OK, I forgot to name our rivalries-- and what I'm really asking is not who "you" hate, but who your TEAM hates. Or loves to play in a certain way due to that edge of mutual hatred for past insults.

Our teams: Pens, Hawks, Leafs (as Wings, but I detest Modano)
Their long-term, bitter rivals as I understand it: Flyers, Wings, Sens, respectively?

I dunno much about the West. I dunno much about the Rangers or Devils rivals. I have no idea who the Avs could possibly feel bitter towards.

I do NOT buy a Pens/Caps bitter rivalry just because League hype wants to sell ad time for a Crosby/Ovechkin thing which IMO is normal competitiveness between two very different types of players.

For us hockey is a big source of stress relief. (A lot of ministry involves separating combatants, need I say more?) So an even-strength fight is, for us, "just part of the game." We deplore real intent to injure and of course we grieve real injury-- but we do still enjoy the old footage of Jarkko Ruutu and (Darius?) Kasparaitus "holding" each other by the legs in one game, as each claims "victim" on their faces.

~Susan