Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar says team doesn’t treat Red Wings as a rivalry game
Mar 25, 2025, 1:19 PM
The Colorado Avalanche and the Detroit Red Wings. One of the greatest rivalries in the history of North American sports, and arguably the greatest in the history of hockey. The two teams were at the top of the league 25 years ago and shared plenty of blood with each other as they won five combined Stanley Cups from 1996-2002.
Fast forward to 2025 and the same juice that once fueled the rivalry just isn’t there anymore. With Detroit now being in the Eastern Conference, the two teams meet up just twice in the regular season, and never meet up in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The last time the two sides met in the playoffs was the 2008 Western Conference Semifinals, a sweep in favor of Detroit.
Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar shared his thoughts on the dying rivalry before Tuesday’s matchup.
“It’s just such a different schedule now, it’s such a balanced schedule,” Bednar said. “We only see them twice and it’s few and far between right? … I think a rivalry is built on facing each other in the playoffs over and over and over.”
Since the NHL realigned the conferences and divisions before the 2013-14 season, the Red Wings and Avalanche have been very far away from each other, as there hasn’t been a single postseason in which both teams advanced to the second round of the playoffs.
Bednar was also asked if the team feels any of the rivalry-related emotions towards the Red Wings that made the rivalry so great years ago.
“Not really.”
Based on Bednar’s criteria for what shapes a rivalry in the NHL, the team’s newest rival is setting up to be the Dallas Stars. Dallas eliminated Colorado from the playoffs in both 2020 and 2024, and the teams are on a collision course to meet again in the first round of this year’s playoffs.
The Avalanche host the Red Wings Tuesday night at Ball Arena. Since the 2017-18 season, Colorado holds a 12-1 record over Detroit, with the lone Detroit victory coming in overtime last season.
