Posted on 09/27/2005 7:12:31 PM PDT by scott says
The NHL is Starting Over, trying to recapture what makes hockey great. In a five-part series, ESPN.com remembers what made it that way in the first place, hockey's players, rivalries, teams, games and enforcers.
The recipe for a great rivalry includes a measure of time, a healthy dose of hatred and more than a little blood. If you can throw in some politics, slights (real or perceived), and some shared geography, so much the better.
They're the kinds of confrontations which make fans and players alike pore over the NHL schedule, looking for the nights when those teams clash.
They're the kinds of confrontations that inject a level of intensity and excitement into the mundane and everyday.
Historically, the rivalry between the Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs was fueled by the distinct differences in the Canadian societies of English and French Canada. Even though the threat of Quebec separating from Canada has faded, there remains an electric atmosphere when the two teams square off.
The Battle of Alberta between the Oilers and Flames has always embodied the Western Canadian spirit, more rough and tumble than big-city sophistication.
For sheer hatred, it's hard to top the rivalry between the Detroit Red Wings and Colorado Avalanche during the mid- to late 1990s, a clash of the new kids on the hockey block and a long-suffering Original Six franchise.
And of course, there's the almost instinctive hostility between fans of the New York Islanders and the Blueshirts from Manhattan.
Some rivalries blossom and then fade, often dependent on the fortunes of the teams involved. But just as one rivalry fades from view, the blood will begin to boil between others, sending fans and players back to the schedule to circle the next time they meet. -- Scott Burnside
Here, in no particular
(Excerpt) Read more at sports.espn.go.com ...
Great choice, I hope we will see more great games between the two teams.
WOOO HOOOO! Come on October 5th!!!!!
Freep mail or ping me if you want on or off the Hockey Ping List.
One of the top multi-sport rivalries of the last ten years...
Tampa v. Philly
Bucs/Eagles
Bolts/Flyers
Good stuff.
And of course, there's the almost instinctive hostility between fans of the New York Islanders and the Blueshirts from Manhattan.
My sense is that the Rangers-Devils rivalry has surpassed the Rangers-Islanders rivalry as the most intense in the New York area, mainly because the Islanders haven't been a serious contender in almost 20 years and the Rangers and Devils combined to win four Stanley Cups from 1994-2003 (and faced each other in the playoffs a number of times in the early 1990s -- including the 1994 Eastern Conference Finals that may go down as the greatest playoff series of all time).
Calgary/Vancouver/Edmonton
Toronto/Senators/Canadiens
Blackhawks/Red Wings and Blues
LA/Anaheim/San Jose.
Your 1st three observations are right on the money...is the last that close??
Can't go wrong with the Original Six either. Detroit/Chicago was huge for years and years, although the Blackhawks have fallen on hard times. Every Wings fan knew who Doug Wilson, the Sutters, Chelios(now a Wing), Savard, and Jeremy Roenick were. Toronto/Detroit is always a war. Wendel Clark was as well known here as in Toronto.
Toronto/Montreal is legendary.
The Blues/Wings have interesting history together. I'm still mad about the Adam Oates trade......
My wife is from Detroit and an avid Red Wings fan and I'm from Missouri and an equally avid Blues fan. It get downright mean around here when they play each other. I really want to see how this season turns out with all of the cuts, trades, retirements etc.
I miss the home and home north (no) star vs. hawks in the old stadium.
Dino vs Savard
Churla vs Grimson.....
Many moons ago.
I'm still mad about the entire Mike Keenan era in St. Louis Blues history. So many guys came and went, it was like the locker room had a revolving door. He and Bret Hull (then the star Blues player) used to take pot-shots at each other in the paper damn near every day of the season.
By the time he was fired, Keenan was the most hated man in St. Louis; the running joke was that he and Tony Banks (the guy who was quarterback for the Rams before Kurt Warner took over) had to leave town under cover of darkness to avoid being shot.
I was at the first game Joel Quennville coached. They introduced him as the new head coach of the Blues, and he got a standing ovation that lasted almost five minutes. But frankly, you could have introduced Bozo the Clown and got the same result; just as long as it wasn't that bastard Keenan.
I got the Probert-McSorley fight from '93 (or was it '94?) on tape somewhere. Damn near five minutes of straight pounding on each other. It was better (and lasted a lot longer) than most of Don King's debacles.
Chris Osgood Vs Patrick Roy And Mike Vernon Vs Roy the year before,
btw,you hunting this year?
Avs/Wings was incredibly intense there for a few years. I'm afraid that it is or has cooled - at least for the players. I think that Sakic is all that is left in Colorado. Who besides Stevie Y/Shanny are left (Draper?) for the Wings? What a great cast of characters that was.
Keep your eyes on a kid that has a decent chance of making the Blue Note's opening day roster - Jeff Hoggan. Watched him play for (4) years of college - he NEVER took a shift off. I'm really hoping he breaks camp with the Blues as opposed to Peoria.
But during the 1960s especially, if either team wanted to win the Cup, they had to go through each other. The rivalry lost steam over the last decade because of the Blackhawks' decline, but that could change this season.
I hope so!
I have the Vernon-Roy game on tape!!
I plan on hunting, at least two weekends(hopefully more), but it all depends on time and work.
Osgood's now back with the Wings. Yzerman, Draper, Shanahan, Lidstrom, and Holmstrom are the ones I know of. Datsyuk might have been there, not sure.
Stars/Oilers had a pretty good thing going, because you could bet every year that they would meet each other in the playoffs. It's just not April without a Stars-Oilers playoff series.
Yes, where fans swear at each other in two languages.
I would put Leafs-Habs second behind Yankees-Red Sox for best rivalries in sports.
Vernon vs Roy featured what I still consider to be one of the best open field tackles in the history of football... made more impressive by not actually being IN the history of football.
The Battle of the Goalies!!! LOL!
Hockey certainly brings out a degree of competitiveness not found in other sports.
Possibly this is because hockey is essentially 'lacrosse on ice' - ritualized warfare.
Go Canucks, and to hell with the Flames! ;^)
I am still mad about the 1966 trade of Esposito, Hodge and Stanfield for Pit Martin. This gave Boston 2 Stanley Cups. That had to be the worst trade in hockey history.
I do too, but see my post 31.
Benoit Hogue beat Tommy Salo!!!
Two languages? Try about 137. Check out the demographics in today's Toronto.
You've got Sri Lankans yelling at the Russian Alexei Kovalev in pidgin French.
One of the great hindsight trades in history. Like Bagwell for Anderson (which earned the Sox the division title that year.)
Esposito came up to a Blackhawks team filled with established leaders, was a second- and third-liner who had good regular season totals and playoff flops. Hodge was a lead-footed extra wing and Stanfield a minor character on a team with good centers.
Martin was a solid person with good leadership and playing skills and Gilles Marotte was a hard-hitting defenseman.
Martin gave Chicago several very good seasons. Marotte went south for personal reasons.
Stanfield developed an incredible chemistry with Johnny Bucyk and they were augmented by John McKenzie.
Esposito got to play a different style in Boston. Cashman fed him from the corners and Espo cashed in on rebounds of Hodge's blasts.
This trade outcome was in no way predictable.
Controversy is good and fun in sports but the damage to Martin's reputation has been unfair.
They've both been very good francises for the past decade or so and everytime they get together, you're guaranteed a great game.
Oh well, as a Devils fan I'm used to it. We're like Rodney Dangerfield, we never get any respect.
Buy that four disc Original Six Series on the Wings (you can get it for half off through an Amazon discounter). That game is one of the "five greatest" as voted on by the fans. Watched the first period of the Roy-Vernon game last night (voted #1 of the five allegedly). Shanahan's "open ice" tackle of Roy was awesome.
Already have it. I got it for Christmas last year.
Them low down Hawks were worth booing every time they showed up in St. Louis. Magnuson, Makitia, Hull bros. all of them.
Many Hawk fans would take a bus down to the Arena for a game and we'd roll out the welcome wagon every time. Nickel beer night was always special with many fights in the stands and beers being thrown on anyone daring to wear a Hawk jersey. Only Andy Van Hellemond drew more boos. Many times there would be one or two fights in the stands and a fight on the ice. You got your money's worth when they came to town.
Them same busses left more than once under police escort with eggs running down the side of the bus.
Of course the Hawk fans returned the hospiltality when we ventured north to Chi Town for a game.
Twister helping set a Hawk straight.
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