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Jersey Wing

Grantland: The Heavyweight Belt of NHL Rivalries

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Done by year/era and YES, the Wings Avs rivalry as they see it ran the longest of any of the heavyweight rivalries. OMG, so many great fight and brawl clips mixed with some good writing:

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/the-heavyweight-belt-of-nhl-rivalries/

(Love the top picture lol)

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Rivalries today just don't seem the same as they were 15 plus years ago.

No they're not. I remember a few years ago during the playoffs, tough guys were routinely given 10 minute misconducts late in games, even when they didn't do anything. Just to prevent any rough stuff from happening later. In other words, the league will rewrite the rule book to make sure there aren't any brawls.

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True enough.

With the game 'cleaning up it's act', and with fighting at an all-time low we just don't see that animosity like we used to.

Wonder if it'll continue to drop off. A lot of people were convinced that fighting was going to drop even more after the 2005/06 season, which saw little fighting compared to pre-lockout numbers. It rose for a few years until halting and then decreasing over the past couple seasons.

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Thanks for the link such a great read , the title picture is just perfect. Can't wait for the day we are going to see this again.

Wings versus Avs was such a great rivalry the hall of fame talent , the flat out pure hatred, the fights the blood that's hockey. The only rivalry that has come close to this in recent history has to be Pens versus Philly. I love watching these games they hate each other and aren't afraid to show it .. Sadly it's probably the last great remaining rivalry in this league.

But the battle of Alberta could return soon hopefully the hatred with it.

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Pretty soon rivalries will be based on the actually game being played. How lame. I can't think of a single good rivalry that doesn't involve punching. Except the Yankees vs. The Red Sox, Michigan vs. Ohio State, North Carolina vs. Duke, or Liverpool vs. Manchester United.

Yep, obviously can't have bitter rivalries without fighting. You betcha.

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Pretty soon rivalries will be based on the actually game being played. How lame. I can't think of a single good rivalry that doesn't involve punching. Except the Yankees vs. The Red Sox, Michigan vs. Ohio State, North Carolina vs. Duke, or Liverpool vs. Manchester United.

Yep, obviously can't have bitter rivalries without fighting. You betcha.

No one said there can't be bitter rivalries without fighting, although hockey does lend itself to that being a large component. Most here are lamenting the decidedly low bar that has been set for what constitutes a rivalry; something we've actually been doing since the press kept telling us we had one going with the Preds two seasons into their existence

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That's definitely the point YOU are making. But several other people here have insinuated that the amount of punching is directly proportionate to the intensity or bitterness of the rivalry and lamented the future of rivalries because fighting is down. Which is crap. There are tons of REALLY intense rivalries that exist because of the game, and not because of the penalties.

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The Pittsburgh/Philly rivalry I would say was right up there, that was only a couple years ago. Though I guess it didnt last that long at that intensity.

Hate both of those teams, but I love watching them meet in the post season.

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Even their meetings in the regular seasons are fun to watch, just because they hate each other so much.

But they're definitely two of my least favorite teams.

The pumpkins and the princess penguins.

I wonder if the physicality of the rivalry will subside for a while. Philadelphia traded Rinaldo and Pittsburgh has seen the departures of Downie, Bortuzzo, Adams, and Sill since the latter half of last season. The Pens are looking to be one of the softest teams, in terms of potential fighting majors, in the league. This largely depends on how much Bobby Farnham plays this season.

That said, they'll still be fun games to watch. Just might not be the fight-filled games that we've grown accustomed to seeing between them over the past several years.

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I wonder if the physicality of the rivalry will subside for a while. Philadelphia traded Rinaldo and Pittsburgh has seen the departures of Downie, Bortuzzo, Adams, and Sill since the latter half of last season. The Pens are looking to be one of the softest teams, in terms of potential fighting majors, in the league. This largely depends on how much Bobby Farnham plays this season.

That said, they'll still be fun games to watch. Just might not be the fight-filled games that we've grown accustomed to seeing between them over the past several years.

which would be a shame this is the last real rivalry in the game and it doesn't matter if the teams are meeting in the playoffs or regular season, more often than not these are the most entertaining gsmes. The problem is Rutherford prefers a princess over a Penguins style type of game ... As seen in Carolina when he traded away their only tough guy in Westgarth. Philly still has a few tough guys ready to call up, Sam Morin is not afraid to pay down the hammer and Simmonds while not heavy is a very good fighter too in his own weight class.

Pittsburgh has Steve McIntyre in the AHL but would Rutherford call him up? Sadly I think not.

Anyhow this rivalry has been one of the few bright sports in an otherwise boring to watch eastern conference, just a few years ago the Leafs vs Habs was also must watch TV or Boston vs Buffalo now it's down to only one rivalry unfreakingbelievable.

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Pretty soon rivalries will be based on the actually game being played. How lame. I can't think of a single good rivalry that doesn't involve punching. Except the Yankees vs. The Red Sox, Michigan vs. Ohio State, North Carolina vs. Duke, or Liverpool vs. Manchester United.

Yep, obviously can't have bitter rivalries without fighting. You betcha.

We get it. You don't like fighting, but some of us do.

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I wonder if the physicality of the rivalry will subside for a while. Philadelphia traded Rinaldo and Pittsburgh has seen the departures of Downie, Bortuzzo, Adams, and Sill since the latter half of last season. The Pens are looking to be one of the softest teams, in terms of potential fighting majors, in the league. This largely depends on how much Bobby Farnham plays this season.

That said, they'll still be fun games to watch. Just might not be the fight-filled games that we've grown accustomed to seeing between them over the past several years.

honestly, as much as I have loved watching big guys drop the gloves over the years, I think this rivalry will be more fun without the typical enforcers/fighters. Crosby hates philly, and Crosby doesn't set the best example for his team. Look at all the cheap shots/bad penalties the pens take once someone gets under Crosbys skin.

Aside from their top line Philly doesn't have the amount of skill that Pitt does, so theyre going to go after Crosby and try to get him upset. And voracek is actually a decent fighter, and can be a pest so I'm gonna say it won't lose it's physicality just because of the animosity between the teams. Sure Crosby and giroux played decent together at the world championships, but I think they still hate each other.

Its seriously one of the best organizational rivalrys, imo, At least on a head to head basis. Im into Seeing skill guys not in the wings fight, plus you've got the storyline of each teams defence going in completely opposite directions, which actually interests me. Philly has arguably the best stable of d prospects in the league, and Pitt has a bunch of really young and injury prone guys on their back end.

Im slowly starting to dislike Philly less, just because I'm excited for the potential of their d. Gostisbehere, provorov, hagg, morin, sanheim.

They're stacked and if they all pan out decently, they won't be able to keep them all and I really like gostisbehere and sanheim.

Edited by jimmyemeryhunter

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which would be a shame this is the last real rivalry in the game and it doesn't matter if the teams are meeting in the playoffs or regular season, more often than not these are the most entertaining gsmes. The problem is Rutherford prefers a princess over a Penguins style type of game ... As seen in Carolina when he traded away their only tough guy in Westgarth. Philly still has a few tough guys ready to call up, Sam Morin is not afraid to pay down the hammer and Simmonds while not heavy is a very good fighter too in his own weight class.

Pittsburgh has Steve McIntyre in the AHL but would Rutherford call him up? Sadly I think not.

Anyhow this rivalry has been one of the few bright sports in an otherwise boring to watch eastern conference, just a few years ago the Leafs vs Habs was also must watch TV or Boston vs Buffalo now it's down to only one rivalry unfreakingbelievable.

MacIntyre's NHL days are long gone. He played in less than 100 games. Got sent to the ECHL last year.

Flyers/Penguins will be competitive games, regardless.

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