To get us through this quarantine, Pucks and Pitchforks let the New Jersey Devils fans vote on their most hated rival in the history of the franchise. The results were interesting, but the ending was exactly what you thought it might be.
The New Jersey Devils have been around for less than 40 years. Now, four decades is a long time when it comes to any length of time, but when it comes to building rivalries in sports, it’s not a long time at all. The most hated rivalries in sports go back sometimes 100 years, especially in baseball. In hockey, the rivalries seems to transcend on the ice even today.
Since the Devils came into the league in 1982, they’ve built some great rivalries between New York Rangers, Philadelphia Flyers and even some strange teams like the Carolina Hurricanes and Tampa Bay Lightning. Rivalries have extended well beyond just the “team versus team” variety. There are players that we just absolutely hate, even if they’ve been retired for years.
Sometimes it’s one play that makes us hate a player. Someone who may have hurt one of our stars in a crucial moment. Other players, we hate because they broke our hearts. The way they acted in victory made it so much worse. There are so many reasons to hate an opposing player, and the Devils have faced just about every scenario.
Being a team that makes the playoffs almost every year for three decades, there are going to be rivalries to be had. If the Devils go in the direction we hope, there are many more rivalries we could be having in the future. For now, these are the players we hate the most, as voted by you, and their biggest transgression against us.