|
Avs-Wings meeting brings back memories of fierce rivalry |
|
|
Rick Sadowski
 Colorado Avalanche Blogger •Avalanche Insider • RSS
• Archive
• CONTACT
|
|
|
The Avalanche's rivalry with the Detroit Red Wings from the mid-1990s through the early 2000s was as fierce and violent as any in sports. Fists flew and plenty of blood was spilled when the teams met in regular-season and playoff games, but they also combined for five Stanley Cup championships in a seven-year span from 1996-2002.
But, really, the rivalry no longer exists. The passage of time and the Avalanche's fall from elite status has seen to that. And now, with the Red Wings' move to the Eastern Conference this season, the teams will only play each other twice a year and would have to advance to the Stanley Cup Finals for another playoff meeting.
Even so, there should be a buzz Thursday night when the Avalanche and Red Wings face off at the Pepsi Center. The Red Wings, led by star forwards Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg, bring a 5-2 record into the match while the rejuvenated Avalanche is off to a surprising 6-0 start.
"I hope I'm not going to see too many red jerseys in the stands," said Avalanche coach Patrick Roy, who took part in five playoff series against the Red Wings and exchanged punches with goalies Mike Vernon and Chris Osgood in brawl-filled regular-season games.
"I want to see burgundy and white. I'm sure our fans are going to be excited. The fans should be excited about the start of our season. If someone had bet on Colorado in (Las) Vegas being 6-0, they'd be able to buy a lot of tickets to the game, that's for sure."
Roy has fond memories of his playoff battles with the Red Wings, though not his final one in the 2002 Western Conference Finals. The Avalanche lost Games 6 and 7 by 2-0 and 7-0 scores, respectively. He was pulled early in the second period of the series finale at Joe Louis Arena after allowing six goals on 16 shots.
"A lot of good memories," he said Wednesday. "Detroit, Dallas, they were teams that we had great battles with. Every time we played them or Dallas, we knew that the winner had a good chance to go far in the playoffs if it was not winning the Stanley Cup. I think in that period we won two, Detroit won (three) and Dallas won one. They were intense games, they were fun to be part of and I think it was fun for everybody. It was exciting and a great rivalry.
"Unfortunately for both teams, we were in each other's way. For us to go to where we wanted, to win the Stanley Cup, we had to beat each other. The winner of that playoff had a good chance to be the winner of the big prize. There was a lot of intensity in our game and our fans were into it. The people were so excited every time we played them, and so were the players. The media, the fans, everybody ... there was a great buzz in the arena."
Roy realizes that most current Avalanche players were too young to remember what the rivalry with Detroit was like when it was at its peak, but they've seen plenty of highlights -- including his bouts with Vernon in 1997 and Osgood in 1998 -- on the Internet.
Rookie center Nathan MacKinnon was born on Sept. 1, 1995, a couple of weeks before the Avalanche's first training camp in Denver after the franchise moved from Quebec.
"It's always kind of fun to watch that stuff on YouTube," MacKinnon said. "I was a little too young to remember it. It's going to be an exciting game (Thursday). I don't know if it's going to be quite that rough, but it's always fun to hype this stuff up. It looked like it was pretty intense."
"I guess we all did what we thought we had to do in those games to be on the winning side," Roy said of his fights. "We're laughing about it today more than anything else, but then you were into it. We thought that was the right thing to do."
*****
Alex Tanguay joined the Avalanche as a rookie in 1999-2000 and took part in two playoff series with Detroit. Colorado defeated the Red Wings in five games in the second round in 2000 before losing to Dallas in the conference finals. The Avalanche won the Stanley Cup in 2001 without facing the Red Wings in the postseason and lost a seven-game series to them in the 2002 conference finals.
"It's been a long time," said Tanguay, who was traded to Calgary in June 2006, and played in Montreal, Tampa Bay and Calgary again before returning to the Avalanche last June in a four-player trade with the Flames. "It brings back memories. (The Red Wings) had a great team and so did we. They were good battles.
"We're all aware that it's a new era; it's new teams for the most part. I don't think they have too many guys left from those days. But I'm certain that Patrick doesn't like the Red Wings jersey too much."
*****
While the Red Wings have remained a top-flight team, the Avalanche has missed the playoffs five times in eight years and failed to advance past the second round.
"They certainly deserve a lot of credit for what they've been doing for a long time," Roy said. "They've got a great GM; Ken Holland has been doing a super job there. (Mike) Babcock is a really good coach. They draft well. They brought in Zetterberg and Datsyuk and all those guys. They should be proud of what they've been doing.
"Right now, to me, until we're making the playoffs and we establish ourselves among the top teams, we need to be patient and a rivalry will come back. It's going to be created by playoffs, by which team we're playing a lot. Obviously I think the one with Detroit has disappeared a bit, especially now with them changing conferences. I think we're living a lot in the past right now and I'm trying to move on and look at what's next for us.
"Let's make the playoffs a couple years in a row and I'm sure we'll find someone. Right now Chicago is in a class by itself. It's funny how things have changed since my last game. You could play in Chicago and there was like 10,000 people in the building and everybody came here in Denver. There was a full house every night. Now it's the opposite. But we're confident we're going to bring back our fans."
*****
An Avalanche victory Thursday would give Roy an NHL-record seven consecutive wins to begin a head-coaching career. He shares the mark with Mario Tremblay, who did it with the Montreal Canadiens from Oct. 21-31 in 1995 with Roy tending goal. Tremblay took over as coach after the Canadiens lost their first five games.
Less than two months later, on Dec. 2, 1995, Tremblay set the wheels in motion for Roy's arrival in Denver. He didn't replace Roy in goal until after he had allowed nine goals in an eventual 11-1 loss to the Red Wings at the Montreal Forum. Canadiens fans mocked the humiliated Roy, who after getting the hook stormed past Tremblay on the bench and told team president Ronald Corey, who was sitting nearby, that he had played his last game for the Canadiens.
In what has gone down as one of the most lopsided trades in sports history, the Canadiens sent Roy and forward Mike Keane to the Avalanche four days later in exchange for goalie Jocelyn Thibault, , left wing Martin Rucinsky and right wing Andrei Kovalenko.
Roy said the record isn't that important to him, but Avalanche players would like nothing better than to help him pass Tremblay.
"It'd be great," Matt Duchene said. "He'd have that record over Mario Tremblay, which is pretty funny, very ironic. It'd be great to get it done for him. For ourselves, too. It'd be great to go to 7-0. We would love to be the last undefeated team. San Jose is still undefeated at 6-0 as well. When you're on the right side of winning like we are right now, you want to keep it going as long as possible. You never know when those points are going to be important down the road.
"There are going to be times when we're going to go through adversity and we might hit a skid and we may not, but we want to prepare ourselves for that the best we can."
*****
A handful of Avalanche players skated Wednesday, but most of them worked out off the ice after a video session with the coaches.
"I thought today was a good day to give our guys a different type of day," Roy said. "We had a video session, the guys went in the gym. I thought it was good to be off the ice. We had a good trip in the East. I thought maybe sometimes (Tuesday) night we were a bit tired and I thought t would be a good thing for them mentally to do things different."
The Avalanche defeated the Dallas Stars 3-2 Tuesday despite a boat-load of turnovers and defensive mistakes. Duchene scored two goals and goalie Semyon Varlamov, who starts Thursday, made 39 saves.
Join the Discussion:
»