Once upon a time they were games that you circled on your hockey calendar as soon as the new schedule was released. The term "meaningless regular season game", NHL-style, would be temporarily suspended during those pre-circled contests. The national TV folks were sure to show up, and the joint would be jumping -- whether the game was played in Detroit or Denver. That ancient term -- electricity in the air -- applied.
The Red Wings and the Colorado Avalanche got it on again yesterday at Joe Louis Arena. The Avs prevailed, 4 to 3, in overtime. But if there was any electricity in the air, it might have been because someone rubbed their socked feet on a rug somewhere. Or dried their clothes without a fabric sheet.
Red Sox-Yankees. Giants-Dodgers. Michigan-Ohio State. These rivalries endure, no matter the era, no matter the players filling out the uniforms. Red Wings-Avalanche, once one of the more remarkable and nasty feuds, barely registers anymore. There just isn't much about it, any longer.
Theirs was a rivalry made by the people involved, not by the sweaters they wore.
How can there be much of anything anymore, when there is no longer Patrick Roy slapping away shots and smirking about it afterward? How can you get your juices going when there is no Claude Lemieux around to function as the player wearing the black helmet? And how exciting is it when many of the Avs' skill guys have fled or have been traded?
From 1996 to 2002, the Red Wings and Avalanche met five times in the playoffs. The Wings won two of those series, and in both years they beat the Avs, they also hoisted the Stanley Cup. The Avs did the same in '96. But since '02, not only have they not played any postseason games against one another, the principal characters have sort of disintegrated, into retirement or other NHL teams. And it's becoming evident that the great Red Wings-Avs rivalry was one based on people, not on any sort of terrific franchise histories.
The Avs didn't even come into being until 1995, when they moved from Quebec. That move, by the way, and ironically, killed one of the league's best feuds: the Montreal Canadiens/Quebec Nordiques battles. And as soon as Le Nordique became Les Avs, the relocated squad captured the Cup. And Lemieux busted up Kris Draper's face in the process, which was truly the birth of the rivalry.
"I can't believe I just shook hands with that (expletive)," Wings forward Dino Cicarelli famously sneered about Lemieux after the Avs dumped the Wings out in the Conference Finals in six angry games.
And a star was born: an instant feud that the NHL embraced warmly.
But think about the Avalanche right now. Can you even identify more than a handful of players from their roster? They aren't in the playoff hunt, at least not seriously. They're inconsequential -- never a helpful ingredient in a recipe for great rivalries. And the history is too short-- eleven seasons -- to overcome a dearth of talent or a few down years by one of the combatants.
All that, plus the Red Wings usually come out on top these days, yesterday's game notwithstanding. It just isn't all that much fun to beat the Avs anymore, frankly.
Once it used to be VERY fun.
Come on back, Patty. Stone us and speak sarcastically about us once more. Claude, do the turtle again.
Book closed, I think.
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