Valeri Kamensky - The First Russian Triple Gold Club Member

After beginning his career with three seasons with Khmik Voskresensk in the Soviet Championship League beginning with the 1982-83 season, Valeri Kamensky, like so many other top Soviet players, found himself drafted by the military and assigned duty as a hockey player for the dominant Central Sports Club of the Army, CSKA Moscow beginning with the 1985-86 season.

A young Kamensky with CSKA Moscow

During his first season with Red Army, Kamensky would immediately see his point total double from his best and final season with Khimik, as he scored 15 goals and 24 points in 40 games. Two seasons later he set a Soviet career highs with 26 goals and 46 points. Three seasons later he matched his 46 points from 20 goals and 26 assists. Kamensky's time with CSKA was the twilight of their incredible dynasty, and the club won the final four championships of their period of complete domination in 1986, 1987, 1988 and 1989. He was named the Soviet MVP following the 1990-91 season.

Kamensky was the Soviet MVP in 1991

Kamensky's final two seasons with Red Army saw the club begin to be depleted, as their players were now being allowed to leave the Soviet Union to play in the NHL. Having been drafted by the Quebec Nordiques back in 1988, he now made the jump to North America for the 1991-92 season.

His first two seasons with Quebec were limited to just 23 and 32 games, but his potential was on display as he averaged over a point per game in those 55 contests. Finally playing a full season in 1993-94, Kamensky scored 28 goals and 65 points in 76 games.

Kamensky wore #17 as an NHL rookie in 1991-92

With the start of the 1994-95 NHL season delayed due to labor issues, Kamensky played in a dozen games with HC Ambri-Piotta in the Swiss National League A, scoring 13 goals and 19 points. When the NHL season finally began, Kamensky returned to the Nordiques, where he scored 10 goals and was credited with 20 assists for 30 points in 40 games.

After two seasons as #31, Kamensky finally got to wear his preferred #13 in 1994-95

The financial situation for the Nordiques was a dire one, having to do business in weaker Canadian dollars yet pay their players in American dollars while also having difficulties getting free agents to sign in French speaking Quebec City, which was also the smallest market in the NHL. All of this, plus their aging arena, Le Colisee, proved too much to overcome and the team was sold to new owners, who moved the team to Denver, where they were renamed the Colorado Avalanche.

Kamensky moved with the club to Denver and the change of scenery suited him well, as he had a career year with 38 goals and 47 assists for 85 points. Before the move, the Nordiques were a team on the rise, thanks to their many high draft picks due to how dismal the team and been for so long. With stars like Joe Sakic and Peter Forsberg and a solid supporting cast, things were looking bright for the Avalanche. That outlook grew even brighter two months into the season when, after a falling out with the Montreal Canadiens, Colorado was able to obtain the final key piece of the puzzle in goaltender Patrick Roy.

The team won the Pacific Division with the second most points in the regular season. In the playoffs, they defeated the Vancouver Canucks in six, eliminated the Chicago Blackhawks in six and advance to the Finals by beating the Detroit Red Wings in six. They then swept the overmatched Florida Panthers in four to win the 1996 Stanley Cup. Kamensky, after finishing third during the regular season behind only Sakic and Forsberg, was second in Avalanche playoff scoring with 10 goals and 12 assists for 22 points in 22 games played.

Kamensky and Sandis Ozolinsh celebrate with the Stanley Cup

Kamensky equaled his second highest goal total in 1996-97 when he scored 28 for the second time on his was to 66 points, also the second highest of his career while playing in only 68 games. He had a fine playoff season that year with another 22 points, this time in 17 games. He matched his point total from the previous season with 66 again in 1997-98 from 26 goals and 40 assists. He would play one more season in Colorado in 1998-99 with 44 points in 65 games.

Kamensky at the 1998 NHL All-Star SuperSkills Competition

Note the Russian flag patch on his right chest, worn only during the event

Despite the success he enjoyed with Colorado, Kamensky signed as a free agent with the New York Rangers for the 1999-00 season. Once again, his season was affected by injuries and he only played in 58 games for New York that season, which limited him to 13 goals and 32 points. His second season with the Rangers was a similar story, as Kamensky played in only 65 games with a similar scoreline of 14 goals and 34 points.

Kamensky played two seasons with the Rangers

For the 2001-02 season, Kamensky signed as a free agent with the Dallas Stars, but after just 24 games and only 9 points, he was traded to the New Jersey Devils in January where he played the final 30 games of his NHL career with 4 goals and 12 points.

Kamensky played for both Dallas and New Jersey in 2001-02

After not playing during the 2002-03 season, Kamensky took to the ice once again for Khimik Voskresensk in the Russian Superleague. He played in 23 games that first season, with 5 goals and 14 points. He was back with Khimik for the 2003-04 season, where he closed out his career with a fine season, scoring 17 goals and 36 points in 57 games before announcing his retirement.

His final NHL totals were 637 games played with exactly 200 goals and 301 assists for 501 points. Thanks to his two great playoff seasons with the Avalanche, he also had 25 goals and 60 points in his playoff career.

Internationally, Kamensky made annual appearances for the Soviet Union during his time with CSKA Moscow. He first played in the World Junior Championships in 1985, earning a bronze medal. He had a memorable 1986 winning gold at the World Juniors, scoring 7 goals and 13 points in 7 games, and gold again at his first World Championships at the senior level four months later as he turned 20 during the tournament.

Kamensky wore the "double triangle" style early in his international career

Kamensky won silver at the 1987 Worlds and came in second at the 1987 Canada Cup later that fall. He won a gold medal at his first Olympics in 1988 in Calgary with 4 goals and 6 points in 8 games. His career for the Soviet Union concluded with gold medals at the 1989 and 1990 World Championships and a bronze in 1991.

Kamensky was a member of the Soviet team at Rendez-vous '87,

the two game series held in place of the NHL All-Star Game

After the break up of the Soviet Union, he would not return to the international stage until the 1994 World Championships, where he suited up for Russia for the first time. He participated in his second Olympics in 1998 in Nagano, Japan, winning a silver medal. His international career concluded with the 2000 World Championships.

Kamensky now playing for Russia at the 1998 Olympics

In all, Kamensky won five gold medals (1 World Junior, 3 World Championship and 1 Olympic), two silver, (1 at the Worlds and 1 Olympic) and two bronze (1 World Junior and 1 at the Worlds). His Stanley Cup championship in 1996 made him just the fourth member of the exclusive Triple Gold Club to go with his World Championship and Olympic gold medals. To date, only 27 men are members of the Triple Gold Club and just six from Russia. In recognition of his outstanding international hockey career, Kamensky was inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame in 2016.

Today's first featured jersey is a 1990 Soviet Union Valeri Kamensky jersey as worn during the 1990 World Championships. Kamensky won his first World Championship gold medal in his first try in 1986 as a 20 year old, his first step on his way to becoming the first Russian to become a member of the Triple Gold Club. He would win additional gold medals with the Soviet Union in 1989 and 1990.

The Soviets wore this style from 1988 through the end of the Soviet Union in 1991 and beyond. This style was worn one last time at the 1992 Olympics when many of the former Soviet states competed as the Unified Team, only with the CCCP cresting removed from the jerseys.

Today's second featured jersey is a 1988 Soviet Union Valeri Kamensky jersey as worn during the 1988 Olympics when Kamensky won a gold medal, his second step on the way to the Triple Gold Club. He would later win an Olympic silver medal with Russia in 1998.

This style of Tackla jersey was worn only during the 1988 Olympics, as evidenced by the tiny Tackla logo on the chest and the lack of colored shoulders. A similar style was worn during World and European Junior tournaments with contrasting colored shoulders adorned with the Tackla diamond logo from 1987 to 1989.

photo courtesy of Classic Auctions

Today's third featured jersey is a 1995-96 Colorado Avalanche Valeri Kamensky jersey as worn during the club's first season in Denver when they completed their Cinderella season by winning the Stanley Cup in their first year in their new home, a championship which made Kamensky the first Russian, along with teammate Alexei Gusarov, to become a member of the Triple Gold Club, which requires a World Championship gold medal, an Olympic gold medal and a Stanley Cup.

After their amazing first season in their new jerseys, they remain unchanged until the 2007-08 season when the new Reebok Edge jerseys signal the end of the Avalanche cup winning jerseys.

Bonus jersey: Today's bonus jersey is a 1988-89 Soviet Central Red Army Valeri Kamensky jersey as worn during the final season of CSKA's run of dominance over the Soviet Championship League when they won 13 consecutive Soviet championships from 1977 to 1989 and 13 European Champions Cups from 1978 to 1990 and the 1991 Spengler Cup.

Extra bonus jersey: Today's extra bonus jersey is a 1992-93 Quebec Nordiques Valeri Kamensky jersey as worn during Kamensky's second season with the Nordiques when he wore #31.

During his first season with the club, Kamensky wore #17 as Mats Sundin was already wearing his preferred #13. In 1992-93, he changed to the reverse of #13, #31 as goaltender Stephane Fiset had changed from #31 worn the previous season to now #35. For 1994-95, Sundin had been traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs, finally freeing up #13 for Kamensky in his fourth season with the Nordiques.

Quebec wore this style dating back to 1975-76 when they were still members of the WHA. For the 1980-81 season they changed from a white version of their crest on the blue jerseys to the same red one worn on the home white jerseys. The final change came in 1991-92, Kamensky's first season in the NHL, when the one color numbers became two color, as they were now trimmed in red. They also became the last team to sew the names and numbers on their jerseys in tackle twill fabric, as up to that point they had been heat sealed numbers, which have shown to crack and peel with age, putting a premium on any game worn jersey worn before 1991-92 that has the names and numbers in good physical condition.

This jersey also features the Stanley Cup Centennial patch worn on all players jerseys for the 1992-93 season, with those worn by the Nordiques and Canadiens being a French variation, that read "Coupe Stanley" instead of the standard "Stanley Cup" worn by every other club.

Today's video section is a terrific collection of highlights of Kamensky from both the Soviet Union and the NHL.

Next, Kamensky scores the first goal in Colorado Avalanche history.

Here's a little bit of insanity for you. The Soviet Union versus the United States at the 1990 World Championships with the commentary in Japanese. We kid you not.

In this next highlight, Kamensky scores a goal which must be seen to be believed.

Here, Kamensky shows that despite being a European, you don't want to mess with him in this very brief but worthwhile highlight.

If you don't watch any of the above videos, you have to see this one. We've seen still photos of this, but we were thrilled to find video of it. Kamensky gets into a fight with New Jersey's Scott Niedermayer and manages to wrap Niedermayer's head up in the sleeve of his Rangers jersey! Niedermayer's reaction to the absurd fight is also something you've never seen before in this awesome highlight.

1989-90 Buffalo Sabres Alexander Mogilny Jersey

Born on this date in 1969, Alexander Mogliny, just 20 years old, made a choice that would affect the rest of his life.

While in Stockholm, Sweden, having just completed winning a gold medal at the 1989 World Championships, Mogilny made the life changing decision to become the first Soviet player to defect, leaving behind his family but escaping the totalitarian rule of the communist system, and iron-fisted Soviet old school coach Viktor Tikhonov in particular, whom Mogilny felt would make his life not only at the rink, but outside of hockey, miserable for years to come due to his independent nature.

Mogilny while playing for the Soviet Union National Team

The story begins at the 1988 NHL Entry Draft when the Sabres, with one of their two picks in the fifth round, selected one of the most exciting young players in the world, Alexander Mogilny with the 89th overall pick. While many Soviet players had been chosen in the NHL draft before, it was generally in much later rounds when taking a flyer on a player unlikely to ever appear in an NHL game was worth the roll of the dice with an essentially meaningless pick.

Gerry Meehan, the Sabres general manager explains, "I would never have used the draft pick if I didn’t think he would be coming,” Meehan said. “The attitude then was, ‘There’s no way this guy is going to come out. He’s too big a young star.’ It was my view that it was inevitable that, sooner or later, the Russians were going to have to let their players come and play on a world stage other than the Olympics and the World Championship.”

Gerry Meehan

At the beginning of 1989, former Sabre Don Luce, the club's Director of Amateur Evaluation, traveled to Anchorage, Alaska to to 1989 World Junior Tournament. There, Pavel Bure and linemates Mogilny and Sergei Fedorov, were finishing third (Bure) and tied for fourth (Mogliny and Fedorov) in tournament scoring while leading the Soviets to a 6-1 record and the gold medal. Luce met briefly with Mogilny in Anchorage and gave him a business card, cementing Mogilny's decision to defect at the first opportunity.
 

Alexander Mogilny and Sergei Fedorov

That opportunity arrived four months later when the Soviets were given two days in Stockholm after winning the 1989 World Championship. Luce, at home in North America, received a phone call on this date in 1989 from a man who claimed to be Mogilny's agent, Sergei Fomitchev. Unsure if he was really in contact with Mogilny, he asked Fomitchev to have Mogilny repeat what he had said to him in Anchorage. Told then that he had not played very well, Mogilny had stated "I show you next game", prior to scoring a hat trick against Canada to clinch the gold medal.

After Mogilny repeated the phrase, Luce and Meehan were on a plane to Sweden three hours later, arriving midday on May 3rd. While waiting for Fomitchev to return from shopping, the got an urgent call saying Mogilny's defection had to happen right away because it would be his best opportunity to get away.

They met at a mall and drove off. The next two days were spent moving from hotel to hotel to avoid being found while Meehan worked with the U. S. Embassy to arrange the necessary paperwork.

At one point Mogilny, from the far eastern part of Russia where few players have originated from, attempted to call home and midway through the conversation the call was disconnected, giving rise to Mogilny's fears that the call had been traced and the authorities knew where they were.

The day they left they abandoned their rental car and took a taxi to the airport, and once inside the security gates, their fears of the Soviet officials was over. With that, Mogliny had become the first Soviet athlete to defect in 45 years.

 Meehan remembers, “He asked me in his broken English, ‘Am I free now?’ " And I said, ‘Yeah, you’re free.’ And he went over and had a beer. He couldn’t believe it. He said ‘free’, he didn’t say ‘safe’. He said ‘free’. I found that to be kind of poignant.”

Fedorov defected less than a year later at the 1990 Goodwill Games in Seattle and shortly afterwards, the Iron Curtain fell allowing Bure to join the NHL without having to defect.

During his rookie season in the NHL, wearing he number 89 presented to him by the Sabres owner Seymour H. Knox III in recognition of his place in the draft where Buffalo selected him and the year of his defection, Mogilny would play 65 games, scoring 15 goals and 43 points as he became acclimated to living in North America and learning a new language and culture. "It was a huge adjustment to come to the NHL. The language barrier was the toughest part. Lack of communication affected me both on and off the ice. It also took some time to get used to the airline travel. I had to deal with a fear of flying," Mogilny recalled.

Mogilny broke into the NHL with Buffalo

He would double his goal total the following season to reach 30 for the first time.

The arrival of Pat Lafontaine in Buffalo would give Mogilny a world class teammate to work with and his point totals took another jump upwards, finishing 1991-92 with 39 goals and 84 points and became the first Russian on an NHL All-Star Team. Given a year to work together and now fully integrated into life in the United States and the NHL, Mogilny had one of the greatest seasons in league history in 1992-93. He would score 127 points from 51 assists and a remarkable 76 goals in 77 games. His 76 goals remain tied for fifth all-time in a single season with Teemu Selanne and Phil Esposito.

With Lafontaine limited to just 38 games over the next two seasons, Mogilny was named team captain in his absence, the first European to ever captain an NHL club, but his production suffered as a result of the missing Lafontaine.

 
Mogilny as captain of the Sabres

He was then traded to the Vancouver Canucks and reunited with Bure for the 1995-96 season, in which he would score 55 goals and 107 points, the second highest of his career in both categories.

 
The Russian duo of Mogilny and Bure reunited in Vancouver

After five seasons of diminishing point totals in Vancouver, from 107 to 73, then 45 twice, he was dealt to the New Jersey Devils late in the 1999-00 season, having previously enjoyed the most minimal playoff success to that point in his career, having only escaped the first round once in ten seasons.

Prior to leaving the Soviet Union, Mogilny had already, just ten days after his 19th birthday, won a gold medal at the 1988 Olympics and then added he World Championship gold just days before his defection. Now with the Devils, Mogilny would see his first extended playoff run, which would eventually lead to a Stanley Cup championship. When he won the Stanley Cup with the New Jersey Devils, he became just the ninth player in history to join the Triple Gold Club.

Mogliny joined the Triple Gold Club in 2000

The move to New Jersey was a positive one for Mogilny, as he would regain his scoring touch and exceed 40 goals for only the third time in his career, with 43 goals during an 83 point season and another run to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2000-01.

He would sign with the Toronto Maple Leafs for the 2001-02 season, where he would play for three seasons, including winning the Lady Byng Trophy in 2003 and scoring his 1,000th point in 2003-04, before returning to the Devils for the final season of his career in 2005-06 before retiring with 473 goals and 1032 points in 990 games.

Mogilny had a 40 goal season while finishing his career with the Devils

Following his defection, Mogilny would never play for the Soviet Union again and he would eventually suit up for Russia just once in the 1996 World Cup of Hockey, cutting short what was destined to be a fine, if not outstanding, international career.

Mogilny's lone international appearance for Russia
came during the 1996 World Cup of Hockey

When asked following his career about the reasons for his defection, Mogilny responded, “Why did I do it? I did it for freedom. If the bird can fly and the fish can swim, you have to be able to move around the world and be free and not watched constantly. If a human being doesn’t have freedom, that’s not life. It’s like living in a cage. To me, you might as well be dead.”

Today's jersey is a 1989-90 Buffalo Sabres Alexander Mogilny jersey. This jersey sports Mogilny's distinctive #89, which is based on the year of his defection from the Soviet Union and also features the Sabres 20th Anniversary patch worn in Mogilny's rookie season following his defection earlier that year.

The Sabres wore this style from their inaugural season of 1970-71 through the 1995-96 season when a complete makeover of their identity package saw them adopt new colors and a new logo for a decade until a return to their traditional blue and gold colors, which eventually included a return to a modernized version of this classic jersey in 2010-11 after having used this style as an alternate jersey in 2006-07 and again in 2008-09 to 2009-10.

Bonus jersey: Today's bonus jersey is a 1995-96 Vancouver Canucks Alexander Mogilny jersey during his first season in Vancouver when he scored 55 goals and 107 points, the second highest of his career.

Vancouver introduced this white home jersey in 1989-90 after a decade of wearing gold jerseys at home. This style was worn through the 1996-97 season when the club got a complete makeover, with new colors and a new logo.

Extra bonus jersey: Today's extra bonus jersey is a 2003-04 Toronto Maple Leafs Alexander Mogilny jersey from the season during which he scored his 1,000th NHL point.

The evolution of this Maple Leafs jersey began back in the 1992-93 season when Toronto adopted a brand new style jersey with a more traditional look based on a sweater first worn back in 1934-35, only now paired with their modern Maple Leafs crest. The jersey first evolved with the adoption of a modern name and number font in 1997-98. While the name remained unchanged, the curvy numbers were replaced in 2000-01 with a return to a more classic block font for the numbers, although now trimmed in blue and outlined in silver, the first time a third color had been used on a Maple Leafs jersey since World War II, when the lettering on the crest was red for a few seasons.

The retro style maple leaf secondary logo was replaced by a new "TML" monogram at the same time the number font was changed in 2000-01.

Extra extra bonus jersey: Today's extra extra bonus jersey is a 1988-89 CSKA Moscow Alexander Mogilny jersey from Red Army's 13th consecutive Soviet Championship League title under Tikhonov just weeks prior to Mogilny defecting to the west.

Mogilny's departure in early May after that year's World Championships in Sweden, effectively marked the end of an era for Tikhnov and the supremacy of CSKA, as prior to the following season Slava Fetisov, Igor Larionov and Vladimir Krutov left the Soviet Union with permission of the authorities to play in the NHL, bringing to a close Red Army's unparalleled streak of championship dominance.

In today's video section, an interview with Mogliny from the 1989 World Junior Championships in January, a few months prior to his defection in April after the World Championships. He sticks to the party line quite well, giving little hint as to what was to follow, or at least that's what the interpreter tells us...

Here is a look at the some of the career highlights of Mogilny.

Here, Mogilny scores his 70th goal of the 1992-93 season, only the seventh player to reach 70 in NHL history.

Speaking of the remarkable 1992-93 season, here is a brief feature story on the partnership between Mogilny and Lafontaine.

Finally, an excellent documentary about Mogliny's defection narrated by Meehan that runs 23 minutes and is well worth your time.

CSKA Moscow - The Civil War - A Tale of Two Teams With the Same Name

Following yesterday's look at the brief, but memorable, period of the Russian Penguins, Part 2 today looks at the aftermath following the Pittsburgh Penguins withdrawal of support of CSKA Moscow and the subsequent fallout over the next seven seasons.

The Civil War
A Tale of Two Teams With the Same Name

After dominating the world of Soviet ice hockey from 1946 through 1989, which included all but six championships from 1955 to 1898 and 13 consecutive from 1977 to 1989, the Central Sports Club of the Army (CSKA Moscow) saw it's advantage begin to erode when, first, some of their older star players were allowed to leave for the riches of the NHL (in a not so transparent effort to generate some much needed income), followed by key defections of prime up and coming talent.

Their situation nose dived with the breakup of the Soviet Union and their subsequent loss of government backing. By the time the International Hockey League replaced the former Soviet Championship League for the 1992-93 season, Central Red Army (CSKA Moscow) plummeted to an overall record of 9-42-11 and a last place finish in the 12 team Western Conference. How the mighty had fallen.

With the Russian Department of Defense no longer able to fund the team, 1993-94 saw a new partnership with the recent back-to-back Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins, which resulted in a new logo and North American marketing savvy brought on board in order to bring in new sponsorships to revitalize the team. The renewed efforts on behalf of the club paid off with a 21-20-5 record that saw CSKA Moscow rise to 14th place out of 24 and a return to the playoffs.

1994-95 had the Russian Penguins finish with a winning record at 25-20-7 and another playoff appearance. But it also signaled the end of the Pittsburgh organization's involvement (as we detailed yesterday) as the Russians now felt they could run the show on their own. Motivated by greed, team management wanted to keep all the anticipated sponsorship dollars for themselves, without having to split it 50/50 with the North Americans any longer. They were also delusional to think they could retain the sponsors brought in by the Pittsburgh marketing staff in light of the interference in their operations suffered at the hands of the Russian Mafia, who went so far as to kick the team's sponsors out of the arena's luxury boxes as well as being responsible for the deaths of as many as three of the team's staff!

Predictably, CSKA Moscow fell to 8-13-5 in the first round of the 1995-96 season, finishing 11th out of 14 teams in the Western Conference. For the second round of the season, they were grouped with the other non-automatic playoff qualifiers and faired well, finishing atop the group comprised of the lower half of the league with a 19-4-3, earning one of the two available playoff spots as the 15th seed. Their reward for their efforts was drawing long time rivals and 2nd seed Dynamo Moscow, who eliminated CSKA Moscow 2 games to 1.

The upheaval following the 1995-96 season was seismic, as the team found itself barred from their facilities, the water and electricity shut off and the long time and highly decorated Viktor Tikhonov out as head coach of CSKA Moscow, the team he led with an iron fist since 1977.

Viktor Tikhonov

Tikhonov responded by forming a new club, the incredibly similarly named HC CSKA Moscow and taking his case to court, where the actions of Colonel Alexander Baranovsky in ousting Tikhonov were found to be illegal. Tikhonov's new club were granted access to the arena, but order was not necessarily restored, as locks were cut off lockers, electricity, water and phones were cut off and access to the training base was blocked. The upheaval cost both Tikhonov's new club and the existing CSKA Moscow team much needed players, as they did not want to be caught in the middle of the fight between Tikhonov and the army and opted to play elsewhere.

The situation became even more muddled when the established CSKA Moscow found itself relegated to the Yysshaya Liga, the second level of Russian hockey, for the 1996-97 season. The established club opted to return to the classic "UCKA" lettering underneath a red star on the front of their jerseys, while Tikhonov's upstart operation stayed with the Russian Penguins logo and joined the newly formed Russian Superleague, meaning the old guard and former dominant powerhouse team, CSKA Moscow, was in the formerly unfathomable position of playing in the second division, while Tikhonov's upstart "Red Army" club (HC CSKA Moscow) started out life in the top division!

CSKA Moscow opted for the classic crest

Tikhonov's new HC CSKA Moscow retained the Russian Penguins logo
despite the departure of the Pittsburgh Penguins partnership

CSKA Moscow fared well in 1996-97, winning promotion by finishing first in the Western Conference of the Vysshaya Liga, while Tikhonov's HC CSKA Moscow was a first round playoff exit.

This set up an even more confusing situation for the 1997-98, as the new HC CSKA Moscow and the established CSKA Moscow were now both competing in the Russian Superleague at the same time. One can only imagine the difficulty broadcasters and reporters must have had when the two Red Army clubs met during the course of the regular season and the intensity the games must have had during this Civil War of Red Army vs. Red Army!

The established CSKA Moscow side finished 8th in the Western Conference while Tikhonov's HC CSKA Moscow side came 12th out of 14. CSKA Moscow missed out on the Superleague playoffs, while HC CSKA Moscow failed to survive the relegation schedule and was demoted to the Vysshaya Liga for 1998-99, separating the two clubs once again. Clear as mud, right?

For the next three seasons Tikhonov's HC CSKA Moscow side finished mid-pack in the Yysshaya Liga, but a strong 2001-02 season saw them earn a promotion back to the Russian Superleague by finishing with a combined 49-12 record with 1 overtime win, 6 ties and 2 overtime losses over the course of the two halves of the split season.

Meanwhile, CSKA Moscow soldiered on in the Superleague, managing to avoid relegation by the barest of margins, winning a tiebreaker over Vityaz Podolsk in 2000-01 to avoid the drop, but the 2001-02 season saw them slip to depths of a new level, as they completed a dismal season at 10-36-4 with an overtime win to finish 17th out of 18, a single point out of last place for the once mighty Red Army, but not enough to avoid relegation to the Vysshaya Liga for 2002-03, an especially bitter pill considering Tikhonov's HC CSKA team were to be promoted into the very spot they were vacating.

Eventually, after several failed attempts over the years, the reality of the situation finally was too much for all involved to continue to deny - one strong CSKA club was a far better and more commercially viable option than two mediocre, financially struggling teams. An agreement was finally reached, which included Tikhonov at the helm of the reunited club, which would use HC CSKA's spot in the Superleague for the upcoming 2002-03 season.

The merger also signaled and end of the "Russian Penguins" logo, which far outlived it's intended purpose as the logo for the joint effort between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Central Sports Club of the Army, an arrangement which came to an end seven years prior.

The reunited CSKA Moscow rose as high as third in 2007-08, the final Superleague season, and won  division titles in the Tarasov Division of the Kontinental Hockey League, in 2008-09 and 2012-13. In 2014-15, CSKA not only won the Tarasov Division, but finished with the best record in the KHL with 139 points from a stellar 49-9-1-1 record, 16 clear of traditional rivals Dynamo Moscow and SKA Saint Petersburg, only to lose in the Conference Finals to Saint Petersburg in seven games.

In 2015-16, CSKA repeated as the regular season champions with a 43-14-1-2 mark for 127 points. For the first time while a member of the KHL, the club advanced to the Gagarin Cup Finals, winning 12 of 13 games in the process, only to lose Game 7 to Metallurg Magnitogorsk 3-1 to deny CSKA their first championship since the fall of the Soviet Union.

Today's featured jersey is a 1995-96 HC CSKA Moscow Sergei Samsonov jersey. Tikhonov's Red Army club continued to use the Russian Penguins logo, only now with the Cyrillic characters "XK" added to the chest of the penguin to differentiate it from CSKA Moscow, while the original club used the classic UCKA crest below the red star.

Samsonov played two seasons for CSKA Moscow but left Russia for the North American minor leagues amidst all the strife surrounding the two warring Red Army clubs, choosing instead to play for the Detroit Vipers of the IHL. Following the 1996-97 season, he was drafted 8th overall by the Boston Bruins and would go on to play eight seasons with Boston before bouncing around the NHL, with stops in Edmonton, Montreal and Chicago before settling in with the Carolina Hurricanes for four seasons before wrapping up his career with 20 games with Florida in 2010-11. He would play 888 games, score 235 goals and 571 points, reaching Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals with Edmonton in 2006.

Bonus jersey:  Today's bonus jersey is a 1996-97 HC CSKA Moscow Alexei Kasatonov jersey. This jersey is from Kasatonov's final season when he returned to Russia following the conclusion of his NHL career. Note the name on the back in Cyrillic lettering.

While the original CSKA Moscow "Red Army" club returned to their previous star logo, the upstart new HC CSKA Moscow adopted the "Russian Penguin" identity as their own, creating much confusion among jersey collectors, as the Penguin logo was used for eight consecutive seasons, but by two separate, but nearly identically named clubs.

The CSKA Moscow "Russian Penguins" jerseys were red with black and white trim. The HC CSKA Moscow "Russian Penguins" jerseys were also red with black and white trim with LG sponsorship and the letters XK (Cyrillic for HC to differentiate themselves from CSKA Moscow) added to the upper chest of the penguin logo before a change to red jerseys with blue and white trim as shown in today's bonus jersey.

After six seasons of two separate "Red Army" clubs, they were merged for the 2002-03 season, bringing to an end the use of the Russian Penguins logo.

Extra bonus jersey: Today's bonus jersey is a 2001-02 HC CSKA Moscow Maxim Koryakin jersey as worn by Tikhonov's HC CSKA Moscow during their final season as an independent club, separate from the original CSKA Moscow team.

HC CSKA, as denoted by their use of the Russian Penguins logo with the addition of the "XK" to the chest of the penguin in the logo to differentiate themselves from the CSKA Moscow club, would earn promotion from the Vysshaya Liga at the conclusion of the 2001-02 season.

Their subsequent merger with the original CSKA Moscow team prior to the start of the 2002-03 season would bring to an end the use of the "Russian Penguins" logo, which lasted well beyond the two years of the operating agreement between CSKA Moscow and the Pittsburgh Penguins of the NHL.

Extra extra bonus jersey: Today's extra bonus jersey is a 2002-03 CSKA Moscow Dimitri Kosmachev jersey as worn by the reunited CSKA Moscow team in the Russian Superleague, the first season the two rival Red Army clubs were merged into a single entity once more.

Today's first video is a feature on a young Samsonov from 1994, which if you look closely during the interview, has the classic UCKA logo on the chest, with the Russian Penguin logo on Samsonov's left torso.

Finally, CSKA Moscow lives on, now only in the KHL.