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There was an interesting rock/paper/scissors dynamic between the big three contenders in the West during the post-lockout/ dead puck era from 1994-2004.
Generally the Stars always beat the Avalanche , The Red Wings always eliminated the Stars and never had serious trouble with them and the Avalanche often ( but not always though )defeated the Red Wings .
Maybe styles make fights ? The reasons why Detroit won their playoff series against Dallas in the puck era : because the Wings were much healthier on offense and defense compared to the stars , they had less injuries than the stars , and had much more scoring depth and pure talent on offense than the Stars .Also the Wings skaters were better on special teams, were more quicker, free wheeling, skilled and creative than the Stars players, and with their playmaking, they found ways to break through the Stars frustrating and suffocating defensive wall while being almost as good as the Stars skaters defensively. The Wings also could play in the sand(sandpaper)with the Stars physically. They had plenty of size, grit and physicality on their own roster themselves. Remember the grind line, Shanahan, Kocur, Holmstrom, etc
Belfour also really struggled against the wings in his entire career for some reason, they figured him out and almost always found a way to throw him off his game. Detroit matched Dallas in size, hockey sense, resilience, grit, physicality, collective playoff experience, hard work and defensive commitment but Dallas couldn’t match Detroit in team chemistry, speed, execution, offensive skill, scoring depth and playmaking creativity. Both teams had great coaches, obviously Bowman was the best head coach in history but Hitchcock was solid himself. On paper and in theory, Belfour should’ve won against Osgood but when it came to the actual games Osgood outplayed him head to head. Detroit just matched up with Dallas better than Colorado did with Dallas. Detroit had the book on Belfour from his Chicago days. And in 1998, they were focused on a mission to win it for their former teammate Vladdy who was unfortunately paralyzed because of a terrible car accident soon after the 1997 championship finals. Just like Avalanche players in 2001 who were really motivated to win the cup for Raymond Bourque. Nothing could have stopped them from winning the cup.
Colorado just had the Wings number, they didn’t fear them, the Avs had as much talent and playoff gamers as the wings and had more speed than them. They also had a decent amount of gritty characters with physicality on their squad. Their competitive attitude and intense, aggressive, up tempo style of play and pace gave Detroit fits. Forsberg and Sakic just destroyed them with their creative playmaking, explosive speed and elite skill. Their defensemen were also strong possession players who, at their best, really drove play in the right direction at the other end of the ice, and were generating plenty of offense from the backend. And their forwards could afford to take more risks offensively and put serious and constant pressure on opposing defenses because they knew Roy would make the saves and keep them in the game anyway. Bowman was a far better coach than either Crawford or Hartley, but his Wings teams lost often to Colorado because the Avs weren’t a favorable matchup for them style wise and structure wise. And Roy was better than Vernon in 1996, better than Ranford in 1999, and better than Osgood in 2000, but he failed to win his goaltending duel with Hasek in the 2002 WCF.
And Dallas was the exact type of a smart, well-coached, wily, gritty, resourceful, resilient, experienced, methodical, grinding, physical and suffocating defensive team with elite goaltending that was explicitly built to shutdown and handle high-flying, free-spirited, and free-wheeling teams like Colorado that relied more on muscle memory, instinct and talent rather than strict discipline, hard work and religious adherence and commitment to a defensive system. Head to head, Hitchcock outcoached Hartley big time. Unlike Hartley, he got the best and the most of his team. I mean, any other head coach could have had the same amount of success behind the Avs bench. Colorado had an avalanche of talent ( pun intended) that maybe only few other teams had back then. Belfour won back to back conference finals against Roy.
Head to head playoff results
Wings were 2-0 against the Stars( 1995 First Round, 1998 WCF)
Avs were 3-2 against the Wings ( 1996 WCF, 1999 Second round, 2000 second round )
Wings were 2-3 against the Avalanche ( they beat them in the WCFs in 1997 and 2002)
Stars were 2-0 against the Avalanche.( 1999 and 2000 WCFs)
And all of these three teams always had success against the Hull/Tkachuk/Turgeon/Demitra McInnis/Pronger Blues coached by Keenan/Quenneville.
The Red Wings beat them in the 1996 second round, in the 1997 first round, in the 1998 second round and in the 2002 second round.
The Stars swept them in the 1994 first round and beat them in 6 in the 1999 second round
The Avalanche beat them in the 2001 WCF
You wonder how each of the big three in the west fared Against the only other contender on their level located in the eastern conference, the New Jersey devils, when they met them in the finals ?
Well, the Devils swept the wings in four straight back in 1995
Then 5 years later in 2000, the devils defeated the defending champion Stars in 6
And in the 2001 finals, the following year, the Avalanche beat the Devils in 7 games for veteran star defenseman Raymond Bourque.
