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List of NHL rivalries

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Rivalries in the National Hockey League (NHL) have occurred between many teams and cities, but none more famous and storied than that of the Boston Bruins vs. Montreal Canadiens, Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Montreal Canadiens, and the Edmonton Oilers vs. Calgary Flames. Recently, the addition of an NHL team based in Ottawa, there has been a revival of a much older Battle of Ontario between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Ottawa Senators. A newer rivalry that is approaching the level of these aforementioned rivalries is the one between the Philadelphia Flyers, New York Rangers, and the New Jersey Devils. The most bitter in most recent times has been between the Colorado Avalanche and the Detroit Red Wings.

Original Six rivalries

In the original six era of the NHL, teams played more frequently, and games were often undermined by personal rivalries between players. These personal and team rivalries persisted for many years as the turnover rate on NHL rosters was very low. The strongest rivalries were:

Flyers-Rangers Rivalry

The Philadelphia Flyers and New York Rangers have met ten times in Stanley Cup playoff contention, with the Flyers winning six of the series.

On their way to a title in the spring of 1974, the Broad Street Bullies eliminated the Rangers in the semifinals. The series went seven games, with the Rangers sealing their own fate, taking a too many men penalty in the waning moments of the game while trying to replace the goaltender with an extra attacker.

In the 1986 playoffs, the upstart Rangers overachieved, eliminating the Patrick Division champion Flyers in the first round of the playoffs. The Flyers were Cup finalists the year before and after this playoff loss.

The Flyers and Rangers renewed their playoff rivalry once more when the two teams met in the playoffs in 1995 and 1997, both series won by the Flyers. Both series were bitter for the Rangers – the Flyers four game sweep eliminated the defending Cup champions in the second round. Many Flyers fans remember this for the second game the Flyers won in overtime. Kevin Haller scored, sending normally laid-back Flyers color anaylist Gary Dornhoeffer into a frenzy. The latter series sent the Flyers to the 1997 Stanley Cup Finals and marked the last time the Rangers have made the playoffs until the 2005-06 NHL Season. Also adding to this rivalry was the original conflict between the teams in 1992 over the rights to Eric Lindros, and then the Flyers trading Lindros to the Rangers in 2000.

Devils-Flyers Rivalry

The Flyers-Devils rivalry took off with their first playoff meeting in 1995 when the Devils eliminated the Flyers 4-2 en route to winning the Stanley Cup. They would meet again in 2000 in the conference finals, as the Flyers blew a 3-1 series lead over the Devils, including losing 2 games in Philadelphia. Game 7 of this series would also be the final game for Lindros as a Flyer, suffering a concussion at the hands of Devils defenseman Scott Stevens. The loss in 2000 has been attributed by some Flyer fans to The Curse of Billy Penn, as the Devils would go on to win the Cup by beating the Dallas Stars in 6 games. The Flyers would finally defeat the Devils in the playoffs in 2004, when they eliminated New Jersey 4-1 in the first round of the playoffs. This rivalry has become quite intense in New Jersey itself, with the northern part of the state being the Devils fanbase, while the southern part of the state is mostly Flyers fans.

Incidentally, the first meeting between the two franchises was in the 1978 Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Devils were then known as the Colorado Rockies. The Flyers took the Best of Three Preliminary Round series 2-0.

Devils-Rangers Rivalry

Despite the Devils overall playoff superiority since 1990, the first three playoff series between these teams were all Rangers victories. The first series occurred in the spring of 1992, when the Presidents' Trophy champion Rangers survived a seven game series.

The rivalry's most famous moments are centered around the 1994 conference finals, a series that would become one of the greatest in league history. Although both teams were the top point-getters in 1994 (Rangers 112, Devils 106), the story entering the series was the Rangers 6-0 record against New Jersey that regular season. However, all ideas of a quick series were dashed after Game 1, a 2-1 double overtime victory sealed by the Devils’ Stephane Richer. The Rangers routed the Devils 4-0 in Game 2, and used a double overtime goal by Stephane Matteau to take a 2-1 lead after Game 3. After dropping Games 4 and 5, the Rangers faced elimination going to New Jersey for Game 6. Prior to the game, Rangers captain Mark Messier guaranteed a victory in Game 6 at the Meadowlands, then scored a hat trick to tie the series at 3-3 and send it back to New York for Game 7. In Game 7, thanks to another Matteau goal in double overtime the Rangers won the series and later the Stanley Cup. Interestingly, the first six games were won by the team that lost that respective game in 1992. That trend was reversed when the Rangers won Game 7.

The Rangers also eliminated the Devils in the 1997 playoffs before losing to the Flyers in the conference finals. This was the only meeting between the two in which the Devils had a better regular season record. However, New Jersey’s anemic offense limited them to five goals in the five game series, including two shutout losses. In the first round of the 2006 Stanley Cup Playoffs, New Jersey defaeted the Rangers in a four game sweep. The Devils out-scored the rangers in the the series with a total of 17 goals over New York's 4.

The Devils dominated New York during the regular season in the late 90's and early 2000s. At one point, the Devils had an unbeaten streak against New York, going 15-0-8 between February 17, 1997 and March 31, 2001 - a streak spanning four years.

At the end of the 2005-06 season, the Devils had won 11 straight games - the second such streak of the season - and capped off the run by winning the Atlantic Division in comeback fashion against the Montreal Canadiens, a division win made all the more exciting by the fact that the Devils had been 19 points out of the lead just months prior, and many thought the team wouldn't make the playoffs. Meanwhile, the Rangers had the division lead for most of the latter part of the season, but fell victim to a losing skid as the season came to a close. As fate would have it, the red-hot Devils met the ice-cold Rangers, and the result was a four-game sweep by New Jersey over their cross-river rivals for the first time ever.

The New Jersey Devils also have a signature cheer that is yelled and whistled at every game. In response to the "Potvin Sucks" chant that the Rangers have against the Islanders, the Devils fans at the Continental Airlines Arena cheer "Rangers Suck." This chant, just like the Potvin chant being heard whether the Rangers are playing the Islanders or not, is also heard quite randomly at Devils games

Islanders-Rangers Rivalry

The Islanders-Rangers Rivalry was established when the NHL awarded a second franchise in the New York metropolitan area. With the impending start of the World Hockey Association in the fall of 1972, the upstart league had plans to place a team in the new Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Nassau County. The National Hockey League did not want the competition in the nation's largest metro area, so despite having expanded a mere two years before, the NHL hastily awarded franchises to Atlanta and Long Island. The fledgling New York Islanders had an extra burden to pay in the form of a $4 million territorial fee to the nearby New York Rangers.

In 1975, the Islanders made their first trip to the NHL playoffs, facing the Rangers in a best-of-three first-round series. After splitting the first two games, the Islanders won Game 3, and the series, when J.P. Parise scored 11 seconds into overtime. The teams met again in the 1979 playoffs; this time the Rangers were victorious, eliminating the Islanders in 6 games and earning a spot in the Stanley Cup finals. The teams also met in the playoffs every year from 1981-1984; the Islanders won each series by margins of 4-0, 4-2, 4-2 and 3-2. In the 1990's, the teams met twice, with the Rangers winning 4-1 in 1990, and sweeping the Islanders 4-0 in 1994, en route to their first Stanley Cup since 1940.

The rivalry has lost some of its intensity from its peak in the early 1980's. But while the rivalry may have lost some luster in the eyes of the sports media, fans continue to fuel the fire. With both teams' fans visiting "enemy territory" for games, shouting matches and fights often break out in the stands. The fans continue to berate the other team even when the teams aren't meeting on the ice; "Potvin Sucks!" chants are heard at every Rangers game -- referring to Islander Hall of Famer Denis Potvin, in fact retired for eighteen seasons now -- and Islander fans still chant "The Rangers Suck!" to the tune of the Chicken Dance. One well-known incident at an Islanders/Flyers game in 2003 turned an innocent holiday promotion at Nassau Coliseum into an on-ice brawl between Ranger and Islander fans in Santa suits. When the Isles and the Rangers play at the Coliseum Ranger fans call it their second home, as they sometimes take up 50% of the attendance. The Rangers fans call it the Garden East.

As of 2005, the Rangers hold a slight lead in the all-time series with 89 wins, 85 losses (including overtime and shootout losses), and 19 ties. In the playoffs, however, the Islanders hold the lead with a 20-19 record, and have won five of the eight playoff series between the two teams.

Bruins-Canadiens Rivalry

The Bruins-Canadiens Rivalry is a rivalry in the National Hockey League (NHL) between the Boston Bruins and the Montreal Canadiens, two teams that are considered a part of the Original Six. It is considered one of the most bitter in the NHL. The rivalry is one sided, with the Canadiens winning 3/4 of head to head playoff series, but the Bruins have gotten some memorable shots in. As of the start of the 2005-06 NHL season, the Bruins have won some 250 of these matches, with the Canadiens winning over 310 of them, with 105 other games between the two teams ending in ties, going back all the way to the Bruins' first NHL season in 1924-1925.

While the teams played each other often, the teams became pronounced rivals in the 1970s, when both were yearly contenders. The seminal moment in the history of the rivalry was probably Game 7 of the 1979 Semi-Finals , (the terms Wales/Campbell Conference Finals was in use during 1982 to 1993 NHL playoffs). After a rough and tumble series, the Bruins were ahead in the closing minutes. However, after the Boston bench was charged with a minor penalty for "Too Many Men on the Ice," Guy LaFleur scored the tying goal on the ensuing power play, and Montreal won in overtime. The win allowed Montreal to advance to the Stanley Cup finals to win for the fourth consecutive year. The rivalry continued throughout the 1980s, mainly due to a division-oriented playoff format that seemed to pair the teams every year.

The Bruins were defeated in both the 2002 and the 2004 Stanley Cup Playoffs in the first round by the Canadiens, which contributed to the animosity.

Blues-Blackhawks Rivalry

Not unlike the baseball rivalry between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Chicago Cubs, the St. Louis Blues and Chicago Blackhawks share an intense hatred of each other. Separated by 300 miles and at one time owned by the same man (Arthur Wirtz, who had a stake in the St. Louis Arena), the clubs have been in the same division (Western 1970-74, Smythe 1974-1981, Norris 1981-1993, Central 1993-present) since 1970. The matchups were at a hilt in the early '90s, when both teams had well-known stars such as Dirk Graham, Chris Chelios and Ed Belfour for the Hawks and Brett Hull, Adam Oates and Curtis Joseph for the Blues and played in old arenas (The Arena and Chicago Stadium) that were regarded as two of the loudest in the league.

Possibly the greatest moment in the rivalry was the 1993 Norris Division Semifinal: Chicago had won the division handily but were eventually swept by the Blues, winning the series on an overtime goal. Belfour, who said he had been interfered with on the goal by Brett Hull, went on to cause thousands of dollars' worth of damage to the visiting locker room at the Arena, breaking a coffeemaker, hot tub and television among other objects. To this day Belfour refuses to appear in regular-season games in St. Louis: the only exception coming in 1999 when he replaced Roman Turek for the Dallas Stars in the 3rd period of a 4-4 game, and only after Turek had allowed four unanswered goals. When he was spotted skating onto the ice, the Savvis Center crowd greeted him with the "Bellll-foooour" chant, first popularized in the '93 series.

Although the Hawks have had a large string of bad fortune under Craig Hartsburg, Dirk Graham and Bob Pulford, keeping them out of the playoffs in recent years, whilst the Blues had made the playoffs for 25 successive years (a streak ending with the 2005-06 season), the Blues and Blackhawks did meet in the 2002 Western Conference Quarterfinals. The Blues won the series 4 games to 1.

Battle of Alberta

Main article: Battle of Alberta

The Battle of Alberta is the bitter rivalry between the Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames of the National Hockey League (NHL). The 2 teams are based in the province's 2 largest cities: Edmonton and Calgary.

The Oilers joined the NHL as one of the teams making the switch from the World Hockey Association in 1979, soon followed by the Atlanta Flames moving to Calgary in 1980, suddenly making the question of who would be #1 in Alberta pro hockey a hot topic. At first it was the Flames who were the dominant squad (making it to the Stanley Cup conference final in their first season), but the Oilers were starting to make headlines with their rising star, Wayne Gretzky. It was the Oilers who became champions first, building an NHL dynasty with a lineup that included legends like Grant Fuhr, Paul Coffey, and Mark Messier.

Edmonton defeated Calgary in the playoffs in 1983, 1984, 1988, and 1991, winning the Stanley Cup in 1984, 1985, 1987, 1988, and 1990 . Calgary responded by advancing in the infamous 1986 series, which was decided by an own-goal by Oiler Steve Smith, only to lose to the Montreal Canadiens in the Cup final. The Flames eventually won the Cup in 1989 with Lanny McDonald, Doug Gilmour and Mike Vernon leading them. The last time the two teams met in the playoffs was in 1991, and it is often cited as one of the most exciting playoff series of all time.

With the fortunes of both teams hitting a relative nadir during the 1990s, the rivalry cooled. The passions ignited in the 1980s playoff sagas would only make brief appearances during the regular season. During the Flames' Cinderella run to the Stanley Cup final in 2004, the Oilers missed the playoffs; but with both teams considered contenders in the 2005-06 season, the rivalry has been re-ignited. As both cities are rivals when it comes to many things (not just sports), the Battle of Alberta label has been applied to various other endeavours, most notably the rivalry between the Edmonton Eskimos and Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League.

Battle of Ontario

The rivalry between the Ottawa Senators and Toronto Maple Leafs, also known as the Battle of Ontario is popular and often surfaces during the playoffs, as the two teams are in the same division and have repeatedly met in the postseason. It is often referred to as the Battle of Ontario. The major catalyst for this rivalry is due to the fact that both cities' roles to Canada are vital: Ottawa being the nation's capital & Toronto, the provincial capital of Ontario, being Canada's largest & most dominant city.

The Senators entered the league in 1992, but the rivalry between the two teams did not begin to emerge until the late 1990's. From 1992-1998, Toronto was in the NHL's Western Conference and Ottawa was in the Eastern, which meant that the two teams rarely played each other. Before the 1998-1999 season, the conferences and divisions were re-aligned, and Toronto was moved into the Northeast Division with Ottawa, Montreal, Buffalo, and Boston. By 1999, both Ottawa and Toronto were elite Eastern Conference teams, annually competing for the division title. Anglophones in Eastern Canada finally had a team other than Toronto's, and eagerly embraced the Senators. In the same way, many Franco-Canadians hoping to distinguish themselves from "les equipes Quebecois" adopted the Sens as their own. What makes this rivalry even more intense is the fact that tens of thousands of Maple Leaf fans did not become Senator fans and remain in the Ottawa area creating a frenzied atmosphere where the crowd is split almost evenly at Maple Leaf-Senator games in Ottawa.

In 2000, the teams met for the first time in the playoffs, with the Maple Leafs dispatching the Senators in 6 games. The next season, they met again as Ottawa entered the playoffs ranked 2nd in the East and the Maple Leafs 7th. While the Senators were expected to defeat the Maple Leafs, especially since they had swept the regular season series against them, the Leafs swept the series in a major upset; Ottawa had not scored their first goal of the series until 16:51 of the third period in the third game. It was after this series that the rivalry became more pronounced, especially by Senators fans. In 2002, the teams met in the playoffs for the third straight year. The two teams were very evenly matched, and the Maple Leafs, despite missing several key players, managed to win in 7 games.

In 2004, Ottawa and Toronto matched up in the playoffs for the fourth time in five years. As was the case each time prior, the Leafs beat the Senators in 7 games, but many observers thought that Ottawa outplayed Toronto, and gave credit for Toronto's win to an exceptional performance by the Leaf goaltender, Ed Belfour.

Colorado vs. Detroit

Without a doubt, one of the most heated rivalries in the NHL during the late 90's and beyond has been between the Colorado Avalanche and the Detroit Red Wings. Many little incidents with individual players all seemed to align once the Nordiques moved to Denver in 1995. During a heated round 3 matchup in the 1996 Stanley Cup tournament, the rivalry came to a boil in game 6 when then defenseman Claude Lemieux checked center Kris Draper into the boards, causing his jaw bone to fracture and leading to his immediate departure from the game. Many Detroit fans were outraged at the incident since Draper never saw it coming and was not able to defend himself. Colorado went on to win the game and thus, eliminated Detroit from contention. Some players openly admitted they refused to shake Lemieux's hand during the traditional hand shake line at the end of a series. This added to the fact that Detroit was just eliminated a year after being swept in the 1995 finals by the New Jersey Devils, and that Detroit was still looking for it's first championship in over 4 decades. During the 1996-97 season, the 2 teams met 4 times. Colorado won the first three games. The final game between the 2 teams for the season was March 26, 1997. Colorado jumped out to an early 3-1 lead. During a minor scuffle, then Forward Darren McCarty saw his opportunity to exact revenge for the incident against his line mate almost a year earlier. He went after Lemieux, who went into what some describe as a turtle defense, and all hell broke loose. Then Goalie Patrick Roy came out of his net to assist, only to be tied up by then Detroit Goalie Mike Vernon. After about 10 minutes and a laundry list of penalties later, the game resumed. Eventually, Detroit fought back and tied the game to force overtime. Detroit scored in OT to win the game that many feel changed the tide of the rivalry. The 2 teams again met for the Western conference title and the right to contest for the Stanley Cup. After trading wins in Denver, Detroit went up 2-1 and further heightened tensions by winning game 4, 6-0. Returning to Denver, the Avalanche got a 6-0 victory themselves in game 5. Game 6 saw Detroit make a tight defensive effort all night and made an empty net goal with about 1:30 remaining to ensure they would go to the finals for the 2nd time in 3 years. They would eventually win the championship ending 42 years of drought. The next year's playoffs saw a wild turn of events as Colorado didn't make it past the first round. Detroit went on to repeat as champions. Colorado would strike back against the Red Wings in 1999 when the 2 teams met in the second round. Colorado easily won 4-2. Again, the same scenario played out in 2000 when Colorado ousted Detroit in 5 games. In yet another weird twist, Detroit lost to the Los Angeles Kings, losing 4 straight games after winning 2. Colorado went on to win the championship of 2001. 2002 saw the 2 teams once again meet in the conference final for what can be described as the best series in history between the teams. Detroit entered after a round 1 scare against the Vancouver Canucks, but an easy round 2 with the St. Louis Blues. Colorado was not doing as well, beating Los Angeles and San Jose respectively, but having to go 7 games in both series. The first 6 games were nail biters and had the feeling of a heavyweight fight. Detroit winning games 1, 3, and 6; Colorado winning 2, 4, and 5. Games 2, 3, and 5 went into overtime and nearly all of them decided by a single goal. Game 7 was expected to be an all out rumble for the western conference championship. However, with Colorado going to its 3rd consecutive 7th game, the Avalanche had finally run out of energy. Detroit won by an amazing 7-0 score, with 4 goals in the first period alone. Detroit went on to win the cup.

It is worth noting that in 5 meetings of the 2 teams in the playoffs, the winner of the series went on to win the Stanley Cup 3 times. Though the bad blood has settled in recent years, the quality of hockey when this rivalry gets renewed has never faltered.

Other Historical Rivalries

See also

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