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A Stanley Cup win, one year too late

Broadcast Date: June 11, 1996

It's a bittersweet victory for Quebec City residents. One season after the team moved to Denver, Colo., the players fans had supported for years capture the coveted Stanley Cup. For those who can see past the bitterness of losing their team, it's still a cause for celebration and a modest parade. As we hear in this clip, Nordiques fans like Quebec City mayor Jean-Paul L'Allier would have liked to keep the team around for another year — but not at any cost.

A Stanley Cup win, one year too late

• When the Nordiques moved to Denver they were in unusually good shape for a team in transition. They had a star in Joe Sakic, and the roster of young talent acquired in the Eric Lindros deal included great players like Peter Forsberg. That season they acquired Mike Keane and legendary goaltender Patrick Roy, who proved unstoppable in the 1995-96 Stanley Cup playoffs. The Avalanche swept the Florida Panthers in four games.
• The Colorado Avalanche won a second Stanley Cup in the 2000-01 season.

• Reaction to the Colorado victory was mixed. Some former Nordiques fans were happy, but resented the luck of the team's new fans. "It wasn't them that won the Stanley Cup," said one radio show caller. "It was the heart of the team that was there as the Nordiques, whom we supported during its worst moments." Former coach Michel Bergeron said he was proud of preparing the team for their eventual victory, "but today it's not the old Nordiques. There was a divorce."

• During the 1980s, the height of the Nordiques' years in the NHL, there was a fierce rivalry between the Nordiques and the Montreal Canadiens, and the fans of both teams. The rivalry sometimes split the province on linguistic lines, with primarily francophones supporting the Nordiques while Canadiens support was mixed.
• At Nordiques games the public address announcements were only in French, as was the national anthem, while Canadiens games were bilingual.

• On a CBC Radio interview, Quebec communications minister Jean-Francois Bertrand said that the Nordiques had become the darlings of the Parti Québécois cabinet, and that in election results, the geographic support for the PQ closely followed that of the Nordiques. Nordiques owner Marcel Aubut was a proponent of Quebec sovereignty.
• At one point, the French-language media pointed out that there were more Québécois players on the Nordiques than on the Canadiens.

• The marketing arm of the Nordiques made a point of casting their Montreal rivals as representing nationalism and the Canadian establishment. There was a subtle effort to emphasize that the team was not just the "Nordiques de Québec" (of the city) but were the "Nordiques du Québec" (of the province.)
• Adding ammunition to the battle, rival beer companies invested in both teams: Molson had the Canadiens, while Carling O'Keefe had the Nordiques.

• The on-ice rivalry was particularly fierce, and got truly ugly on April 20, 1984, in a playoff game that became known as the "Good Friday Massacre." At the end of the second period, a vicious fight erupted. The Canadiens' Mario Tremblay smashed Nordiques star Peter Stastny's nose. The Nordiques' Louis Sleagher punched Canadiens defender Jean Hamel so hard it left him unconscious and blind in one eye, contributing to the end of his career.

• The Nordiques were not Quebec City's first failed NHL hockey franchise. The Quebec Bulldogs (officially known as the Athletics) won the Stanley Cup in both 1912 and 1913. But it was downhill from there. The team failed to get included in the NHL when it was established in 1917, and took a two-year hiatus. The Bulldogs finally entered the NHL for the 1919-20 season, but won just four games. At the end of the season the team was moved to Hamilton to become the Hamilton Tigers.

• Three of the four WHA teams that migrated to the NHL in 1979 folded in the 1990s. After the Nordiques and Jets, the Hartford Whalers went under. Unable to reach an agreement over building a new arena, the Whalers played their last game on April 13, 1997, and moved to Raleigh, N.C., to become the Carolina Hurricanes. Only the Edmonton Oilers remained in their original city.

A Stanley Cup win, one year too late

Medium: Radio

Program: The World At Six

Broadcast Date: June 11, 1996

Guest(s): Jean L'Allier

Reporter: Tom Parry

Duration: 2:07

Last updated:
April 27, 2005