J.J. Adams: Who will the Vancouver Canucks’ next opponents be? A rivalry in sports is the result of happiness and suffering, outcomes and moments captured in time.
Every game gains a great deal more significance than it would have in the regular season, and if those rivals square off in the postseason, everything comes to an end and the outcome feels either utopian or cataclysmic.
Take the 2011 Dragon Slayer goal by Alex Burrows against the Chicago Blackhawks, which ended the Vancouver Canucks’ two-year playoff drought.
One fan wrote, “I’m being dead serious, this goal was the greatest moment of my life,” beneath a YouTube replay of the goal, which is just one of a huge collection of digital posts devoted to the occasion.
The Athletic published a summary of that year’s match by Canucks forward Ryan Kesler: “Every year we drew them in the playoffs and they drew us, and it became war.” Our teams’ fundamentals haven’t changed, but our disagreements have grown and our conflicts have become more fierce. To tell the truth, I would prefer that it be them.
The dopamine and scars are still present even if it has diminished since its peak in the late aughts. There remains a rivalry.
The same can be said of the divisional series against the Calgary Flames, which included coach-player fights that almost resulted in shattered bones and spirits. This rivalry has simmered for decades because, if familiarity fosters dislike, four regular-season matches a year will do that.
The Boston Bruins are the team’s opponent on Saturday night. It was once the fiercest rivalry in sports; Canucks supporters are still sickened by the memory of Zdeno Chára parading the Stanley Cup around Rogers Arena in 2011. A decade later, Chara added some bitter medicine to that, saying the Bruins were motivated by rumors that the Canucks were practicing passing the Cup around after securing a 3-2 lead in the championship series.
“I wouldn’t say dirty, they were just like maybe a little bit too, how should I say, maybe cocky isn’t the right word, but they were having a chip on their shoulders,” Chara said of the Canucks in the same podcast as some Boston schmoes. “They had a few players who were known for being role models and troublemakers. They took some actions that gave us a great deal of energy.
Does he have Brad Marchand in mind? He is referring to Marchand, correct?
You could say that everybody despises the Boston Bruins. The Maple Leafs of Toronto do. The Canadiens of Montreal do. The Bruins are despised by everyone in the league, and the most they can hope for is apathy.
In the same podcast as some Boston schmoes, Chara stated of the Canucks, “I wouldn’t say dirty, they were just like maybe a little bit too, how should I say, maybe cocky isn’t the right word, but they were having a chip on their shoulders.” “A handful of their players had a reputation for being troublemakers and role models. They made several decisions that really energized us.
Regarding the Leafs, they are yet another team that has a poor record in Vancouver. When the priest chastises the autobiographical kid protagonist in the 1979 story The Hockey Sweater, Roch Carrier hit the nail on the head: “Just because you’re wearing a new Toronto Maple Leafs sweater unlike the others, it doesn’t mean you’re going to make the laws around here.” (Yes, it alludes to the rivalry between the Montreal Canadiens and the Toronto Leafs, but it also sums up how most British Columbians feel about Toronto.)
But a rivalry cannot be created or coerced. The Seattle Kraken, the new NHL team a few hundred clicks down the I-5, should be the Canucks’ natural rivals. Like the Seattle Sounders and Vancouver Whitecaps, Vancouver and Seattle have always had their own Hatfield and McCoy relationship
