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Hockey Fans Anticipate Exciting Playoff Matchup
by
findingDulcinea Staff
Hockey’s two most bitter rivals, the Colorado Avalanche and Detroit Red Wings, have met in the semi-final round of the 2008 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
30-Second Summary
As the National Hockey League moves through its championship playoffs, one pairing, between the Detroit Red Wings and the Colorado Avalanche, is getting extra attention. The two teams have an intense rivalry that began with some punches and a brawl in 1996.
So far, Detroit leads the seven game series 1–0.
The rivalry has left the ice, however, as evidenced by a Denver writer’s thoughts on Detroit and its nickname “Hockeytown.” Bernie Lincicome wrote in the Rocky Mountain News: “How, exactly, this became Hockeytown is unclear, except the notion goes unchallenged, possibly because everyone else thinks the name is a practical joke that only Detroit does not get.”
Darren McCarty of the Red Wings sees playing the Avalanche as an integral part of the Stanley Cup experience. “It sort of feels like a cup run is really happening now because we got to go through Colorado,” he said on the Detroit Red Wings Hockey blog.
Meanwhile, Detroit hockey fans are reacting to the National Hockey League’s ban on one of their favorite and most unusual traditions—throwing a dead octopus onto the ice before playoff games. The NHL has said the team can be fined $10,000 if an octopus appears on the ice.
So far, Detroit leads the seven game series 1–0.
The rivalry has left the ice, however, as evidenced by a Denver writer’s thoughts on Detroit and its nickname “Hockeytown.” Bernie Lincicome wrote in the Rocky Mountain News: “How, exactly, this became Hockeytown is unclear, except the notion goes unchallenged, possibly because everyone else thinks the name is a practical joke that only Detroit does not get.”
Darren McCarty of the Red Wings sees playing the Avalanche as an integral part of the Stanley Cup experience. “It sort of feels like a cup run is really happening now because we got to go through Colorado,” he said on the Detroit Red Wings Hockey blog.
Meanwhile, Detroit hockey fans are reacting to the National Hockey League’s ban on one of their favorite and most unusual traditions—throwing a dead octopus onto the ice before playoff games. The NHL has said the team can be fined $10,000 if an octopus appears on the ice.
Headline Links: “Hooeytown—it will be Avalanche in six”
Lincicome writes there is a “short list” of places worse to be than Detroit, which include: “An active landfill. Reality television. Inside Dick Cheney’s head.”
Source: Rocky Mountain News
Avalanche players who were part of the 1996 and 1997 playoffs say they aren’t thinking about the past. Adrian Dater describes the hits and brawls that made the two teams rivals.
Source: Denver Post
Detroit won the first of the best-of-seven-series Thursday night, 4–3.
Source: International Herald Tribune
Analysis: Rivalry not what it was?
“The rivalry hasn't been the same, not nearly as intense, as bitter or as bloody, since they last met in the playoffs six years ago. Many of the central figures are gone,” writes Ansar Khan on the Detroit Red Wings Hockey blog. He adds that the playoff series may rekindle the rivalry.
Source: Detroit Red Wings Hockey
Background: How a rivalry forms
Many cite a 1997 brawl between the two teams as the genesis of the rivalry. YouTube hosts a clip with live commentary showing the infamous fight in all its glove-throwing, shirt-pulling and fist-jabbing glory.
Source: YouTube
ESPN has a short video providing highlights of the decade-old rivalry between the Avalanche and Red Wings.
Source: ESPN
Related: Octopus twirling
Detroit fans began throwing dead octopi on the ice before games in 1952, according to a 2002 column by John McGourty at NHL.com. In the old playoff system, a team had to win eight games to win the Stanley Cup, and the octopus legs symbolize each victory. He called for an end to the practice.
Source: National Hockey League
George James Malik has a roundup of Detroit-area reactions to the octopus twirling ban, including his own take: “This amendment by the NHL is as disgusting as can be, and it stinks of whining by Predators GM David Poile.”
Source: Snapshots
Reference: Hockey Guide
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Source: findingDulcinea
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