When the Nordiques left Quebec practically 30 years in the past, the hockey group’s departure fueled the type of mythologizing and nostalgia acquainted to followers of the Brooklyn Dodgers.
The Nordiques’ stint in Quebec, taking part in there within the N.H.L. from 1979 to 1995, overlapped with the French-speaking province’s two failed makes an attempt to secede from the remainder of Canada, and the group’s identification melded with that of their followers: a linguistic minority struggling to say itself in part of the world dominated by English audio system.
The Nordiques wore their politics on their sleeves, actually, placing the Quebec flag’s fleur-de-lis on their uniforms. Additionally they sang Canada’s nationwide anthem solely in French.
The group’s exit “left a gap in Quebec Metropolis and Quebec regional politics, and a gap in Francophone identification, as properly,” stated Jean-François Lisée, who led the separatist Parti Québécois from 2016 to 2018, and who’s now a columnist for the newspaper Le Devoir.
So ever because the financially ailing Nordiques decamped for Denver, generations of Quebec’s political leaders have sought to carry them again, going so far as constructing an enviornment that price 370 million Canadian {dollars} (practically $280 million), at the same time as financial adjustments have made the group’s return more and more unlikely.
“Individuals see themselves in a nationwide idea and in a hockey group, or within the reminiscence of a hockey group, and politicians have tried to harness this sense of nationalism for political beneficial properties,” stated Martin Pâquet, a historian of Quebec on the College of Laval in Quebec. “That’s basically why they maintain calling for the return of the Nordiques.”
The newest to do exactly that was the federal government of Premier François Legault, who was overwhelmingly re-elected to a second time period in 2022, however whose approval rankings have been falling this previous yr due to a collection of missteps, together with approving a 30 p.c wage increase for lawmakers.
In November, his authorities introduced with nice fanfare that it had agreed to pay 5 million to 7 million Canadian {dollars} ($3.8 million and $5.3 million) for the Los Angeles Kings to play two preseason video games in Quebec subsequent October, as a part of a strategic maneuver to maintain urgent the N.H.L. for town’s personal group.
Such a transfer would have maybe led to at the least a blip up within the polls previously. However this time, it backfired. Roundly criticized, the announcement pushed Mr. Legault’s rankings farther down, serving to to make him the most unpopular of Canada’s 10 provincial leaders, in accordance with polling by the Angus Reid Institute.
Was the criticism, and the lacking bump within the polls, due to the timing of the announcement? It got here across the similar time that tons of of 1000’s of the province’s public schoolteachers and well being care staff went on strike, demanding higher wages.
Or was it the price of the deal, some huge cash spent on a long-shot gamble? Mr. Legault’s personal finance minister, who has nicknamed himself the “minister of the Nordiques,” acknowledged candidly, if imprudently, that the percentages of getting again a group had been solely 10 p.c.
Perhaps it was the ebbing of nationalist emotions among the many French Québécois, particularly the younger. Or was it simply the passing of time?
“If a pair has been separated as a result of one of many members left some 25 years in the past, it’s actually time to maneuver on,” Mr. Pâquet stated.
In fact, the province of Quebec does nonetheless have an N.H.L. group: For many years, the Montreal Canadiens have been one of many league’s most storied franchises.
However for a lot of in Quebec, being a fan of the Canadiens was by no means an choice — they’d by no means been French Canadian sufficient. The Canadiens performed in Montreal, the multicultural, numerous, bilingual metropolis that’s the historic rival of the predominantly French-speaking Quebec Metropolis.
Exterior the province, although, the Canadiens had been well-known for his or her French Canadian stars, like Man Lafleur.
As Quebec’s independence motion emerged within the Nineteen Sixties, so did hopes for an N.H.L. group in Quebec Metropolis, in what was hoped would ultimately develop into the capital of a brand new nation. The town bought its group in 1979 after the Nordiques and others in a smaller league had been absorbed into the N.H.L.
After individuals in Quebec voted towards independence the next yr, within the province’s first referendum, some channeled their pissed off nationalist sentiments into fierce assist of the Nordiques. Video games between the Nordiques and the Canadiens took on mythic proportions, performing as proxies for bigger battles.
“We discovered at a really younger age to hate the Canadiens,” stated Jocelyn Simard, 65, a French Québécois man who has lived all his life in Quebec Metropolis and grew up as a die-hard fan of the Chicago Blackhawks.
As soon as the Nordiques arrived, Mr. Simard felt he had discovered the group he was ready for his complete life. Whereas the Canadian anthem was sung in each French and English earlier than video games elsewhere, solely French was heard within the Nordiques’ enviornment. Mr. Lafleur would play his ultimate two seasons in a protracted profession for the Nordiques.
“In the long run, many, many French Canadians recognized extra with the Nordiques than the Montreal Canadiens,” Mr. Simard stated, including that he had not misplaced hope in a return of the Nordiques.
Mr. Simard spoke as he watched a recreation performed by Quebec’s junior league group, the Remparts, on the Vidéotron Middle — the expensive enviornment that provincial and metropolis leaders inbuilt 2015 with public funds to indicate the N.H.L. how dedicated they had been to getting a group.
But when followers of Mr. Simard’s era tended to share his emotions towards the Nordiques, the group’s significance didn’t appear to resonate with youthful hockey followers on the enviornment, many born after the group’s departure.
“Me, I’m a fan of the Montreal Canadiens, whereas my father nonetheless has the Nordiques in his thoughts,” stated Mathis Drolet, 17, a pupil who grew up in Quebec.
His pal, Justin Tremblay, 17, stated he was conscious of how the Nordiques had been tied to earlier generations’ aspirations — “Quebec desirous to develop into a nation and all that” — however these hopes felt distant to him.
“They’re issues we discovered at college,” Mr. Tremblay stated.
Situated within the league’s smallest market — the Quebec metropolitan space now has about 800,000 individuals — the Nordiques struggled financially for years and left for Denver in 1995. Within the group’s first season in the US, renamed the Colorado Avalanche, it gained the Stanley Cup — deepening a way of betrayal in Quebec.
The Parti Québécois-led authorities on the time had refused the Nordiques’ proprietor’s request for a bailout — simply months, it turned out, earlier than the province’s second referendum on independence from Canada.
The referendum failed by a razor-thin margin — with some politicians and political consultants ultimately blaming the loss on the federal government’s refusal to bail out the Nordiques.
And so to at the present time, Quebec’s political leaders vow to carry again the Nordiques, and even the slightest improvement can generate vital consideration within the native information media.
“In Quebec Metropolis, these tales are on the entrance web page of newspapers,” stated Frank Pons, a professor on sports activities administration on the College of Laval.
However most hockey trade consultants say the probabilities of a return are near nonexistent.
Lately, the N.H.L. has chosen to increase in larger markets, together with Seattle and Las Vegas, and has given no indication of critically entertaining Quebec as a candidate for growth or relocation, Mr. Pons stated. For the N.H.L., Quebec and its small tv market simply make little enterprise sense.
“It’s an financial method,” he stated, “whereas in Quebec, it’s an emotional method.”
Given the lingering feelings towards the Nordiques, few count on politicians to acknowledge the chilly, laborious reality in regards to the probabilities of the Nordiques ever coming residence.
“What number of votes would that get you?” stated Mr. Lisée, the previous get together chief. “If you happen to don’t wish to be in energy, you’ll be able to say that when you assume that. Most politicians will say it might be such an ideal factor to have the Nordiques again.”
