Ever since the Detroit Red Wings moved from the NHL's Western Conference to the Eastern Conference in the 2013-14 season, they simply haven't been able to nurture their hatred for their rivals. Sure, the move isn't the only thing that has crushed some of these rivalries, but it has removed many of their usual opponents from their regular schedule.
Pair the conference move with the Red Wings having the longest playoff drought in the league and the retirement of a lot of the most active players in the rivalry and you have the perfect recipe for a lack of good rivals.
The Eastern Conference changed the Red Wings' main opponents
When you look back at some of the Detroit Red Wings' main rivals, most of them were Western Conference teams, and most of them were regular playoff opponents.
Possibly the most notable rivalry in Red Wings' history is the one they had with the Colorado Avalanche in the 1990s. Fight Night at the Joe, the culmination of a number of playoff meetings between the two teams, is an iconic piece of NHL history. After nine fights and 148 penalty minutes, it's hard to deny the rivalry between these two teams.
After more dust-ups in the late 90s and early 2000s, the tension between the two teams started to wear off and many fans born after the 2000s may not even blink twice when the Red Wings are in the building. It doesn't help that instead of facing the Avalanche four times a season, the Red Wings now see them only once or twice. Now, the only way for the Wings to take on the Avalanche in the playoffs is in a Stanley Cup final.
Other Red Wings' rivalries have suffered from a similar issue. The Wings and Sharks faced off a few times in the playoffs in the early 2010s, including a series in the 2011 playoffs where the Sharks came back from being down 3-0. The Red Wings shared a similar rivalry with an up-and-coming Blackhawks team, who dethroned them from their top standing in the division. Now, with only the Stanley Cup Final being the only high-pressure meeting ground for these teams, the rivalries have fizzled out.
The Eastern Division isn't the only barrier to a good rivalry for the Red Wings
The Red Wings' rivalries may be at the mercy of the schedule, but there are two other reasons why they don't have the rivalries of the 1990s and 2000s anymore.
The first is that many of the players involved in these rivalries have retired. Patrick Roy, Claude Lemieux, Darren McCarty, and everyone else who fought at the Joe that night have retired. The Red Wings of those years are gone, and so are the Blackhawks, Sharks, and Avalanche.
The Red Wings have had a few sort-of rivals in the Eastern Conference in the last few years, but most of these have died off simply due to the Red Wings not being a competitive team. The Tampa Bay Lightning, one of the only continued rivalries for the Red Wings, are just that much better than the Wings. The Ottawa Senators, who have been listed in previous rivalry articles on Octopus Thrower, are also not very good, which leaves a lot to be desired in the rivalry conversation.
Simply put, the Red Wings absolutely can develop new rivalries in the East, they just need to competitive again.
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