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A huge crowd – 67,770 – assembled in St. Petersburg to witness the latest instalment of the SKA vs CSKA rivalry. That is, by far, a record for the KHL (the previous best, from last season’s open-air encounter between Jokerit and SKA, was 50,000 smaller) and also the biggest attendance for a club hockey game anywhere in Russia. Fittingly, the big day came on the anniversary of the first ever game day in the Soviet Hockey Championship, played on Dec. 22, 1946. The showcase game, played at Petersburg’s Gazprom Arena, highlighted how far the game has developed since those early days: today, Russia’s hockey stars are capable of taking over and filling the country’s biggest and most sophisticated soccer arenas – an almost unprecedented demonstration of the massive potential of our game.