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Rivalries based on geographical proximity are cool I guess, but serve me up somma that hate based stuff that only comes outta the best playing the best over-and-over until the roofs about to blow off.

Oh yeah, that stuff!

And we got that kinda war comin’ at us tonight when Calgary jets over to Denver to dance with the Colorado Mammoth. No doubt bloods gonna be drawn early this year, literally and figuratively.

There’s been a lotta talk in the media this past week about Troy Cordingley coaching against Bob McMahon, who’s coached Troy a bit throughout his career, but that tame inconsequential stuff is the last thing that needs to ignite what is easily the West’s best rivalry in recent years. Throw the Trivial Pursuit teasers out the window, cuz this things way more than just media hyped sidebars.

Over the last three seasons, I personally think the Mammoth and Necks give the likes of Buffalo vs. Rochester a run as the top drawin’ battle in the bigs. Not only do both clubs come into every year expecting a title, at some point they’ll need to walk through one another for it too, creating a dynamic old school fans used to get when Brooklin and Brampton rammed heads (note: trust me, for those that never saw those two teams play previous to the NLL going big-time, there were no better battles no matter what was on the line, it’s definitely lost some juice over the years). The NLL’s got those regular season wars now and one of the best is definitely what we’ll see tonight in Denver.

For a legit rivalry to get labeled a true rivalry, it needs some time to percolate on the stove. Then once you got that pot boiling over, you know you’ve got one hot as hell battle on your hands. You’ve got that when Calgary and Colorado drop every time out.

Even though there’d been some decent, tight battles between these two teams in some of their early showdowns, for me 05 kicked off what we have today. Interestingly, that first game in 05 had Calgary flying over to Colorado to kick off the season, just like we’ve got tonight.

The result almost three years ago to the day? Colorado 12-7 with the winner coming off Gary Gait’s stick. Rewind that track like almost eight months back and the Necks’ had just used the Mammoth as a stepping stone to the 04 title. It got real personal during that first meeting back at the Pepsi Centre. And ya know what? These two have been up in each other’s grill ever since.

It was during a home-and-home during the 06 season, which saw Colorado walk away with two massive wins by a combined 28-15 scorecard, that also saw Colorado GM Steve Govett and company get tossed from a Pengrowth Saddledome press box when they got a little too rowdy. Or so the story goes.

And if you’re looking for a hot hand tonight, look no further than Colorado’s Brian Langtry and especially Calgary’s Kaleb Toth. Both guys have been decked out in Grim Reaper garb multiple times in this series.

Langtry has two game winners since this thing got all heated three years back, one being his massive playoff decider during the Mammoth’s Cup winning season.

And who else but Kaleb would be that money baller from Calgary. Since that first game in 05 after the Necks title run, Toth has scorched Colorado with three game winners, the most recent during last year’s January run-in at the Saddledome.

And although Rich Catton has played on both sides of this one, tonight we’ll see Jason Wulder, a former long-time Roughneck and Calgary native, suit up for his new club, Colorado. Could he have asked for a better and bigger game to kick-off his Mammoth career? I’m thinkin’ no.

And the fans of both of these Western powerhouses are just as passionate and worked up for this one.

I was checking out the forums this morning and read the craziest quote from some dude that goes by Ronin. In a thread talking about tonight’s dance, the Colorado diehard said, “It’ll be glorious. They (Calgary) and Arizona were our biggest rivals and now that Arizona isn’t around this season, all the hate, spite, and malice has to be directed towards the greasy diggers alone. It’s going to be violent, that I’m sure of.”

Great stuff!!!

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