One Eye Is Taken For An Eye

"Hope you got your things together
Hope you are quite prepared to die
Looks like we're in for nasty weather
One eye is taken for an eye"

CCR's "Bad Moon Rising" was used as an opening theme song for a Colorado Avalanche vs. Detroit Red Wings playoff game some years ago. And it was quite appropriate. No words describe the rivalry between these teams better than the lines above. Detroit is one of the Original Six hockey teams, meaning they were one of the first teams in the league way back before it was even the Nation Hockey League. Colorado's team used to reside in Quebec but was relocated to Denver in 1995, where they quickly became a big draw for the city. Prior to that, we'd only had minor league hockey teams but the games were pretty popular so you can imagine how ecstatic we were to join the NHL. The Avalanche were good but lacked a decent goalie, something a team needs in order to win a Stanley Cup, so they acquired a future Hall Of Famer in Patrick Roy. He had already won a Cup in his rookie season with Montreal and was (and still is) an incredibly passionate man. Roy was a character, to say the least. He was known to wink at his opponents after a spectacular save and once put a swift end a public war of words with an opponent by saying he couldn't hear what the guy was saying because he had two Stanley Cup rings plugging his ears (the opponent had never, and would never, win a Cup himself). The second of those Cups would come with Colorado in their inaugural season. Once they acquired a legitimate, proven goaltender, they were practically unstoppable. Detroit already had many Cups and was looking to continue its heritage of being one of the best teams in the league. Detroit had a bit of a rivalry with Quebec but nothing like what its rivalry with Colorado would become. It was the perfect storm. Had the Avalanche not acquired Roy, and a few other players, not all of the pieces would have been in place for the carnage that was to come.
The majority of the Avs/Wings rivalry had to do with how competitive the teams were. Between 1996 and 2002, Colorado won the Cup twice, Detroit won three times. It was understood at the time that the road to the Stanley Cup ran through either Denver or Detroit, and sometimes even both. They met five times in the playoffs, which is usually where rivalries are either born or taken up a notch. The latter happened when the teams met in the 1996 Western Conference Finals. In Game 6, an Avs player named Claude Lemieux, a known tough guy, hit the Wings' Kris Draper from behind. Draper was so badly injured (his face was basically broken; broken jaw, orbital bone and cheek) that he sat out the rest of the playoffs and his teammates were furious over the hit, particularly because Lemieux was not penalized or suspended for it. A single hit was the first blow in the rivalry, but certainly not the last. Colorado would defeat Detroit in that series and go on to win its first Stanley Cup in a four game sweep of Florida. But things festered well into the next season. The first three games the teams played went without incident, likely because Lemieux was not in the lineup for any of them. The fourth game in late March of 1997 would be the boiling point. There were nine fights in the game, an unheard of number nowadays no matter how much the teams hate each other. One of those nine fights involved the two goalies, Roy and the Wings' Mike Vernon. Goalie fights are rare in the NHL so when two future Hall of Famers square off, you know it's pure hate that's motivating them. A Wings player took out Lemieux and a scrum began between the teams. A few minutes into it, Roy came flying out to center ice and began trading blows with Vernon. It. Was. AWESOME. They both emerged bloody and made the front pages of the Detroit and Denver newpapers the next day, the defining image of the game being one Patrick Roy's bloodied face. Detroit went on to win the game in overtime, but no one really cared. It was all about the fight. And it wouldn't be the last. Over the next season there would be several skirmishes and fights between players, but only one other all out brawl. Like the first one, it took place in Detroit but this one began with an offsides call, followed by a scrum. After a few minutes, Roy took off his helmet and gloves and came out to aid a teammate. After lingering at center ice and deliberating whether or not he wanted to get involved, Detroit's goalie, Chris Osgood, finally dropped his gloves and went at it with Roy. This fight was much less bloody and didn't last very long but it was obvious how much the teams detested each other. It took around ten minutes to sort everything out, calm everyone down and hand out penalties. Trainers were trash talking each other, the coaches were yelling at one another over the glass. It was complete chaos. And it was to be the last brawl of its kind between the two teams.
The Avs have been in steady decline since winning their last Cup in 2001 and the Wings have remained a powerhouse in the league, although they are struggling to hold on to a playoff spot this year. All of the players from the glory days are now retired but mostly still a part of the league in some way. If you Google the brawl, you'll see tons of pictures, points of view and memorabilia. A book was written about the longstanding rivalry, which only makes your blood boil all over again if you're a fan of either team. It takes you back to the glory days. My uncle has a framed photo of the Roy/Vernon fight in his house. My mom has a bit of a shrine in her basement of Avs stuff (one of my friend's mothers has a Jesus shrine in her house. My mom? Hockey. Because hockey is her Jesus.) and used to pass by an apartment building everyday where a resident put a Red Wings jersey up in his window. She considered firing shots at it, but ultimately decided she couldn't afford the bail for something like that (I wish that were a joke). Of course, this was long after the rivalry had died down. Back in the glory days, you could not wear the other teams jersey in the others state for fear of retaliation (also not a joke). Ironically, around the time the rivalry died down I befriended a die hard Wings fan, who I am still friends with to this day, but we don't dare talk hockey. Colorado's season will end this month, again without a playoff berth to speak of. Detroit is clinging to the final playoff spot in the league but will likely make it. The Avs have become amongst one of the worst teams in the league thanks to mismanagement and a general apathy by their owner about putting a good team on the ice. I cannot tell you how badly I hope that changes in the offseason. It's unlikely Colorado and Detroit will renew their rivalry in the future since they will be in different conferences next season when the NHL restructures itself. Detroit will be an Eastern Conference team (as they should have been all along given their location) and Colorado will remain the the Western Conference. But it was certainly fun while it lasted.