2011-12 Best Player Feud

[NJDevils17]

Nominees

David Clarkson vs. Brandon Dubinsky
It's pretty rare that two more skilled guys make it on this list, but these two had quite a rivalry this year. In their first meeting, Dubinsky went looking for Clarkson as they engaged in a spirited draw. The second meeting wasn't quite as friendly. Clarkson charged at Dubinsky to get him to fight and they had a pretty mean exchange. Dubinsky even called Clarkson out in the media after the game, one of the reasons that lead up to Dubinsky fighting Ryan Carter the next game.

Darcy Hordichuk vs. Minnesota Wild
I know what you're thinking, "The Minnesota Wild aren't a player!" and yes that's true, however, Darcy Hordichuk was able to get under the skin of the Wild this season pretty well. It started off with Brad Staubitz hitting Theo Peckham and Hordichuk hitting Staubitz with Staubitz's head down. Staubitz gets upset and jumps Hordichuk, leading to a war of words. The next game, they have a spirited fight but the Wild still aren't happy with Hordichuk. Fast forward to late December and Minnesota brings up their beast, Matt Kassian. Kassian and Hordichuk would get acquainted twice in this game with both fights going in the hulking Wild player's favor.

Mike Brown vs. Zenon Konopka
The Battle of Ontario can bring out the best in player feuds. It produced Chris Neil and Tie Domi, Brian McGrattan and Wade Belak, and Matt Carkner and Colton Orr. This year was no different by featuring two guys on the smaller side, but still love to fight in Zenon Konopka and Mike Brown. They met three times this year with each fight being relatively close, including a terrific one on November 12.

Michael Rupp vs. Jody Shelley
This one isn't your typical nominee. There was only one fight between these two, but it crossed over from being a "business" fight to becoming more of a "personal" fight. HBO's "24/7" needs to be thanked for this as they supplied the back story for this feud. In a game on December 23, Shelley challenges Rupp after Rupp goes after a Flyer player. Rupp declines Shelley and calls him irrelevant. It drew some controversy after the episode aired and Rupp apparently apologized to Shelley after it. However, these two knew they had a score to settle in the final meeting of the season where both of them would be in the line-up again. Shelley ends up getting his revenge by dropping Rupp with a punch to the ear.

My pick

We didn't have quite the number of compelling feuds this year compared to previous years, but we still had some fun clashes between players. My choice is Mike Brown vs. Zenon Konopka because both of these guys embraced a brutal team rivalry in the Battle of Ontario and made their own rivalry from it. Throw in that they thought each other for half of the games between the teams, and you have yourself a pretty healthy player feud.

Past winners

2003-04: Eric Cairns vs. Dale Purinton
2005-06: Andrew Peters vs. Brian McGrattan
2006-07: Donald Brashear vs. Colton Orr
2007-08: Krys Barch vs. Brad May
2008-09: Colton Orr vs. Eric Godard
2009-10: Colton Orr vs. Matt Carkner
2010-11: Eric Godard vs. Trevor Gillies

[Sapunka16]

I thought the Rupp-Shelley situation was particularly entertaining. Rupp had no problem fighting Shelley last season (and losing), but then we find out he's suddenly too good of a player to fight Shelley this year?

Then Shelley dominates him when they finally drop the gloves, it's just a good story there.

That said, I'd love to see all of these players mic'd up.

[Walt]

There's nothing near the intensity of the Ray/Domi and Miller/Kordic feuds but Brown and Konopka were entertaining this season especially given the absence of Carkner and Orr from the Ontario rivalry.

[slashtrey]

Hard to call Rupp-Shelley much of a feud with only one fight. Still, the off-ice feud was much publicized. Shelley shut Rupp's mouth in their scrap. I'll go with them.

[BullyFan]

^

This.

[Isles4life]

If you're voting purely from the perspective of fights that actually took place, then Brown-Konopka is an easy pick. But as NJDevils17 and other posters have alluded to, the off-ice talk surrounding Mike Rupp and Jody Shelley because of what HBO's microphones picked up added a lot of additional intrigue. When they finally did meet up, a lot of fans enjoyed watching Shelley get the better of Rupp, and it gets my vote.

[Blues 34]

Brown and Konopka for me

[bupz91]

Rupp vs Shelley, much hype.

[Sputnik]

Here I'm looking for real fights: Brown vs Konopka provided these so my vote goes to them.

[E.C.]

It's hard not to pick a feud where two players go at it 3 times like Brown and Konopka did, much less when they play on teams that can't stand each other! However those fights to me were simply two players just doing their job and fighting someone of equal size and skill.

With the Rupp-Shelley rivalry, it was more personal. Rupp used the media to insult Shelley and dismiss him as irrelevant. Once that happened, you knew a fight was inevitable. Later on in the year it happened. Shelley had a score to settle and he certainly took care of business, dropping Rupp with a right hand. Rupp started the feud, Shelley finished it. There is a lesson to be learned from this: never start a fight you can't win. Rupp learned that the hard way!