Kaluga

There is no rival yet with any history behind it, only the fixture list that keeps repeating a name: Buran Voronezh, met most often in the Central Division and, before that, in the junior league. It is not a grudge match built on old scores, since Kaluga has none to settle — it is simply the club that turns up again and again, along with Ryazan-VDV and Tverichi, forming the shape of a schedule rather than a feud.

Everything about HC Kaluga traces back to a junior side, Kaluzhskie Rakety, put together in the summer of 2022 by coach Alexander Kudinov. The senior team grew out of that squad rather than replacing it: Kaluga Region Governor Vladislav Shapsha announced the decision to field a professional club in October 2025, and it stepped into the Supreme Hockey League for the 2026/2027 season with no honours behind it and no reputation to defend, only one to build. Andrey Kirdyashov, who coached the juniors, moved up with the club to take charge of the senior side.

Home games are played at the Central Sports Palace, known locally as DS "Centralny". The branding leans hard on the city's place in Soviet space history — blue, white and gold, the slogan "Kaluga. Space. Hockey.", and the line "On the way to the stars!" stamped across the club's identity. The senior team carries no separate mascot name of its own, letting the rocket imagery do that work, while "Kaluzhane" — simply, the people of Kaluga — is what the media calls the players themselves.

Before any of that, there was a group of young players training under one coach, with no top-flight fixture list in sight and no name beyond Kaluzhskie Rakety.