Abel to Yzerman

Abel to Yzerman

16 Years Later

03/26/2013 at 3:42pm EDT

The rivalry ended in 2002, when the Wings were scoring at will in Game 7 against Patrick Roy. They blistered him that afternoon, reduced him to a sputtering, babbling, twitching idiot.

It, naturally, had begun five years earier. Actually, make that six because it was '96 when Claude Lemieux wrecked Kris Draper's face from behind.

The two teams played twice in the 1996-97 regular season and nothing happened. But leading up to the March 26th game, everyone (and I mean EVERYONE) knew that something was going to happen. I’ve been to boxing matches in Las Vegas. I’ve attended an MMA event. But nothing compared to the sense of blood lust heading into the Joe that night. We all KNEW something was happening. We knew that Darren McCarty would probably be involved. And we knew it would be great.

But it was better.

That's Jamie Samuelsen and it's a pleasant stroll down memory lane. Good stuff....including a reminder that Joey Kocur didn't play that night. Holy Hell, can you imagine if he'd been in there? Anyway, it's a good read on an off-day.

Denver hockey is nothing more than a punchline now. No present. No future, despite the consistent "youth movement", a coach who is gone, gone, gone. A GM who alienated his entire young corps of forwards as he played "hardball" with a kid.

And a fanbase that is the league's worst, bar none. Not just hockey dumb, but too dumb to realize they're dumb. Add in a nifty dose of typical Denver elitism? You've got a winner, boy.

Read Samuelsen's piece. Pretty good reminder of what hockey used to be before Gary decided parity was mandatory. It's also a special moment to sit back and reflect on the fact that Detroit is still very good, consistently competitive...while Denver does nothing but sit in 29th place and suck ass.

No rivalry, just the Dive as constant fodder for jokes.

Eat shit, Denver. Eat shit, Dive fans. Happy Anniversary and LGRW.

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About Abel to Yzerman

Welcome to Abel to Yzerman, a Red Wing blog since 1977. No other site on the internet has better-researched, fact-laden and better prepared discussions than A2Y. Re-phrase: we do little research, find facts and stats highly overrated and claim little to no preparation. There are 19 readers of A2Y. No more, no less. All of them, except maybe one, are juvenile in nature. Reminding them of that in the comment section will only encourage them to prove that.

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