NHL Rivalries?

24 Rings · Guru

NHL Rivalries?

Nil d · Guru

24 Rings wrote:

There is a lot of debate on this depending on who you ask and I wanted to know what the concensus is on the best current rivalries in hockey? I live in Calgary, so I am more aware of the Western rivalries. Interested to see what the folks out east (or even on the West coast) think? Here are my top choices: 1. Habs - Leafs (I think everyone would agree) 2. Flames - Oilers 3. Wings - Avs Not sure about the order after this, but these are some serious ones... 4. Sens - Leafs 5. Flames/Oilers - Canucks 6. Habs - Sens (you Montreal folk can probably weigh-in on the strength of this one) Some good ones... 7. Flames - Habs 8. Wings - Stars 9. Oilers - Stars 10. Any Original 6 Match-ups The Rest (not as heated as the others) 11. Anaheim - L.A. 12. Philly - Pittsburgh 13. Rangers - Islanders Any others you can come up with????

I think you pretty much covered it.

Two of the all-time great rivalries are Habs-Bruins and Habs-Nordiques.

The Kahuna · Guru

The Habs - Nords was the best I can remember growing up (I had a hatred for the Bruins & Leafs too), with the Flames - Oilers in it's heyday coming close. I live outside of Toronto now and I'm bored by the Leafs - Sens rivalry. Granted I hate both teams, but I see it as a lame rivalry, not the same passion as Habs - Nords for sure..

Nil d · Guru

The Kahuna wrote:

The Habs - Nords was the best I can remember growing up (I had a hatred for the Bruins & Leafs too), with the Flames - Oilers in it's heyday coming close. I live outside of Toronto now and I'm bored by the Leafs - Sens rivalry. Granted I hate both teams, but I see it as a lame rivalry, not the same passion as Habs - Nords for sure..

I can commiserate re: Sens-Laffs. Hard to be passionate about a game when you want both teams to lose!

fHABulous · Veteran Member

nordique and habs is by far the greatest rivalty...i mean people still talk about those games to this day and still comment which team is better...go to quebec and talk about the habs in a bar around 1-2 am when people get drunk lol youll see... as for leafs and sens nothing really great ..i rather leafs and habs or habs and bruins

24 Rings · Guru

I take it you guys are all Easterners then? I actually saw a Quebec - Montreal game during the playoffs in the 80's. Don't remember the exact game, but my dad said there was rioting afterwards.

I agree that Habs Bruins still pretty good. I always like the Sens - Leafs games and I always cheer for the Sens. Unfortunately they haven't gotten any play-off luck yet. This might be their year though.

Don't underestimate the Flames - Oil rivalry. Those cities and teams hate eachother and everyone gets up for those ones. Those are always the biggest games of the year, along with when the Habs and Leafs come through. They ALMOST hate eachother as much as MTL hates T-dot, and vice versa. I'm heading up to Edmonton on Saturday for the Flames-Oil game.

fHABulous · Veteran Member

heheh should be interesting! the habs leaf saturday game i heard there was a couple of brawls...i guess toronto fans coulndt exept they destiny ! LOL
and also i think the reason why here we dont really have a chance to view the west side games...n e ways i know i never had the chance to see em!

-- Edited by fHABulous at 16:53, 2006-03-30

Frank the Critic · Member

what about habs-boston

Nil d · Guru

Frank the Critic wrote:

what about habs-boston

Habs-Bruins? Gee, why didn't I (and 24 Rings and Kahuna and fHabulous) think of that one!?

norskipaul · Senior Member

A great rivalry from the old days (the 50s) is Canadiens Red Wings. I have only read about this stuff, but in those days the teams took the same train back and forth during the playoffs, and it happened that the two teams fought it out on the train, we'e talkin' fist fights...those were the days...

Nil d · Guru

norskipaul wrote:

A great rivalry from the old days (the 50s) is Canadiens Red Wings. I have only read about this stuff, but in those days the teams took the same train back and forth during the playoffs, and it happened that the two teams fought it out on the train, we'e talkin' fist fights...those were the days...

As an old-timer, the first Cup I remember was the 1966 final between the Habs and Detroit. Detroit won the first two games, in Montreal, so we thought it was all over. Then the Habs roared back and won the next two in Detroit, then one at home, then clinched it in Game 6 in Detroit.

Detroit has sucked in the intervening years - until the past ten or so when they've had a revival - so the old rivalry was never rekindled, sadly (by time Detroit was good again, the Habs were not).

The Kahuna · Guru

Nil d wrote:

As an old-timer, the first Cup I remember was the 1966 final between the Habs and Detroit. Detroit won the first two games, in Montreal, so we thought it was all...

Hehe, I'm almost as old Nil d, the first Habs game I ever went to (my dad took me) was a Stanley Cup final between the Habs & St. Louis Blues in the 68/69 season. To be honest I was pretty young, all I remember was seeing one of my heroes, Jacques Plante for the first (and only time).

Habs and Avs Fan · Veteran Member

My favorite Habs rivalries are the Habs-Nordiques. Damn even the fans would beat each other up in the stands so it was an off ice rivalry as well. Another great one is Montreal-Toronto, all the ambience/hype is sick! I also enjoy watching the battle of Ontario alot and who can forget the avs-wings rivalry which started with claude lemieux boarding kris draper face into the boards, breaking his jaw, his nose etc.....and all the roy /vernon, osgood fights.

But one that is heating up and is very intense is the colorado-vancouver one. Since what Bert did to Moore. Every game they play you can feel the tension and if it's in Colorado everytime big Bert touches the puck he gets booed so bad, I see this one going further.

24 Rings · Guru

Avs fan, I've been to 2 Colorado games this year (and going tonight) and let me tell you that Bert gets booed in Calgary everytime he touches the puck. Probably the same in Edmonton.

Nilly, if you look I commented on the Habs - Bruins in my 2nd post on this topic and I agree it is a good one, but for some reason I don't think the passion is there for that rivalry this season. Maybe more so for Bruins fans cause they have something to prove.

Desi · Senior Member

One of the things that made the Habs-Bruins rivalry so great over the years was that even though both teams were usually putting good squads on the ice, Montreal always seemed to have the Bs' number. Even in '71, when Espo and Orr and Co. were leading the league and burying opponents, the Habs found a way to beat them in the quarterfinals and go on to win the cup. That way was Ken Dryden.

Bruins fans hate the Habs more than any other team because of this, so we may be Boston's biggest rival, even if the Habs have or have had other rivalries that mean more to them. Ray Bourque still talks about his biggest moment in hockey being the one time his Bs team ousted the Habs from the playoffs.

This year, even though the Bs are out of it, they'll be looking for blood when they play us in the three games we have left against them. And their fans will be demanding it. To us, they're just another pesky opponent to be beaten on our way to another Stanley Cup. But to Bruins fans, beating Montreal is as good as winning a Stanley Cup.

Les Canadiens sont la

Nil d · Guru

24 Rings wrote:

Nilly, if you look I commented on the Habs - Bruins in my 2nd post on this topic and I agree it is a good one, but for some reason I don't think the passion is there for that rivalry this season. Maybe more so for Bruins fans cause they have something to prove.

I know you did! I was being sarcastic at Mr. Critic for posting "How about Habs-Bruins?" after three of us had already mentioned it!

24 Rings · Guru

Nil d wrote:

I know you did! I was being sarcastic at Mr. Critic for posting "How about Habs-Bruins?" after three of us had already mentioned it!

Nilly you gotta use this thing . That one went right over my head!!!!

Nil d · Guru

24 Rings wrote:

Nil d wrote: I know you did! I was being sarcastic at Mr. Critic for posting "How about Habs-Bruins?" after three of us had already mentioned it! Nilly you gotta use this thing . That one went right over my head!!!!

I used this one:

Wasn't that enough?

heet_150 · Guru

24 Rings wrote:

I take it you guys are all Easterners then? I actually saw a Quebec - Montreal game during the playoffs in the 80's. Don't remember the exact game, but my dad said there was rioting afterwards.

If anyone is interested, I have a copy of the fight in the playoffs where the Hunter Bros kind of got after each other and Sevigny was tangled with Melanson. The big brawls were at the end of the first and during the warm up skate before the third. I found it amusing that Mario Tremblay got 5, 10, and a game.

Note: the file is huge (25MB) so I am trying to figure out a way of compressing or finding a site that will host it. Any ideas would also be appreciated.

24 Rings · Guru

Heeter, your avatar is awesome.

heet_150 · Guru

24 Rings wrote:

Heeter, your avatar is awesome.

Thanks. I hope it is big enough that everyone can see it is Kovalev running over Tucker. It took me forever to do, until I figured out how my new software worked

. If anyone else has a clip that they want for their avatar, send me a note, and I will try to put it together.

-- Edited by heet_150 at 12:46, 2006-03-31

ray · Senior Member

gotta add one, Detroit and Nashville the games this year have been unbelievable and keep getting better.