from Jeff Z. Klein of the New York Times,
Whenever Gary Bettman and the N.H.L. owners lock out their players, fans in North America reacquaint themselves with European hockey. It happened in 1994-95, in 2004-5 and now again in 2012.
After only one week of this lockout, more than 60 N.H.L. players have signed or agreed to contracts in Europe; during the last lockout, almost 400 N.H.L. players skated abroad. So here is a guide to Europe’s top seven domestic leagues, their long traditions and their thundering crowds rocking claustrophobic rinks. If you can master the difference between Trinec of the Czech Republic and Trencin of Slovakia, or Metallurg Magnitogorsk and Metallurg Novokuznetsk of Russia, you can follow your favorite N.H.L. players overseas.
RUSSIAN K.H.L. Widely considered the world’s second-best league, the Kontinental Hockey League is the present-day home to the great clubs of the Soviet era. But where once teams were sponsored by the likes of the army, the Interior Ministry and labor unions, today they are sponsored by national energy companies, regional energy companies and the billionaire owners of energy companies.
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