SAN JOSE – The San Jose Sharks’ rivalry with the Vegas Golden Knights reached a fever pitch late last decade when the two teams met in the playoffs in back-to-back years.
The battles – both physical and verbal – between forwards Ryan Reaves and Evander Kane often took center stage.
More than six years after the two teams last met in the postseason, Reaves, now in his first season with the Sharks, still doesn’t have much time for Kane, who was traded by the Edmonton Oilers to the Vancouver Canucks in June.
Kane and the Canucks face Reaves and the Sharks for the first time this season on Friday afternoon.
Kane played three seasons with the Buffalo Sabres from 2015 to 2018 before he was traded to the Sharks in a deadline-day deal, and was later signed by San Jose to a seven-year, $49 million contract extension.
Reaves played the first six-plus seasons of his NHL career with St. Louis and said the animosity between himself and the ex-Shark began to build after Kane was traded to the Sabres.
“I don’t think we’ve ever really liked each other on the ice,” Reaves said. “That doesn’t just stem back to San Jose. I think it goes back to when I was in St Louis, he was in Buffalo, and we just never really got along.
“But I think the San Jose Vegas rivalry kind of really enhanced that hatred a little bit. But, yeah, he’s not my favorite person.”
The Golden Knights beat the Sharks in the second round of the 2018 playoffs in a nasty six-game series. The next year, San Jose beat Vegas in seven games, an unforgettable first-round series capped by Barclay Goodrow’s overtime goal in Game 7.
Kane and Reaves had a war of words going in the 2019 series and fought in a heated Game 3, with Kane later calling Reaves “muffin man’ for his fighting prowess.
Then-Sharks center Joe Thornton said after Kane and Reaves fought that “it was tough to see Ryan go down like that versus a 30-goal scorer, but hopefully he’ll have better luck next time.”
Reaves was upset with Joe Thornton’s illegal check to the head of Golden Knights forward Tomas Nosek in Game 3 and later said, “It’s gutless. It’s behind the play. It’s to the head. It’s everything you’re trying to get rid of in hockey.”
“I’ve got a buddy with a grandpa who’s going through the same thing. He can’t see very well because he’s getting old. Needs glasses. If (Thornton) gets suspended, he’s going to have a hard time seeing from the press box.”
Thornton was suspended one game for the hit.
But Kane later got in another verbal jab, saying of Reaves, “To chirp Jumbo’s vision — the guy has over 1,000 assists — that doesn’t seem too bright. One of the best passers, one of the best guys with vision on the ice to ever play the game. It just shows a lot about his hockey knowledge and his hockey IQ. Clearly, it’s lacking.”
Reaves still has a Muffin Man as his avatar on his official X account, although he hasn’t posted on the social media site in almost three years.
“I remember I was very mad,” Reaves said Thursday of the hit. “I fought very angry, which I don’t usually do.”
The Sharks and Canucks play four times this season, with their next meeting after Friday on Dec. 27 in Vancouver.