The Detroit Red Wings’ old rivalries didn’t just fade with time - they got stripped of the schedule that used to keep them alive.
When Detroit left the NHL’s Western Conference for the Eastern Conference in the 2013-14 season, a lot of the matchups that once fueled real hatred became rare sightings. The move wasn’t the only thing that changed the picture, but it took away many of the teams the Red Wings had seen over and over again in the regular season and, more importantly, in the playoffs.
That matters because so many of Detroit’s biggest rivals were Western Conference teams. The Colorado Avalanche stood at the top of that list.
Their 1990s battles remain the most famous chapter in Red Wings rivalry history, with Fight Night at the Joe serving as the defining moment of a feud built through repeated playoff meetings. After nine fights and 148 penalty minutes, the animosity was impossible to miss.
The edge between the teams lingered into the late 1990s and early 2000s, but it gradually lost its bite. Fans born after the 2000s may not react the same way when the Red Wings and Avalanche share a building.
And with Detroit no longer facing Colorado four times a season, the rivalry has been reduced to a much thinner thread. At this point, the only playoff path for those teams is a Stanley Cup Final meeting.
The same story has played out with other former Red Wings opponents. Detroit and San Jose met in a few playoff series in the early 2010s, including the 2011 matchup in which the Sharks stormed back from a 3-0 deficit.
The Red Wings also had a real edge with the rising Blackhawks, who knocked them off their perch in the division. But with those teams now mostly separated by conference and only able to meet in the Stanley Cup Final under the highest stakes, the heat has cooled.
There’s another problem, too: the people who made those rivalries combustible are gone. Patrick Roy, Claude Lemieux, Darren McCarty, and the rest of the players tied to those classic battles have retired. The Red Wings of that era are gone, and so are the Blackhawks, Sharks, and Avalanche versions that helped define the matchups.
Detroit has had a few possible Eastern Conference rivals in recent years, but most of those have faded because the Red Wings haven’t been competitive enough to keep them going. Tampa Bay has remained one of the few lingering rivals, but the Lightning have simply been too good for the Wings. Ottawa has also been mentioned as a rival before, but the Senators have not been strong enough to make that relationship feel like much more than a placeholder.
The bottom line is simple: the Red Wings can still build new rivalries in the East. They just need to start winning again.
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