League expansion, it’s a controversial topic and for good reason. There’s genuine concern of a watered-down product, market viability, and with the unfortunate whimper the Coyotes went out on, still fresh on the minds of everyone, bad ownership tops the list.
Still, these talks continue. Houston is heavily being discussed as a potential location led by Dan Friedkin, and the familiar story of Atlanta seeking once again another shot at an NHL franchise has reared its head, with the agreement of a new arena in Forsyth County seemingly moving forward.
Yet one constantly talked about place is still yet to pick up even a bit of steam, and one that has unfortunately become the butt of many expansion jokes.
Quebec City.
The Videotron Centre is just sitting there, begging to be used by an NHL club and without a doubt, the support from the local area would be immense.
And much like the proposal in Houston, think of the built-in rivalry aspect, except this one wouldn’t be entirely new, considering the former Habs and Nordiques rivalry.
It is through this lens I would like to talk about quite possibly the most notorious moment from any moment in “The Battle of Quebec” history – the 1983-1984 Jack Adams Division Finals game six, better known as the “Good Friday Massacre”.
First, let’s get the lay of the land at the time. The Canadiens hadn’t quite been the team they were during their legendary run in the 1970’s and had struggled to find any sort of real consistency, exiting the playoffs within the first two playoff rounds since the 1978-1979 season. Meanwhile, the Nordiques had similar playoff results in the same timeframe but garnered a much better regular season than the Habs in 1983-1984, finishing 19 points ahead in the standings.
Both teams demolished their opponents in the opening round. Montreal swept the division-winning Bruins 3-0 while the Nordiques did the same to the runner-up in the division, the Buffalo Sabres.
To start their series against each other, the teams traded games at the Quebec Coliseum, the Nordiques winning 4-2 in game one, then the Habs bouncing back with a 4-1 in the second match.
For game three, the series shifted to the Montreal Forum, where the Canadiens' power-play gave them both their goals in a 2-1 victory. Game four, and the final Nordiques victory came the closest game of the series – a 4-3 overtime victory with Bo Berglund burying the game winner. Game five was purely dominated by the Habs, blanking Quebec 4-0.
Each game had been extremely heated, a combined 260 Penalty minutes were handed out across the first five games, with 8 fighting penalties handed out, not to mention countless slashing and elbowing calls.
All this brings us to the game of infamy on April 20th, 1984, back at the Forum.
The crowd roared, the puck was dropped, sent behind the Nordiques' net and 23 seconds into the game, Mike McPhee and Wilf Paiement started swinging. If there was any indicator of how game six was going to play out, this was it.
Funny enough, the only powerplay goal of the game would be on the first goal scored, and on a five-on-three for the Nordiques caused by a Craig Ludwig trip and a strategically called challenge on Jean Hamel for having an illegally sized stick blade.
Peter Stastny would win the faceoff back to his teammates, and he immediately snuck behind the Habs net, then around in front to send home a nice tip from a Jean-Francois Sauve slap-pass.
The rest of the period went by scoreless and was mostly uneventful (at least in this game’s context)
Period two was an extremely furious and high-paced period of a game, hit after hit, and both squads activating quickly on the transition. Dan Bouchard made some fantastic saves for the Nordiques early in the frame, and Steve Penney stopped all that came his way for the Habs.
Tension escalated with just under five minutes left in the second period. Dale Hunter and Chris Chelios would rough each other up after Hunter crashed the net following up on a shot. As soon as those penalties cleared up, Dale Hunter would once again be called for roughing, this time going off with Rick Green. Anton Stastny would then throw down with Craig Ludwig.
And as the 40th-minute buzzer blared, all hell broke loose.
Grabbing and tossing Guy Carbonneau was who else but Dale Hunter right in front of the Nordiques' net, both teams surrounded the scrum, and fists started flying. Chris Nilan started feeding Rand Moller uppercuts, Sleigher drilled Jean Hamel, and the backup netminders got involved. Roughly ten minutes of bloodshed ensued, with both teams eventually dribbling off the ice to their rooms. But that was hardly the end of it, as during the third period warm-up, the antics once again erupted as the Habs wanted to jump Sleigher for what he had done to Jean Hamel.
After roughly half an hour of fighting total the hockey finally began in the third period. Montreal would storm back to dominate the final frame, outscoring Quebec 5-2 in the frame, and putting the Habs through to the next round.
Final score 5-3 Montreal
Final combined penalties in minutes: 252.
So, what does any of this have to do with expansion?
I cannot think of an area in the world that would more quickly rally behind a team coming to their city than Quebec City itself. That sort of built-in rivalry history, the intensity of those two fanbases. Does Atlanta have that? Hardly. Houston? Not the history, but I will admit there is good potential.
Every discernible metric and piece of groundwork has been laid for what could once again be one of the greatest rivalries in sport. The battle of Alberta and Ontario would pale in comparison to the revival of the battle of Quebec. Do you remember the intensity and the swaths of fans that filled the streets for the Canadiens' first-round playoff series versus Washington? Against a Quebec City team, it is near unfathomable the sort of drama, storylines and moments that could happen. I truly hope we see that day soon.