Amur Khabarovsk HC Amur Khabarovsk ( in Russian : " Амур Хабаровск " ) is a professional hockey team based in Khabarovsk , Russia playing in the Continental Hockey League . The team is nicknamed the Tigers and play its home games at the Platinum Arena . History . Amur Khabarovsk was founded in 1966 as SKA Khabarovsk ; it only adopted its current name in 1996 , a name that comes from the nearby river Amur . By its location in the Russian Far East , the team is pretty isolated from every other team in the KHL , making rivalries difficult ; the nearest KHL team , Metallurg Magnitogorsk , is located some 3 , 000 km away . Still , the team is very popular among Khabarovsk citizens , and despite its usual poor results , the team keeps being highly successful at the gates . For a long time a lower division dweller , Khabarovsk won the championship of the Soviet League Division 3 in 1989 , earning promotion to the upper level . In 1996 , Khabarovsk promoted to the Russian Superleague . A relegation to the Vysshaya Liga occured in 2004 when the mining company that funds the club had financial difficulties . The Tigers could promote back to the top level in 2006 . That same financial crisis forced the team ' s reserve squad , the Golden Amur Khabarovsk , to withdraw from the Asia League where it played for the 2004 - 05 season . The team could finish the season and take part in the playoffs , however ; they finished third in regular season standings and failed to reach the playoffs finals . In 2008 , Khabarovsk was one of the 24 founding members of the Kontinental Hockey League . The team played the league ' s inaugural game on September 2nd against Dinamo Riga at home in front of a sell - out crowd of 7 , 100 people . Unfortunately for the fans , their team lost 4 - 2 to the Latvian side . Riga and the Tigers were playing back - to - back games in Khabarovsk , however , and on the second match , Amur won 7 - 6 in a tied game that went to shootouts . But the 2008 - 09 KHL season didn ' t prove to be very succesful for the Tigers . The team was plagued with injuries - in October only , 11 players were side - lined , including imports Kyle Wanvig and Bryce Lampman . The Tigers needed to strenghten their squad , and therefore offered a contract to Carolina Hurricanes ' s Matt Murley , which resulted in a controversy sometimes compared to Alexander Radulov ' s , even though there are many differences . Murley ' s signing didn ' t prove beneficial for Amur though , as he only contributed 8 points to a fairly impotent offence that scored only 111 goals . Veterans Oleg Belkin and Peter Nylander were Amur ' s top goal scorers with 11 goals each ; Belkin was top scorer with a meager 24 points in 50 games . Amur ' s defence was better , with regular defencemen Vasily Turkovsky and Viktor Kostyuchenok even managing to finish the season with a + 3 and + 2 record , respectively . But overall , the season was disappointing for the Tigers , with a 20th place , 15 wins and 60 points . Things barely improved in 2009 - 10 . Amur finished 21st , out of playoffs again , this time again with 60 points and only 12 wins in regular time ( plus three in overtime and six in the shootouts ) . Former Montreal Canadiens ' and Columbus Blue Jackets ' David Ling did the best in offense with 32 points , while Alexei Kopeykin and Ruslan Khasanshin were the best goal scorers with respectively 16 and 14 goals . All in all , it ' s only 129 goals that the team scored , 18 better than the previous season , but still fourth worst in the league . Oleg Belkin had to miss the whole season , while Peter Nylander left the team after ten game to go back in Sweden , joining Timrå IK of the Elitserien . The defence was not as solid as the previous season , with Turkovsky retired and Kostyuchenok traded to Spartak Moscow after 14 games . The result was 187 goals against , 29 more than the previous season . Former NHL veteran and Stanley Cup winner Nolan Pratt ended up being the fourth defenceman on the team in icetime and finished the season with 11 points and a - 14 + / - rating . Fortunately , despite playing a disappointing season , Khabarovsk couls still count on the 4th highest average attendance in the league , with an average of 7 , 100 fans per game .