Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Unrivaled: Red Wings v Avalanche’ on ESPN+, a Documentary Look Back at Hockey’s Nastiest Rivalry

Perhaps more than any of the other major North American team sports, hockey is fueled by hatred. In Unrivaled: Red Wings v Avalanche, a new feature-length documentary on ESPN+, we get a look back at one of the most bruising rivalries in recent memory, that of the bitter feud between the Detroit Red Wings and Colorado Avalanche in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The teams were frequently in contention with each other in the NHL’s Western Conference, but faced off with a ferocious passion that went beyond wins and losses.

UNRIVALED: RED WINGS V. AVALANCHE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Great sports rivalries don’t usually happen overnight. Whether it’s the Yankees and the Red Sox, Alabama and Auburn or the Lakers and Celtics, most of the top-line most-heated rivalries have been simmering for generations, if not for more than a century.

The Colorado Avalanche and Detroit Red Wings? Well, they skipped a few steps.

The 1995-96 Colorado Avalanche seemed brand-new, having just rebranded from the Nordiques after moving from Quebec to Denver, but they were a deep, talented team that had a fair amount of recent history with the Original Six team in Detroit. Before their first season in Denver, they’d acquired Claude Lemieux, who’d just won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable playoff performer for New Jersey during their Stanley Cup Finals win over the Red Wings in 1995. The Avs also picked up future Hall of Fame goalie Patrick Roy from Montreal, where his decorated 11-year tenure had just ended in a blowout loss to Detroit.

The Avalanche started their time in Denver with some big names and designs on a hot start; the Red Wings were loaded and hungry for their first Stanley Cup in more than 40 years. The teams played a few tight games during the 1995-96 regular season, but it was in the 1996 Western Conference Finals that one of the fiercest rivalries in recent memory would truly develop.

In Game 3, Detroit’s Slava Kozlov got away with a brutal hit on Colorado’s Adam Foote, one that earned the latter 20 stitches while not even garnering a penalty for the former. Tensions were high, with Detroit coach Scotty Bowman mouthing off to Lemieux in the parking lot after the game. In Game 6, Lemieux got his revenge–a blind-side hit on a defenseless Kris Draper that drove his face into the corner of the boards, shattering multiple bones in his face and sending him to the hospital. As the Avs celebrated their Western Conference win—and eventual Stanley Cup win—The Red Wings seethed and vowed revenge.

That revenge wouldn’t come until the team’s fourth meeting the following season, in March 1997, but it came. One of the bloodiest, roughest, most violent games in NHL history, an event that would come to be known as “Fight Night at the Joe” and would cement the new rivalry as an instant classic.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: In focusing on a single, spite-filled rivalry, it recalls ESPN’s earlier work on Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs. The New York Knicks, one of the past standouts of their 30 For 30 documentary program. Great players and teams are often best understood through the people who hated them the most. (If you’re into scrums on the ice, you can’t go wrong with Tough Guy: The Bob Probert Story.)

Performance Worth Watching: The emotional and narrative center of the documentary is Lemieux and McCarty, the bitter rivals who’ve come to appreciate each other over time–the film wouldn’t work without their first-hand perspective on the events of a quarter-century earlier.

Memorable Dialogue: “Why so hateful? I would say because they’re [expletive]s”, Avalanche trainer Pat Karns reflects. “If you go on the ice with Claude Lemieux to this day, and you turn your back? That’s on you,” Darren McCarty laughs. “Did it feel good to be hated, to be booed?,” Lemieux asks. “No, but you get used to it–you’re going to work. I always left it at the rink–those were really important boundaries.”

Sex and Skin: Plenty of blood, but no sex or skin.

Our Take: The build-up to–and aftermath of–the events of March 26, 1997 form the backbone of Unrivaled: Red Wings v Avalanche, and many of the key players including Lemieux, McCarty, Draper, Roy and more return to discuss the events–including Lemieux and McCarty recounting it side-by-side at an event for the fight’s 25th anniversary earlier this year.

It’s great to see how their view of the events have held up over the years–some bitterness still lingers for some of the players, while for others like Lemieux–known as “the most hated man in the NHL”, they’ve matured and softened in the quarter-century since. It’s clear how much the rivalry means to everyone involved, including the fans who’ve gathered to commemorate its biggest night, and it’s hard not to get sucked in even if you’re an outsider to it all. Unrivaled is a straightforward documentary–there’s nothing experimental here–but it all works very well, taking a great story and doing it justice in the retelling.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Even if you’ve only got a mild interest in hockey, this documentary can clue you into what all the fuss is about–you might even find yourself picking sides.

Scott Hines is an architect, blogger and internet user who lives in Louisville, Kentucky with his wife, two young children, and a small, loud dog.