Russia Wins Inaugural World Legends Hockey League (WLHL) Championship

[JA]

The formation of the World Legends Hockey League was announced last August. The league, spearheaded by Pavel Bure, offers world-class hockey players aged 45 and above to represent their country on the international stage. Many familiar faces participated in this year's tourney.

The existence of this league has been relatively quiet, and outside of Eastern Europe, there has been no discussion of this league at all. The playoff games appear to have been televised in Russia. Featuring a wide array of talent from Sweden, Finland, Russia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Germany, the six national teams competed in a three-game knockout tournament in November and January. The qualifying round was held in November, while the Semi-Finals, Finals, and Bronze Medal games were played in January.

On January 30, 2016, Team Russia claimed an 8-5 victory in the inaugural WLHL Final against Team Czech Republic.

Highlights from the Final:



And a few highlights from the Finland vs Russia Semi-Final, including nice goals by Bure and Sergei Fedorov.



http://thehockeywriters.com/pavel-bure-launching-world-legends-hockey-league/

Pavel Bure Launching World Legends Hockey League
August 15th, 2015 BY Dustin Nelson

Six-time NHL All-Star Pavel Bure is chairing a new league that is exactly like the old man’s hockey league your dad played in, except the stories of past hockey glory told in the locker room aren’t going to be total crap. Also, someone will be watching.

The World Legends Hockey League (WLHL) will be comprised of 45+ year old players who represented their country on the international stage. The league may provide fans with the opportunity to see stars like Bure (44), Dominik Hasek (50), Nik Lidstrom (45), Teemu Selanne (45) and Sergei Federov (45) hit the ice again. (Though no players have been announced at this time.)

The league will feature the world’s best 45+ players from Finland, Russia, Slovakia, Sweden, the Czech Republic and Germany. The league has the blessing and support of the IIHF and games will be reffed by IIHF officials, all of whom will be over 45, obviously.

Via the WLHL press release:

The formation of WLHL will be celebrated with an All Star Team Match where one team includes Russian stars and the other team is made up of stars from the participating countries as well as Canada and the United States. The game will be played in Moscow in the first week of October 2015, the date is not set. The game will be played in the newly built VTB Ice Palace Arena, Moscow Legends Park, where also the 2016 World Championship will be played.

Players and referees must be 45 years or older to participate in WLHL.

The requirement is that the players must have played international games for his country in any official tournament organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation, IIHF. Each squad must contain 27 persons, 20 players of whom two shall be goalkeepers and a team management which shall consist of seven people. Injured players may be replaced during the matches. For the referees, the requirement is that they must have been the IIHF licensed judges.

The league will begin preliminary games in November, with matches between Finland and Sweden, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and the WLHL’s Edmonton Oilers, Germany playing Russia.

The launch of the league is going to be celebrated with an opening All-Star game that will feature American and Canadian players facing off against a Russian team, though there will be no American or Canadian team in the league. If the league has any success this year, we can hope that there will be U.S. and Canadian teams included for 2016, because Don Cherry is itching to get behind the bench again.

This league has the potential to be a lot of fun.

http://sputniknews.com/sport/20160129/1033952470/russia-reaches-wlhl.html

Russia Reaches World Legends Hockey League Finals After Beating Finland
23:30 29.01.2016(updated 23:48 29.01.2016)

Russian ice hockey team defeated Friday the Finnish team in the semi-finals of the World Legends Hockey League (WLHL).

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Russia defeated Finland 6-2, in home match, the hat-trick was achieved by Russian world-renowned player Pavel Bure.

The WLHL was launched by Bure, the six-time NHL All-Star Game star, last year, and comprises players aged 45 and older, who represented their countries on the international stage.

The league, which features the world’s best players from Finland, Russia, Slovakia, Sweden, the Czech Republic and Germany, began preliminary games in November, with matches between Finland and Sweden, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and Germany playing Russia.

The WLHL finals will take place on Saturday, where Russia will meet the Czech team.

Final tournament results and scoring leaders:

http://www.eurohockey.com/article/4372-russia-wins-world-legends-hockey-league.html

Russia wins World Legends Hockey League
Henrik Lundqvist
30 Jan 2016

The Russian team with hockey legends beat the Czech Republic in the final to win the first ever WLHL season at home in VTB Ice Palace in Moscow.

Sergei Fedorov and Vitaly Prokhorov scored two goals each when the Russian veteran team beat Czech Republic 8-5 in the WLHL final. The Russian team also included well known names such as Vyacheslav Fetisov, Alexei Kasatonov, Igor Larionov, Pavel Bure etc.

Sweden beat Finland 5-4 in the Bronze Medal Game. Germany and Slovakia were eliminated in the Qualifying Round.

All games:

Qualification Round

Finland - Sweden 4-3 SO
Germany - Russia 2-7
Czech Republic - Slovakia 11-4

Semi Finals
Czech Republic - Sweden 8-2
Russia - Finland 6-2

Bronze Medal Game
Finland - Sweden 4-5

Final
Czech Republic - Russia 5-8

Top scorers:

[table="css=transp;head;width=450"]#|Player|Pos.|Team|GP| G | A | P |PIM|+/-
1.|Pavel Bure|RW|RUS|3|6|1|7|0|7
2.|Richard Zemlicka|LW|CZE|3|3|4|7|0|6
3.|Jan Peterek|RW|CZE|3|3|3|6|0|5
4.|Pavel Patera|C|CZE|3|0|6|6|1|4
5.|Vitali Prokhorov|LW|RUS|3|4|1|5|0|2
6.|Viktor Ujcik|F|CZE|1|4|1|5|0|3
7.|Tomas Kucharcik|F|CZE|3|2|3|5|1|5
8.|Vyacheslav Fetisov|D|RUS|2|0|5|5|1|4
9.|Roman Ilyin|RW|RUS|3|2|2|4|0|-1
10.|Jaroslav Nedved|RD|CZE|3|1|3|4|1|3
[/table]

Below is the league's website:

http://www.hockeylegends.ru/

Their Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/World-Legends-Hockey-League-497056193804582/

Click to read more...

 

[Captain Bowie]

That's awesome! The NHL's Senior Tour! Was Canada involved at all? I would love to see something like this come to my town, I would get tickets in a heartbeat.

 

[leaflover]

Never even heard about this but now that I have I think its great.

 

[Alexander the Gr8]

That's cool. I'm surprised Putin didn't ask to play for the Russian legends
I wish Canada participated in that tournament too.

 

[uncleben]

Gah! I had no idea this had started, let alone run a full season already!

No coverage at all here! What a shame.

I'd love for this to gain some traction and attention in North America.

 

[JA]

That's awesome! The NHL's Senior Tour! Was Canada involved at all? I would love to see something like this come to my town, I would get tickets in a heartbeat.

Not this year, but it seems to be a real possibility for the future.

The league began its season with an exhibition match featuring Canadian and American players. They also started right after the HHOF Legends Classic. Canada and the U.S. are apparently quite welcome to join the fray. I think the more steam this league builds, the more top-level talent will join as well.

Some coverage of these games in North America would be a treat.

That said, perhaps they'll also expand the tournament in length. As it stands, it's more of a tournament than a season.

 

[RandV]

Sounds like the Russians cheated using an ineligible player! Czech's should have called for a player ID on the Russian bench

The World Legends Hockey League (WLHL) will be comprised of 45+ year old players who represented their country on the international stage. The league may provide fans with the opportunity to see stars like Bure (44), Dominik Hasek (50), Nik Lidstrom (45), Teemu Selanne (45) and Sergei Federov (45) hit the ice again. (Though no players have been announced at this time.)

 

[Jussi]

Gah! I had no idea this had started, let alone run a full season already!

No coverage at all here! What a shame.

I'd love for this to gain some traction and attention in North America.

No coverage really anywhere.