When the Nordiques left Quebec practically 30 years in the past, the hockey workforce’s departure fueled the sort of mythologizing and nostalgia acquainted to followers of the Brooklyn Dodgers.
The Nordiques’ stint in Quebec, enjoying 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 workforce’s id 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. In addition they sang Canada’s nationwide anthem solely in French.
The workforce’s exit “left a gap in Quebec Metropolis and Quebec regional politics, and a gap in Francophone id, as effectively,” mentioned 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 for the reason that financially ailing Nordiques decamped for Denver, generations of Quebec’s political leaders have sought to deliver them again, going so far as constructing an area that price 370 million Canadian {dollars} (practically $280 million), at the same time as financial adjustments have made the workforce’s return more and more unlikely.
“Individuals see themselves in a nationwide idea and in a hockey workforce, or within the reminiscence of a hockey workforce, and politicians have tried to harness this sense of nationalism for political features,” mentioned Martin Pâquet, a historian of Quebec on the College of Laval in Quebec. “That’s primarily why they maintain calling for the return of the Nordiques.”
The newest to just do 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 elevate 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 workforce.
Such a transfer would have maybe led to a minimum of a blip up within the polls prior to now. 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, based on 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 identical time that a whole bunch of 1000’s of the province’s public schoolteachers and well being care employees 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 workforce 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 mentioned.
After all, the province of Quebec does nonetheless have an N.H.L. workforce: 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 possibility — that they had by no means been French Canadian sufficient. The Canadiens performed in Montreal, the multicultural, various, 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 Sixties, so did hopes for an N.H.L. workforce in Quebec Metropolis, in what was hoped would ultimately turn out to be the capital of a brand new nation. The town acquired its workforce 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, appearing as proxies for bigger battles.
“We realized at a really younger age to hate the Canadiens,” mentioned 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 workforce he was ready for his entire life. Whereas the Canadian anthem was sung in each French and English earlier than video games elsewhere, solely French was heard within the Nordiques’ area. Mr. Lafleur would play his ultimate two seasons in an extended profession for the Nordiques.
“In the long run, many, many French Canadians recognized extra with the Nordiques than the Montreal Canadiens,” Mr. Simard mentioned, 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 workforce, the Remparts, on the Vidéotron Middle — the expensive area that provincial and metropolis leaders inbuilt 2015 with public funds to indicate the N.H.L. how dedicated they had been to getting a workforce.
But when followers of Mr. Simard’s technology tended to share his emotions towards the Nordiques, the workforce’s significance didn’t appear to resonate with youthful hockey followers on the area, many born after the workforce’s departure.
“Me, I’m a fan of the Montreal Canadiens, whereas my father nonetheless has the Nordiques in his thoughts,” mentioned Mathis Drolet, 17, a pupil who grew up in Quebec.
His good friend, Justin Tremblay, 17, mentioned he was conscious of how the Nordiques had been tied to earlier generations’ aspirations — “Quebec desirous to turn out to be a nation and all that” — however these hopes felt distant to him.
“They’re issues we realized at college,” Mr. Tremblay mentioned.
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 workforce’s first season in america, renamed the Colorado Avalanche, it received 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 specialists 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 deliver again the Nordiques, and even the slightest growth can generate vital consideration within the native information media.
“In Quebec Metropolis, these tales are on the entrance web page of newspapers,” mentioned Frank Pons, a professor on sports activities administration on the College of Laval.
However most hockey trade specialists say the possibilities of a return are near nonexistent.
In recent times, the N.H.L. has chosen to develop in larger markets, together with Seattle and Las Vegas, and has given no indication of severely entertaining Quebec as a candidate for growth or relocation, Mr. Pons mentioned. For the N.H.L., Quebec and its small tv market simply make little enterprise sense.
“It’s an financial method,” he mentioned, “whereas in Quebec, it’s an emotional method.”
Given the lingering feelings towards the Nordiques, few anticipate politicians to acknowledge the chilly, exhausting fact in regards to the possibilities of the Nordiques ever coming dwelling.
“What number of votes would that get you?” mentioned Mr. Lisée, the previous occasion chief. “Should you don’t need to be in energy, you may say that when you suppose that. Most politicians will say it might be such a fantastic factor to have the Nordiques again.”
