The Stanley Feud

For the record, Detroit defenseman Chris Chelios has said nice things about Paul Kariya.

Well, he did once.

“Paul’s a class act and really represents the NHL well,” Chelios said after Kariya had won the Lady Byng Trophy for sportsmanship in 1996.

Duly noted.

But from there to, “I’m going to get you,” as Chelios woofed at Kariya during a 1997 game, to “He’s the biggest one in the league,” when it comes to divers, which Chelios hung out for public display last month, what a long, strange trip it has been.

This will be the sideshow, the bearded lady, to the center ring matchup between the Ducks and Red Wings, which begins tonight at Joe Louis Arena. This familiar feud has plenty of history.

It has been that way since Chelios first laid eyes -- then elbows, then shoulders, then his stick -- on Kariya. There was escalation in 1997, when Kariya suffered a concussion against the Chicago Blackhawks, Chelios’ team at the time. They renewed hostilities during the 1999 playoffs.

With a playoff series looming, neither admits to knowledge of how this animosity started, although to end it might require a Camp David summit.

“I don’t know what it was,” said Kariya, when asked what had set off the personal battle with Chelios. “Why don’t you ask him?”

A trip over to the Red Wings’ dressing room revealed little.

“I’m not even going to talk about it,” Chelios said. “This is a team against a team, it’s not an individual thing.”

Pressed, Chelios put the blame elsewhere.

“If it’s not him, it’s [Vancouver’s Todd] Bertuzzi, if not Bertuzzi, then it’s [St. Louis’ Keith] Tkachuk,” Chelios said. “It’s always somebody. Guess it’s you guys trying get somebody going, I don’t know.”

Of course, there is a common denominator to that Kariya-Bertuzzi-Tkachuk grouping ... and it’s Chelios.

Former Detroit defenseman Steve Duchesne once told a reporter that Chelios would occasionally tell him before a faceoff to, “be ready to grab someone because I’m going to start something.”

Detroit’s Kirk Maltby said, “Chris isn’t just focused on Paul Kariya, he’s focused on the Anaheim Mighty Ducks and winning this series. When he’s on ice, he’s going to battle hard against one guy on the team as any other guy. He doesn’t show any favoritism.”

Kariya, though, has taken the most hits from Chelios, on and off the ice.

“We have always been matched up against each other, going back to when he was in Chicago,” Kariya said. “He’s a great player, a defensive defenseman, whose job is to stop the other team’s offensive players. That puts us together.”

Still, there have been some outrageous slings and arrows.

In March, Chelios called Kariya the worst offender when it came to diving. He even implied that the United States’ loss to Canada in the 2002 Olympic gold-medal game was caused by what he called a dive by Kariya.

“It was a shame in the Olympics,” Chelios said. “He did the same thing and drew a penalty for that and it ended up being a goal.”

Kariya’s response, stoic expression attached: “Chris is right all the time. I don’t care what he says.”

Chelios, an NHL senior citizen at 40, was not the Kariya matchup the Red Wings wanted the last time the teams played. Nicklas Lidstrom and Mathieu Dandenault made up the defensive pair Coach Dave Lewis tried to get on the ice for Kariya on March 9 for a game the Ducks won, 4-1.

Of course, when Chelios and Kariya did share ice, Chelios delivered a vicious cross-check that sent Kariya flying into the boards. Chelios got a penalty, and as usual, the last word in.

“He said, ‘There’s another dive,’ or something like that,” Kariya said.

And so it goes.

“Chelly is going to say what he feels, what he thinks is right,” said Duck defenseman Keith Carney, who played with Chelios in Chicago. “There is not much else to say.”

To prove that point, when asked if he knew what had started the feud, the normally chatty Carney said, “No,” then clammed up.

Chelios, one of the best defensemen in NHL history, has been whispering sweet little some things into Kariya’s ear -- or into reporters’ tape recorders -- since Kariya came into the league in 1994-95.

“Chelios is just yapping all the time, especially about Paul,” Duck defenseman Ruslan Salei said. “He used to do that with Teemu [Selanne] too. You shouldn’t take any of it seriously. He can say what he wants. We just laugh about it.”

There wasn’t much snickering during the 1997-98 season. Kariya wasn’t involved in the initial altercation. He was a holdout that November, when Duck defenseman Jason Marshall jumped Chelios in a game, retaliating for an elbow thrown by Chelios that dazed Selanne.

After Kariya returned, he and Chelios traded slashes, hooks, spears and punches in a game at Chicago in late December. During that game, Chelios could be seen in TV replays telling Kariya, “I’ll get you, Paul.”

After the game, Chelios admitted his actions had been “borderline stupid.”

Two months later, it was Blackhawk Gary Suter who “got” Kariya, delivering a cross-check to the jaw as Kariya scored a goal. Kariya suffered a concussion and missed the Olympics, as well as the rest of the season. Suter received death threats from Canadian citizens and was suspended for four games.

Concerns were such that Brian Burke, then the NHL director of hockey operations, was sent to Anaheim for the next Duck-Blackhawk game to deliver a stern pregame talk.

Chelios hadn’t helped matters by saying, “If something happens, we’ll go right after [Teemu] Selanne. It’s that simple. I’m sure Gary [Suter] can take care of himself. The guy [Kariya] has had four concussions. Maybe if it were somebody else, it would have only been a bruise.”

There was neither truce nor quarter given after that.

During a game in 1998-1999, there also was a lot of unprintable yapping back and forth, much of it captured on TV replays.

“It’s my sixth year and every game we’ve play has been like that,” Kariya said after the game.

During Game 3 of the playoffs that season, Kariya slammed Chelios face-first into the glass, to the cheers of the 17,174 at the Arrowhead Pond.

How much of this will spill over into this series remains to be seen. But the potential is always there, which leaves everyone tap-dancing around the subject.

“Well, whatever, everyone is entitled to their opinion,” Duck center Steve Rucchin said when asked about the Kariya-Chelios feud. “It doesn’t faze us. It doesn’t make us play any worse or any better. There are comments and quotes around the league every day. Whatever.”

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

DUCKS vs. DETROIT

*--* Best of seven Game 1: Today at Detroit, 4 p.m., FSN2 Game 2: Saturday at Detroit, noon, Ch. 7 Game 3: Monday at Ducks, 7:30, FSN Game 4: April 16 at Ducks, 7:30, FSN Game 5: April 19 at Detroit, noon, Ch. 7* Game 6: April 20 at Ducks, 7, Ch. 9* Game 7: April 22 at Detroit, 4, FSN*

*if necessary; All times Pacific

*--*