When Colorado and Detroit face off Wednesday night, take note of the playoff-like atmosphere, the ferocity of the hitting and the overall intensity of play. Players get revved up for games against a rival. A rivalry game carries added emotion, something that otherwise may be lacking during the tough grind of an 82-game season.

	The Canucks-Avalanche rivalry started from behind the bench and progressed via a first-round playoff sweep.

The advent of the Avs-Red Wings rivalry has been well-documented. Claude Lemieux got it started with his blind-side hit on Kris Draper in the 1996 Western Conference finals, and there has been bad blood ever since. Lemieux left Colorado after the 1998-99 season, taking some of the edge off the rivalry, but several key players still remain. Plus, the two teams have remained among the best in the league, keeping the rivalry alive.

Some sense of a rivalry will always exist when a pair of Original Six teams play. The two teams have built a long history and, regardless of how good they are, have enjoyed pounded each other for generations.

When I played for Montreal, the Canadiens and the Toronto Maple Leafs were rivals as both Original Six teams and as teams from the two biggest cities and main centers of commerce in Canada. Growing up in Canada, you were either a fan of the Canadiens or the Leafs, but not both. Both franchises have proud histories marked by periods of greatness. On top of that, it was always the French against the English, a political battle that was transferred to the ice.

However, the feelings of hatred between Toronto and Montreal were nothing compared to the intensity of the Montreal-Quebec rivalry whenever the Canadiens and the Nordiques played. There was no love lost between Montreal and Quebec City. When the Nordiques entered the NHL in 1979, the people in Quebec City hated the Canadiens. The rivalry was confrontational and political, caused by a separatist mentality that originated in northern Quebec, nearly Quebec City.

When we went to Quebec City, there was incredible tension in the air. People were yelling, screaming and frothing at the mouth -- and that was only during warm-ups. It was a fun atmopshere; the newspapers began running stories days in advance, covering every conceivable angle.

At Le Colisee in Quebec, the intensity came to bear immediately with the morning skate. The people just looked at us differently; they wanted the Nordiques to win so badly. If their team played poorly or didn't execute on the power play, they would get booed soundly. The reverse was true if we were getting pounded.

Guy Lafleur, who had come from near Quebec City and had played for the Quebec Remparts in junior hockey, was God -- and he still is in Quebec City. He ruled the Quebec league and was a high draft pick. But in our games at Le Colisee, the Quebec fans booed him every time he had the puck -- and he always had the puck.

I enjoyed the games more in Quebec City than in the Forum. If we lost at home, people would get nuts. In 1982, Quebec knocked us out of the playoffs at the Forum on an overtime goal by Dale Hunter. Although the Nordiques ended up losing in the conference finals, beating us was like winning the Stanley Cup for them. But boy, was it a long summer in Montreal.

At the time the Nordiques had terrific talent, with Hunter, Michel Goulet and the Stastny brothers. Hunter was particularly nasty. I had more fights with Hunter than against everybody else in the league combined. And I wasn't the only one. On top of being talented, he was an emotional, aggressive player who was in the prime of his career. He was all wired up and blowing steam out of both ears.

In the Canadiens-Nordiques games, the players would be running at each other, taking the extra two or three steps to pound each other into the boards. With players constantly on the edge, my sense of awareness was always heightened.

The other big rivalry I remember was when we played the Boston Bruins. In the late '70s and early '80s, we always seemed to have their number, even though the Bruins teams were excellent, with players like Phil Esposito, Wayne Cashman, Terry O'Reilly, Stan Jonathan, Gerry Cheevers, Rick "Nifty" Middleton and Brad Park. Ray Bourque joined the team in 1979.

We eliminated the Bruins from the playoffs in 1978 and 1979, when Don Cherry was the coach. In '78, we beat them in the Stanley Cup Finals, but Game 7 of the '79 conference finals epitomized the rivalry; it featured the famous too-many-men-on-the-ice penalty. The Bruins had outplayed us, but they were called for the penalty, and we went on to win in overtime. We then proceeded to beat the New York Rangers for our fourth straight Stanley Cup.

Games against Boston were always tough and physical. Boston Garden was my favorite building in the league because I loved the really small ice surface with no corners. It was dump-and-chase hockey, and a lot of play took place around the boards. We were just banging and whacking each other. I had to have my feet moving or I'd get killed. You had to be ready and wired from the drop of the puck or you would get run right through the rink. No player wanted that to happen because it would set the tempo for the other team.

We were always on the verge of a fight. Players were shoving gloves in each other's face. The big players would often square off. I remember a playoff game in which Jonathan, who was a scrapper, fought Pierre Bouchard. O'Reilly mixed it up with Larry Robinson, who was a good fighter even though he didn't fight much.

The intensity was just as apparent off the ice. We never consorted with players from the other team, even if they stood along the boards during a morning skate. Our coach, Scotty Bowman, was a taskmaster who demanded a high tempo in practice. He was always business.

If we spoke to an opposition player, Scotty would go nuts: "Oh, you have friends over there. You got friends? No friends here."

After that, the players would pick up on what Bowman was saying. Before the game someone may say, as an example, "Oh, we can't play these guys. Brian has friends on that team."

Coaches use rivalry games as a measuring stick. They know the players will be ready and want to see how they will respond under physical and emotional circumstances. Knowing how Bowman is, I expect nothing less from him Wednesday night when the Red Wings and the Avalanche renew their rivalry.

Brian Engblom is a hockey analyst for ESPN. He played 11 seasons in the NHL as a defenseman and won three Stanley Cups in six seasons with the Montreal Canadiens.