent offer tended by the NHL in early 2007 saw the NHL reduce its compensation funds for European teams which had lost players to the big league from $12 million dollars to $9 million with the insistence that the NHL could sign players up to the 24th of August, usually less than a month before the European leagues get under way. Furthermore the agreement allowed the NHL to sign in contracted players in Europe after the trade deadline minus a comically small fine. The “take it or leave it” agreement left many in Europe stinging and suggested that the NHL saw European competitions as a developmental league from which to pluck players at their own choosing. Demonstrating a brutal and myopic lack of sensitivity to European hockey organizations and its fans, the NHL was itself hardballed when eleventh hour measures where put in place to establish a one year extension of the Player Transfer Agreement. Whilst five of the six nations were keen to keep some kind of agreement in place, the Czech Extraliga refused to sign into the pact and the subsequent agreement collapsed leaving the Europeans to opt out of any form of PTA with the NHL for the first time in over a decade.

Whilst the IIHF was a mere conduit for negotiations, the subsequent fallout has left some embitterment in the mouths of European officials flexing their own muscle and the NHL now forced to approach players and their contracts on a case by case basis to the detriment of the IIHF organization for which it rarely identifies with. Seemingly opting for an increasingly isolationist approach to external and international matters, European and NHL relations received a further blow when Alexander Radulov deserted the Nashville Predators in mid-contract to join the upstart KHL and Salavat Yulaev Ufa in July. The first superstar to desert the NHL for the KHL, Radulov’s exit was one in a sequence of troublesome contracts to swap sides of the Atlantic since the PTA collapse between Russia and the NHL. The ensuing standoff has reopened old wounds between the two organizations that transcend the KHL's threat of future financial dominance in the global game whilst also giving the NHL a taste of its own underhanded trading ethos and a bloody nose to its superiority complex.

With the clouds darkening over the NHL's own attitude to Europe, many believed the Rangers should have declined participation. However, with the IIHF trying to maintain a workable relationship with the NHL and European nations with an evenhanded slew of press releases the league relented. Whilst such an act could be seen as a mere attempt at saving face, the NHL is quick to realize that Europe remains a particularly verdant market for it's product, more so than many of the cities it has placed franchises in. Whilst bullying trade pacts have turned the most partisan European hockey fans away, there is a strong crowd who follow the NHL more readily than their native leagues. Furthermore, with the KHL showing ambitions to encompass more than its current Eurasian catchment with its "Kontinental" moniker, the NHL is looking to strengthen ties in Europe, not for the sole purpose of future trade negotiations, but to continue it's water testing interest in European expansion which has been touted in recent years in the face of the Premiere series.

For Metallurg Magnitogorsk the game takes on an even greater importance, playing out of the worlds most controversial league, the strong socio-political ties between sport and culture in Russia offers Metallurg a chance of redemption for the Miracle on Ice in what would be a boon for their home nation. For the KHL, Wednesday night offers it's first chance to support its own hype, with disappointing attendances and talk of a Swedish-Finnish league, the KHL is looking for validation as it puts it's money where it's mouth is. Whilst it is impossible to gauge the amount of interaction the KHL hierarchy is having with the Metallurg staff, it's safe to presume that the league will want the best from one of its showcase sides as an advertisement for itself and the state of Russian hockey.

Whilst many have been quick to dub the Victoria Cup little more than an showpiece exhibition, the politics that underline the game give an incredible sense of meaning to the proceedings. Setup as an annual event alongside the Premiere series it will be interesting to see how such future forays into Europe pan out as the NHL licks its wounds. With more than just bragging rights at stake, the game will also provide some barometer to how far European hockey has come in terms of competitiveness and in the case of an embarrassing upset, perhaps reshape how the NHL approaches future negotiations. There’s sure to be little love lost when the Rangers and Metallurg faceoff.