CSKA Moscow CSKA Moscow ( in Russian : ЦСКА Москва , CSKA being an abbreviation for " Центральный Спортивный Клуб Армии " , Centraliy Sportiviy Klub Armii , the Army ' s Central Sports Club ) is a professional multisports club based in Moscow , Russia , well - known for its highly successful ice hockey team . Popularly , the team has been refered to as the Red Army Team , due to its past affiliation to the Soviet Army , known as the Red Army . It was founded in 1946 under the name CDKA ( ЦДКА ) , renamed CDSA in 1952 , CSK MO in 1955 to finally take its current name in 1960 . Playing in the Continental Hockey League , the CSKA is the most titled club in Europe with 20 IIHF European Champions Cup titles . History . CSKA has outrageously dominated the Soviet League for the 46 years that the league has existed - in fact , they won every single year since 1955 but six ( 1957 , 1962 , 1967 , 1969 , 1974 and 1976 ) , for a total of 32 titles . By comparision , the most crowned National Hockey League team , the Montreal Canadiens , tops at 24 titles , and has never won more than five years in a row , whereas CSKA won 13 times in a row from 1977 to 1989 . The team was no different in European Champions Cup competitions , winning every title from 1969 to 1990 except two ( 1975 and 1977 ) . Anatoli Tarasov has been a marking figure in the team history . CSKA player until 1953 , Tarasov has been player - coach until that year , then full - time head coach until 1974 ( sometimes with co - coaches , most notably Arkady Chernyshev ) . But the team ' s most successful period was during the Tikhonov era . CSKA ' s domination , while partly explainable by the skills and the burdening discipline commanded by Tarasov and Tikhonov , was in good part attributable to the link between the team and the Red Army . There was a law in the Soviet Union forcing every able - bodied man to serve in the military ; therefore , CSKA could use that fact to draft the very best players in the country to the army and have them play on the team , to the point that most of the time , the Soviet National Team roster was , a few players apart at most , CSKA ' s . This outrageous domination was however a bad thing for ice hockey in the country , as it made attendence figures lower all across the league by the end of the 1980s . Super Series . Between 1975 and 1991 , CSKA , along with other Soviet League teams , played against National Hockey League teams in what was called the Super Series . CSKA played 36 games against NHL teams , of which 34 were part of said Series , and finished with a record of 26 wins , 8 losses , and 2 ties . On New Year ' s Eve 1975 , CSKA played the Montreal Canadiens in a match often regarded as one of the greatest hockey match ever played . It resulted in a 3 - 3 tie . On January 11th 1976 , the team played defending Stanley Cup champions Philadelphia Flyers . The Flyers , then nicknamed the " Broad Street Bullies " due to their highly physical playing style , did not change the slightest bit in their game against CSKA ; Ed Van Impe delivered an extremely hard body check to Valeri Kharlamov that had him stay in pain on the ice for a whole minute . Furious at the fact that no penalty had been called on the incident , CSKA coach Konstantin Loktev pulled his team off the ice to protest against the decision . NHL president Clarence Campbell told them to return to the ice and finish the game , a game that was internationally broadcasted , threatening them not to pay the Soviet Hockey Federation the fees they were entitled to . Eventually , Loktev agreed to resume the game , which the Flyers won 4 - 1 . After the fall of the Soviet Union , CSKA has remained a powerhouse in the Russian Superleague , but nowhere near the level it had during the Soviet era - the team actually failed to win a championship ever since the Soviet Union broke up into several republics .