Rivalries Between Franchises and Countries

[Stephen]

Some teams in the NHL have a rich tradition of great players coming from certain countries. Many generations of great Swedes have played for Detroit, Toronto, Vancouver and Ottawa and Winnipeg has a love affair with Finnish snipers over the years.

However, are there any "rivalries" between NHL club teams and countries that have developed over the years? Maybe a rival team has a Russian star, or maybe it's the Matthews Laine debate between Toronto and Finland.

Any examples?

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[THall4]

Some teams in the NHL have a rich tradition of great players coming from certain countries. Many generations of great Swedes have played for Detroit, Toronto, Vancouver and Ottawa and Winnipeg has a love affair with Finnish snipers over the years.

However, are there any "rivalries" between NHL club teams and countries that have developed over the years? Maybe a rival team has a Russian star, or maybe it's the Matthews Laine debate between Toronto and Finland.

Any examples?

Were you not around for Crosby vs Ovechkin?

 

[IamNotADancer]

Were you not around for Crosby vs Ovechkin?

Are you implying that the Penguins had a rivalry with Russia because of Ovechkin?

 

[Luigi Lemieux]

Were you not around for Crosby vs Ovechkin?

During the height of that rivalry Pens had 2 Russians on the team though, Malkin and Gonchar. Pittsburgh vs Washington was never a NA vs Russia thing.

 

[Hasa92]

But Malkin defected from Russia abandonning his contract with his Russian team so surely there must have been some bad blood?

 

[Kuhta]

Finns had a love affair with Winnipeg, then Ducks - now back to Winnipeg.

People follow goalscorers.

 

[Big McLargehuge]

During the height of that rivalry Pens had 2 Russians on the team though, Malkin and Gonchar. Pittsburgh vs Washington was never a NA vs Russia thing.

Quoting for emphasis, that definitely wasn't a thing.

Now if there were a team as flush with Slovakians as the Pens were with Czechs in the late 90s, then things could have been interesting.

 

[Cashville]

NSH cooled on Russian prospects for a while after the initial Radulov debacle back in the mid/late 2000s.

 

[Alexander the Gr8]

I don't know if HF is representative of all hockey fans, but it seems every Finn here is either a Jets fan or a Wild fan.

 

[Rebels57]

Well the Flyers vs. Russia was a big thing after the 1976 game they played (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1976_Philadelphia_Flyers–Red_Army_game). Not so much anymore though. In fact they were one of the first clubs to draft a Russian player. Clarke once again shyed away from drafting them when he was GM in the 90s, but Hexy loves him some Russian prospects (Provorov, Rubstov, Vorobyev, Fedotov, Ustimenko all drafted by Hexy).

 

[MaxV]

Since the 90s teams have been mixed.

That Wings vs Avs rivalry had multinational battles, but both teams were pretty mixed.