Darren McCarty Salutes Claude Lemieux In A Rivalry That Never Really Died

Darren McCarty and Claude Lemieux spent years making each other miserable, which is usually how the best NHL grudges are born. But this one has clearly cooled into something more complicated, because McCarty is now offering a tribute that carries real weight from a guy who lived every ugly shift of that rivalry. The story leans on the kind of history only old-timers and playoff junkies still remember, when every hit, scrum, and stare-down felt like it mattered more than the score.