Claude Lemieux will be remembered across the NHL as a four-time Stanley Cup champion, one of the sport’s great playoff performers and, in retirement, as an agent to the next generation of top players.His 80 career playoff goals are the ninth-most in NHL history, and he won his Cup titles with three different franchises — the Montreal Canadiens, New Jersey Devils and Colorado Avalanche — as well as the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP in 1995 for the Devils. His methods to achieving that success were at times quite polarizing, as a fierce competitor who was no stranger to the penalty box — with nearly 1,800 career penalty minutes in 1,215 regular-season games.Within that legacy, Lemieux, whose death at 60 years old was announced Thursday, will forever be remembered for being at the center of an era-defining rivalry between the Colorado Avalanche and the Detroit Red Wings.In the mid-1990s, the Red Wings had become a dominant regular-season team, winning the Presidents’ Trophy for the league’s best record in both 1995 and 1996. But they had fallen to Lemieux’s Devils in the Stanley Cup Final in 1995 and were down 3-2 entering Game 6 of the 1996 Western Conference final against the Avalanche. That’s when a hit from Lemieux sparked a bitter feud that led to some of the most iconic moments in the sport’s history.Tensions were already bubbling in the series after a pair of altercations in Game 3, first with Red Wings forward Slava Kozlov slamming Avalanche defenseman Adam Foote’s head into the glass, cutting his face, and then with Lemieux punching Kozlov later that game, resulting in a one-game suspension.But the more memorable flash point that ultimately sent the rivalry into another stratosphere came in Game 6, with the Avalanche on the brink of advancing to the Stanley Cup Final. In the first period, Lemieux leveled a dangerous hit from behind on Red Wings forward Kris Draper, driving his face into the boards, breaking his jaw, nose and cheekbone. The injury required surgery.