NHL: The best rivalry on ice (or anywhere else)

 Someday, likely long after Tie Domi has wrestled his last drunken fan to the ground, we will tire of Edmonton and Dallas going skate-to-skate in the NHL playoffs. But for now, this one is climbing the best-rivalry charts faster than Mike Modano with a head of steam (which is exactly what Modano’s own coconut must have felt after he took a puck to the nose in Game Five of the first-round series.)

Saturday night, Dallas won Game Six to eliminate Edmonton for the fourth straight year, doing the deed in the first round for the third straight time. Despite the one-sided end results, any game between these two is tighter than Britney Spears’ outfit in that Pepsi commercial, but usually with the Stars somehow finding a way to break the Oilers’ hearts.

Imagine Yankees vs. Red Sox, except with the fighting not just in the stands, and you have Dallas vs. Edmonton.

Many rivalries are started through simple geography: Duke vs. North Carolina, Florida vs. Florida State, Dodgers vs. Giants (twice.) Some are pretty self-explanatory: Army vs. Navy, Al Davis vs. everybody. And some are the result of two incredibly strong-willed forces thrown together by circumstances to butt heads time after time. Like Frazier vs. Ali. Now imagine Smokin’ Joe and The Greatest on skates and you start to get the picture of Dallas vs. Edmonton. Need proof? Glad you asked. Here’s why just another first-round match-up in the marathon that is the NHL Playoffs turned into an instant classic.

Four out of the six games went to overtime. Only one playoff series in history has had more extra-time affairs, that being the remarkably short-but-sweet 1951 Finals between the Maple Leafs and Canadiens. Toronto won the series four games to one, with all five games going to a fourth period. The series-winner was scored by Leaf defenceman Bill Barilko, who was killed in a plane crash just months later. Fifty years to the night after Barilko’s final goal, the Stars eliminated the Oilers 3-1 in their only regulation-time victory of the series. Overtime heroes included Dallas’ Jamie Langenbrunner (Game One,) Benoit Hogue (Game Three,) and Kirk Muller (Game Five ) as well as the Oilers’ rookie sensation, Edmonton native Mike Comrie, who celebrated his coming-out party with the OT winner in Game Four.

As always, the players make a series. There’s Edmonton winger Ryan Smyth, who improved his stock as much as any player on both teams with his gritty effort and nose for the net. Now if only he could do something about his ‘hockey hair.’ Smyth, who probably sewed up a spot on Canada’s Olympic team in the process, (especially with Dallas coach Ken Hitchcock and Oilers’ G.M. Kevin Lowe on the selection committee) reached his peak in the final game. First, Smyth showed great strength and perseverance in getting to the net and sliding the game’s first goal past Belfour. Later, he took a stick blade flush on his left ear and returned to the ice just minutes later. But Smyth wasn’t the only wounded warrior to make a triumphant return. Modano, after taking that puck to the beak in Game Five, received 35 stitches for his trouble and returned to the ice in time for the end of the game. In Game Three, Oilers’ rugged blue-liner Jason Smith was cut in the lip and, with the Edmonton locker room apparently being fumigated or something, he got stitched up right in the hallway, with what appeared to be a Bic lighter used for illumination. But the biggest was saved for last. The Stars’ Joe Nieuwendyk was taken out in Game Two with a knee-on-knee hit and looked doubtful for the rest of the series. But there he was back in Game Six, after just getting back on skates that morning. He didn’t play a ton, and he got off only one shot, but it was fairly large. With under five minutes left, Nieuwendyk took advantage of an awful Oiler line change, broke in on Tommy Salo and scored five-hole for the eventual series winner.

And how can you forget the Grumpy Old Men, Dallas’ aged line of castoffs. 36 year-old John MacLean was released by the Rangers earlier in the season by Edmonton’s former G.M. Glen Sather. Of course, Sather’s taken plenty of criticism for the Rangers’ continued ineptitude, but to fault him for giving up on MacLean strikes me as unfair. I mean, what do the Rangers need with a guy who comes up big in the playoffs? Think about it. After a few weeks of ice-fishing in Manitoba (seriously,) the Stars signed MacLean and all he did in Game Five was score the tying goal and set up the OT winner by 35 year-old Kirk Muller. After a brutal 15-point season with Florida in ‘98-‘99, it looked like Muller’s long, proud career was done like dinner. But there’s something in the water in Big D (Erin Brockovich should really be investigating this,) and Muller was flying around the rink in this series like he hadn’t since he helped Montreal to the Cup (and how long ago was that?) And of course, there’s the young pup of the line, 33 year-old Mike Keane who’s already won Cups in Montreal, Colorado and in ‘99 with the Stars. He may not be as old as his line-mates, but word is he makes up for it with extra grumpiness.

Then there’s the inspired play of the two goalies, who couldn’t have more different personalities if Dr. Jekyl and Mr Hyde had each created one. Dallas’ Ed Belfour is a ticking time-bomb, then the Oilers’ Tommy Salo is the cool, unruffled guy you’d want defusing it. Salo is about as demonstrative as a plant, until play starts. That’s when he gets busy stopping the puck like his green card depends on it. One glove save on Brett Hull in Game Two had to be seen three, four times to be believed, much like one of Jennifer Lopez’s outfits. Across the ice from Salo is Crazy Eddie Belfour, the only NHL goalie who gets a royalty check every time Fox airs “Cops.” Say what you will about Belfour’s behavior, he may well be the best goalie in captivity right now. He likely won’t make the Olympic team because of two little words, “international incident,” but that may be Canada’s loss in the end.

And this series turned out to be Edmonton’s to lose in the end. While the bitter taste of an opportunity lost still resonates in Oiler-land, the amazing support the city gave their team, and the effort and passion they got back in return, won’t soon be forgotten. You should never underestimate a Canadian city’s ability to get behind the home side, and you should never underestimate the hold hockey still has north of the border. If this series proved nothing else, it proved those two things. Of course, when the hockey’s this good, it’s not hard to see why.