Comments on: Does the NHL need more rivalries?

By: thefalloficarus84

thefalloficarus84 — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 23:41:53 +0000

THANK YOU!! As a philly fan, I come to this message board already assuming everyone here hates me. We have more than enough rivalries to go around, maybe the rest of you would like to take a few off our hands lol

By: tcclark

tcclark — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 04:34:00 +0000

The Flyers have a “rivalry” with just about everyone they play, so no. My team doesn’t nned more rivalries.

You have the classics
Flyers v. Rangers
Flyers v. Penguins
Flyers v. Devils
Flyers v. Bruins

You have old rivalries that might make a comeback
Flyers v. Islanders
Flyers v. Capitals (its a great game to watch every time)

You have the playoff match-ups that always seem (or seemed) to happen
Flyers v. Buffalo (God I hate Buffalo)
Flyers v. Toronto
Flyers v. Montreal

You have the rivalries that happened because of Martin Havlat
Flyers v. Senators

You have the “they beat us in the cup finals” rivalries
Flyers v. Wings
Flyers v. Blackhawks

I feel like I’m forgetting one… or two… or 18. We have enough rivalries even if some of them aren’t as current

By: atomicpenguin76

atomicpenguin76 — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 03:31:36 +0000

This is the first thing that came to mind when I read this, too.

By: 0ffsides

0ffsides — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 01:44:30 +0000

The Wings/Avs rivalry of the late 90′s happened just this way. The original six rivalries the same way, a genuine disdain for the other team. Yes the league needs more rivalries but they cannot be self manufactured i.e. Pens/Caps.

By: asublimeday

asublimeday — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 01:13:51 +0000

Seriously no mention of hawks-wings??

By: Jeff

Jeff — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 01:05:14 +0000

Yes. I think with parity comes rivalries. The Hawks, Wings game Saturday had a playoff feel.
The Rangers, Flyers is a good rivalry, as is the Caps, Pens rivalry.

By: tommytd

tommytd — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 00:48:46 +0000

Check the ratings when original six teams play each other on weekends and you can probably answer your own question.

By: jagrbomb18

jagrbomb18 — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 00:05:19 +0000

You’re telling me flyers bruins isn’t a rivalry today?

Bruins win WC
Flyers come back from 0-3 the same year
Bruins sweep the next year in route to cup
I hate Boston

Flyers Rangers has always been a rivalry
Flyers win in shoot out to make/eliminate NY from playoffs
Rangers win WC

Flyers Pens…duh

Flyers Habs…was a rivalry when players like Richards and kovalev were around …who did I miss

By: shaqattaqer

shaqattaqer — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 23:24:05 +0000

Show Canucks – Blackhawks games!!

By: pastabelly

pastabelly — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 23:16:59 +0000

One of the problems with the re-allignment is that the Bruins, Sabres, and the Florida teams got put in a Canadian conference. NBC would not pay attention to that conference as they aren’t crazy about showing games when they are only in the market of one of the teams. The Bruins-Canucks game wasn’t even worthy of NBC. Realignment just wasn’t well thought out.

By: sonofsamiam

sonofsamiam — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 23:08:02 +0000

Sandbagged? If you did your homework, you’d have known Thornton is on that program every week. He was in studio waiting for a later segment when Gallagher came on ripping him. So they mic’d him up to defend himself.

By: finfan88shark

finfan88shark — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 22:54:06 +0000

I think the NHL has plenty of rivalries, it is just that NBC chooses not show any team West of Chicago on a consistent basis. Cal-Edmonton-Vancouver is a rivalry as is SJ-LA-ANA, and LA-ANA. Yet you would never know that by watching NBC and the old versus network.

By: 1943mrmojorisin1971

1943mrmojorisin1971 — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 22:39:10 +0000

The fact players don’t stay on the same teams for very long anymore also contributes to the lack of rivalries.

By: bigbear42

bigbear42 — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 22:26:51 +0000

I think one of the problems is with this amount of teams in the league most “rivalries” begin with incidents that have people getting either suspended, hurt, or both. Teams just dont play each other often enough to develop and maintain a genuine dislike for each other.

By: bigbear42

bigbear42 — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 22:22:27 +0000

I wouldnt say Caps-Pens is completely force fed, but it is a much bigger deal for Caps fans than it is for Pens fans since they have a natural in division/state rival in the flyers.

By: pastabelly

pastabelly — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 22:19:51 +0000

Re-allignment was a step backwards as there would be more out of conference games than there are now. Under the current structure, at least you really care about 1/2 of the teams in the league as opposed to the 1/4 under re-allignment. What kind of major sports league does not have a Boston-NY rivalry? I realize Boston has Montreal. But killing off any remnants of Bruins-Rangers by having them play in different conferences is probably not a great idea.

By: csndrew

csndrew — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 21:29:57 +0000

You want rivalries? Have a league with 15 U.S. teams in one conference and 15 Canadian teams in the other conference. If nothing else, it’s a step in the right direction.

By: cowboys282

cowboys282 — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 21:27:26 +0000

As a Bruins season ticket holder I was left with disappointment after the Canucks game knowing it will be a long time I get to see them play the Bruins again.

Not to mention all 3 Montreal home games are finished and it’s only January 17th.

Its a simple numbers game. In the NFL 37.5% of the schedule is Division games. Teams draft and build to compete against their division.

In the NHL 29.2% of games are played against teams division. That is to few. The NHL needs to concentrate more on division play.

I think realignment would have made this better but of course that got shelved. I don’t need 4 games a year against the Hurricanes and Islanders. I want to see more of the Bruins natural rivalries.

By: abrienza428

abrienza428 — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 20:53:21 +0000

You have to understand why they did force-feed that matchup, though. That was an amazing playoff series in 2009 and a perfect storm of what the NHL wanted to promote. It’s also in the record books as being the playoff series with the most pucks shot off the glass by one player, that being Alex Semin.

By: hockeyfan1701

hockeyfan1701 — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 20:48:30 +0000

That is what NBC\NHL wanted. They wanted 87 and 8 to meet every year in the conference finals for huge media hype type series.

By: stratomaticfan

stratomaticfan — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 20:31:19 +0000

The re-alignment made sense. You develop bad blood through hard fought playoff series…keeping 1st round matchups within your division/conference/whatever they want to call it…means a greater likelihood of playing the same teams in the playoffs….means more hatred….means fans get more riled up and interested when other teams appear on their schedule.

By: xxshookonexx

xxshookonexx — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 20:26:23 +0000

Absolutely. No more force-fed rivalries like the Caps and Penguins just cause the two best players (at the time) are on them (yes, i know they had a history prior to ovechkin and crosby, but that was mainly the pens beating the caps in the playoffs).