Grudge report: The one thing every NHL fan base won't give up

Hockey fans can be a passionate bunch -- which means a lot of them hold grudges. Some are petty, some are major, but the one truth is that fans of each of the 31 NHL teams have one thing they're hung up on and simply can't get over.

Whether it's a perceived cheap shot, a situation where they were allegedly wronged by the on-ice officials, a major mistake by their own team management -- or in one case, an NHL arbitrator -- these are deep wounds whose scars remain several years (or even decades) later.

Let's delve into the leading grudge for every NHL fan base:

Jump ahead to a team:

ANA | ARI | BOS | BUF | CGY | CAR | CHI

COL | CBJ | DAL | DET | EDM | FLA

LA | MIN | MTL | NSH | NJ | NYI

NYR | OTT | PHI | PIT | STL | SJ

TB | TOR | VAN | VGS | WSH | WPG

Anaheim Ducks

Mixed feelings on a "Mighty" legacy

Ducks fans weren't too pleased when their last-place team traded Teemu Selanne to the Sharks in 2001, but it was largely forgotten when the Finnish Flash returned following the 2004-05 lockout. Selanne is widely considered a franchise legend. Losing in the Stanley Cup Final in 2003 -- despite the best efforts ofJean-Sebastien Giguere, who still won the Conn Smythe -- stings.

But as my colleague Greg Wyshynski points out, the answer here might be the team's roots as "The Mighty Ducks" and, as he puts it, "the way they've treated that legacy through the years (for a while running away from it)."

In 2006, Anaheim dropped the "Mighty" in its name altogether, after months of consultation with a public relations firm and a survey of season-ticket holders. It came following an ownership change, from the Walt Disney Company to Henry and Susan Samueli. "I'm very happy they kept the 'Ducks' because it's the original name," Selanne said at the time. "Taking the 'Mighty' away makes it more of a business. I think it's fine. With the new owners, I think they wanted a new identity."

Arizona Coyotes

Lack of respect continues

What irks Coyotes fans? The belief that Arizona doesn't deserve an NHL team. Since the team debuted in Phoenix in 1996, it's been a fight for legitimacy, with plenty of roadblocks that spurred cynicism. That includes bankruptcy, getting bailed out by the NHL, and countless rumors about relocating the team (as well as actual attempts). Portland, Oregon; Seattle; Houston; and seemingly 30 Canadian cities have been floated as potential landing spots for the Coyotes. The fact that they still don't have a new arena doesn't help, nor does the fact that commissioner Gary Bettman is constantly asked about the state of the franchise at media briefings.

Canadians are especially skeptical. Just consider this column from Sportsnet's Mark Spector. He calls the Coyotes a "low event, low excitement, low value for the ticket buyer, and a perennial low finisher in the National Hockey League standings" and continues to critique the team for being too "boring." Responded team president Ahron Cohen after it was published: "We're not going to get in the business of responding to every negative story or tweet, but with this you have a misinformed story from a Canadian journalist that doesn't bother to look at all the positivity we've built in this Arizona community."

Boston Bruins

Too many men on the ice in 1979

Three little words will haunt Bruins fans forever: too many men. The year was 1979, and the Bruins were in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup semifinals against the rivalMontreal Canadiens. Boston led 4-3 late in the game when it was whistled for too many men on the ice. Guy Lafleur scored on the ensuing power play, Yvon Lambert notched the overtime winner, and the Canadiens went on to win their fourth consecutive Stanley Cup -- a run that included three straight years in which they eliminated Boston.

Bruins coach Don Cherry later took the blame, telling reporters: "The guy couldn't have heard me yell. I grabbed two other guys trying to go over the boards. That would have made eight on the ice. Might as well have let them go." That, however, didn't make anyone in Boston feel better about the whole ordeal.

Buffalo Sabres

Brett Hull's infamous Cup-clinching goal in 1999

It's perhaps the most controversial goal in NHL playoff history, so naturally it's still tormenting Buffalo fans, especially since the Sabres haven't made it back to the Stanley Cup Final since. Of course we're talking about the 1999 Stanley Cup Final and Brett Hull's infamous series-clinching goal with his skate in the crease.

The refs didn't see it that way, of course, and Hull's goal stood as the winner in overtime of Game 6. The Sabres stayed in their uniforms long after the last whistle blew, hoping the NHL might reverse course. But it didn't. The Dallas Stars were crowned Stanley Cup champions, and Buffalo fans still chant, "No goal!" whenever they get the chance.

Even in retirement, Hull finds himself defending the goal. "We all knew that they had changed the rule," Hull said in 2009. "But obviously the NHL decided they weren't going to tell anybody but the teams. ... They changed the rule to say if you have control in the crease, you can score the goal, and that's exactly what it was. But nobody knows that. You can tell people that a million times and they just will not listen."

Calgary Flames

Martin Gelinas' non-goal in 2004

Flames fans still haven't gotten over their 3-2 double-overtime loss to Tampa Bay in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final in 2004 -- especially one play late in the third period. Martin Gelinas appeared to beat Lightning goalie Nikolai Khabibulin to give the Flames a 3-2 lead. It could have been Gelinas' fourth consecutive series clincher. (Holy cow, what a run he was on; he is aptly now known as "The Eliminator.") But a goal was not called, and play continued. At the time, the NHL didn't have the authority to whistle the play dead for review. Calgary had the chance to clinch on home ice. Instead, the Flames lost the series in seven games.

Gelinas and the Flames are still salty. "If I had to do it all over again, I would put my arms up and I would track back and I would chase back the puck," Gelinas told Sportsnet 690 in 2018. "At least I would show that's what I saw. To this day, Gary Bettman -- and he should -- he's saying it didn't go in. But I'm going to keep saying that puck was in."

Carolina Hurricanes

"Brass Bonanza"

The greatest fight song in hockey no longer exists. OK, so this is technically an issue with the Hartford Whalers, but if we're talking about a franchise's biggest gripe, "Brass Bonanza" has to be it.

Fans threw a fit when general manager Brian Burke tried banning it in 1992. As Burke recalled on the ESPN On Ice podcast recently, he did it because the players asked him to. "They said it was embarrassing to have a fight song," Burke said. But the fans? "As soon as I left, they put it back in," Burke said. "People were outraged. People really love the song. I could care less. Like, I care about game presentation; if fans like the song generally, then I like it, too. OK, so some of the arena music that we have, I don't like, but if fans like it, it's about what they like."

When Peter Karmanos relocated the team to North Carolina, "Brass Bonanza" petered out. However, there is a glimmer of hope, as new owner Tom Dundon has embraced the Hartford roots, and "Brass Bonanza" can occasionally be heard during stops in play in Raleigh.

Chicago Blackhawks

Bill Wirtz blacks out a city

Longtime Blackhawks owner Bill Wirtz had a reputation for being both frugal and stubborn. Fans called him "Dollar Bill," and he was often booed when he showed up at games. In 1992, Wirtz decided the team's home games shouldn't be televised; he believed it was a privilege to be a season-ticket holder, and televising games would somehow hurt attendance. The decision, however, shut out an entire generation of fans, and the late '90s and early 2000s for the Blackhawks are often referred to as "the Dark Ages."

Wirtz died in 2007, and his son, Rocky, inherited the franchise. Rocky Wirtz acted quickly. He lured team president John McDonough away from the Cubs, and together, they brokered deals to get the team back on TV. While winning three Stanley Cups in a five-year span certainly earned goodwill, this fan base will never forget how it and the team were mishandled for too long.

Colorado Avalanche

The Cup that got away

A friend connected me with Mike Dadlani, a current Avalanche season-ticket holder, who says the team getting the short end of things in the draft lottery lately is his biggest grievance. While it happened in 2017 (after finishing dead last) and 2019 (the final consideration of the Matt Duchene trade), there has been a silver lining. Although Colorado slipped to fourth in 2017, it did select Cale Makar, who seems to be a sure thing as the future face of the blue line.

Longtime Avs reporter Adrian Dater believes the fan base is still haunted by Game 7 of the 2000 Western Conference finals at Dallas. It was the second year in a row the Avs lost to the Stars, again in a Game 7. "Of course, the Avs won the Cup the next year," Dater said. "But that loss is still bemoaned by Avs fans (and the players who were on the team). It's the 'one that got away,' the third Cup they should have won." Dater notes that Stars fans began chanting, "Eddie's better" (as in Eddie Belfour is better than Patrick Roy) at the end of the game, which Avs fans found particularly aggravating.

Columbus Blue Jackets

Jeff Carter: persona non grata

Blue Jackets fans weren't happy when Adam Foote and Rick Nash left town. They also haven't gotten over the 2017 playoffs series versus Pittsburgh, when Zach Werenski took a puck to the eye and the referee didn't stop play. (The Penguins, essentially playing with an extra man, scored to even it up, and rallied to take a 3-0 series lead.)

But Columbus' biggest grievance is Jeff Carter's brief tenure in 2011. Carter was traded from Philadelphia for Jake Voracek over the summer, and he made it known he was not happy about the move. He wouldn't pick up the phone, for anyone. It got to the point where the team flew a private plane to Carter's summer home in Sea Isle, New Jersey, so captain Nash and members of the Blue Jackets' front office could assure Carter that life as a Blue Jacket wouldn't be so bad.

Carter skated in 39 games for the Blue Jackets, and was thrilled to be dealt to Los Angeles at the trade deadline. Fans in Columbus still boo Carter enthusiastically.

Dallas Stars

Bryan Marchment's malfeasance

I have a friend, Stephen Grantham, who is a huge Stars fan. So I asked for his take here. "[Jean-Sebastian] Giguere's pads in 2003 are what tick me off the most," he said. "Dude was cheating, and we were sick that year."

Now, teams complaining about the Ducks goalie's pads had become a recurring issue, but several Stars players were irked during the teams' second-round playoff matchup in 2003. The Stars were eliminated, and Giguere went on to win the Conn Smythe as playoff MVP.

But the most universal grudge, Grantham thinks, is for Bryan Marchment, whose hits injured both Mike Modano and Joe Nieuwendyk. The hit on Nieuwendyk occurred in the 1998 playoffs. Nieuwendyk tore an ACL, and the Stars were eliminated without their leading scorer. "I don't know if it's a coincidence or not," Modano said in 1998. "But everybody seems to get hurt by that guy."

Stars coach Ken Hitchcock would later call the Nieuwendyk hit "legitimate," but Dallas fans almost universally agree it was dirty.

Detroit Red Wings

Claude Lemieux remains unforgiven

Claude Lemieux's hit from behind on Kris Draper in Game 6 of the 1996 Western Conference finals -- yeah, that will get Red Wings fans fired up. The incident sparked an all-out brawl, only adding fuel to one of the NHL's fiercest rivalries in the late '90s and early 2000s.

The Red Wings were eliminated in that game, and Draper needed reconstructive facial surgery. "My teammates didn't actually know how bad my injuries were until they got on the plane and saw me," Draper wrote in a Players Tribune article in 2017. "So they had gone through the whole handshake line not knowing my face was caved in. That's the backstory for Dino Ciccarelli's famous quote about Lemieux: 'I can't believe I shook this guy's friggin' hand after the game. That pisses me right off.'"

Edmonton Oilers

Remember that guy who traded away Wayne Gretzky?

So how much do Oilers fans hate Peter Pocklington? Just watch the 30 for 30 "Kings Ransom." It's an entire movie about how the former Oilers owner traded Wayne Gretzky to the Los Angeles Kings, and there are scenes where fans are literally burning sacrificial items to express their contempt.

Of course, Pocklington didn't make it any easier for himself. In fact, he leaned into villainhood when he told local sports writer Jim Matheson that he believed Gretzky was faking the tears at his goodbye news conference. (Pocklington, of course, claims he was misquoted by Matheson.) The Oilers would go on to win another Cup without Gretzky, but that didn't seem to matter. This is still the man who traded away the greatest player in NHL history essentially for cash. That will forever be lame.

Florida Panthers

Fans wanted more helpings of Stu

In 1996, only their third NHL season, the Panthers made it to the Stanley Cup Final. It was a huge moment for the franchise, and momentum was building for hockey in South Florida. GM Bryan Murray was named the NHL's executive of the year. The Panthers picked up right where they left off in 1996-97, beginning the season 11-2-6. Then, inexplicably, Murray traded center Stu Barnes.

"Fans never got over it," said Steve Goldstein, who does TV play-by-play for the Panthers.

Barnes was a fan favorite in the prime of his career. The deal sent him to Pittsburgh, along with defenseman Jason Welley, in exchange for Chris Wells, a 6-foot-6, 220-pound center who was playing for Cleveland of the International League. Wells was 21, and someone Murray called "a bit of a project." But the GM justified the move at the time, saying his team needed to get bigger and tougher in order to compete in the Eastern Conference. Wells would play only 141 career games for the Panthers, scoring a whopping 25 points. Though the Panthers made another playoff run that summer (albeit shorter), many fans pinpoint this trade as the beginning of the end for a promising young team.

Los Angeles Kings

The NHL's most famous illegal stick infraction

It's the equipment snafu that's most etched into Stanley Cup lore: Marty McSorley's illegally curved stick in Game 2 of the 1993 Stanley Cup Final, in which Gretzky's Kings led the Canadiens and were minutes away from taking a 2-0 series lead.

The Habs, following the advice of captain Guy Carbonneau, asked referee Kerry Fraser to measure McSorley's stick; the curve was illegal. McSorley was sent to the box, the Habs tied the game to send it to overtime and eventually won, en route to yet another Cup title.

"They knew who was using an illegal stick before they made the call because they'd measured our sticks," McSorley said in 2012. "There must have been five of us who had them because it was never called by anybody. They just picked me because I killed all the penalties. Was I using an illegal stick? Yes, I was, but it's not as if I took a torch to it. They came from the factory that way. I used the same stick in the next game and tied Game 4 with what might have been the same stick."

Minnesota Wild

Norm Green breaks an entire state's heart

Thank goodness the NHL has returned to Minnesota, the state of hockey. Though this should really be about the Minnesota Wild, the people of Minnesota have a grudge against Norm Green that will never go away.

The owner of the Minnesota North Stars relocated his team to Dallas in 1993 for several reasons. Attendance was poor, and the team could not lure corporate sponsors or reach a deal for a new arena in the Twin Cities. Green was also hit with a sexual harassment suit by a Minnesota employee around the same time as he moved the team; it was settled out of court. It felt especially cruel that Minnesota had to watch the Dallas Stars win the Stanley Cup six years later. Though Minnesota was quickly awarded an expansion franchise, the Wild have yet to win a Cup.

Montreal Canadiens

Zdeno Chara re-ignites the rivalry with a brutal hit

The Canadiens and Bruins have plenty of shared history, which is one of the reasons Zdeno Chara's hit on Max Pacioretty in March 2011 became a pretty big deal.

"It marked the height of the rivalry in its most recent iteration," said Conor McKenna, host of The Morning Show on TSN 690 in Montreal.

Chara, of course, is the Bruins' captain and hulking 6-foot-9 defenseman. In a late regular-season game at the Bell Centre, he checked Pacioretty into a stanchion. Pacioretty suffered a severe concussion and broken vertebrae and faced a long road to recovery. These teams met again in that playoffs, so it was particularly brutal when the Bruins knocked the Habs out in OT of Game 7. The Bruins hoisted the Stanley Cup later that summer.

Montreal police would launch an investigation into the incident, but prosecutors ultimately decided not to press criminal charges against Chara, believing they wouldn't hold up in court. But Montreal still holds a grudge. "They remind Chara of how they feel about him every time he touches the puck on Bell Centre ice," McKenna said.

Nashville Predators

Ryan Suter: Traitor?

To get a sense of the Predators' fan base, I asked my buddy Jacob Deveral, whom most people know as Catfish Jake. Deveral is personally quite affected by P.K. Subban's opening goal in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final, which was called back due to an offside call on Filip Forsberg. Deveral's take: "He wasn't offside."

But for Predators fans as a whole, Deveral surmises that it's Ryan Suter jilting Nashville by signing a 13-year deal with the Minnesota Wild in 2012 free agency. It was a sweet homecoming story for Minnesota boys Suter and Zach Parise, who signed identical contracts. But what stung was that it was so ... stunning. Fans felt Suter had strung them along, but that he had actually made up his mind already that he was leaving. He didn't give GM David Poile a chance to match Minnesota's offer.

Suter said there was "no agenda" to signing with Minnesota and offered an apology early in the backlash: "I have never tried to hide anything from anybody," Suter said. "I wanted it to work in Nashville, but the decision I made was to move on, and I'm sorry for the hurt that it has brought to David Poile and to the Predators."

But, as Deveral reported, "He's still booed ferociously in Nashville."

New Jersey Devils

Ilya Kovalchuk takes his sticks and goes home... for a while

There's no lack of Devils fans on the ESPN hockey staff, including editor Tim Kavanagh, who believes New Jersey's lack of proper respect, hype and just plain credit for its dominant stretch in the mid-1990s to early 2000s is the fan base's biggest gripe. As Kavanagh mentioned, the Devils were always seemingly "seventh fiddle" to other New York metro area teams, and often got lost as the No. 3 team on MSG Network.

If we're looking for something more specific, the answer is Ilya Kovalchuk. His tenure in New Jersey leaves an unsavory taste. In 2010, the Devils signed Kovalchuk to a 15-year, $100 million deal (after the sides' initial agreement, for 17 years, was nixed by the NHL for circumventing the salary cap). Kovalchuk played 222 games for the Devils over three seasons, and helped lead them to the Stanley Cup Final in 2012. Then a year later, he left $77 million on the table and bolted back home to Russia. New Jersey could have blocked the move, citing the International Ice Hockey Federation transfer agreement, but the truth was the Devils got some much-needed cap relief. New Jersey retained Kovalchuk's NHL rights until he turned 35.

And then? He returned to the NHL with the Kings -- the team that defeated New Jersey for the 2012 Stanley Cup.

New York Islanders

John Tavares' heel turn

The mild-mannered John Tavares went from face of the franchise to Public Enemy No. 1 -- pretty much overnight -- when he opened up his free agency in 2018 and signed with his hometown Toronto Maple Leafs.

It's not just that Tavares chose to leave; Isles fans felt jilted because they felt their captain misled them with his intentions. If Tavares knew he was going to leave, he didn't have to wait until free agency, when the team couldn't recoup any value for him via a trade.

As such, Tavares' first game back on Long Island in 2019 was a spectacle. Fans threw plastic snakes on the ice during warm-ups. Some burned his Islanders jerseys in the parking lot. He was showered with boos and chants of "traitor." And somehow even listing all of that out doesn't feel like it did the night justice. Isles fans won't forget this perceived snub for a long, long time.

New York Rangers

"Potvin sucks!"

Attend a game at Madison Square Garden and you'll inevitably hear the whistle from somewhere in the stands, followed by a loud, emphatic chant: "Potvin sucks!" It's fun and irreverent, but the relevancy can be questioned since we're talking about something that happened in 1979, before any player on the current Rangers roster was born.

Here's the story: The Rangers had a really good team, and would go on to make the Stanley Cup Final. But in a February game against the upstart Islanders, star defenseman Denis Potvin laid a big hit on Ulf Nilsson, one of the Rangers' best forwards whom they had just signed from the World Hockey Association. Though a penalty wasn't called on the play, Nilsson suffered a broken ankle and was sidelined until the Final. Nilsson never categorized the hit as dirty -- in fact, he later called it a "freak thing" due to the bad ice -- but small details like that won't get in the way of this grudge.

Ottawa Senators

How is Daniel Alfredsson not in the Hall of Fame?

The greatest player in the modern incarnation of the franchise is Daniel Alfredsson. The Swede, one of the best two-way players of his time, was synonymous with the Senators for nearly two decades and served as captain from 1999 until 2013. Alfredsson, who won the Calder Trophy, holds the franchise record for goals (444), assists (713) and points (1,157). He won Olympic gold and silver. He is the first player in modern Senators history to have his jersey retired.

But Alfredsson has now been passed over for the Hockey Hall of Fame for three straight years, which upsets the fan base greatly. It was surprising that he got passed over in 2019, and the longer this extends, the more frustrated this fan base is going to get.

Philadelphia Flyers

Goaltending

It's always goaltending for Philadelphia. It's the one thing fans gripe about the most, and for good reason. It's been a decades-long carousel in net, akin to the Cleveland Browns' quarterback struggles. Not since Hall of Famer Bernie Parent in the 1970s has the franchise had a dependable star goaltender; Ron Hextall came close, but that's about it.

The Flyers have suffered through a lot. There are the goalies who imploded in the playoffs (see: John Vanbiesbrouck, Michael Leighton) and those who got away (the team gave up on Sergei Bobrovsky, only to see him win two Vezina Trophies, playing for a division rival, no less). There was also the ill-advised decision to sign Ilya Bryzgalov to a pricey nine-year contract in 2011.

All of this explains why the fan base is so excited about Carter Hart -- but, you know, simultaneously cautious.

Pittsburgh Penguins

"The Slash" or David Volek?

I asked one of my favorite Penguins fans, ESPN features producer Denny Wolfe, for help here. The answer probably varies generationally, Wolfe said. For his dad's generation, the Islanders overcoming a 3-0 series deficit to win in 1975 still stings. (Wolfe's dad apparently still curses Eddie Westfall.) Wolfe also brought up Mario Lemieux getting snubbed for the 1989 Hart Trophy ("utter crap considering how he blew the doors off Gretzky in the scoring race") and Adam Graves' "The Slash," which broke a bone in Lemieux's left wrist during the 1992 Patrick Division finals.

I was tempted to pick Jaromir Jagr's unceremonious Pittsburgh exit -- punctuated by his "dying alive" comments -- but Wolfe pointed out that most Penguins fans would welcome him back these days with open arms -- and would also welcome his jersey up in the rafters. So the final answer: the Islanders'David Volek. His overtime goal sank the 1993 Penguins. They were one of the best teams in franchise history that did not win the Cup, and that playoff exit marked the end of their early '90s dominance.

San Jose Sharks

Epic fail in 2014

Very few hockey fans would associate Teemu Selanne with San Jose; the Finnish Flash was a Shark for only 176 games. But Sharks fans will always remember those two-plus seasons, especially one memorable playoff moment: when Selanne missed a wide-open net.

It was 2002, in Game 7 of a second-round series against the Avalanche, and the Sharks had to get past Patrick Roy in net. But Roy, one of the greatest goalies ever, fumbled the puck. Selanne, one of the greatest goal scorers ever, had a perfect opportunity on the wraparound, and somehow whiffed. The Avs would go on to win the game 1-0. Selanne actually had a terrific series to that point -- with five goals in six games -- but it was all erased. The Sharks, meanwhile, missed the playoffs the next season, and Selanne left in free agency to reunite with his good friend Paul Kariya -- in Colorado, no less.

But the answer here, of course, has to be blowing a 3-0 series lead to the Kings in the 2014 playoffs. The Sharks had just posted an 111-point season, won two blowouts at home, an overtime game on the road -- then totally choked. It punctuated bitter losses and playoff disappointment that has plagued this win-ready team for the past decade. "Every year you lose is pretty low," Logan Couture said at the time. "But this one is a type of series that will rip your heart out."

St. Louis Blues

Offer sheet for Brendan Shanahan goes awry

The low-spending Blues were looking to make a splash in 1990 free agency. They not only decided that 26-year-old Scott Stevens would be their franchise defenseman, but they made him the highest-paid blueliner in the league. Things went great the first season in St. Louis. Stevens was named a captain. He said he wanted to spend the rest of his career there.

But the next summer, the Blues put in an offer sheet for Devils forwardBrendan Shanahan,and the compensation totally backfired. The NHL's arbitrator, Edward Houston, awarded Stevens to the Devils as compensation. Blues fans were stunned -- and so was Stevens. He delayed his arrival to Devils camp that summer as long as he could. Ultimately, he became a franchise legend and Hall of Famer in New Jersey.

As for St. Louis? As my friend Ben Frederickson, a columnist with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, says: "Judge Edward Houston is a hated name here."

Tampa Bay Lightning

A juggernaut is quickly grounded

The Stanley Cup playoffs should be going on right now, and we can almost guarantee this would have been a prominent storyline: Will the Lightning choke again, or can they finally get over the hump? And we'll hear that every year until they win the Stanley Cup again. Is it fair or even earned? Probably not. But that's the way things go when you endure one of the most miserable first-round exits possible.

The Lightning were crazy dominant in 2018-19, tying the NHL record for wins in a season. They were heavy Stanley Cup favorites. In the first round, they played the Blue Jackets -- who had been around for 18 years but never won a playoff series. Tampa Bay was the NHL's best offensive team, too, and yet it was outscored 19-8 in four games for a stunning sweep.

"I don't know," captain Steven Stamkos said afterward. "I don't know what to say." While this is a fresh wound, it's one that has potential to irritate this fan base for a long, long time.

Toronto Maple Leafs

Wayne Gretzky gets away with a high stick

The 1993 Western Conference finals between the Kings and Maple Leafs had it all: star power, bad blood, sizzle and controversy. Leafs fans truly believed this was the year to break their decades-long Stanley Cup drought (spoiler alert: it's still going), though Wayne Gretzky and the Kings ultimately prevailed.

Leafs fans are forever hung up on Game 6, where the game was tied 4-4 in overtime. Gretzky high-sticked Doug Gilmour in the face, cutting his chin open. A penalty was never called, and Gretzky went on to score the winner soon thereafter. Adding fuel for Toronto? Referee Kerry Fraser admitted years later to blowing the call.

"Of course it gets more attention because it's Toronto," ESPN's Barry Melrose, then the Kings' coach, told me recently. And according to Melrose, Leafs fans are still mad. "The minute I get on a plane, someone will say, 'Barry, high stick, what do you think?'" Melrose said. "And I'll go, 'Toronto, right?' And he'll go, 'Yeah, yeah, Toronto.' It's funny to figure that out. I never hear an L.A. guy ask me that question."

As for Melrose's take, all these years later: "I'm a big believer in the harder you work, the luckier you get. And I really feel like we were the hardest-working club in that series. We deserved everything we got." We're pretty sure Leafs fans might still take umbrage.

Vancouver Canucks

No love for Brad Marchand and the Bruins

The Canucks and Bruins really didn't like each other in 2011, and the animosity extended from players to fan bases. That's why Vancouver is still heartbroken over losing the 2011 Stanley Cup Final. What stings the most for Canucks fans, though, was just how good the squad was. Many consider the 2010-11 Canucks the best team never to win. In a recent appearance on the ESPN On Ice podcast, Canucks defenseman Kevin Bieksa made note of how intense the series was, despite there not being much animosity with the Bruins beforehand.

"I was pretty focused on trying to win, but there was the finger-biting and there was the diving and there was all these other sideshows going on and [Brad] Marchand and [Maxim] Laperriere and [Alex] Burrows and all this stuff was going on," Bieksa said. "Yeah, I'm sure it was entertaining from a fan's perspective."

The aftermath of the loss was ugly. There were riots in Vancouver, and bad blood extended for years. In 2013, Milan Lucic vowed to boycott downtown Vancouver (outside of trips to Rogers Arena) for the way his family was harassed during the series in his hometown. "I have no reason left to defend my city and the people in my city, I'm disgusted and outraged that it had to come to something like that."

Marchand taunted the Canucks two years later by kissing an invisible Stanley Cup ring -- something Vancouver still has yet to win.

Vegas Golden Knights

The NHL didn't make it "easy" on the Knights

Of the 64 expansion teams in the four major U.S. sports leagues since 1960, zero had debuted with a winning season. So nobody blinked when the Golden Knights opened their inaugural season in 2017-18 with 200-1 odds to win the Stanley Cup. And then they made it all the way to the Stanley Cup Final.

What irks Vegas fans, though, is the implication that they somehow had it easy. There were incessant reminders that the expansion draft was more generous than the NHL had ever previously offered. Then in the fall, we got reports of the Vegas Flu -- that the lights, distractions and lure of Sin City created a disadvantage for visitors. The truth: The Golden Knights were a well-constructed team with motivated players who bought in. They were also well-coached and, of course, caught lightning in a bottle. That's far less exciting to talk about, though.

Another issue Golden Knights fans won't soon get over: the five-minute major assessed to Cody Eakin in a Game 7 loss to the Sharks last season. San Jose scored four goals on the ensuing power play to take a one-goal lead and eventually won in overtime. The NHL reportedly apologized to Vegas afterward and removed the officials from working the rest of the playoffs. When it comes to grudges, that only makes matters worse.

Washington Capitals

Even after 2018, Penguins loom large for Capitals fans

I asked John Walton, the voice of the Capitals, to help with an answer here. "In a word," Walton said, "Pittsburgh. For so many reasons."

Walton cited the decades-long frustration, especially in the playoffs. The Penguins were the one hump the Capitals needed to get over to win the franchise's first Stanley Cup. There was the Petr Nedved four-OT winner in 1996.

"Anything [Mario] Lemieux," Walton said. "That became everything [Sidney] Crosby. Almost zero success in the postseason against them before '18, which made [Evgeny] Kuznetsov's goal against them the biggest in franchise history, because the story finally had a happy ending. If the Caps were ever going to win, it had to be because they beat the Pens."

Walton's call on the radio when Kuznetsov sealed the series in 2018 included the now-iconic words: "The demons have been exorcised." But they have not been forgotten.

Winnipeg Jets

The many false rumors about Winnipeg

Winnipeg is often the butt of NHL jokes -- and there's nothing that grinds Winnipeggers' gears more than others taking unfounded shots at their city. The most common: that Winnipeg doesn't have an airport.

Things really escalated in 2019, when a video by NBC Sports California featured several Sharks players disparaging the city. Tomas Hertl called it "cold and dark." Defenseman Justin Braun called the visiting team hotel "questionable," and wondered if Winnipeg had Wi-Fi yet. The comments went so viral that a Jets spokesperson, Scott Brown, had to respond to CBC: "The widely held misperception of the city is one of the challenges we face as an organization and one of the reasons we always say it is important for us as an organization to treat the players properly and show them what a special organization and place this can be."

I have flown out of the Winnipeg airport several times, and can report that not only does it exist, but it is lovely, modern and well-run. It has a Freshii and everything. And I'm pretty sure the city has Wi-Fi.