The Colorado Avalanche-Detroit Red Wings rivalry was one of the greatest in all of sports, not just hockey. Through the 1990s and into the early 2000s, the two teams played some of the best but most bitterly contested games, especially in the playoffs.
All good things must come to an end, of course. Slowly the Colorado Avalanche entered the Dark Ages — called the Rebuild, but that actually came later — so the competition wasn’t as fierce. The key players either moved on or retired. The Detroit Red Wings moving from the Western to the Eastern Conference was the death knell of the rivalry.