In the history of sport, with permission for those who presume to be more than a club, there has not been, there is nor surely there will ever be a team as politicized as the Quebec Nordiques, linked like Siamese brothers to the cause of the independence of the province francophone and its two failed referendums. The first was held in 1980, a year after its birth, with a clear victory for the no. The second, in 1995, a few months after his move to Denver, and the yes vote only lost by 54,281 votes (50.58% to 49.42%). Even today, almost a quarter of a century later, there are those who are convinced that the disappointment over the escape of the franchise made many sovereigntists stay at home, and, if it had not occurred, the map of Canada would now be quite different. smaller.
The Nordiques do not exist as a hockey team (they became the Colorado Avalanche), but they do exist as a great exercise in nostalgia, an identity symbol and a myth in the style of the Brooklyn Dodgers, who changed New York for Los Angeles an eternity ago. . For Quebec sovereigntists, they represent, with their tragic history (in sporting terms), the struggle of a cultural and linguistic minority to survive in a world dominated by English speakers. And perhaps they are right.
In the midst of the separatist effervescence, in the period between the two referendums, the Nordiques players wore the fleur-de-lys flag (equivalent to the estelada) on the sleeve of their shirts, and their stadium was the only one in the entire NHL where The Canadian anthem was sung only in French. The supporters of independence immediately made the team their own, abandoning the Montreal Canadiens, bilingual, diverse and multicultural like their city, whom they had supported for having in their ranks the best stars in the country's history, such as Guy Lafleur. The rivalry became anthological, full of hate, one of the greatest in the history of sports.
The sovereigntist fever is no longer what it was, and this is reflected in the fact that the majority party in the province, the Coalition Avenir Quebec (its voters are nicknamed the Persimmons), center-right and economically liberal, which has been in power Since 2018, she has been a federalist and autonomist but not a supporter of independence. But its leader and premier, François Legault, has joined the long list of politicians who, in order to attract votes, have promised that they will do everything possible to recover the Nordiques in an upcoming NHL expansion, although the prospects of The Minister of Economy estimates that the dream will come true at 10%.
Quebec, with a metropolitan area of 800,000 people, was the NHL's smallest television market, and no matter how sold out the Nordiques were, they racked up such losses that only a bailout from the provincial government could have saved them. But the politicians said no, the franchise packed up for Denver (where in its first year, with almost all the same players, it won the Stanley Cup), and the rest is history, including the great disappointment and the loss of the referendum by a handful of votes.
Economic circumstances have not changed since then, and the construction of a new stadium in 2015, under the pretext of facilitating its return, has not moved the other NHL owners, who have approved teams in Seattle, Phoenix or Las Vegas. , but not in Quebec. The only ones who use it are the Remparts, the province's junior team, and the wound in the heart of the independence movement remains open and bleeding.
