![]() ![]() Watch: Joe Sakic scores with classic wrist shot in alumni gameįor Red Wings rookie wunderkind Dylan Larkin, born in Michigan on July 30, 1996, two months after the Avalanche eliminated the Red Wings and eventually won the Stanley Cup, the Internet played a big role in learning about the blood-boiling spirit. ![]() I don’t know if that will ever be matched.” Predators vs red wings highlights today crack#“It was going to be who was going to have a great crack at the Stanley Cup and they were both powerhouses. “Getting to watch the rivalry when they were both at the top was pretty awesome,” he said. While the prospect of an outdoor matchup between the current-day Avalanche and Red Wings was enough to bring over 50,000 fans to the home of baseball’s Rockies for a good old hockey game, plenty of spectators had an eye on Friday’s alumni game.Įven Jarome Iginla, one of the NHL’s elder statesmen as a 38-year-old winger on the Avalanche roster, felt the intensity of the rivalry at its peak while skating with the Calgary Flames. “Especially with the history that we have and the Stanley Cups that we’ve won.” “I think it’s pretty easy for every player to say yes and have an opportunity like this,” he said. They were fun years.”įor Roy, the inimitable Avalanche head coach and fiery Hall of Fame goalie, strapping on the old Kohos for the rematch was a no-brainer. ”If you looked in the mirror the teams were close, from power forwards to superstars to goaltending. “It was two great teams trying to get to the Stanley Cup Final,” Foote said. This is probably a step above that because of how good both teams were,” said Nicklas Lidstrom, a four-time Cup winner in his 20 seasons of wearing Detroit’s winged wheel logo. ![]() “I think it’s right up there with some of the battles I had early on in my career with the Leafs or the Hawks. The SI Extra Newsletter Get the best of Sports Illustrated delivered right to your inbox “There’s no guys we hated more, but there were no guys we respected more,” said McCarty. “Without the Colorado Avalanche, the Detroit Red Wings aren’t as good and successful as they are, and the other way.” I think if you ask the media and fans there’s still hatred there.”Īs heated as the rivalry grew, so did the mutual admiration. “It was a quick start to a great rivalry for a good seven to 10 years, and it’s still there. Predators vs red wings highlights today series#“A rivalry usually takes a decade or two to start and it seemed like at that ‘96 series it was on,” former Colorado defenseman Adam Foote said. It’s not hard to argue that the often-agitating Avalanche forward was the catalyst for how quickly some mild dislike turned into hatred. And I’d kick his ass again on the ice for being an ass. “Off the ice, I like Claude,” McCarty, who played all of his 758 NHL games with the Red Wings, said of Lemieux. ![]() It began in the 1996 Western Conference finals, in Game 6 when Avs forward Claude Lemieux cross-checked Kris Draper from behind and into the boards, face-first, sending the Wings winger to the hospital a bloody mess. The rivalry between Detroit and Colorado got very heated, very fast. Not only to the organizations but to people worldwide.” “That speaks volumes for what the rivalry was. “You ask any hockey fan in the world, they knew between 19 what day in January Detroit was in Colorado and everyone had it on,” said former Wings forward Darren McCarty. SI plays matchmaker ahead of the NHL trade deadline.Fans dropped what they were doing to tune in and see what would happen next. When the teams were members of the Western Conference, as recently as the 2011–12 season, their rivalry was one of the fiercest and most revered across hockey. This weekend, current and former members of the Detroit Wings and Colorado Avalanche met at Coors Field in the final NHL outdoor game of the season. The NHL Network even has a montage of the rivalry’s top 10 moments. DENVER - If you type “Red Wings Avalanche rivalry” into Google, the first search return you’ll come upon is a Wikipedia entry entitled “Red Wings v Avalanche brawl.” You’ll find multiple YouTube videos of the now infamous 1997 melee, you’ll even find retrospective articles written about it just in the last two years. ![]()
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