What does the KHL mean to HC SLOVAN and the city of Bratislava?

Back in the days of the Slovak "Extraliga" Slovan for the rest of the country was a team to see and pay for. Teams like Kosice, Poprad, Trencin and Zovlen all wanted to beat us and be as famous as us. It is also true that during the extraliga days there was no Ovechkin who caused ticket vendors websites to crash selling out a 10,000 capacity arena in 8 minutes. One article even claimed that Slovan could currently sell out an arena with a capacity of 20,000 spectators!

Without a shadow of doubt we can however say that we miss some of the good old derbies against our arch rivals from the extraliga, these games had something magic in them for everybody from Bratislava. Now that we surfed the history books a bit in the extraliga, let's get back to reality, KHL. Slovan definitely etablished itself in the league, managing to beat top teams like SKA, Ak Bars Kazan, Spartak Moscow and Omsk already in the first games against them. Critics argued that Slovan will be weak and suffer because of the lowest budget all showed irrelevant and invalid, the living proof is our results and current table position. Top players like Ovechkin said that the stadium atmosphere in Bratislava is unbelievable and amongst the best in the KHL. If we talk about atmosphere we must say that Slovan has one of the best in the KHL, having a 10,000 people capacity arena. It's nice of Lev Prague to break the record of "most spectators", but what does this help if the fans are quiet and aren't the extra player on ice for the home team? 

The NHL Lockout sure provided an extra boost for Slovan in terms of Jaroslav Janus, Lubomir Visnovsky and Buffalo Sabres defenseman Andrej Sekera strenghtening our roster. But the question remains, what's next? If the NHL starts, will all players run home to their "mother" club? Offcourse top stars like Datsyuk, Kovalchuk and Ovi (Ovechkin) will be drawn back to play in the NHL. But what will the less famous players do? We do not have to go far, Jaroslav Janus did not get a spot in Tamba Bay, but in the KHL he is amongst the top goalies, is there a point for him to go back and play minor league hockey if he can grow in the KHL? There are a number of players which can actually thank the lockout because it could have pointed a new career path for them. 

Slovan not only stood its position as the most famous club in Slovakia, it gained respect from clubs and players who knew very little about us and that's what we as Slovan and Fans live for!

Roland Ondruš

V tejto sezóne sme pre vás pripravili novinku, ktorá dáva možnosť vyjadriť sa blogom každému fanúšikovi - viac infomácií v článku OPEN BLOG
This season we decided to give an opportunity to submit a blog to any Slovan fan or even a player. For more details read the article - OPEN BLOG