"The Blood Game" --- Avalanche vs. Red Wings --- March 26, 1997 [FULL GAME]
I just needed to share this beauty that HockeyWebCasteruploaded on YouTube earlier today.
It's the full game of the famous tilt between the Red Wings and Avalanche on March 26th, 1997.
If you haven't seen this game yet, you sure missed out on something. This one is a dandy!
I really miss the powerhouse West teams pre salary cap in the late 90's/early 2000's. Detroit, Colorado, Dallas, even St. Louis was beastly for a little bit there but they never put it together in the playoffs. You knew when these teams got together it was going to be a great game.
I remember seeing the highlights on sportscenter when i was a kid.. i just remember it almost became referendum on hockey and how classless this player was or that player was. Thats what made that rivalry great or any rivalry for that matter. Each guys personality changes and its brings out the good/bad in everyone... Also love how the ref just let McCarty beat on lemieux.. that made McCarty my favorite non bruin player.
I wish hockey was still like this, now you get a 6 page thread when a player puts his stick on another players stick and it isn't called, and then is further used as an excuse why player A has less points than the previous year due to lack of power-plays
Avs missed Simon dearly and this was one of those times definitely. He would have killed someone. Avs just got jumped. Good game though, it had everything.
Glad to say I was at this game, remember everything about it. McCarty should have been tossed, he didn't even get a fighting major which actually stunned even the Wings crowd, with a lot of people around me laughing about how unbelievable that was. Fedorov was outstanding the whole game.
Understand why Avs fans would hate this game. It was a sucker punch, although earned for Claude. As Bowman said afterwards had he just picked up the phone and called Draper, who literally returned a couple weeks before this, had to have facial reconstruction and lost vision in his eye so much so they questioned whether he could every play again. I am sure Chris Simon might have helped a little but the Avs had more big guys in the lineup, it perfect stormed on them. I don't know that anybody could have slowed it down, they had enough. The reason it flipped over was they were getting pushed around again, they got beat up in the media for being timid against the Avs. They just went crazy, the strangest part was the Wings looked like they were going to lose the game for a while in it. I think Keith Jones has said several times the Avs were just stunned and they really just didn't recover from this game the rest of the season.
Still love seeing that turtle split open all over the ice, most deserved beat down in a long time. Then Vernon buckled Roys knees and cuts him and Forsberg ends up bloodied by little Igor. Awesome game
It was a great game overall. Mac suckered Claude, but he was able to get the jump on him and caught him sleeping. It had to happen, and that's how it happened.
The fact he was able to score the OT winner after a come from behind third made it all the sweeter. Set the tone for the WCF.
