NHL rivalries

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There are some rivalries between NHL teams , but none are as famous and steeped in history as those between the Boston Bruins and the Montréal Canadiens , Toronto Maple Leafs and Montréal Canadiens, New York Rangers and New York Islanders , and the Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames . But a rivalry has developed that can build on, namely that between the Philadelphia Flyers , New Jersey Devils and the New York Rangers.

Original Six rivalries

At the time of the " Original Six " in the NHL, teams played against each other much more often during the season. There was therefore not only rivalry between the teams, but also personal rivalries between the players. The biggest rivalries were:

  • Chicago Blackhawks and Detroit Red Wings
  • Detroit Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs
  • Detroit Red Wings and Montréal Canadiens
  • Toronto Maple Leafs and Montréal Canadiens
  • Montréal Canadiens and Boston Bruins
  • Boston Bruins and New York Rangers

Flyers-Rangers rivalry

The Philadelphia Flyers and the New York Rangers have met ten times in the play-offs , with the Flyers winning six series.

On their way to the Stanley Cup 1973-74, the Flyers triumphed over the Rangers. The series went over seven games, but the Rangers were not up to date in the crucial moments.

In the 1986 play-offs, the teams met again. In the first round, the Rangers were able to defeat the highly favored Flyers. The Flyers were in the Stanley Cup final the year before and after.

In 1995 and 1997 the teams faced each other again in the play-offs. In 1995, the Rangers, who competed as the defending champions, were humiliated by the Flyers in the second round when they were outnumbered 4-0. In 1997 Philadelphia won the Eastern Conference final against New York. It was New York's final play-offs for the next nine years. And for Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier the last in their careers. The rivalry also contributed to the fact that there was a dispute in 1992 about who had the rights to Eric Lindros . In 2001 Flyers transferred Lindros to New York.

Devils-Flyers rivalry

The rivalry began when the Flyers and the New Jersey Devils met for the first time in the 1995 play-offs and the Devils won the final series in the conference final with 4-2 and won the following final for the Stanley Cup. In the 2000 play-offs, both teams were again in the conference final. This time the Flyers were already leading the series 3-1, but lost the next two games. In the decisive seventh game, Eric Lindros, for whom it was the last game for Philadelphia, was injured and the Devils won the game, moved into the Stanley Cup final and won there over the Dallas Stars .

In 2004, the Flyers emerged from a play-off series as winners when they defeated the defending Devils in the first round. The rivalry even exists in New Jersey itself. The northern part of the state is the Devils fan base, while the southern part is mostly home to Philadelphia fans.

Devils-Rangers rivalry

In 1994 both teams met in the Eastern Conference finals. The Rangers finished the season in first place and the Devils in second place in the league, with one of the highlights being the Rangers' 6-0 shutout over New Jersey. But the play-off series turned out to be a lot closer. The first game was only decided in the second extra time. The Devils won the day. The Rangers won the second game 4-0 and in the third game they won this time in the second overtime. New Jersey won the next two games. The Devils only needed one win to advance, but Rangers captain Mark Messier announced a win for his team and in fact the Rangers won with a hat trick from Messier. The decisive seventh game had to go into the second extra time after 80 minutes, like two games in the series, where the Rangers won the series and later the Stanley Cup.

In the regular season, the Devils dominated the New York Rangers for over four years. From February 17, 1997 to March 31, 2001, the Rangers could no longer win against their rivals.

Islanders-Rangers rivalry

1972 was created with the WHA a competition league to the NHL. WHA wanted to open a franchise in New York and the team would be based in the modern Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Nassau County . Neither the NHL nor the Nassau County authorities wanted a WHA team in the New York area, whereupon the NHL set up a Long Island franchise whose team, the New York Islanders, could play in the modern ice rink. The Islanders had to pay compensation of four million US dollars to the New York Rangers because they had settled in the area of ​​the Rangers.

In 1975 the Islanders made it into the play-offs for the first time and met the Rangers in the first round in the series "Best of three". The Islanders emerged victorious after three games. In 1979 the Islanders were the best team in the league and in the semifinals they faced the Rangers. The Rangers won sensationally against the highly favored Islanders.

The Islanders won the Stanley Cup four times in a row from 1980 to 1983 and also reached the final in 1984. From 1981 to 1984 both teams from New York played in the play-offs. The Islanders won all four series. The one from 1984 was very close, which is why it was also called the "Battle for New York".

In the 1990s they met twice in the play-offs. In 1990 the Rangers won 4-1 and in 1994 on their way to the first Stanley Cup triumph since 1940 with 4-0.

In the meantime, the rivalry has decreased a lot since its peak in the early 1980s, which is also due to the fact that since 1997 both teams have either not qualified for the play-offs at all or have not even been able to survive the first round. But the fans are trying to maintain the rivalry. So the Rangers fans, even if they do not play against the Islanders, vote the fan song "Potvin Sucks!" at which they mock former Islanders player Denis Potvin , who has not been active since 1988. In return, the fans of the New York Islanders shout "The Rangers Suck! Suck! Suck! Suck! Suck" in the last bars when the organ plays the tune of the "Duck Dance". Until 1994, "19-40" was also a popular battle cry in the Nassau Coliseum, a reference to the Rangers' long years without a Stanley Cup win. Violent riots between the two groups of fans are not the rule, but also not the exception, especially in the narrow, one-walled Nassau Coliseum. When in 2003 at a home game of the Islanders against the Flyers before the start of the game, disguised Santas entered the ice during a ceremony, one of the costumed people threw off his coat and walked across the ice in a Rangers jersey. A few seconds later, several Santa Clauses, including small children, hit the Rangers fan.

Since 2005, the Rangers hold a narrow lead in the duels with the Islanders in the regular season. The Rangers won the duel 89 times, the Islanders 85 times, 19 times there was a draw. In the play-offs, however, the Islanders lead with 20 wins versus 19 defeats. They were also able to win five of the eight play-off series.

The Pat LaFontaine Trophy has been awarded since 2001 and goes to the team from New York that finishes the regular season best. Lafontaine played for both teams.

Bruins-Canadiens rivalry

The rivalry between the Boston Bruins and the Montréal Canadiens is one of the oldest and largest in the NHL. Both teams belong to the Original Six . No pairing has occurred more often in the history of the NHL, but it is quite one-sided, as the Montreal team won three-quarters of all play-off pairings. At the beginning of the 2005-06 season, the Bruins had 250 wins in the regular season on their account, the Canadiens 310. 105 games have ended in a draw since the Bruins joined the NHL in 1924.

In the 1950s, the Canadiens defeated the Bruins three times in the Stanley Cup finals. Also in the semifinals in 1952, when Maurice Richard was knocked out in the decisive game, but then came back into the game and scored the decisive goal for victory. One of the most famous photos in the NHL is where Richard and Bruins goalkeeper Jim Henry shake hands after the game. Richard with a cut above the eyebrow and Henry with one black eye.

In March 1955, Maurice Richard got a match penalty in a duel with Boston and was suspended for the remainder of the season because he had injured Hal Laycoe . Laycoe hit Richard in the head with the bat, and Richard hit back. When the linesman tried to intervene, he was hit by Richard. The Canadiens couldn't win the Stanley Cup and Richard lost the title as best scorer .

In 1971, the Bruins lost their duel with the Canadiens in the first round with 3-4 despite first place in the league. The second game was crucial when the Bruins gave away a 5-1 lead and lost 5-7. In 1972 the Bruins won the Stanley Cup. However, they lost both final series against the Canadiens in 1977 and 1978.

One of the most significant moments in the rivalry between the two teams was their seventh game in the 1979 play-offs. The Boston Bruins took the lead four minutes before the end, but shortly afterwards there was a penalty against Boston because they had too many players on the Had ice cream. As a result, the Montréal Canadiens equalized in power play and won the game in extra time and were able to move into the Stanley Cup final, where they won the fourth title in a row.

In the 1980s the duels continued and in the 1990s the teams met in the play-offs. In 1994 Boston won against defending champions Montreal in a seven-game first-round series. It was noteworthy that Montreal goalkeeper Patrick Roy missed the third game due to appendicitis , he was then able to persuade the doctors to take part in the fourth game and parry 39 shots in the 5-2 victory of the Canadiens.

In 2002 and 2004, the Canadiens won in the first round of the play-offs against Boston. The Bruins hated it because they had done better than the Canadiens in the regular season.

Blues-Blackhawks rivalry

The distance between St. Louis and Chicago is only 300 miles, and for a time both the St. Louis Blues and Chicago Blackhawks were owned by the same man and since 1970 both teams have played in the same division.

The height of the rivalry came in the 1990s, when both teams were riddled with stars, such as the Blackhawks Ed Belfour , Dirk Graham and Chris Chelios and the Blues Curtis Joseph , Brett Hull and Adam Oates . Both teams played in older ice rinks, which were known to be particularly loud.

Probably the greatest moment of the rivalry was the 1993 Norris Division semi-finals in the play-offs. In the regular season the Blackhawks had made first place in the division, but in the series against the Blues they lost 4-0. Goalkeeper Ed Belfour complained that he was hindered in the decisive goal in extra time. The Blackhawks' anger led them to ravage the guest cabin at the St. Louis ice rink. A coffee machine, a television, the dehydration basin and more were destroyed. Ed Belfour has since refused to play a game in St. Louis during the regular season. The only exception was in 1999 when he played with the Dallas Stars and he was substituted in for Roman Turek in the last third , who let four durable shots into the goal.

Under several coaches, the Blackhawks were out of luck and missed the play-offs. While the Blues always reached the play-offs for 25 years in a row, but this series came to an end with the 2005-06 season.

The battle for Alberta

The "Battle for Alberta " is a rivalry between the Edmonton Oilers and the Calgary Flames. The teams are based in Alberta's two largest cities.

The Oilers joined the NHL in 1979 as the WHA to which they previously belonged were dissolved. In 1980, the Flames followed to Alberta, who had been based in Atlanta the years before . And the immediate question was who would be number 1 in Alberta. In the 1980-81 season, the Calgary Flames finished better and reached the Conference Finals, but for the next few years it was the Edmonton Oilers who made headlines, led by rising star Wayne Gretzky . They were the first to win the Stanley Cup and grew into one of the best teams of the eighties, with players like Grant Fuhr , Mark Messier and Paul Coffey . Edmonton defeated Calgary in 1983, 1984, 1988 and 1991 in the play-offs and they won the Stanley Cup in 1984, 1985, 1987, 1988 and 1990. In 1986, the Flames surprisingly prevented the Oilers' third Stanley Cup triumph when they did Edmonton were defeated in the play-offs by an own goal by Oilers player Steve Smith .

The Calgary Flames won the Stanley Cup in 1989, but did not meet their rivals from Edmonton in the play-offs. The last play-off match between the two teams took place in 1991.

Since neither team had any particular successes in the nineties, the rivalry between the two teams cooled down a bit. In addition, both teams had financial problems and experts predicted that apart from the Toronto Maple Leafs, no Canadian team would exist for long.

The two teams only met in the regular season.

In 2004 the Flames were able to move into the Stanley Cup final again, in 2006 it was the Oilers. The "Battle for Alberta" has since rekindled.

The battle for Ontario

The rivalry between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Ottawa Senators is very popular and both teams often face each other in the play-offs. Both teams also play in the same division. The rivalry is often referred to as the "Battle for Ontario ". The fact that both cities play important roles in Canada also contributes to this: Ottawa is the capital of Canada and Toronto is the largest city in the country and the capital of Ontario.

The Ottawa Senators joined the league in 1992, but it wasn't until the late 1990s that the rivalry between the two teams was sparked. From 1992 to 1998, the Toronto Maple Leafs played in the Western Conference, while the Ottawa Senators belonged to the east of the league. For this reason, both teams rarely played against each other. Before the 1998-99 season, the conferences and divisions were restructured and Toronto moved to the Eastern Conference in the Northeast Division with Ottawa, Montreal, Buffalo and Boston. Since 1999, both teams have been fighting for first place in the division year after year.

When Ottawa joined in 1992, the English-speaking fans in eastern Canada now had another team in addition to the Toronto Maple Leafs that they could support and some of them migrated to the Senators' fan camp. The French-Canadians also joined the Senators to separate themselves from "les equipes Québecois" (the teams from Québec ). Not all Toronto fans near Ottawa became supporters of the Senators, so many Maple Leafs fans come to games in Ottawa.

In 2000, both teams met for the first time in the play-offs and the Maple Leafs won the series after six games. Maple Leafs fans saw the triumph as revenge for an incident in a regular season game for both teams when Maple Leaf defender Bryan Berard was seriously injured in the eye. In 2001 it came back to the pairing in the first round of the play-offs. The Senators were the clear favorites, having won all four regular season games against Toronto and finishing in second place in the Eastern Conference, while the Maple Leafs only came in 7th. But Toronto turned the tables in the play-offs and moved into the second round after four games. Ottawa only managed to score their first goal in the third game three minutes before the end of the series. From the point of view of the Ottawa fans in particular, the enmity between the two teams grew. In 2002 they met for the third time in a row in the play-offs. The series was very even, but Toronto managed to win the series 4-3 despite missing several key players.

The rivalry peaked in 2004 when Toronto's Darcy Tucker attacked Ottawa's Chris Neil , who was on the bench. Neil hit back and Tucker started hitting Shane Hnidy , who hit back too. Several players began to fight. In the end, Tucker, Hnidy and Neil each received a major penalty (5 minutes) for punching and a game misconduct penalty (expulsion from the game).
83 seconds before the end, Tie Domi attacked Magnus Arvedson from behind and hit him several times for no reason. For this action, Domi received a small penalty (2 minutes) for excessive severity, a small penalty for provoking a fight, a large penalty for punching, a misconduct penalty (10 minutes) and a game-time misconduct penalty. A total of 163 penalty minutes were awarded in the game.

After the game, Chris Neil was accused of spat on by Darcy Tucker. The NHL decided that Neil had done nothing.

Tucker and Domi had to appear at the NHL headquarters in Toronto and comment on the incidents. Tucker was suspended for five games and Domi for three shortly after the hearing.

In the same year, the two teams met in the first round of the play-offs and many observers believed that the Senators were the clearly superior team. But goalkeeper Ed Belfour stood out in the seven games and saved the Maple Leafs in the next round.

2005-06 they almost met again in the play-offs, but Toronto missed the finals by two points, while Ottawa took first place in the Eastern Conference. Ottawa had won seven of the eight games against Toronto in the regular season and clearly dominated most of the games. Three games ended 8-0, 8-2 and 7-0.

Colorado vs. Detroit

The rivalry between the two teams already existed when there was no franchise in Denver , Colorado , but rather in the games between the Detroit Red Wings and the Québec Nordiques . When the Nordiques moved to Denver and renamed themselves the Colorado Avalanche , a minor rivalry was already in place.

On their way to the Stanley Cup triumph in 1996, the Colorado Avalanche met the Detroit Red Wings in the final of the Western Conference. Claude Lemieux of Colorado checked Kris Draper in the sixth game against the gang, after which he had to leave the game seriously injured. Colorado won the game and made it to the Stanley Cup Finals. After the game, many Red Wings players refused to shake hands with Claude Lemieux.

The next season, during the final game between the two teams in the regular season, Red Wings striker Darren McCarty attacked Claude Lemieux to avenge his teammate Kris Draper. Goalkeeper Patrick Roy tried to help Lemieux but was stopped by Detroit's Brendan Shanahan . A mass brawl , also known as the Hockeytown Brawl, developed . Detroit won the game in extra time. In the play-offs there was the same pairing in the Western Conference final. After three games, the Red Wings were leading 2-1 and in the fourth game they won with a 6-0 shutout. In the fifth game, Colorado turned the tables and also won 6-0. In the sixth game, the Detroit Red Wings concentrated on their defensive game and took the decisive fourth win and a round later the Stanley Cup.

The next year, the Avalanches didn't get past the first round while Detroit took their second straight title. In 1999, both teams met again in the second round of the play-offs. Detroit was aiming to get the third Stanley Cup in a row and won the first two games against Colorado, but the Avalanches came back and won four games in a row and moved into the conference finals, where they were defeated by Dallas. The same thing happened in 2000 when Detroit again won the first two games and lost the next four to Colorado.

In 2002 both teams reached the conference finals again. Detroit had defeated Vancouver in the first round after six games and then won the series against St. Louis. Colorado had to go the full distance of seven games each against its two opponents, Los Angeles and San Jose. The Conference finals were tied after six games when Detroit knocked the Colorado Avalanche 7-0 off the ice in their seventh game. As in the conference finals before, the winner of this duel also won the Stanley Cup, which Detroit did this time too.

Over the years the rivalry between the two teams has decreased with the departure of "old" players like Patrick Roy. In the 2005-06 season, the Red Wings could win all four games against Colorado.

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