| Just when you thought the fun was over, that the rivalry between hockey's two biggest powerhouses of the decade had gone cold, the beast that is the Wings-Avs rivalry awoke from its slumber on the 23rd of March, 2002, almost exactly five years after the infamous brawl involving the pummeling of Claude Lemieux by Darren McCarty as well as the beating of Patrick Roy by Mike Vernon. On Saturday, 3/23/02, the Red Wings defeated the Avalanche 2-0 in one of the most exciting and enternaining match-ups I've had the pleasure to witness in years. Dominek Hasek lived up to his nickname "The Dominator" as he dominated the game by stopping every Avalanche shot that came his way (31), etching his 61st career shut-out. On the other end of the ice, Brendan Shanahan tallied his 500th career goal on a one-timer from Lidstrom, beating Roy on a five-on-three powerplay. Hmmm, at the prospect of exposing another of Roy's short-comings, this is a good place to mention that Steve Yzerman also scored his 500th career goal on Patrick Roy. Brett Hull scored the second goal of the game later in the period. But the best highlite of the game came about two minutes after Shanny's milestone goal, when Kirk Maltby was tripped and fell into the net behind Patrick Roy. Roy, acting on his whiny-bitch instincts, decided to start some shit with Maltby and sparked a conflict that spread to include everyone on the ice at the time. Even Hasek came out of his crease to engage Roy in a fight (lucky for Roy because if he would've kept his attention on Maltby, he would've recieved a beating unlike any he's experienced in his life), but he slipped on a dropped hockey stick just as he got close and fell down, tripping Roy as he fell, and the refs prevented a further scuffle between the two. However, the refs were far to slow to stop the fight that brewed between the Wings' rookie Sean Avery and Pascal Trepanier of the Avs. Upon dropping their gloves to face off, Avery wasted no time in beating the ill-fated Trepanier to a bloody pulp. After the fight was broken up, Trepanier was anxious to seek shelter in the penalty box, where he recieved treatment to stop the blood that was gushing out of his mouth and covering his white jersey in large, blotted blood-red stains. Later in the game, Mike Keane (known also for being a whiny, big-mouthed cry-baby from the early days of the rivalry), recieved a lesson in ethics from Rivalry newcomer Chris Chelios, who very humrously (to us Red Wing-folk, at least) humiliated Keane as he knocked him down five consecutive times via a cross check in front of the Red Wing goal. For his humorous antics, Chelios recieved 16 penalty minutes and a game misconduct, but I think we can all agree that it was well worth it. Although it left the Wings short-handed for the rest of the game, the Avs still failed to score a single goal. Now that's just sad on their part. In the end, many newcomers to the Wings and Avs, both young and old, recieved their proper initiation into the Rivalry, and even contributed greatly in breathing some life back into it. Sean Avery was even quoted on camera before the game talking trash about the Avalanche, talking about how he hates the way they think that they're invinclible and that they are a bunch of overrated punks. He certainly put his money where his mouth was during the game and walked away a decisive winner. If the Wings and Avalanche meet again in the play-offs, which is very likely, watch for a war of a hockey series rage through the cities of Denver and Detroit, engaging every hockey fan within reach of a TV, as the Red Wings battle with sweat and blood to bring the coveted Stanley Cup back to Hockeytown! |
| A Glimpse of the Past: The Return of the Rivalry |